USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 13
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
desolate peninsula, where the humble houses of wood within the inclosure of the fort, opened their forbidding doors with a grim welcome that must have chilled her heart. Here she lingered in obscurity till she died. Perhaps when her hus- band was away at Hartford, or Boston, as he often was, at- tending to the interests of Connecticut, as she looked off up- on the blue waters, her eye was dimmed with tears of disap- pointment as she in vain sought the long expected sail that was to waft that noble coterie of lords and ladies, knights, and gentlemen, to Saybrook, whither they had promised to flee from the civic strifes that beset them at home. But that sail was only seen in her dreams, and the towers of the new city that was to have sprung up under the plastic touch of the patentees of Connecticut, were lost with the other fan- tasies of the night in the glimmering moon-beams that fell upon her startled eyelids through the frosted window-panes. She died in her place of voluntary exile. Two hundred years have rolled away. The shrill cry of the plover now as then pierces the ear as it flies over the spot. But the rude fort, with its walls of wood and earth, is gone. The Connec- ticut swarms with vessels of every description, filled with a free population that need no cannon at the mouth of the river, as in that iron age, to guard them from violence. How much can be learned from an old, solitary tomb! The dead need no monument, but are themseves a monument of the "dead old time." Their names, when uttered, are vital as their ashes shall be on the morning of the resurrection. But let not the sons of a state, in whose bosom sleeps the dust of Alice Apsley, forget that the forbidding aspect of her tomb, though it dishonors not her, disgraces them ; and if she has left no other claim upon their affectionate remembrance, let them bear in mind that she was at least the wife of Fenwick!
CHAPTER VIII.
FOUNDING OF NEW LONDON.
As early as the spring of 1646, under the auspices of the General Court of Massachusetts, Mr. John Winthrop, jun., and a few others, had already begun to plant the fields lying upon Pequot Harbor, and found a settlement there. Mr. Thomas Peters,* a clergyman, was associated with Mr. Winthrop, and these two gentlemen were entrusted with the authority of framing a form of civil government, and ad- ministering it, until further orders.t This territory was for a long time debated ground, as has been before stated : Con- necticut claiming both by virtue of a grant and by right of conquest, and Massachusetts asserting a right to it as her share of the conquered country of the Pequots. Mr. Peters did not stay long enough in the new settlement to lend much aid to his associate, for in the fall of 1646 he embarked for England, and never returned to America. Mr. Winthrop did not remove his family from Boston until the fall of 1646, when he sailed with his wife and a part of his children, to the country over which he claimed jurisdiction. His brother, Dean Winthrop, accompanied him. They had a very rough and tedious passage. They spent that winter upon Fisher's Island. In the spring of 1647, Mr. Winthrop built a house upon the main-land at Pequot, and removed his whole family thither. The place was also called Nameaugs. This was the first beginning of the now flourishing city of New London. Although the plantation was commenced under the protec- tion of Massachusetts, yet after the action of the commis- sioners upon the question of jurisdiction in July 1647, the
This gentleman was a brother of the celebrated Hugh Peters, and was him- self one of the ejected Puritan divines of Cornwall, England. He appears to have been for some time chaplain to Mr. Fenwick, and to the garrison at Saybrook.
t New London Records. See Miss Caulkins' History, p. 45.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
dominion over it was conceded to belong to Connecticut ; and in the following September, the court gave Mr. Winthrop a commission " to execute justice" according to the laws of Connecticut, " and the rules of righteousness." *
At the session of the General Court in May 1649, John Winthrop, Esquire, with Thomas Minor and Samuel Lathrop as assistants, were authorized to hold a court in the town, with jurisdiction over " all differences among the inhabitants under the value of forty shillings."t To encourage the en- terprise of the first settlers of New London, and to induce new adventurers to take up their abode there, the court at the same session granted the inhabitants exemption from taxation for the period of three years. The court also ad- vised that the town should be called "Fair Harbor." But the planters claimed the privilege of naming the place, and finally, after some changes and debates, hit upon the name of New London, which was sanctioned by the General Court.
