USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 11
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* O'Callaghan's New Netherlands, p. 72.
t The historian of Long Island, (Thompson, p. 248,) states that this island was originally called Vischer's Island, and was probably so named by Block, from one of his companions. In the absence of any positive evidence on that point, the probabilities seem altogether to favor the generally received opinion, that the island was named from the chief occupation of its aboriginal inhabitants, or, from the quantities of fish with which the adjacent waters abounded.
127
THE DUTCH AND INDIANS.
[1643.]
Block Island. He probably entered most of the principal harbors, and explored, to a greater or less distance, most of the navigable streams of the main-land. After that, for several years, the Dutch traders frequented the coast and islands, and carried on a brisk trade, with the Indians, in furs. In 1632, they bought of the natives, the neck of land at the mouth of the Connecticut river, afterwards, and still known as Saybrook, to which they gave the name of Kievit's Hook, from the number of birds, called by the Dutch, Kieveet, and by the English, Pewet, that they saw hovering about the spot .* On the 8th of June, 1633, they bought of the In- dians, the place known as Dutch Point, near Hartford.t The English, who soon after arrived, disputed their right to these places, and had covered the whole territory with their paper titles, before the Dutch took possession. In addition to this, as the Cabots had discovered the main-land to the east of the Connecticut coast, the English claimed, that this discovery took in all the Continent, to the "South Seas." It is foreign to my purpose to enter into a discussion, as to the rights of these claimants. One thing is certain, the Eng- lish, claiming by right of discovery, by grant from their mon- arch, and by subsequent purchase of the Indians, took, and have ever since, kept possession of most of the country then the subject of dispute; and, as the Dutch and English have since been to a good degree, united in blood as well as in civil and social relations, in New York, it seems to me nar- row and provincial, to spend much time, at this late day, in vexing anew the question of original proprietorship.
In 1643, a war broke out between the Dutch and the In- dians, that for awhile allayed all disputes between the Dutch and English. It fell out in the following manner : The gov- ernment of New Amsterdam had not been as careful as the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, in enacting and enforcing sumptuary laws, and had allowed traders to sell the Indians strong liquors, more than was prudent, as the event
* O'Callaghan, p. 149.
t This was the claim of the Dutch, and I am willing to concede it.
,
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
proved ; for an Indian, who had been subjected to the per- nicious influences of this traffic, in a fit of intoxication, killed one of the Dutch who belonged to the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam. The Dutch demanded that the murderer should be given up to them for punishment, but he was not to be found. The injured party now applied to the governor at New Amsterdam. But the governor did not think it pru- dent to interfere. About this time, the Mohawks fell upon the Indians, who lived near the Dutch settlements, and killed about thirty of them. Others fled to the Dutch authorities for protection. Marine, the Dutch captain, obtained leave of the governor to kill as many of these Indians as he could. His commission certainly proved to be no farce in his hands, for he acted under it with such zeal as to make an indiscrim- inate slaughter of seventy or eighty men, women, and chil- dren, at one stroke. The enraged Indians rallied to avenge themselves for this wholesale slaughter. In the spring of 1643, the Indians began to retaliate. They set fire to the store-houses of their adversaries, drove their cattle into the barns, and then burned up both barns and cattle. The In- dians upon Long Island joined those upon the main-land, and destroyed a great amount of property.
In this situation, the Dutch governor applied to Captain Underhill, of Stamford, for assistance, which so enraged Marine, that he pointed his pistol at his Excellency, and would have shot him but for the interference of a friend. One of Marine's tenants leveled his gun, loaded with ball, and deliberately discharged it at the governor, but missed him. A sentinel immediately avenged this rash act, by shooting the tenant dead upon the spot.
The Dutch do not appear to have liked a war with the Indians as well as their executive functionary had anticipa- ted. Indeed, so indignant were they at the conduct of the governor, that he was obliged to keep a guard of fifty Eng- lishmen, constantly about him, to protect his person from the violence of his subjects. During the summer and fall, the Indians killed fifteen men of the Dutch, and for a time, al-
129
MURDER OF MRS. HUTCHINSON.
