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dren, determined to go down the river to meet their provisions, as the only expedient to preserve their lives. Not meeting with the vessels which they expected, they all went on board the Rebecca, a vessel of about sixty tons. This, two days before, was frozen in twenty miles up the river; but by the falling of a small rain, together with the tide, the ice became so broken that she was enabled to get out. She ran, however, upon the bar, and the people were forced to unlade her to get her off. She was reladed, and in five days reached Boston.

The people who kept their stations on the river, suffered in an extreme degree. After all the help they were able to obtain, by hunting and from the Indians, they were obliged to subsist on acorns, malt, and grains. Numbers of cattle, which could not be got over the river before winter, lived through without any thing but what they found in the woods and meadows. They wintered as well, or better, than those which were brought over, and for which all the provision possible was made. However, a great number of cattle perished. The Windsor people lost in this single article about two hundred pounds sterling. Their other losses were very considerable.*

Sec. 28. During the same year, 1635, in which the above towns were settled in Connecticut, John Winthrop, son of the governor of Massachusetts, arrived from England, with a commission as governor of Connecticut, under Lord Say and Seal, and Lord Brooke, to whom the council of Plymouth had sold, in March, 1631, a patent of the territory.

This patent included that part of New-England which extends from Narraganset river 120 miles on a straight line, near the shore, towards the southwest, as the coast lies towards Virginia, and within that breadth, from the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea. This is the original patent for Connecticut.

Soon after Winthrop's arrival at Boston, he dispatched a bark of thirty tons with twenty men, to take possession of Connecticut river, and to build a fort at its mouth. This was accordingly erected, and called Saybrook fort. A few days after their arrival, a Dutch vessel, from New-Nether

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lands, appeared, to take possession of the river; out, as the English had already mounted two cannon, their landing was prevented.

The next June, 1636, the Rev. Messrs. Hooker and Stone, with a number of settlers, from Dorchester and Watertown, removed to Connecticut. With no guide but a compass, they made their way one hundred miles over mountains, through swamps and rivers. Their journey, which was on foot, lasted a fortnight, during which they lived upon the milk of their cows. They drove one hundred and sixty cattle. This party chiefly settled at Hartford.

Mr. Hooker and

Mr. Stone became the pastors of the church in that place, and were both eminent as men and ministers. The death of Mr. Hooker occurred in 1647. About the time of his departure, a friend, standing by, said, “ Sir, you are going to receive the reward of all your labors." He replied, Brother, I am going to receive mercy." Mr. Stone died in 1663.

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Sec. 29. This year, 1636, Roger Williams, having been banished from the colony of Massachusetts in 1634, removed with his family to Mooshawsic, and began a plantation, which he called Providence. From this, we date the set. tlement of RHODE ISLAND.

Mr. Williams, who thus commenced the settlement of Rhode Island, came from England in 1631; and, having resided a short time at Plymouth, removed to Salem, in Massachusetts, and became the pastor of the church in that place. During his connexion with the people of Salem, he promulgated opinions which were contrary to those prevalent at that day in the colonies, and among them, "that the civil magistrate is bound to afford equal protection to every denomination of Christians." On account of this doctrine, he was sentenced to depart out of the territory. At first, he repaired to Seeconk, where he procured a grant of land from the Indians. "Being informed, however, by the governor of Plymouth, that the land was within the limits of that colony, he proceeded to Mooshawsic, where, in 1636, with those friends who followed him, he began a plantation. He purchased the land of the Indians, and, in grateful acknowledgment of the kindness of heaven, he called the place Providence. Acting in conformity with the wise and liberal. principle, for avowing and maintaining which, he had suf

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fered banishment, he allowed entire freedom of conscience to all who came within his borders. And to him must be given the glory of having first set à practical example of the equal toleration of all religious sects, in the same political community. His labors were not confined to his civilized brethren. He labored to enlighten, improve, and conciliate the savages. He learned their language, travelled among them, and gained the entire confidence of their chiefs. He had often the happiness, by his influence over them, of saving from injury the colony which had proclaimed him an outlaw, and driven him into the wilderness."*

In 1638, William Coddington and seventeen others being persecuted for their religious tenets in Massachusetts, followed Mr. Williams to Providence. By his advice, they purchased of the Indians the island Aquetneck, and began a settlement on the northern part of it. Others followed the next summer, and commenced another settlement on the southwestern side-dividing the island into two townships, Portsmouth and Newport. They formed themselves into a body politic, and elected Mr. Coddington chief magistrate.

In 1640, the inhabitants of Providence agreed upon a form of government. Rhode Island, so called from a fancied resemblance to the ancient island of Rhodes, soon began to be extensively settled, both on account of its natural fertility, and also on account of the religious freedom allowed to all denominations.

In 1644, Roger Williams visited England, as agent of the settlers, and obtained of the Earl of Warwick, one of the Plymouth Company, a free charter of incorporation for Providence and Rhode Island plantations.

In 1663, a royal charter was granted to them, by Charles II. This charter constituted an assembly, consisting of a governor, deputy governor, and ten assistants, with the representatives from the several towns, all to be chosen by the freemen.

Sec. 30. The year 1637 is remarkable in the history of Connecticut, for the war with the Pequots, a tribe of Indians, whose principal settlement was on a hill, in the present town of Groton.

Prior to this time, the Pequots had frequently annoyed the infant colony, and in several instances had killed some of its inhabitants. In March of this year, the commander of * History of the United States.

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