The old subject of alarm and debate, the perfidy of the Narragansett and Nihantick Indians, could not long remain quiet. These Indians were resolved not to pay the wam- pum that they had agreed again and again to do, and had hired the Pocomtocks and Mohawks to unite with them in exterminating the hated Mohegans. The Narragan- setts and Nihanticks secreted their women and children in swamps, and raised an army of eight hundred warriors, who were to meet their allies, the Mohawks and the Pocom- tocks, in or near the Mohegan country. The governor and council sent a deputation, at the head of whom was Thomas Stanton, to Pocomtock. When they arrived there they found the Indians of the place in arms and awaiting the ar- rival of the Mohawks .¿ The Indians confessed their error, but said they had been hired by the Narragansetts. It was represented to Stanton, that the Mohawks had four hundred guns, and plenty of ammunition. This must have been a
* J. Hammond Trumbull, Colonial Records, i. 157. + Ib. i. 186.
# Trumbull, i. 171.
153
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS.
[1649.]
very exaggerated account of their resources. It is not likely that the whole tribe were possessed of one-fourth part that number of guns. Stanton told the Indians that they must not march into the Mohegan territory, and that the English would defend Uncas against all his enemies, and would avenge all his wrongs. This well-timed threat had the effect to keep the Pocomtocks at home, and as the Mohawks (if in- deed they had ever intended to aid in the enterprise,) were detained in their own country by some troubles that they had with the French, the Narragansetts dared not take it upon themselves to chastise the Mohegans, and so the affair was dropped for awhile. But the Narragansetts did not by any means remain idle. They made depredations upon the people of Rhode Island, broke into their houses, stole their goods, and insulted the planters in every conceivable way. At Warwick they killed an hundred cattle, and threatened the inhabitants with the most cruel violence. In their per- plexity and alarm, the authorities of Rhode Island applied to the commissioners to be admitted into the confederacy. That grave body, then in session at Plymouth, made answer in substance, that the whole region occupied by the petition- ers was included in the Plymouth patent, and of right ought to be under the jurisdiction of that colony ; that if the people of Rhode Island would consent to relinquish their claims to an independent existence, and be merged in the colony of New Plymouth, their interests would be tenderly cared for ; but they refused to treat with them as a distinct common- wealth .* However, the commissioners sent a new deputation to the Narragansetts and Nihanticks, complaining among other things of the outrages that they had committed in Rhode Island, whose people had never wronged them, and warning the sachems to keep their men under better discipline.
During the same session, the old affair of the impost for the repair of the fort at Saybrook came up for further dis- cussion. Massachusetts complained of the former decision
* Records of the United Colonies.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
of the commissioners, and the General Court of that colony had appointed a committee to draw up an answer in writing to the arguments and reasons of Governor Hopkins in be- half of Connecticut at the previous session. Whatever the merits of the case might be, this answer was certainly a very able one. It alleged that Springfield was under no more obligation to pay for the repairs of the fort, than any other town not within the limits of Connecticut ; that if that town derived any benefit from the fort, it was an inci- dental one, and was no greater than that resulting from the same source to any of the towns of New Haven colony that lay along the coast. It urged that New Haven or Stamford might with as much propriety be taxed for this object as Springfield ; and added, that the former decision of the commissioners ought to be reviewed, as it was carried by the votes of the members from New Haven colony, who were interested parties ; and also because it was induced in part by the alleged provisions of the Connecticut patent, a document which was not produced, as it ought to have been if any claim of title was set up under it .*
The committee in behalf of Massachusetts appear to have thought it advisable to let it be known how powerful their commonwealth was, and how little dependent it was upon the other colonies, for in connection with this argument they took occasion to intimate that Massachusetts could do as she liked about complying with the order of the commis- sioners in this matter without any breach of faith, and com- plained of the inequality of the representation in a body where such small powers as New Haven and New Plymouth had an equal vote with Massachusetts. The committee also said that this impost was a bone of contention that was likely " to interrupt their happy union and brotherly love." They greatly feared that unless this stumbling-block could be removed, they might be tempted "to help themselves in some other way."