[1643.]
most broke up all the settlements between Stamford and New York. The horrors of this destructive war were felt for many miles along the coast .*
The unfortunate Mrs. Hutchinson, who, when banished from Massachusetts for her religious opinions and factious conduct, had fled to Rhode Island, where she seems to have been as persuasive and bewitching as ever before, in 1642, and after the death of her husband, became tired of the sceptre of authority that she wielded over a very submissive people, and, as other monarchs had done before her, abdica- ted, and retired with her family and a few servants to a place between New Haven and New York-a remote refuge in the heart of the deep woods. Here, this mother of the Communitarian school of politics, that has made so much progress in America, surrounded by savages whom her bold heart scorned to fear, and whose friendship she cultivated with a faithfulness and assiduity deserving of a better fate, had erected her dwelling and begun to clear a few fields be- yond the supposed jurisdiction of the English. Perhaps this ambitious woman intended to establish here a new em- pire, more transcendental than Plato's fancied Arcadia-a spiritual superstructure upon temporal foundations, that was to lift its fantastic battlements high into mid-heaven. More probably, however, shocked with the illiberality of the age, she meant to avert forever her visionary eye from what she considered the tyranny of her fellow-countrymen, and in re- tirement fix its abstracted gaze upon the wild speculations of an ideal philosophy. But an evil hand was upon her wherever she went. The children of the forest understood her divine mission no better than the General Court of Mas- sachusetts. They stole upon her settlement, murdered her, together with Mr. Collins, her son-in-law, and all her chil- dren who were with her, except a single daughter, who was carried into captivity. Her servants, and several of her neighbors, eighteen persons in all, shared her tragical fate.t
* Savage's Winthrop, ii. 117.
t Winthrop ; also Hildreth, i. 288; Trumbull, i. 139.
9
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
The Indians kept on killing the Dutch, and burning their houses after this unhappy affair, as before, and even extend- ed their depredations from the main-land to Long Island.
The Dutch governor, in alarm, solicited the colony of New Haven to send troops to assist him, but owing to the construction put upon the articles of confederation, it was thought necessary to confine the action of the colony in be- half of the applicants, to the furnishing of such provisions as could be spared to them
This war lasted for several years. Underhill was the fast friend of the Dutch government, and commanded the Dutch forces, with such men as he himself could furnish. But for him and his army of little more than one hundred men, the Dutch settlements must have been annihilated. He killed, before the close of the war, between four hundred and five hundred Indians .* The people of Stamford at last began to be alarmed at the contagious effect produced by this pro- tracted struggle upon the Indians, who lived within their own borders. They wrote to the authorities at New Haven, beg- ging for protection, and added that if their houses should be burned, on account of the remissness of the other plantations, the negligent parties ought to sustain the loss.t
The year 1644 was an eventful one. The Narragansetts appeared to be making ready to avenge the death of Mian- tinomoh. England, too, was now in a state of civil war.
These troubles at home, and in the mother country, filled the minds of the colonists with forebodings. They appoint- ed days of fasting and prayer to avert the impending ca- lamities. The Indians of western Connecticut, who had at first conducted themselves with so much leniency towards the English planters, now showed all the treachery and cru- elty of their nature, by committing the most unprovoked mur- ders, as well of women and children as of men. Early in the year they wantonly killed a man, belonging to Massachu- setts, between Fairfield and Stamford. The murder was
* Belknap, i. 50. + New Haven Colonial Records.
131
MURDER BY THE INDIANS.
[1644.]
