tension. In the same light have they always been viewed, Book I. by the British kings, and have been pleaded and acted upon, in treaties, between the court of Great-Britain, and the French and Spanish monarchs. By virtue of this construction of patents and charters of the American colonies, it was, that all the western territories, as far as Mississippi, were, in the late peace with Great-Britain, ceded to the states of America. From the same construction of the patents, congress have taken a formal surrender of the unappropriated western lands from particular states, and from Connecticut no less than from others. Connecti The situation of the settled part of Connecticut is chiefly Situation, from 41 to 42 degrees of north latitude, and from 72 to 73 soil and degrees and 45 minutes west longitude. It is bounded area of south by the sea shore about 30 miles, from Byram river, cut. in the latitude of 40 degrees and 58 minutes, and longitude 72 degrees and 25 minutes, to Pawcatuck river, in latitude 41 degrees and 17 minutes, and in longitude 72 degrees and 25 minutes; east on the colony of Rhode-Island 45 miles; north on Massachusetts 72 miles, the line running early in the latitude of 42 degrees; and west on New-York about 73 miles. It contains 4,730 square miles, and 3,020,000 acres. One twentieth part of the colony is water and highways.* Exclusive of these there are 2,869,000 acres. Of this about 2,640,000 are estimated improvable. The land is excellently watered, and liberal to the husbandman. Though, in some places, it is mountainous and broken, yet the greatest part of this is profitable either for wood or grazing. There are some thin lands, but these are profitable with proper manuring and cultivation. The present population is more than fifty souls to every Degree of square mile, including land and water. It is about one populaperson to every ten or twelve acres of land. The first discoveries made of this part of New-England were of its principal river and the fine meadows lying upon its bank. Whether the Dutch at New-Netherlands, or the people of New-Plymouth, were the first discoverers of the river is not certain. Both the English and Dutch claimed to be the first discoverers, and both purchased and made a settlement of the lands upon it nearly at the same time. tion. In 1631, Wahquimacut, a sachem upon the river Con- Invitation necticut, made a journey to Plymouth and Boston, earnest- to settle on ly soliciting the governors of each of the colonies to send the river. *To find the quantity of water and highways, an accurate computation was made of the proportion of water and highways in a particular town, which was supposed to contain an average with the towns in gene ral. Book I. men to make settlements upon the river. He represented the exceeding fruitfulness of the country, and promised that he would supply the English, if they would make a settlement there, with corn annually, and give them eighty beaver skins. He urged that two men might be sent to view the country. Had this invitation been accepted it might have prevented the Dutch claim to any part of the lands upon the river, and opened an extensive trade, in hemp, furs, and deer skins, with all the Indians upon it, and far into Canada. 1631. 1632. The governor of Massachusetts treated the sachem and his company with generosity, but paid no further attention to his proposal. Mr. Winslow, the governor of Plymouth, judged it worthy of more attention. It seems, that soon af ter he went to Connecticut, and discovered the river and the adjacent parts. The commissioners of the united colonies, in their declaration against the Dutch, in 1653, say, "Mr. Winslow, one of the commissioners for Plymouth, discovered the fresh river when the Dutch had neither trading house nor any pretence to a foot of land there."* It very soon appeared that the earnestness, with which the Indian sachem solicited the English to make settlements on the river, originated in the distressed state of the river Indians. Pekoath, at that time, the great sachem of the Pequims, or Pequots, was conquering them, and driving their sachems from that part of the country. The Indian king imagined that, if he could persuade the English to make settlements there, they would defend him from his too powerful enemies.† The next year, the people of New-Plymouth made more particular discoveries, upon the river, and found a place near the mouth of the little river, in Windsor, at which they judged a trading house might be erected, which would be advantageous to the colony. The Indians represented that the river Connecticut extended so far north, and so near the great lake, that they passed their canoes from the lake into it; and that from the great swamps about the lake came most of the beaver in which they traded. One of the branches of Onion river, in Vermont, is withîn ten miles of Connecticut river. This was anciently called the French river. The French and Indians from Canada came by this river, and from this into Connecticut, when they made their attacks on the northern frontiers of New-England