they were allowed freedom of trade. A scheme of government, called "A Body of Liberties," was enacted in Massachusetts. Offices were made wholly elective, and were held for a year only. Religious restrictions were relaxed. Slavery was forbidden, except in the case of prisoners of war, strangers publicly sold, persons who sold themselves, or who were condemned to be slaves.

COLONIAL COMBINATIONS IN NEW ENGLAND.

41. Maine and New Hampshire were added to Massachusetts. The colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed a 1643. union for protection against the Indians, against the Dutch on the Hudson, and against the French in Canada and Acadia. Rhode Island was excluded in consequence of its religious doctrines.* This was the first American confed

eration.

42. Religious dissent was still persecuted. Anabaptists were seized, fined, and otherwise punished. Quakers were whipped, imprisoned, banished. They had their ears cut off, their tongues bored with hot irons, and four, at least, were hanged. These outrages were practised till they were arrested by a royal order. Some zeal was shown in the endeavor to convert the Indians to Christianity. John Eliot devoted himself for nearly fifty years to this task, and translated the Bible into one of the native tongues, which has now been long extinct.†

THE SETTLEMENT OF RHODE ISLAND.

43. The settlement of Rhode Island was unlike

* Another reason for its exclusion was that Rhode Island denied the jurisdiction of Plymouth. The chief cause was its rejection of the civil and religious rule of Massachusetts.

+ Few copies of the work are in existence. It was said, fifty years ago, that there was then "scarcely any living person who can read or understand a single verse in it." An example of its uncouthness is furnished in its longest word: "Wutappesittukgussonnookwehtunkquoh”—" kneeling down to him."

THE SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT.

47

that of any of the other colonies. Roger Williams, after being driven out of Salem, wandered, for three months of a 1636. northern winter, through the woods, often without guide, or fire, or better shelter than a hollow tree. The savages were kind to him. His gentleness impressed their fierce natures. He began a new home, which he called Providence. He offered it as a refuge for persons distressed in conscience." The Narragansett chiefs, Canonicus and Miantonomoh gave him lands. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson and others, when expelled from Massachusetts, were invited by him to settle in the neighborhood. They bought from the Indians the beautiful island of Aq'uiday-the Isle of Peace—and it received the name of Rhode Island.*

44. Roger Williams went to England to obtain a charter for the towns of Providence, Newport, and Portsmouth, with the right of governing themselves. A General 1644. Court had already declared the government to be a democracy. Williams succeeded in his mission. A second charter was obtained from Charles II., nearly twenty years later; and under this charter Rhode Island was governed for one hundred and eighty years. Diversities of religious belief were freely tolerated, because Williams maintained that "to punish a man for any matters of conscience was persecution."

THE SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT.

45. The Connecticut Valley, in which the Dutch had established trading posts, was claimed by England. The Plymouth Company granted to the Earl of Warwick a strip of territory, one hundred and twenty miles wide, reaching from the river of the Narragansetts to the Pacific Ocean. Warwick conveyed this grant to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, and others. Under it, John Winthrop the younger, the son of the 1635. Governor of Massachusetts, built a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and called it Saybrook. Next year a * The name seems to have been earlier than the date of this purchase. Rhode may be roode-red-Red Soil,

settlement was made at Hartford by the Rev. Mr. Hooker and his congregation. They had moved through the forest with their families and wagons, and cows and horses. They were the first regular band of those New England pioneers who have pushed steadily onward till they have reached the mouth of the Columbia River-" yearning for other worlds to conquer."

A large colony was soon after planted at New Haven by emigrants from Massachusetts.t

46. The Indians were disturbed and alarmed by the spread of the new settlements. They were threatened with

STOCKADED HOUSE.

the loss of their hunting grounds, their homes, and the graves of their fathers. They were also subjected to great and continual injustice. They were more numerous and more warlike in the inland parts of the country than they had been found to be along the coast. They were harassed by the intruders, and they harassed them in turn. A passionate and treacherous warfare occasioned much loss of life on both sides. The mother and the child were murdered at the milking-pen. The Indian was shot down in cold blood when a chance presented itself. The settlers ploughed their fields and harvested their grain in reach of their arms. Sentries were placed to give warning of danger, while the rest of the laborers worked on the farm.

Shortly to say there neither man nor maid

Was safe afield, whether they wrought or played.

INDIAN WARS.

47. The Pequods, dwelling east of the Connecticut River,

* Mr. Hooker's company sought their new abode, complaining of the crowding of the population, as 3,000 emigrants had recently arrived from England. They sold their homes to the new-comers, and migrated westward in search of "pastures new." + In 1639, Connecticut constituted itself a separate government, and adopted a written constitution-the first in America.

devastated the frontier, killing men, women, and cattle. War was declared against them. Capt. John Mason 1637. commanded the colonial army, consisting of eighty or ninety English and seventy Mohicans (mo-hee'cans), under their chief, Uncas. The Narragansetts were prevented by Roger Williams from joining the Indian league.

48. Mason surprised the Pequod encampment. He set fire to their wigwams, saying: "We must burn them out." His forces encircled the blazing village. Uncas and the Indian allies formed a wider circle beyond. Seven Indians were. taken, seven escaped, and more than six hundred were slaughtered. Two of the English were killed, and sixteen or:

50

twenty wounded. were slain or subdued. The victors appropriated their lands. 49. The war between the Narragansetts and the Mohicans was of equal advantage to the people of Connecticut. The Narragansett chief, Miantonomoh, attacked the Mohicans, and was taken prisoner. His fate was referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England for their decision. By them he was handed over to the mercy of his enemies. Uncas, the Mohican, cut him down with his tomahawk, carved the living flesh from his shoulder, and ate it with savage relish, declaring the flesh of foes to be the sweetest of morsels. Ten years later, a war with the Dutch and Indians was prevented solely by the refusal of Massachusetts to be governed by the decisions of the New England Union.

The war was prosecuted till the Pequods

50. After the restoration of Charles II., Connecticut received a royal charter, which conjoined New 1662. Haven and the other settlements around under a single government. The younger Winthrop was named Governor. He was elected seventeen times successively. When Sir Edmund Andros, the Royal Governor of New England

THE CHARTER OAK.

1687.

under James I., demanded the surrender of the charter, excuses were made to delay its delivery till evening.

While the charter lay on the table for delivery, the candles were suddenly extinguished. When they were relighted, the charter had disappeared. A copy of the charter was hidden by Capt. Wadsworth in a hollow tree, afterwards known