where they were obliged to shift for themselves as best they could.1

Ten of the male passengers, setting out in a boat in search of the promised land, reached Charlestown Neck, where they were kindly received by an old planter, who gave them a dinner of "fish without bread." Thus scantily refreshed they passed up the Charles River to what is now Watertown. Here they passed two or three days, when they returned to the main part of the company who had found a good pasture ground for their cattle at Mattapan now known as Dorchester Neck, or South Boston. Their settlement was named Dorchester in honor of the Rev. Mr. White of Dorchester, England, which had also been the home of several of their own number.

The long sea voyage had probably enfeebled many of them,2 and as they still retained their original project of settling on the Charles River, they had made little or no provision for future want in the way of planting. Consequently, shortly after their arrival, they found themselves threatened with a scarcity of food. We will let Roger Clap tell the story in his own quaint and pathetic manner.

"Oh the hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in the eye of reason to be supplied, only by clams, and muscles, and fish. We did quietly build boats, and some went a fishing; but bread was with many a scarce thing, and flesh of all kinds scarce. And in those days, in our straits, though I cannot say God sent us a raven to feed us as he did the prophet Elijah, yet this I can say to the praise of God's glory, that he sent not only poor ravenous Indians, which came with their baskets of corn on their backs to trade with us, which was a good supply unto many, but also sent ships from Holland and from Ireland with provision, and Indian corn from Virginia to supply the

1 "The Mary and John was the first ship, of the fleet of 1630, that arrived in the bay. At that time there were surely no pilots for ships to be found, and the refusal of the captain to attempt the passage without pilot or chart does not seem unreasonable, though Clap has sent the captain's name to posterity as a "merciless man," who Trumbull says was afterwards obliged to pay damages for this conduct." (Hist. of Dorchester, Mass.)

This trouble was afterwards amicably settled by the mediation of Gov. Winthrop. See his Journal, 1, 28.

2 See Winthrop.

wants of his dear servants in this wilderness, both for food and raiment. And when people's wants were great, not only in one town but in divers towns; such was the godly wisdom, care and prudence (not selfishness but self denial) of our Governor Winthrop and his assistants, that when a ship came laden with provisions, they did order that the whole cargo should be bought for a general stock: and so accordingly it was, and distribution was made to every town, and to every person in each town, as every man had need. Thus God was pleased to care for his people in times of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. Then did all the servants of God bless His holy name, and love one another with pure hearts fervently."

For a further account of their doings at this place, a subject possessing peculiar interest to every inhabitant of Windsor, who traces his lineage back to these settlers of Dorchester, we refer to the history before mentioned.

In 1631, Wahquimacut, a Connecticut River sachem visited Boston and Plymouth, earnestly soliciting both colonies to make settlements on the river. While he extolled the exceeding fruitfulness of the country, and its advantages for trade; he proffered the cordial friendship of his people; and offered the English, in case of their settlement, a full supply of corn and an annual present of 80 beaver skins. The urgency of this invitation arose, as the English afterwards discovered, from a desire to avail himself of the skill and arms of the white men against the Pequots, who were at that time harassing and conquering the river tribes. Gov. Winthrop of the Massachusetts Colony, though he treated the sachem courteously, declined the proposal. Gov. Winslow of the Plymouth Colony, however, deemed the matter worthy of more consideration, and shortly after took occasion to make a journey to Connecticut, whence he returned very favorably impressed. About this time also some of the Plymouth People had been up the river to trade, and the matter appeared in so favorable a light to that colony, that in July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford visited Boston to confer with Governor Winthrop and the Council upon the subject. It was proposed that the two colonies should unite in the erection of a trading house on the river, for the establishment of a traffic in hemn and beaver skins. The rumored occupation of that

fine country by the Dutch was also urged as an additional reason for its immediate preoccupation by the English. But the enterprise of Plymouth met with a cold response from the cautious authorities of Massachusetts. Gov. Winthrop objected to the proposition, first, because of the number of warlike Indians on the river; secondly, because of the bar at its mouth; thirdly, because of the ice and the violence of the stream, which it was thought would render it unnavigable during a greater part of the year. Finally, he plead the poverty of the Massachusetts Colony as preventing them from joining the enterprise. To this last, the Plymouth Company replied, by generously offering to loan them sufficient capital but it was of no avail; The Massachusetts gentlemen, "casting many fears of danger and loss," replied "they have no mind for it."1 Finding the Massachusetts Colony thus disinclined to favor the undertaking, the Plymouth People determined to set about it themselves. A trading company was formed, and preparations made for erecting a trading-house.

