1633. CHAP. VIII. ever, no sooner arrived at Boston, than he was arrested at the suit of the New Plymouth people, and bound over to appear in the Admiralty Court in England. But the recognizance was soon withdrawn; for the prosecutors found that "it would turn to their reproach."* Winslow and Brad ford visit Boston. 12 July. On the return of their pinnace from Manhattan, the New Plymouth people learned that the New Netherland authorities had now secured an Indian title, and taken formal possession of the valley of the Connecticut. Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford, therefore, hastened to Boston, "to confer about joining in a trade to Connecticut for beaver and hemp," and "to set up a trading-house there, to prevent the Dutch." But Winthrop again declined engaging in the enterprise. It was It was "doubtful whether that place was within our patent or not," thought the Massachusetts authorities; nevertheless, they assigned Massachu- other reasons for their refusal. "In regard,” said Winthrop, "the place was not fit for plantation, there being three or Plymouth four thousand warlike Indians, and the river not to be gone into but by small pinnaces, having a bar affording but six feet at high water, and for that no vessels can get in for seven months in the year, partly by reason of the ice, and then the violent stream, &c., we thought not July. fit to meddle with it." After a week's delay at Boston, Winslow and Bradford returned to New Plymouth, without having been able to engage the co-operation of the Massachusetts authorities, but with their "leave to go on."‡ setts de clines to join New in occupy ing Connecticut. 18 28 Probable motives of chusetts people. It is probable that the real motive of Massachusetts in the Massa- thus declining the proposition of the New Plymouth people was an indisposition to interfere with the colonization of Connecticut, under the charter which Lord Warwick had just granted to Saltonstall and his associates. Not long afterward, the authorities at Boston distinctly admitted that the lower part of the Connecticut valley was "out * Winthrop, i., 104; Morton's Memorial, 176. + Winthrop, i., 105. Winslow, however, in a letter to Winthrop, written ten years afterward, on the 6th of April, 1643, alleges that "the Dutch came in by way of prevention, and stept in between us and our people," &c.-Morton's Memorial, App., p. 395. Winthrop, i., 105, and Savage's note, 181; Morton's Memorial, 172; Hutchinson's Mass., ii., 416. The value CHAP. VIII. ham's over ney to Con of the claim of the Massachusetts patent."* and importance of the upper part of that valley, which was 1633. really comprehended within their patent, was, however, soon made known to the General Court. John Oldham, John Oldof Watertown, and three others, in the course of the sum- land jourmer, penetrated one hundred and sixty miles through the necticut. wilderness, to trade with the native tribes on the upper waters of the Connecticut. The travellers were hospitably entertained at all the Indian villages through which they passed; and the sachem whom they visited, near the present town of Springfield, "used them kindly, and gave them some beaver." Early in the autumn of 1633, the September. first British explorers returned to Boston, with glowing accounts of the luxuriant meadows which bordered the river, and bringing samples of hemp which "grows there in great abundance, and is much better than the English."† writes to ler, and Connecti English. 4 Sept. Though Winthrop would not join with the New Plym- Winthrop outh authorities in their projected enterprise of opposition Van Twilto the Dutch, he nevertheless thought it necessary to as- claims sert, promptly, the superior title of the English to the cut for the whole of the Connecticut valley. Accordingly, he dispatched his bark, the "Blessing of the Bay," on a trading voyage through Long Island Sound, with a "Commis- 26 August. sion," to signify to the New Netherland government "that the King of England had granted the river and country of Connecticut to his own subjects," and that the Dutch should therefore "forbear to build there." On their way, the bark's company visited Long Island, where they found the Indians had "store of the best wampampeak," and "many canoes so great, as one will carry eighty men." They also visited "the River of Connecticut, which is barred at the entrance, so as they could not find above one fathom water." At Manhattan, Winthrop's messengers "were very kindly entertained, and had some beaver, and other things, for such commodities as they put off.”‡ After five weeks' absence, the bark returned to Boston, 2 oct. * Winthrop, i., 398, App. Winthrop, i,, 111, 112. + Winthrop, i., 111; Trumbull, i., 34. 12 1633. 23 Sept. ler replies, the Dutch title. 66 CHAP. VIII. With a very courteous and respectful" letter from Van Twiller to Winthrop. The Director of New Netherland, in turn, desired the Massachusetts authorities to defer their 4 October. " pretence or claim" to Connecticut, until the King of EnVan Twil- gland and the States General should agree about their limand asserts its, so that the colonists of both nations might live " as good neighbors in these heathenish countries." "I have," added Van Twiller, "in the name of the Lords, the States General, and the authorized West India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river, and for testimony thereof have set up an house on the north side of the said river, with intent to plant, &c. It is not the intent of the States to take the land from the poor natives, as the King of Spain hath done by the Pope's donation, but rather to take it from the said natives at some reasonable and convenient price, which, God be praised, we have done hitherto. In this part of the world are divers heathen lands that are empty of inhabitants, so that of a little part or portion thereof, there needs not any question."