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1630.

Boston founded. * Sept.

Other

towns settled.

CHAP. VII. ships, and more than a thousand emigrants. Winthrop, who had the charter in his custody, at first settled himself, with his immediate followers, at Charlestown. But this position not pleasing them, they soon afterward took possession of the opposite peninsula, of which the Indian name was "Shawmut." At first it was called "Trimountain," on account of its three contiguous hills; but it soon received the name of Boston, after the town in Lincolnshire, from which some of the principal emigrants had come.. Other parties settled themselves at Dorchester, Watertown, and Newtown, now known as Cambridge. In imitation of the example of Plymouth and Salem, the new settlements established among themselves distinct churches, which admitted their own members and 1631. chose their own officers. The next year, a form of government was established in Massachusetts, upon the theocratic basis that none should be admitted to the freedom of the body politic, "but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of this jurisdiction." It was not easy, however, to obtain the privilege of church membership. Of the whole adult population, not a fourth part were members. Three fourths of the people were Govern- thus practically disfranchised. As among themselves, the Massachu- minority of church members seemed thoroughly imbued ligious oli- with a spirit of equality; "but toward those not of the garchy. Church, they exhibited all the arrogance of a spiritual ar

18 May.

ment of

setts a re

New Plymouth.

istocracy, claiming to rule by Divine right." The elective franchise, jealously withheld from the people, was as jealously confined to the members of the churches; and the civil polity, which Massachusetts thus deliberately adopted, was an oligarchy of select religious votaries.*

The population of New Plymouth had, by this time, increased to nearly three hundred; and, through the agency 1630. of Lord Warwick and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the colony had obtained a new and ample patent from the council for New England. This instrument defined their boundaries.

13 Jan.

23

* Ancient Charters, 117; Bancroft, i., 360; Hildreth, i., 190; Story's Miscellanies, 6468. The restriction of the franchise to church members was not repealed until 1665.

as extending from the Cohassett River on the north, to the CHAP. VIL Narragansett River on the south, and inland, westwardly, to "the utmost limits of Pokenakut, alias Sowamset."*

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1630.

Royal proc

The complaints which Bradford had sent to England against the traffic of the Dutch and other strangers with the Indians, had already attracted the attention of Gorges and Mason. Similar complaints from Endicott induced the general court of Massachusetts to petition the Privy Council to reform "so great and insufferable abuses." The 24 Nov. result was a royal proclamation, "forbidding the disorder-lamation ly trading with the savages in New England." No per- irregular sons, except those authorized by the council for New En- New England, were to frequent those coasts, or trade with the natives, or intermeddle with the English planters or inhabitants, or teach the Indians the use of fire-arms, under pain of the king's high displeasure, and the penalties expressed in the proclamation of King James, in 1622.†

restraining

traders to

gland.

the New

settle

Thus far, the New England colonies had not encroached upon the territories claimed by the Dutch. The Mas- Extent of sachusetts patent included, indeed, within its sweeping England grant of land as far west as the Pacific, a portion of the ments. northern regions of New Netherland. But the infant settlements at Salem, and near Boston, were confined to the sea-coasts north of New Plymouth; and the Hollanders had already tacitly admitted the jurisdiction of the "Old Colony" to extend as far south and west as Narragansett Bay. All the coasts and inland regions, however, from that bay, as far south as Cape Hinlopen, and as far north as Canada, were claimed by the Dutch as rightfully belonging to New Netherland. During the pleasant intercourse which was opened with New Plymouth in 1627, the Hollanders, seeing that the Puritans were there seated "in barren quarter," with friendly purpose told them of a The Dutch river, "called by them the Fresh River, but is now known Puritans of by the name of Conighticute River, which they often com- necticut mended to them for a fine place both for plantation and

* Chalmers, 97; Prince, 196-198; Hazard, i., 298; Hildreth, i., 174.

+ Young, Ch. Mass., 84; Rymer Federa, xix., 210; Hazard, i., 311.

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inform the

the Con

River,

1630.

CHAP. VII. trade, and wished them to make use of it." But the hands of the New Plymouth colonists "being full otherwise, they let it pass."* In thus inviting the English to settle themselves within the territory of New Netherland, Minuit could have had no intention to surrender any of the chartered rights of the West India Company, or to raise a doubt respecting their title, which he had so stoutly maintained in his correspondence with Bradford. If the New Plymouth people had accepted Minuit's proposition, they could have settled themselves on the Connecticut only in due allegiance to the States General, and in subordination to the Company's authorities at Manhattan.

The fame of the "pleasant meadows" on the Fresh River soon reached the young hamlets on the Massachusetts 1631. Bay. In the first spring after his arrival, Winthrop was A Connec- visited by one of the Mahican sachems upon the "River chem visits Quonehtacut," who extolled the fruitfulness of his coun

4 April.

ticut sa

Boston.

try, and urged the English to come and plant themselves there. But Winthrop, though he treated the sachem kindly, would send none of his people to explore the country, which "was not above five days' journey" from Boston. The intentions of the sachem were soon unveiled. He was at war with the Pequods, and desired a European settlement as a defense against his powerful enemies.† At New Plymouth the suggestion was better appreciated. The sachem's story confirmed the accounts which they had before received from the Dutch; and Edward Winslow, vis1632. iting that region in 1632, verified these favorable reports visits the by his own observation, and even "pitched upon a place for a house." But the people of New Plymouth, knowing that the Connecticut valley was beyond the bounds of their patent, took no immediate measures to plant a settlement there.