In behalf of Connecticut, Roger Ludlow and governor * See Trumbull, i. 172, 173.
155
DEBATE OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
[1649.]
Hopkins replied, that the arguments and proofs that had been the basis of the order at the former session, had not been met by any thing that was set forth in the remons- trance of Massachusetts, and that they were indeed un- answerable. After alluding briefly to what had been said in relation to the old claims of Massachusetts in 1638, with regard to the exemption from impost of the plantations under their alleged jurisdiction, and the change of circumstances which ten years had brought about,-and after disposing summarily of the question of a priority of right so strongly urged by the other party, they go on to speak with some sensitiveness of the charge made against the commissioners of founding their decree, either in whole or in part, upon the supposed contents of the Connecticut patent, a paper that they had never seen. These gentlemen argued that such a charge was unreasonable, and without foundation. That a copy of this patent was certainly brought forward at the time the confederation was established; that its contents were publicly known, and that the gentlemen of Massachu- setts were the last persons in the world who could plead ignorance of the fact that it had recently been owned by the committee of parliament, and that it had as much vitality and power over the territory embraced within the boundaries named in it, as had the patents of Massachusetts and Ply- mouth over their own. To make good what they said, they backed it up by producing a copy of the Connecticut patent which governor Hopkins, who had compared it with the original, offered to make oath to as authentic.
In regard to the appeal made by Massachusetts to the sympathies and fears of the commissioners, that the impost was inexpedient and threatened the existence of the amicable relations and brotherly love that had so long bound the four colonies together, they answered with a very delicate severi- ty, that it was the wish of Connecticut, that in all the doings of the confederation, "truth and peace might embrace each other "-that it was impossible for them to see how the set- ting forth of the claims of truth and righteousness could be
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
the means of breaking up the subsisting relations of peace and brotherly love.
Upon a full hearing, the commissioners again decided in favor of Connecticut.
Previous to this, on the 27th of May, 1647, his Excellency, Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, arrived at Manhattan and entered upon the duties of his office .* The commissioners, in the name of the united colonies of New England, hastened to address to him a congratulatory letter upon his accession to the government. In this letter they also took occasion to inform him that the Dutch traders had been in the habit of selling firearms and ammunition to the Indians, and sometimes within the boundaries of the Eng- lish plantations, and begged him to put an end to this ill- judged and dangerous traffic. They also made complaint of the imposts laid by the Dutch, which they said, fettered the freedom of trade. The letter also complained of seizures made by the Dutch of English vessels and goods.
His Excellency of New Netherlands made no answer to these complaints, and it will appear from what followed that he gave very little heed to them. Perhaps he thought, though I am not aware that he has left us any record of his reflections on this subject, that congratulation and remon- strance might have afforded materials for two distinct com- munications. Be that as it may, he evidently disregarded the complaints, for in the year 1648 he caused a vessel be- longing to Mr. Westerhouse, a Dutch merchant and planter of New Haven, to be seized while she was riding at anchor in the harbor.t Westerhouse stated his grievance to the com- missioners, who espoused his cause as that of the united col- onies, and at once wrote a letter to governor Stuyvesant, ex- pressing in the strongest terms their horror of this insult of- fered to the English colonies, and wrong done to an innocent private citizen. They again took occasion to "protest against the claim of the Dutch to all the lands, rivers, and streams from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod," while they re-
* See Brodhead, i. 433.
+ Trumbull, i. 175; Brodhead, i. 496.
157
CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOV. STUYVESANT.
[1649.]
iterated the oft-assailed right of the united colonies to all these plantations and domains held by the double title of grant from the British crown, and of purchase from the In- dians, the native proprietors of the soil.