* New Plymouth com settlement necticut. Notwithstanding the refusal of the Massachusetts aumences a thorities, the New Plymouth people did not abandon their on the Con- purpose of encroachment on the Connecticut; where the Hollanders were now in quiet possession, under their threefold right by original discovery, constant visitation, and formal purchase from the aboriginal owners. To secure a color of adverse title, a tract of land, just above Fort Good Hope, was bought of "a company of banished. Indians," who had been "driven out from thence by the potency of the Pequods." A small frame of a house was prepared, and stowed in "a great new bark ;" with which "a chosen company," under the command of Lieutenant An expedi- William Holmes, was dispatched to the Connecticut. With patched to Holmes and his party the bark also conveyed the banished necticut. Indians, from whom the land had been purchased. This rendered it indispensable that the English intruders should be provided with "a present defense" against the Pe tion dis the Con * Lond. Doc., i., 53; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 18; Address before N. Y. H. S., 1844, 32; O'Call., i., 152. this transction under the year 1634, instead of 1633. Winthrop, i., 113; Trumbull, i., 70; quods, "who were much offended that they brought home CHAP. VIII. and restored the right sachem of that place, called Natuwannute."* The New adventur themselves sor. 1633. The Plymouth adventurers soon reached Fort Good 16 Sept. Hope. "When they came up the river," says the quaint Plymouth Puritan chronicler, "the Dutch demanded what they in- ers settle tended, and whither they would go? They answered, up at Windthe river to trade. Now their order was to go and seat above them. They bid them strike and stay, or else they would shoot them, and stood by their ordnance ready fitted. They answered, they had commission from the Governor of Plymouth to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot, they must obey their order and proceed ; they would not molest them, but would go on. So they passed along; and though the Dutch threatened them hard, yet they shot not. Coming to their place, they clapped up their house quickly, and landed their provisions, and left the company appointed, and sent the bark home, and afterward palisadoed their house about, and fortified themselves better." Thus was begun the first English settlement at Windsor, in Connecticut. ler protests ly. Advised of the intrusion of the resolute "Plymotheans," van TwilVan Twiller sent to Commissary Van Curler a formal noti- ineffectualfication, to be delivered to Holmes, protesting against his 25 October. conduct, and commanding him to "depart forthwith, with all his people and houses," from the lands on the Fresh River, continually traded upon by the Dutch, "and at present occupied by a fort." But Holmes, who had defied the ordnance of the Hope, was not to be moved by a protest from the Director of New Netherland. "He was there," said the New Plymouth lieutenant, "in the name of the King of England, whose servant he was, and there he would remain."‡ * Bradford, in Hutch. Mass., ii., 416; Hazard, ii., 215. Winslow, in Morton's Memorial, App., 396, calls this sachem's name "Attawanhut," who had been expelled by Tatobum; and adds, "that this Attawanhut, by the relation of Lieutenant Holmes, if he would have given way to it, would have cut off the Dutch, because they came in by Tatobum." + Bradford, in Hutch., ii., 417; Prince, 435; Winthrop, i., 113; Trumbull, i., 35. + Hol. Doc., ix., 189, 190; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 271; Hazard, ii., 262; O'Call., i., 154. Q CHAP. VIII. 1633. January. Captain Stone murdered by the Pequod Indians. War be tween the and the Dutch. Finding his protests disregarded, Van Twiller submitted his perplexities to his superiors in Holland. But before any reply could reach Manhattan, a new embarrassment occurred. Captain Stone, on his return from New England to Virginia, early the next year, entered the 1634. mouth of the Connecticut, for the purpose of trading at the Dutch fort; and, while on his way up the river, was treacherously murdered by the Pequods. The massacre of Stone and his company was followed, soon afterward, by the killing of some friendly Indians; and Commissary Van Curler punished the double atrocities by executing the "old sachem, and some other" of the assassins. This exPequods cited the Pequods to open war with the Dutch; and, in revenge, the savages now desired to gain the friendship of the English. They, therefore, dispatched an embassy to tween the Boston, where a treaty was negotiated, by which the Peand Massa- quods agreed to surrender the two surviving murderers of Stone's party, to "yield up Connecticut" to the English, and to give their new allies a large store of wampum and beaver. This treaty, though it benefited Massachusetts rather than New Plymouth, gave the Windsor colonists fresh courage. Van Twiller, who by this time had reDecember. ceived instructions from the West India Company, soon ineffectual- afterward dispatched "a band of about seventy men, in a to dislodge warlike manner, with colors displayed," to dislodge the from Wind- New Plymouth men from Windsor. But the intruders standing upon their defense, the Dutch force withdrew "without offering any violence."* 6 Nov. Treaty be Pequods chusetts. 'The Dutch ly attempt the English sor. 1633. Domestic the prov ince. While important public questions had thus continued to affairs of try the inexperienced Van Twiller from the day he landed at Manhattan, the domestic concerns of the province had required much of his attention. From the first, he seems to have formed an extravagant estimate of the wealth and resources of his commercial employers. They had authorized him to make large expenditures at the points where their fur trade centered, and where their revenue * De Vries, 150; Winthrop, i., 123, 148, 153, 386; Prince, 436; Morton's Memorial, 176, 183, 184; Trumbull, i., 35, 71. |