Winslow

Connecticut.

While the colonial authorities of New Netherland and New England were thus all postponing actual occupation, a questionable English title to the territory was obtained

* Bradford, MS. in Hutch., ii., App., 416; Prince, 434.

+ Savage's Winthrop, i., 52.

+ Morton's Mem., App., 395; Hutch., i., 148; Trumbull, i., 30.

Warwick's

Connecti

1632.

19 March.

by other parties. Saltonstall, who had accompanied Win- CHAP. VII. throp to Massachusetts, returning to England in the spring 1631. of 1631, carried home with him the glowing accounts 29 April. which he had heard of the fruitfulness of the Connecticut valley. Through his exertions, the Earl of Warwick was The Earl of induced, early the next year, to grant and confirm to Lord grant of Say and Seal, Lord Brook, Saltonstall himself, and others, cut. all the territory extending forty leagues to the southwest of the Narragansett River, and by the same breadth "throughout the main lands there, from the Western Ocean to the South Sea." The territory thus conveyed is alleged to have been granted to Lord Warwick, by the council for New England, in 1630; and Warwick's subsequent conveyance has been considered by American historians as the original English charter for Connecticut. But no evidence of the grant to Lord Warwick has ever been produced: if such a grant was really made, it does not appear to have been confirmed by the king. Thus stood the question of right and title between the Dutch West India Company, by virtue of Block's first discovery and of their charter, and the English proprietaries of Connecticut, by virtue of Lord Warwick's conveyance. But no steps were taken by these proprietaries to colonize that Lord Warterritory, until several years after the end of Minuit's grantees government of New Netherland; though the commence- onization. ment of his successor's administration was destined to witness the first disagreement between rival Dutch and English settlers on the banks of the Fresh River.*

wick's

neglect col

Manhattan.

The attention of Director Minuit had been, meanwhile, Affairs at chiefly confined to the prosecution of the fur-trade for the benefit of the West India Company, and to the domestic affairs of the chief colony at Manhattan. No subordinate

* The date of Lord Warwick's conveyance to Lord Say and Seal, and his associates, has been erroneously stated to be in the year 1631. Its actual date, according to the new style, was 1632. The "seventh year" of Charles I., in which it is attested, was from the 27th of March, 1631, to the 27th of March, 1632. Saltonstall was not in England on the 19th of March, 1631. What purports to be a copy of Lord Warwick's "charter" is in the Secretary's office at Hartford, from which was taken the copy in Trumbull, i., App., 495. Neal and Douglas speak of a previous grant from the council of New England to Lord Warwick, which was confirmed by the king. But Chalmers (p. 299) shows that there is no evidence to support this statement.

1631.

Imports

and exports.

ficiency in

CHAP. VII. patroons ever exercised any jurisdiction over the reserved island: the West India Company alone was the territorial proprietary. After De Rasieres "fell into disgrace” with Minuit, his place as provincial secretary and keeper of the company's pay-books, was filled by Jan van Remund, who continued to hold these offices for several years. In 1629 and 1630, the imports from Amsterdam arose to the value of one hundred and thirteen thousand guilders; while the exports from Manhattan exceeded one hundred and thirty thousand guilders, showing a considerable balance in favor of the company. Its admirable commercial situation inEarly pro- dicated its future renown; and its ships, which now carry the fame of its naval architects to the ends of the earth, even at that early day had begun to attract the attention and excite the envy of England. In the year 1631, the Great ship "New Netherland," a ship variously estimated at from Nether- "600 tunnes, or thereabouts," to eight hundred tons, was at Manhat- built at Manhattan, and dispatched to Holland.* This ship was not only by far the largest that had ever been built in America, but it was probably one of the greatest merchant vessels at that time in the world. It was not until nearly two centuries afterward that the ship-wrights of Manhattan again began to build trading vessels which rivaled the mammoth proportions of the pioneer ship "New Netherland."

ship building.

"New

land" built

tan.

Fort Orange.

At Fort Orange, Vice-director Krol continued to superintend the fur-trade of the company, which was annually growing more important. The subdued Mahicans had three years before been expelled from the valley of the North River; and the victorious Mohawks were glad to cultivate the most friendly relations with the Dutch settlers, by whom they now began to be supplied with the fire-arms of Holland.

While the new patroons were vigorously commencing

* Letter of Mason, 2d April, 1632, Lond. Doc., i., 47; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 17. De Vries, p. 96, speaks of the "New Netherland" as "the great ship that was built in New Netherland." De Laet, App., p. 4, describes her as of four hundred lasts, or eight hundred tons burden, and as carrying thirty guns. The building of this ship," at an excessive outlay," was afterward severely criticised, by Van der Donck, as a part of the "bad management" of the West India Company.-Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 289.

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