to his house to hear him whom they were so soon to lose forever; it began to be rumored that he could not safely be allowed to found a new state in the vicinity; "many of the people were much taken with the apprehension of his godliness; his opinions were contagious"; the infection spread widely.

8. It was therefore resolved to remove him to England in a ship that was just ready to set sail. A warrant was accordingly sent to him to come to Boston and embark. For the first time

he declined the summons of the court. A pinnace was sent for him; the officers repaired to his house; he was no longer there. Three days before he had left Salem, in winter snow and inclement weather, of which he remembered the severity even in his late old age. "For fourteen weeks, he was sorely tost in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." Often in the stormy night he had neither fire, nor food, nor company; often he wandered without a guide, and had no house but a hollow tree.

9. But he was not without friends. The same scrupulous respect for the rights of others which had led him to defend the freedom of conscience, had made him also the champion of the Indians. He had already been zealous to acquire their language, and knew it so well that he could debate with them in their own dialect". During his residence at Plymouth, he had often been the guest of the neighboring sachems; and now, when he came in winter to the cabin of the chief of Pokanoket, he was welcomed by Massasoit; and "the barbarous heart of Canonicus, the chief of the Narragansetts, loved him as his son to the last gasp." "The ravens," he relates with gratitude, "fed me in the wilderness." And in requital for their hospitality, he was ever, through his long life, their friend and benefactor; the apostle of Christianity to them, without hire, without weariness, and without impatience at their idolatry; the guardian of their rights; the pacificator, when their rude passions were inflamed; and their unflinching advocate and protector, whenever Europeans attempted an invasion of their soil.

10. He first pitched, and began to build and plant at Seekonk

But Seekonk was found to be within the patent of Plymouth; on the other side of the water, the country opened in its unappropriated beauty, and there he might hope to establish a community as free as the other colonies. "That ever-honored Governor Winthrop," says Williams, "privately wrote to me to steer my course to the Narragansett Bay, encouraging me from the freeness of the place from English claims or patents. I took his prudent motion as a voice from God."

11. It was in June that the lawgiver of Rhode Island, with five companions, embarked on the stream; a frail Indian canoe contained the founder of an independent state and its earliest citizens. Tradition has marked the spring near which they landed; it is the parent spot, the first inhabited nook of Rhode Island. To express his unbroken confidence in the mercies of God, Williams called the place PROVIDENCE. "I desired," said he, "it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience."

12. In his new abode, Williams could have less leisure for contemplation and study. "My time," he observes of himself,— and it is a sufficient apology for the roughness of his style, as a writer on morals,-"was not spent altogether in spiritual labors; but, day and night, at home and abroad, on the land and water, at the hoe, at the oar, for bread." In the course of two years he was joined by others, who fled to his asylum. The land which was now occupied by Williams was within the territory of the Narragansett Indians; it was not long before an Indian deed from Canonicus and Miantonomah made him the undisputed possessor of an extensive domain.-History of the United States.

Rhode Island Plantation.-Charter.-In 1638, William Coddington, who had been subjected to religious persecution in Boston, accepted an invitation from Williams, purchased from the Indians the island of Rhode Island, and settled there. Rather than admit a claim of jurisdiction set up by Plymouth, Williams went to England, and obtained a charter whereby the

It (the island) "was so called from a fancied resemblance to the island of Rhodes." Another authority says, "That in consequence of the reddish appearance of the island, it was soon known among the Dutch (of New Netherlands) as Roode, or Red Island. From this is derived the name of the Island and State."

settlements of Rhode Island were united, in 1644, under one government, as "The Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England."

After Charles II. ascended the throne of England, Rhode Island, in 1663, obtained a new charter. When Andros assumed the government of New England, the management of affairs under the charter was, for the time, necessarily suspended; but directly after he was seized and sent to England, as elsewhere stated, the charter became the fundamental▾ law of the colony, and was the only constitution of the State till 1842.

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The Council of Plymouth, in 1620, obtained a grant of land including the whole of what is now known as New England. In 1622, a portion of this grant, extending from the Merrimac to the Kennebec, was ceded by, the council to Ferdinand Gorges (gor'jes) and John Mason, two of its most active members. Gorges and Mason, indulging "brilliant anticipations" for their territory, sent over emigrants, in 1623, who settled at Little Harbor, near Portsmouth, and at Dover. These were the first settlements in New Hampshire.

In 1629, the Rev. John Wheelwright and others, evidently not considering the grant to Gorges and Mason as of much value, purchased of the Indians all the territory between the Merrimac and Piscataqua. In the same year, Mason obtained a grant, in his own name alone, of the country which Wheelwright had purchased, and to this he gave the name of New Hampshire.*

The different settlements of New Hampshire in time came to be governed by different proprietors; but the people, believing their interests would be promoted by a change, in 1641 formed a union, and placed themselves under the protec tion of Massachusetts. This privilege was enjoyed for a period of nearly forty years, when, in 1680, the two colonies were separated by order of the king, and New Hampshire became a royal province.

