ments in America, just as in western States to-day we find names of towns copied from those in the East from which their first settlers came.

38. The Settlement at Boston. The peninsula of Boston was at that time connected with the mainland by a narrow neck over which the sea would wash. This peninsula was uneven

in surface, having high hills and marshy hollows, and was bare of wood. No Indians lived upon it, and there were very

few signs of any Indians in the neighborhood. Three or four Englishmen only had made clearings about the lower bay. The people who took possession of this territory had come to stay, and did not mean to be dependent upon England. All, from the governor down, applied themselves to some useful occupation.

They began at once to cultivate the land, both on the peninsula and in the farms which they laid out in the surrounding country. Since the colony was by the water side, the business of fishing early became important. Within a year shipbuilding began. The governor built a bark of thirty tons' burden, called the Blessing of the Bay. Soon a fleet of vessels, large and small, built in the colony, were sailing out of Boston and Salem harbors, and smaller ports, to Virginia and Bermuda, and across the ocean to England.

39. The Beginnings of Massachusetts. While this bustling life was adding strength and wealth to the colony, the people were showing in other ways that they intended to establish a State. They set up schools for their children, and they laid the foundation of a college, which has grown into the prosperous Harvard University.

1636.

In England the Puritans had tried to strip the Church of all forms and ceremonies which seemed to them to make it like the Church of Rome. Thus it was easy for them, when they came to America and were left to themselves, to carry out their ideas. They formed churches upon the plan of a mutual covenant or agreement, and chose their own pastors and teachers; in this they were influenced by the Pilgrims. The Puritans in England had also been unwilling that the king should have the power to rule the people without giving them a voice in the government. In Massachusetts they meant to manage their own affairs; and they agreed that none should vote but those who were members of the churches which they formed.

As the number of inhabitants in the colony increased, and towns were established at distances from one another, it became impossible for all the voters in the colony to meet together.

Thus it came about that the voters in each town chose persons to represent them at a General Court of the whole colony which met in Boston. For ten years the colony grew rapidly. Within those years about twenty thousand persons crossed the Atlantic to New England. It was the first great migration of Englishmen, and it was mainly a migration of Puritans.1

40. The Settling of Connecticut. It was not long before the settlers began to push into the interior. The Blessing of the Bay made a cruise in Long Island Sound, and came back with reports of the Connecticut River. Some people of 1633. Plymouth who heard of the richness of the river valley made a settlement on its banks at what is now Windsor. The Dutch from New Amsterdam had already built a fort and trading post six miles below, at the place where Hartford now stands; their purpose was to get furs from the Indians. Then a number of people from towns in the neighborhood of Boston moved to the same river, with all their goods and cattle. A whole church with its minister went through the woods into the new country; and three towns were formed, — Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford. In 1637 these towns united to form a General Court for the government of the colony of Connecticut.

Saybrook and New Haven.- Meanwhile a patent had been given to two English noblemen, Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brook. This patent gave them the land bordering upon the Connecticut River; and in 1635 John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, came from England with a colony to take possession. He drove the Dutch away from the mouth of the river, where they built a fort, and he planted there the town of Saybrook. Another colony of English Puritans was established at New Haven. It bought its land from the Indians. Thus there were three colonies within the borders of what is now the State of Connecticut. Saybrook afterward

1638.

1 In my Boston Town will be found a detailed narrative of the early life in Massachusetts. No. 8 of Higginson's Young Folks' Series comprises The Pilgrims at Plymouth and The Massachusetts Bay Company.

became a part of the Connecticut colony, which had its seat of government at Hartford.

41. The Beginning of Rhode Island. Rhode Island was formed partly by colonists from Massachusetts Bay and partly by companies from England. But the colonists from Massachusetts Bay did not go to Rhode Island of their own will. They differed from the rulers at Boston, and were compelled to find some other home. They went to Narragansett Bay, which was claimed by the other colonies.

The Puritans had come to Massachusetts Bay to be free from the Church of England and to govern themselves. But they were not all of the same way of thinking; hence the leaders took alarm. They thought the colony was in danger from those who differed from them in religious views; and they either banished them or made it too uncomfortable for them to stay. A minister named Roger Williams said, for one thing, that the magistrates ought not to declare what a man's religion should be; what seemed to them more dangerous was his assertion that the Massachusetts people had no true title to the land they had bought of the Indians. The magistrates said that Williams was a source of peril, and they drove him out of the colony. He went to the wilderness, where he was befriended by the Indians. At last, 1636. with five companions, he made his home at a place which he called Providence, because God had provided for him. In 1638 and the year following, settlements were made at Portsmouth and Newport on the island of Rhode Island, and other towns sprang up. These various settlements sent Roger Williams to England to obtain a charter for the government. It was full of his ideas, and gave the people great 1663. freedom, especially in religious matters. The settlements were constantly troubled by the Massachusetts and Plymouth people in regard to boundaries, and Massachusetts tried to bring the colony under her rule.

42. Maine and New Hampshire. - Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a man of great ambition, who had dreams of founding a great