men, and which was feared would give occasion to the King to send a general governour over thither, and besides, had brought them all, and the gospel, under a common reproach of cutting one another's throats for beaver.

Soon after, Mr. Bradford and Mr. Winslow, two of the magistrates of Plymouth, with Mr. Smith, their pastor, came to Boston to confer with the magistrates and ministers there (viz. Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wilson) about the case, which was brought to these two points: 1. Whether their right of trade in that place were such as that they might hinder others from coming thither on the same account. 2. Whether in point of conscience they might so far stand upon their right, as to take away or hazard any man's life in defence thereof. For the first, their right appeared to be good, for that, besides the King's grant, they had taken up this place as vacuum domicilium, and so had continued without any interruption of any of the natives for divers years, and also had by their charge and providence drawn down thither the greatest part of trade, by carrying Wampampeag, which none of the English had known the use of before. For the second, they alleged, that their servants did kill Hocking to save the rest of their men, whom he was ready to have shot. Yet they acknowledged, that they held themselves under the guilt of the sixth commandment, in that they did hazard a man's life for such a cause, and did not rather wait to preserve their right by some other means; adding, that they would be careful for the future not to do the like. The governour, (who at that time was Mr. Dudley,) and Mr. Winthrop, wrote into England to mediate their peace. And the governour not long after received a letter from the Lord Say and Lord Brooke, that howsoever they might have sent a man-of-war to beat down the house at Kennebeck for the death of Hocking, yet they thought better to take another course, and therefore desired that some of the magistrates of the Massachusetts might be joined with Capt. Wiggon, their agent at Pascataqua, to see justice done. About this time, scil. in the winter of the year 1833, an Englishman of Saco,

travelling up into the woods to trade with the Indians, traded away his life, being killed by them. It is to be feared, divers of these considered not our Saviour's words, Matth. xvi. 26. "What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Not long after, Mr. Winthrop received a letter from the Earl of Warwick, wherein he congratulated the prosperity of the plantation, and encouraged their proceedings, and offered his help to further them therein.

The foresaid letter was a good antidote against the pestilent infection which he received the next month, viz. August 4th, 1634, from his good friend Thomas Morton, and delivered by the hand of Mr. Jeffrey, an old planter, (though not an old disciple,) full of railing speeches and bitter invectives against the plantation in general, and himself in particular, prophesying of a general governour, which was never yet fulfilled. In the mean time, Mr. Winthrop, who was, though not the general, yet generally the governour slept as quietly as ever before, and lived to see Morton a prisoner once again, though not of hope, but rather of despair, for he did see himself at liberty again, from the bonds of imprisonment, yet not from the bonds of misery and extreme poverty, wherein he ended his wretched life, Anno 1644, or thereabouts.

In the first creation of the world, the Almighty was pleased to provide a goodly habitable world before the inhabitants for it were produced: so was his creating providence observable in the people of this new plantation; for many new places were daily discovered, as persons were brought over to plant them.

Thus, in the beginning of September, 1633, when the ship Griffin arrived here, of three hundred tons, fraught with two hundred passengers, (the principal of which were Mr. Haynes, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Stone,) with divers other ships, (so as that sometimes a dozen or fourteen came into the harbour in one and the same month,) some were by special providence directed to travel an hundred miles westward into the country, as far as the river Connecticut, (that runs up into the country, north and south, a great way,) by name John Oid

ham, (afterwards killed by the Pequod Indians,) and Samuel Hall, who died lately about Malden in Essex, scil. about the year 1680, with two others, who, taking a view of the country, discovered many very desirable places upon the same river, fit to receive many hundred inhabitants...