The district of New Hampshire was several times connected with Massachusetts, the first from 1641 to 1680, as previously stated; but, in 1741, it became a separate province, and so continued till the Revolution.

CONNECTICUT.

Connecticut Colony.-In 1630, the Council of Plymouth ceded the "soil of Connecticut" to the Earl of Warwick; and this grant the following year was transferred to Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, and others. As the Dutch, at the time, laid claim to the territory thus ceded, they built a fort on the Connecticut, where Hartford now stands, to prevent the English from making any settlements in that section.

Saybrook Colony.—The structure was hardly completed when Captain

* Mason had been governor of Portsmouth, Hampshire County, England. Hence the name. A recent writer pronounces Wheelwright's deed from the Indians "a forgery."

+ This State derives its name from its chief river, the Connecticut, a name given to it by the Indians, and signifying in their language The Long River.

Holmes (hōmz) and a company from Plymouth sailed up the river. Though menaced by the Dutch, the English passed the fort unhurt, and commenced the settlement of Connecticut, by erecting in that year, 1633, a trading-house at Windsor (win'zer). Important additions were made to this, called the Connecticut Colony, by two large emigrations from Massachusetts-the second conducted by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 1636.

Settlement of Saybrook.-Toward the close of 1635, John Winthrop, son of the Massachusetts governor, acting under a commission from the proprietors of Connecticut, built a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River. A colony was also established there, which, in honor of Lord Say-and-Seal, and Lord Brooke, was called Saybrook.

Pequod War.—About this time difficulties with the Indians commenced. The Pequods (pe'kwodz), a warlike tribe inhabiting the southeastern part of Connecticut, having committed many acts of hostility, Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, in 1637, united in declaring war against them. Captain Mason, with a force of colonists and friendly Indians, proceeded against the Pequods, burned their fort and wigwams, killed more than six hundred of their number, and completely broke them up as a tribe.

New Haven Colony.—A third colony was established in Connecticut, in 1638, called the New Haven Colony. The land was bought of the Indians; and, under the guidance of Theophilus Eaton and the Rev. John Davenport, a colony, remarkable for the religious spirit that marked its laws, was planted and flourished.

Union of the Colonies.—In 1639, the people of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, finding their settlements beyond the limits of Massachusetts, met at Hartford, and united in forming a government for themselves. The colony of Saybrook maintained its separate existence until 1644. By its annexation in that year to the Connecticut Colony, only two colonies remained, which were united in 1665, under a liberal royal charter granted by King Charles II. of England.

The Charter Oak.—Sir Edmund Andros, who had been made royal governor of New England, in 1687 appeared before the Connecticut Assembly, in session at Hartford, and demanded the surrender of the charter. A discussion at once arose, which was protracted till evening, when the charter was brought in and laid upon the table; but just as Andros was stepping forward to take it, the lights were suddenly extinguished. When the candles were relighted, the document could not be found. It had been carried away and hid in the hollow of a tree, which was afterward known as the Charter Oak.

Andros, although unable to procure the charter, assumed the government, which he administered till he was seized at Boston and sent to England, in 1689, to be tried on a charge of maladministration of the public affairs. The charter was then taken from its hiding-place, and Connecticut again assumed her position as an independent colony.

The Charter Oak was held in great veneration, and was carefully preserved till 1856, when it was laid prostrate by a violent storm.

MASSACHUSETTS.

From the Union of the New England Colonies in 1643, to the French and Indian

War.

The New England Confederacy.-Grahame.

1. ALARMED by the frequent indications of fickleness", dislike, and furious passion of the Indians, and ascertaining by dint of inquiry that they had recently proposed and entertained the plan of a general conspiracy against the colonists, the authorities of Massachusetts conceived the defensive project of providing, by a mutual concert of the colonies, for the common danger which they might expect to encounter at no distant day, when the savages, instructed by experience, would sacrifice their private feuds to combined hostility against a race of strangers, whose progressive advancement seemed to minister occasion of increasing and incurable jealousy to the whole Indian race.

2. Having composed, for this purpose, a plan which was framed in imitation of the bond of union between the Dutch provinces, and which readily suggested itself to some leading personages among the colonists, who had resided with the Brownist congregation in Holland, they communicated it to the neighboring settlements of New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven, by which it was cordially embraced. These four colonies accordingly entered into a league of perpetual confederacy, offensive and defensive (May 19, 1643).

3. The instrument of confederation between them announced that their respective inhabitants had all come into these parts of America with the same errand and aim, to advance the Christian religion, and enjoy the liberty of their consciences with purity and peace. It was stipulated', that the confederates should thenceforth be distinguished by the title of the United Colonies of New England; that each province should remain a separate and distinct municipal association, and retain independent jurisdiction within its own territory; that in every war, offensive or defensive, each of the confederates should furnish its quota of men, money, and provisions, at a rate to be