A CHAP. III. given them, which put an end to the war. This first essay in arms of the New England colonists was conducted with vigour and ability, and impressed on the aborigines a high opinion of their courage and military superiority; but their victory was sullied with cruelties, which cannot be recollected without mingled regret and censure. Immediately after the termination of this war New Haven was settled. 1637. A small emigration, conducted from England by Eaton and Davenport, arrived at Boston in June. Unwilling to remain under a government, where power and influence were already in the hands of others, they refused to continue within the jurisdiction of Massachussetts; and, notwithstanding the opposition and threats at Manhadoes, settled themselves at a place on Connecticut river, which they named New New Haven Haven. Their institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, were in the same spirit with those of their elder sister Massachussetts. settled. The colony was now in a very flourishing 1638. condition. It is computed that from its first settlement there had arrived in Massachussetts twenty one thousand two hundred persons. Although its inhabitants, who had emigrated 1638. CHAP. III. in search of civil and religious liberty, devoted a great part of their attention to those abstruse points of theology which so much employed the casuists of that day, yet they were by no means unmindful of those solid acquisitions which were so necessary for their comfort while they sojourned in this sublunary world. Sober, industrious, and economical, they laboured indefatigably in opening and improving the country they occupied, and were unremit ting in their efforts to furnish themselves with those supplies which are to be drawn from the bosom of the earth. Of these they soon raised a surplus for which fresh immigrants offered a ready and profitable market; and their foreign trade in lumber, a business at first accessary to the clearing of their lands, furnished them, in addition to their fish and fur, with the means of making remittances to England for those manufactures, which they found it advantageous to import from that country. Their fisheries had become so important as to attract the attention of government. For their encouragement a law was, this year, passed, exempting property employed in catching, curing, or transporting fish, from all duties and taxes, and the fishermen and ship builders from militia duty. By the same law too, all persons were restrained from using cod or bass fish for manure. Robertson....Hutchinson....Chalmer....Hume....Trumbul CHAPTER IV. Massachussetts claims New Hampshire and part of Maine ....Dissensions among the inhabitants....Confederation of the New England colonies....Rhode Island excluded from it....Separate chambers provided for the two branches of the legislature....New England takes part with parliament....Treaty between New England and Acadié....Petition of the non-conformists....Disputes between Massachussetts and Connecticut.... War between England and Holland....Machinations of the Dutch at Manhadoes among the Indians.... Massachussetts refuses to join with the united colonies in the war.... Application of New Haven to Cromwell for assistance.... Peace with the Dutch....Expedition of Sedgwic against Acadie....Religious intolerance. year, set setts claims shire and part of Maine. RENDERED sanguine with respect to their_1639. future importance, by the rapidity with which Massachusthey had attained their present growth, the go- New Hamp vernment of Massachussetts, in this on foot an inquiry respecting the extent of their patent; and for this purpose deputed persons to explore the Merrimack and to ascertain its northernmost point. Their charter granted them the lands within lines, drawn three English miles south of Charles' river and the same distance north of the Merrimack. They construed this description as authorizing a line to be drawn due east from a point three miles north of the head of Merrimack, which soon leaves that river, and includes within Massa CHAP. IV. chussetts all New Hampshire and a consider1639. able part of Maine. Having come to this exposition of their charter, they declared New Hampshire, in which there were a few scattering habitations, to be within their jurisdiction, and proceeded to authorize settlements in that country. Although very early attempts had been made to colonise the northern or eastern parts of New England, those attempts had hitherto proved almost entirely unsuccessful. Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, who had exerted themselves more than any other of the Plymouth company to effect the objects of their grant, had built a small house at the mouth of Piscataqua, some time about the year 1623; and about the same time, others erected a few huts along the coast from Merrimack eastward to Sagadahock, for the purpose of fishing. But all these settlements remained extremely inconsiderable. In 1631, Gorges and Mason sent over a small colony of planters and fishermen under the conduct of a mr. Williams, who laid the foundation of Portsmouth. Afterwards, when the Plymouth company divided New England among its members, that territory lying along the coast from Merrimack river near the northern boundary of Massachussetts, and for sixty miles into the country to the river Piscataqua, was granted to Mason, and was called New Hampshire: that territory northeastward of New Hampshire, to the river CHAP. IV. Kennebec, and sixty miles into the country, 1639. was granted to sir Ferdinando Gorges: afterwards in 1639, a patent for this district, under the name of Maine, was obtained by Gorges, and in this patent the lands for one hundred instead of sixty miles into the country were conceded to him, with the powers of sovereignty over the territory granted. He framed a system of government, but it was purely executive, neither calculated to rescue the province from that state of imbecility in which it was languishing, nor to engage the attachment of the few inhabitants who remained in the country. The government could not even preserve its own being: and after struggling with a long course of confusion, and drawing out for several years a miserable political existence, they at length submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of Massachussetts, and consented to become a part of that colony. In the course of the years 1651 and 1652 this was effected, and Maine surrendered itself to Massachussetts. It was erected into a county, and the towns sent deputies to the general court at Boston. They enjoyed this exclusive privilege, that the inhabitants, although not members of the church, became entitled to the rights of freemen on taking the oath. The settlements in New Hampshire too, struggling with the difficulties of their situation, |