In September following, also, one John Oldham, with three others of Dorchester, traveled through the wilderness to Connecticut. He was kindly received by the native chiefs, who gave him a valuable present of beaver skins. Specimens of Indian hemp which he carried back to Dorchester, were pronounced far superior to the English article. He represented the distance from the Bay to Connecticut as being about 160 miles The Dutch meanwhile had not been idle. Feeling the necessity

1 These are the words of Gov. Bradford of Plymouth. There appears truly to have been a want of ingenuousness in the action of the Massachusetts Colony. Their objections seem to us, as they probably seemed to their friends at Plymouth, "rather specious than solid." And their subsequent jealously of the Plymouth Colony - their eagerness to settle in the new country of the Connecticut after the former had made an entrance and beginning together with the peremptory illiberal manner of dealing with them in regard to the settlement of Windsor, contrast strongly, and, we can not but think unfavorably, with their previous extreme caution and reluctance to embark in the enterprise.

2 Oldham also carried back some fine specimens of black lead "whereof the Indians told him there was a whole rock."-Winthrop's Journal, 1, 111.

of maintaining their claim to the Connecticut by actual occupation, Director Van Twiller, in 1632, had purchased from the Indians, lands at Saybrook, on which he had erected the arms of the States General. And on the 8th of June, 1633, the West India Company through their clerk Van Curler, bought from Sachem Wapyquart, a tract of meadow land, "extending about a [Dutch] mile down along the river, to the next little stream, and upwards beyond the kill, being a third of a [Dutch] mile broad." On this purchase, the present site of the city of Hartford, Van Curler quickly erected a little fort, which he defended with two cannon, and called the House of Good Hope. Events were hurrying forward a collision, which could not long be avoided.

Early in October, the bark Blessing, from Massachusetts, voyaging to Long Island, visited New Amsterdam, where its captain showed to Van Twiller his commission, signifying that the King of England had granted to his loyal subjects the river and country of Connecticut. Whereupon the Dutch Governor wrote back a very "courteous and respectful" letter to the Eastern Colonies, stating that both by prior discovery, occupation, and the grant of the States, the country belonged to the Dutch West India Company; and requesting the Plymouth People to refrain from settling there until the matter could be determined by the proper persons, in order that they as Christians, might dwell together in these heathenish parts."

But these courteous and pacific counsels had no weight with the Plymouth Trading Company, who, within a few days after, sent out "a large new bark," in charge of one William Holmes, a man of enterprising and resolute spirit, with an equally resolute crew. Holmes had on board the frame of a house, with all the materials requisite for its immediate erection. He also carried with him Attawanott, and other Indian sachems, the original proprietors of the soil, who had been driven thence by the warlike Pequots, and of whom the Plymouth People afterwards purchased

1O'Callaghan, Hist. New Netherland, 1, 151.

2 This was "the latter part of October," but the Dutch authorities state it as the 16th of September. See O'Callaghan.

the land. Sailing steadily up the broad Connecticut, he suddenly found himself under the "two guns" of the newly erected Dutch fort at Hartford. The drum-beat that resounded from its walls, the cannoniers standing with lighted matches, under the banner of New Netherland, all gave note of warlike intent. Nor was he long left in doubt. The Dutch hailed him with an enquiry as to his intentions, followed by a peremptory order to stop. He curtly replied that he held his commission from the Governor of Plymouth; that his orders were to go up the river to trade, and go up he would. They threatened to fire upon him, but his English blood was up, and he proceeded on his way in cool defiance of their threats. The Dutch, for reasons best known to themselves, did not fire. Passing on a few miles, he arrived at the location which had been selected for a trading house, just below the mouth of the Tunxis (or Farmington) river, in the present town of Windsor. Here he erected his house the first ever erected in Connecticut" and proceeded to fortify it with palisadoes, with the utmost dispatch.

As may be imagined, these high handed proceedings of their Yankee neighbors, produced quite a flutter among the honest traders of Nieuw Amsterdam. Gov. Van Twiller immediately wrote to the Netherlands for advice and troops, and directed Commissioner Jacobus Van Curler to serve a protest upon Captain Holmes, which was done forthwith with all due solemnity, October 25th, as follows:

"The Director and Council of Nieuw Netherland hereby

1 Gov. Wolcott's Mss. By this is probably meant the first English house. Barber (Hist. Collections of Conn.) says this house "stood about two miles Southeast of the First Congregational Church, on the riverbank, about twenty rods from a point of land extending down the river, near the western shore. It was at this place Farmington or Windsor River entered the Connecticut. The mouth of the river is now sixty rods above. This was changed by Gov. Wolcott's cutting a canal for a ferry boat across the point of land above mentioned. This channel has become so much enlarged, that it is now the main channel of the river. The meadow lying in the vicinity of where the house stood is still called Plymouth Meadow", and the point near where Holmes landed is occupied by a fishing hut, and called by the boatmen on the river, Old Point Comfort.