soon made known, and the Indians promised that the author of it should be brought into Fairfield, and delivered up to justice, if Mr. Ludlow would appoint men to take him into custody. Mr. Ludlow sent a company of ten men for this purpose, but when the Indians came with the prisoner, with- in sight of the village, they set him at liberty, and he fled. Mr. Ludlow, with a view of striking terror into the minds of the Indians, took about a dozen of them captive, one of whom was a chief. This enraged the savages so much, that they assembled in such numbers as to induce Mr. Ludlow to write to New Haven for advice. The Court counseled him to retain the captives, and prepared to send twenty men to his assistance. Meanwhile, four of the sachems visited the village, and promised to deliver up the murderer within a month, if the English would restore their friends. Accord- ingly they were set at liberty. A little while afterwards, an Indian went into a dwelling in Stamford, and, seizing a lath- ing hammer, which he found at hand, commenced a brutal attack upon the mistress of the house. With this deadly in- strument he struck her a violent blow upon her head, as, in obedience to the instincts of a mother, she stooped over the cradle to take up her infant child. She fell senseless. He then struck her twice with the edge of the instrument, which penetrated her skull. After that he plundered the house, and fled into the woods. The poor woman was restored to her senses long enough to give an intelligible account of the transaction, and to describe the dress and personal appear- ance of the Indian. But this return of reason was tempo- rary, and, although her wounds were healed, she soon fell in- to a state of blank idiocy. This outrage was followed up by others. The Indians refused to have any conference with the English, but, deserting their wigwams and corn, they assembled near the town, armed with guns, and threat- ened to destroy the whole settlement. In this critical con- dition, the towns of Fairfield and Stamford applied to New Haven and Connecticut for assistance. The wretch who had worse than murdered the woman at Stamford, was
)
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
finally delivered up to justice. He was taken to New Ha- ven, and executed. "He sat erect and motionless, until his head was severed from his body."*
Wethersfield was the fruitful mother of many towns. Her difficulties still continued, and by this time another company of the disaffected was ready to leave her borders. William Swaine was at the head of the party. They had long been ready to remove, and only waited until they could obtain a favorable place for a settlement. A few miles east of New Haven was a place, called by the Indians, Totoket, which had been purchased of the inhabitants as early as 1638, and in 1640 granted to Mr. Samuel Eaton, on condition that he would found a settlement there. That gentleman failed to comply with the stipulations of the grant, and in 1644 the same territory was conveyed to Mr. Swaine and his friends, who, on their part, agreed to remove there and establish a town that was to be under the jurisdiction of New Haven. Soon after this conveyance was made, the Rev. Abraham Pierson, of South Hampton, upon Long Island, with a part of his congregation, sailed for Totoket Harbor, and made common cause with Mr. Swaine's party. To this delightful town, overlooking two clusters of lilliputian islands, and fan- ned by cool sea-breezes, the inhabitants gave the solid Eng- lish name of Branford.t
On the 5th of September, 1644, the commissioners of the United Colonies met at Hartford. A claim was set up by those who represented Massachusetts, that they had a right of precedence in subscribing all treaties and other doc- uments requiring the signatures of that body, as they, in be- half of their colony, had first signed the articles of confeder- ation. After some debate, this claim was denied as a right, but yielded through courtesy. All the other commissioners were to follow in the order in which they had signed those articles.}
From north to south, the Indians were, during the year
New Haven Colony Records ; Winthrop, Trumbull, &c.
t Barber's Conn. His. Coll., p. 198. # Journal of the Commissioners.
0
Ex EP Panderson.
COLL. WILLIAM DOUGLAS .
upmy onglas
133
TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS.
[1644.]
1644, unusually troublesome. In Virginia, whole settlements were annihilated. In some villages the inhabitants were all murdered at one fell stroke. It was believed that the New England Indians, and those tribes living farther south, were combined to destroy the whole white population. The Nar- ragansetts were particularly restive. They encroached alike upon Connecticut and Massachusetts. The old quarrel be- tween the Narragansetts and Mohegans waxed hot and threatening. It was necessary to take some steps to quell it. The commissioners, therefore, sent their old interpreter, Thomas Stanton, with Mr. Willet, to visit the sachems of both these nations, and inform them that the commissioners were then in session at Hartford, and if they would appear be- fore that body, and state their grievances, an impartial hearing should be had ; and that all proper steps should be taken to reconcile their differences. These gentlemen were instructed to offer the sachems of the two tribes, or those who might go in their stead, a safe passage to and from Hartford, and to enjoin on them and their people to keep the peace, not only during these negotiations, but after they had returned to their respective countries.
The Narragansetts sent one of their principal chiefs, and Un- cas went in behalf of the Mohegans. One principal theme of complaint alleged, on the part of the Narragansetts was, that Uncas had taken a ransom for Miantinomoh, and after his death, had refused to return it. This Uncas stoutly denied under oath. Other evidence was heard, both in support of the charge and in behalf of the defense. The hearing re- sulted in favor of Uncas.