The seizure of this ship from one of their own harbors they represented to be an atrocious and unparalleled outrage, which they neither could nor would suffer to pass without some redress. They thought the letters that he had written to them and to the governors of Massachusetts and New Haven, were couched in a phraseology so mysterious and equivocal that it was impossible to understand them. They begged him to be less oracular and more explicit. They in- sisted upon the necessity of a meeting between him and them for the purpose of coming to a more full understanding. Un- til there was some such adjustment, they said the Dutch mer- chants and marines should enjoy no privileges in the New England harbors or plantations, either of anchoring, search- ing or seizing, more than the English did at Manhattan ; and if upon search they should find arms or ammunition on board any Dutch ship, which were designed to be sold to the In- dians within the borders of the united colonies, they would seize them "until further inquiry and satisfaction should be made." The epistle closed in a very high tone, from which the governor of New Netherlands might readily infer that unless he saw the error of his ways, it would soon be neces- sary for him to vindicate them by force of arms .*
The murder of Mr. John Whitmore, in 1648, at Stam- ford, and the discovery of an old murder of Mr. Cope and a part of his crew upon Long Island, both of which were committed by the Indians, occasioned much uneasiness in the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven.
In the year 1647, the old fort at Saybrook, built by Gardiner, under the direction of Winthrop, by some unfortunate ac- cident took fire and was burned to ashes. In May, 1649, the General Court ordered " that there shall be a dwelling- house erected at Saybrook about the middle of the new fort,
* Record of the United Colonies.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
at the charge and for the service of the commonwealth."* The building of a new fort was also prosecuted with vigor.
During the same year, 1649, the Indians upon Long Island committed at Southold some terrible murders. The Narra- gansetts and Nihanticks were by no means inactive. They had remained quiet as long as they could restrain their dia- bolical passions ; but at last their hatred of Uncas broke forth. They had been thwarted so often in their attempts to make war upon the Mohegan chief, that they now deter- mined to assassinate him. With this view they confided their secret to a trusty Indian, who undertook, for a reward, to accomplish the murder. The assassin went on board a vessel in the Thames, where Uncas was, and stabbed him in the breast. He meant without doubt to kill him, and for a long time it was thought that the chief would die of the wound. But he at last recovered, and that too in due time to present himself before the commissioners, exhibit his scars, tell over again his old story about the Mohawks, reiterate his complaints against his enemies, whom he meekly represented as thirsting for innocent blood, and beg that as he had never deserted the English in times of peril, they would requite his friendly services by extending to him their protection. All that he appeared to want was justice, and he certainly had much occasion to congratulate himself upon his good luck, that his prayers in this respect were not answered. How- ever, it cannot be denied that he told the truth when he said that he had always been faithful to the English. Ninigret was cited to appear and clear himself of the charge preferred against him by Uncas, that he and Pessacus had hired the as- sassin. It is probable that this charge was substantially true, as the wretched murderer himself, we are told, gave the same account of the matter. At any rate, it was thought by the commissioners that the Nihantick sachem made but a meagre defense. He was dismissed with the assurance that unless he immediately liquidated the old arrearages, the English would leave him to his fate.
* J. H. Trumbull, i. 187.
159
[1649.]
RUMORED ALLIANCE WITH THE PEQUOTS.
About this time the colonies were thrown into a convul- sion by a rumor, the author of which it is not difficult to di- vine, that a son or brother of Sassacus was negotiating an alliance with Ninigret, and was about to marry his daughter, and that the Narragansetts and Nihanticks were contriving to gather up the scattered Pequots, and place them under the dominion of this bugbear chief. This story is so shallow and incredible to us of the present day, that it seems aston- ishing that it should have gained any credence. But the crafty politician who devised it was a shrewd judge of char- acter, and knew that the very word Pequot had not ceased to be terrible to the English. This fabrication was intend- ed to have a double edge. Uncas knew that the Pequots who had been assigned to his keeping had more than two years before been induced by his tyranny to revolt from him, and set up for themselves. He also knew these Indians had in 1647, presented to the English a memorial, such as they were able to frame, against his outrageous treatment of them, which recited a list of exactions and cruelties ; and he also knew that he was guilty of all that they charged upon him. The English, slow to believe their favorite and ally to be such an unprincipled wretch as he was represented, were at last, upon frequent repetition of the accusation, beginning to lose confidence in him. What so likely, in this pressing ex- igency, to divert the attention of the English from himself and fix it where he most desired it to remain, as an appeal to the fears of his allies, by putting in circulation this well- contrived story of the anticipated alliance of the Pequots, his accusers, with the Nihanticks and Narragansetts, who were his old enemies ? It would serve the double purpose of lulling the growing suspicions against himself, and increasing those already existing against his rivals. The prospects held out to him by this story were so flattering that he could not resist them.