The Dutch from Manhatos had some knowledge of the place some years before, and had given some intimation to their neighbours of Plymouth, by the name of the Fresh river; but they were so wise as to keep it to themselves, till some of the inhabitants of the Massachu setts had, by the forementioned occasion, made a fuller discovery thereof. And after their return, the next spring, they so filled the minds of many new comers with hope of great advantage thereby, that they presently were upon the wing to take possession thereof; having now, as it were, compassed it in their minds, as they had by their travels before. On which account those of Plymouth had the less reason to lay blame to the Massachusetts, for preventing them of their design and dis covery, seeing it was the acquisition of their own labour and travel: for being not formerly taken up, though in part discovered, it became free for the use of them that first made the seizure. And, indeed, all the places on the sea coast being already preoccupied, there was no place left free, capable to receive so many hundred families in the year 1633, 1634, and 1685, if this river of Connecticut had not been possessed immediately after their first discovery thereof. That very year when that dis covery was made, came over into New England several persons of note, amongst whom was Mr. Humphry, who, though he was formerly chosen deputy governour, came not over till the year 1634, bringing along with him his noble consort, the Lady Susan, sister to the Earl of Lincoln. He came with a rich blessing along with him, which made way for his joyful reception by all sorts, for he brought along with him sixteen heifers (at that time valuable at 20%. per piece,) sent by a private friend to the plantation; scil. by one Mr. Richard Andrews; to every of the ministers one, and the rest to the poor: And one

half of the increase of the ministers' part, to be reserved for other ministers. Mr. Wilson's charity so abounded, that he gave not only the increase of his, but the principal itself to Mr. Cotton. By Mr. Humphry's means much money was procured for the good of the plantation, and divers promised yearly pensions, But the gen tleman had the same fate which many others before him have had the experience of, to sow that which others were afterwards to reap: for himself tarried not long enough in the country to enjoy the fruits of his own pious and charitable endeavours; though others have raised goodly fabricks upon the foundation which was laid by him and others.

Thus, as persons for their number and quality needed suitable places for their reception, so were there new discoveries daily made, both by sea and land, of commodious places fit to entertain them; and about the same time was a further discovery of Connecticut near the sea. For October the 2d of the same year, the bark Blessing, (built by the governour, Mr. Winthrop, at Mistick, July the 4th, 1631,) returned from the southward, having made a further discovery of that called Long Island, the eastermost end whereof lies over against the mouth of Connecticut river, which they entered into. It is near one hundred and fifty miles long; the east end ten leagues from the main, the west end about one mile. There they procured Wampampeag, both white and blue, (it being made by the Indians there,) which was improved by those of Plymouth in their trade with the eastern Indians. It was a place capable of many planta, tions, and since that time improved accordingly: supposed to have been at first granted to the Earl of Stirling, and received inhabitants partly from New Haven, and partly from Connecticut, eight or ten years after ; and accordingly subject to their respective jurisdictions; though at the present the whole is taken to belong to his highness the duke of York's patent about Manhatos or New York. The said bark had also been at the Dutch plantation there upon Hudson's river. They were kindly entertained by the Dutch governour, called Gaulter Van Twilly; to whom they shewed their commission, which

was to signify to them that the King of England had granted the river and country of Connecticut to his own subjects, and therefore desired him to forbear building any more thereabouts. The Dutch governour wrote back to the governour of the Massachusetts, (his letter was very courteous and respectful, as if it had been to a very honourable person,) whereby he signified, that the Lords the States had granted the same parts to the West Indies Company; and therefore requested that they of the Massachusetts would forbear to challenge the same, till the matter were decided between the King of England and the said Lords.

The bark passed and repassed over Nantucket shoals, within three or four leagues of the islands, and found three fathom water at the least, though the breaches were very terrible on each side. But since that time there is discovered a channel betwixt the island and the main land, fit for smaller vessels to pass safely through at all times.

Plymouth men soon after, or at this time, sent a bark up Connecticut river to erect a trading house there, When they came, they found the Dutch had built there, and forbad them to proceed. But they set up their house notwithstanding, about a mile above that of the Dutch. A little higher up, are falls in Connecticut river, that stop their passage any further upward, as there are in Hudson's river also; else it were no difficult matter to trace them great rivers of Patomack in Virginia, Hudson's among the Dutch, and Connecticut among the English, to their heads, which are conceived by some to come out of the great lakes to the westward, from which it is supposed the great trade of beaver to come, that the French and Dutch have been furnished with, whereby they have drained away all the profit from the English.

But to let these things pass, and to return again to the Massachusetts. As the rumour of those discoveries was daily increased, so were men's desires enlarged to be possessed of them; by which occasion were many agitations set on foot about the latter end of the year 1634, which were not quietly composed again in many years after. For in the session of the General Court in September 4th of that year, the main business then agitated