The Narragansett deputation agreed to abide by the de- cision, and to make no war upon Uncas, until after the next year's planting-time-and after that, before commencing hos- tilities, that they would give the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut thirty days notice. This stipulation was to be binding also upon the Nihanticks, as well as upon their own tribe .*
* See Trumbull, 1. 145, 146.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
About this time, four sachems from Monhausett, upon Long Island, came over in canoes with their companions, and humbly waited upon the commissioners with a petition. They stated that they and the other Indians upon the island, had paid tribute to the English ever since the Pequot war, and that they had never done any harm, either to the Eng- lish or the Dutch, but were the friends of both. They begged that they might have a certificate given them of this friendly relationship, and that the United Colonies would take them under their protection. The commissioners gave them the certificate, and assured them of protection, as long as they remained at peace with the English, and kept aloof from all the quarrels with the Indians. With this certificate-a cab- alistic charm to them-the simple-hearted tributaries took their leave, deeply impressed with the superiority of the English.
During the same session, the claim of Massachusetts to a part of the Pequot country was renewed. Col. Fen- wick interposed in behalf of himself and those whose inter- ests he represented, and begged that the consideration of this matter might be postponed, until the Lord Say and Seal, and the other noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, who were named as grantees in the Warwick patent, and, who claimed this very territory, could have an opportunity to be heard. The commissioners decided that a convenient time ought to be given to those noble claimants to plead their title to the land in controversy.
Massachusetts, also, renewed her claim to Westfield, while Col. Fenwick, on the other hand, insisted that it was the prop- erty of the same grantees. It was finally decreed that West- field, with all its houses and lands, should be under the juris- diction of Massachusetts, until it was proved to which colony the plantation belonged ; and that all lands, not exceeding two thousands acres, should belong to the purchasers.
South Hampton, upon Long Island, was this year taken under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. This town had been settled in 1640 by about one hundred families from Lynn .*
* Trumbull, i. 148.
135
THE FIRST TARIFF.
[1645.]
When the General Court of Connecticut met in the preced- ing April, a committee was appointed to treat with Col. Fen- wick in relation to a purchase of "Saybrook Fort, and of all guns, buildings, and lands in the colony, which he and the lords and gentlemen interested in the Patent of Connec- ticut might claim." On the 5th of December, 1644, the ne- gotiation was completed by articles of agreement, signed by Col. Fenwick and the committee appointed by the General Court of Connecticut. On the part of himself and the other grantees, Col. Fenwick made over to Connecticut, the fort at Saybrook and its appurtenances ; also all the lands on the Con- necticut river! Such lands as were not sold, were to be given out by a committee of five, of whom Col. Fenwick was to be one. Col. Fenwick also agreed that all the lands from Narragansett river to Saybrook fort should fall under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, if it should come into his power so to dispose of it. On the other hand, the committee who represented Connecticut, agreed that Col. Fenwick should enjoy all the houses belonging to the fort for a period of ten years, and that a duty should be paid to him for a like term on corn, biscuit, bacon, and cattle, which should be exported from the mouth of the river. The General Court ratified this agreement in February, 1645, and passed an act to reg- ulate the duty stipulated in the articles of agreement .* Pro- vision was also made that a memorandum of the landing of each cargo passing beyond the river's mouth should be made of all commodities, subject to this duty, and delivered to Col. Fenwick, as a basis, from which to determine how much tribute was due him. This was the first tariff ever sanc- tioned by the people of Connecticut.
The duty was as follows :
Ist. Each bushel of corn of all sorts, or meal, that shall pass out of the river's mouth, shall pay two pence per bushel.
2d. Every hundred biscuit that shall in like manner pass out of the river's mouth, shall pay sixpence.
3d. Each milch cow, and mare, of three years or upwards,
* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 119, &c.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
within any of the towns or farms upon the river, shall pay twelve pence per annum, during the aforesaid term.
4th. Each hog or sow, that is killed by any particular per- son, within the limits of the river and the jurisdiction afore- said, to be improved either for his own particular use, or to make market of, shall in like manner, pay twelve pence per annum.