Meanwhile his evil deeds were sent forth upon every wind. The insulted Pequots repeated their charges in the ears of the English, until their frigid incredulity gradually
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
dissolved. The Pequots affirmed that since they had been put under his protection, he had exacted from them payments of wampum forty several times. They farther asserted that upon the death of one of his children, the hypocritical father made his squaw presents to comfort her, and compelled them to give her wampum by way of adding to this extraordinary consolation. Whereupon Uncas expressed great satisfaction, and gave his word that he would ever after treat them with the same consideration as if they were of Mohegan blood ; and that, in violation of this promise, he had cheated them and wronged them in a variety of ways. One of the Pequot sachems in particular, insisted that Uncas had taken away his wife from him and conducted towards her as if she had been his own. Others testified that he had wounded and tortured some of the Pequots, and robbed the whole of them. This memorial was presented in behalf of more than sixty Pequots. Uncas of course denied all the allegations set forth in it, but they were so thoroughly substantiated that the commissioners could not help believing them. They re- buked Uncas, ordered him to give up the wife of the chief whom he had stolen, make the Pequots good for all the dam- ages he had done them, and pay a fine of one hundred fathom of wampum. He was also directed to take back his abused subjects without inflicting any punishment upon them for complaining of his cruelties towards them. But the poor creatures refused to comply with this order, although they were obedient to the English in all other respects. Year
after year, as the commissioners met, they presented their humble petition, in which they feelingly alluded to their con- dition as a conquered people, and owned that their tribe had met a just fate; but they begged to be delivered from the rapacity and overbearing insolence of Uncas. They said that whatever might have been the fault of their tribe, they at least had killed no Englishmen, and that Wequash, the guide, who had led Mason to the fort, had given them his word that if they would fly from the Pequot country, and do the colonies no injury, they should be safe from harm.
161
ATHERTON'S EXPEDITION.
[1650.]
These plaintive supplications at last had the effect to mitigate the condition of the petitioners. This relief was in part due to the interposition of Mr. Winthrop, who knew Uncas too well to take his part. There was never any cordiality be- tween that gentleman and the Mohegan chief.
This year, (1649,) the affair of the impost was again brought before the commissioners, and decided as before in favor of Connecticut. The members from Massachusetts then produced an order of their General Court, imposing a duty upon " all goods belonging to any of the inhabitants of Plymouth, Connecticut or New Haven, imported within the castle, or exported from any part of the bay." This was done by way of retaliating upon Connecticut, and upon the other colonies, for voting in behalf of the Connecticut impost. It was an act which the historians of Massachusetts have never attempted to justify, and was unworthy of the high charac- ter of that noble colony-a character so steadily sustained from that day to the present.
On the 5th of September, 1650, the commissioners again met at Hartford. Governor Hopkins of Connecticut presided. There was no want of topics to occupy their attention. The Narragansetts still neglected to produce the wampum that they had long been obligated to pay. The gallant Captain Humphrey Atherton, of Massachusetts, was sent with twenty men under his command to enforce the payment. He was authorized, if the arrearages were not paid, to seize upon such property as he could find to an amount equal in value to the sum due, or to take possession of the person of Pessa- cus or of his children, and bring them away as hostages, to insure the final liquidation of this troublesome account. With such a liberal commission, Atherton, with his handful of men, marched into the heart of the Narragansett country. He had no difficulty in procuring an interview with Pessa- cus, but the sachem immediately began to practice his old arts of diplomacy. He advanced a number of propositions with provisional clauses and conditions involved, which, in the language of the logicians, he proceeded to argue in a cir-
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