5th. Each hogshead of beaver, traded within the limits of the river, shall pay two pence. Only, it is provided, that in case the general trade with the Indians, now in agitation, proceed, this tax upon beaver, mentioned in this, and the foregoing articles, shall fail.
It proved to be no insignificant sum that the colony paid for this purchase, and has been estimated at sixteen hundred pounds sterling .*
The General Court now took vigorous measures to put this important fortification in good repair. A tax of two hundred pounds was levied on the towns for this purpose. The Court also addressed a letter to Col. Fenwick, soliciting him to act as the agent of the colony, and sail for England, with a view of procuring an enlargement of the patent, " and to furnish other advantages for the country."
In the midst of these stirring events, died George Wyllys, Esquire, third governor of Connecticut, who, had there been left no written memorial of his worth, could not have failed of a traditionary fame more enviable, though less glaring, than that of the proudest military conqueror. He came of an old and honorable family, and was, before he left Eng- land, the possessor of an elegant mansion and a valuable es- tate in land, situated in Knapton, in the county of Warwick. Few English gentlemen had less occasion to become an ad- venturer ; none had less cause to seek his fortune in the trackless labyrinths of the American woods. His birth, his wealth, his intellectual endowments, enriched by the most re- fined culture, entitled him, in the best of English neighbor- hoods, to the confidence and friendship of that order of Eng-
See Trumbull, i. 150.
137
GOVERNOR WYLLYS.
[1645.]
lish nobility, whom Burke has signalized as the " best society in the world." So that, whatever may be said of others, it cannot truthfully be said of Wyllys, that he sought to better his fortunes by emigration. He knew well, that as the world understands the term, he could not improve his condition, and that to change it, was to make it worse. His eye was not to be dazzled with the surfaces of things. With the earnestness that characterizes all noble natures, he sought after the truth, and, by the gradually increasing light of religi- ous liberty, saw in that early dawn, the shadows of super- stition beginning to grow pale and dim. He loved the tra- ditions, the institutions, the customs, immemorial as the green old oaks and flowering hedges of his native island. Yet, like John Hampden, Herbert Pelham and Sir Harry Vane, though he lingered over the past with a loving step, his gaze was still fixed on the future. He was one of the few men of that harsh, intolerant age, whose large natures-incapable of bigotry, whether lurking un- der the folds of the surplice, or haunting the secret chambers of the conventicle-soared above the poisonous atmosphere of political strifes, and panted for a liberty, religious and civil, that should strike its roots in a deep, fresh soil, and bear those "golden apples" that in later years, requiting the culture of such hands as his, were to blush upon the branches of the Hesperian tree. Perhaps, too, he foresaw, and was not unwilling to avoid for himself and his children, the baleful fires of that bloody conflict, so soon to light up the English coast-the struggle between the old and the new, between prerogative and progress, of which all Europe was to "ring from side to side "-a struggle destruc- tive as the whirlwind, yet tending to purify the moral atmos- phere, as all great convulsions of the elements are said to vitalize the air.
In 1636, Mr. Wyllys sent over his steward, William Gib- bons, with twenty men, to purchase and prepare for him, in Hartford, an estate suitable to his rank, erect a house, and make preparations for the reception of himself and his fami-
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
ly. Two years after this, he bade adieu to the home of his childhood, and sailed for America. He arrived in Connecti- cut early enough to give to the framers of the Constitution of 1639, the benefit of his sound judgment and elevated views, and was elected a magistrate annually under it, from the time when the freemen adopted it by acclamation, to the day of his death. In 1641, he was elected deputy governor, and in 1642 he was made governor of Connecticut.
He led a calm, pure life, far enough elevated above the level of his contemporaries to point them where to look for the ideal of human excellence, yet near enough to stretch forth a benevolent hand to those whose vision was less keen, and whose feeble steps faltered as they ascended the rugged hill. Peace to his venerable dust, which, without a monu. ment, sleeps near that of Hooker, in the old cemetry of Hartford, guarded by the piety of the thousands who inhabit the city, and who have succeeded to the noblest inheritance in the world-a spotless public life.
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