and Connecticut. * Records of the United Colonies. + Winthrop's Journal, p. 25. Connecti Connecticut river has its source in that grand ridge of Book I. mountains which divides the waters of New-England and Canada, and extends north-easterly to the gulph of St. DescripLawrence. The source of its highest branch is in about tion of 45 degrees and a half, or 46 degrees of north latitude. cut river. Where it enters New-England, in 45 degrees of north latitude, it is ten rods in breadth, and in running sixty miles further, it becomes twenty-four rods wide. It forms the boundary line between New-Hampshire and Vermont about two hundred miles. Thence running through the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, it disembogues its waters into Long-Island sound, between Saybrook and Lyme. It runs with a gentle flow, as its course is, between three and four hundred miles. Its breadth through Connecticut, as a medium, is between a hundred rods and half a mile. In the high spring floods it overflows its banks, and in some places is nearly two miles in breadth. As its banks are generally low, it forms and fertilizes a vast tract of the finest meadow; feasible, fertile, and in which a stone is scarcely to be found. The general course of this beautiful river, above, and between the states of NewHampshire and Vermont, is nearly south west; thence it turns and runs but a few degrees west of south to its mouth. At a small distance from its mouth is a bar of sand, apparently formed by the conflux of the river and tide. Upon this there is but ten feet of water at full tide. The bar is at such a distance from the mouth of the river, that the greatest floods do not increase the depth of the water. This is some obstruction to navigation, but any vessel, which ean pass the bar, may proceed without obstruction as far as Middletown, thirty miles from the sound; and vessels of eighty, and a hundred tons, go up to Hartford, fifty miles from the river's mouth. By means of locks and cuts, at the falls, it is now navigable, for boats, more than three hundred miles. In Connecticut, there is one exception to the lowness of the river's banks. About three miles below Middletown the river makes its way through two mountains, by which its breadth is contracted to about forty rods. This occasions the waters, sometimes, in the spring floods, to rise, even at Hartford, twenty feet above the common surface of the river. This, for the length of its course, its gentle flow, its excellent waters, the rich and extensive meadows which it forms, and the immense quantities of fish, with which it abounds, is one of the finest rivers in New-England. None of the ancient adventurers, who discovered the BOOK I. great continent of North-America, or New-England, made any discovery of this river. It does not appear that it was known to any civilized nation, until some years after the settlement of the English and Dutch, at Plymouth and New-Netherlands. Connecticut named From this fine river, which the Indians called Quonehtafrom its cut, or Connecticut, (in English, the long river,) the coloprincipal ny, originally took its name. Indeed this is one principal river. Description of rivers. Of Naugatuck source of its wealth and convenience. The Housatonick and the little or Farmington river, westward of it, and Pequot river, now called the Thames, on the east, are also considerable sources of its opulence and prosperity. The Housatonick, now commonly called Stratford river, has two principal branches. One rises in Lanesborough, and the other in Windsor, in the county of Berkshire, in Massachusetts. Where it enters Connecticut, between Salisbury and Canaan, it is about fifty rods: wide, and running through the whole length of the colony, it empties into the sound between Milford and Stratford. It is navigable twelve miles to Derby. Between Milford and Stratford it is about eighty rods wide, and there is about four fathoms of water. Were it not obstructed, by a bar of shells, at the mouth, it would admit large ships. Between Salisbury and Canaan is a cataract where the water of the whole river falls perpendicularly sixty feet. The fall produces a perfectly white sheet of water, and a mist in which various floating rainbows are exhibited, forming a scene exquisitely grand and beautiful. The Naugatuck, or Waterbury river, is another considerable branch of the Housatonick. Its source is in Torrington, and running through Harwinton, Plymouth and Waterbury, it empties itself into said river at Derby. Of the lit- The little, or Farmington river, rises in Becket, in Masthe river. sachusetts, crosses the boundary line between the colonies at Hartland, and passing through Barkhempsted and NewHartford, runs south considerably below the centre of Farmington first society; then, making a remarkable turn, it runs back nearly a north course, twelve or fourteen miles into Simsbury; where it turns easterly, and running into Windsor, discharges its waters into Connecticut river nearly in the centre of the town. This formerly was replenished with all kinds of fish in as great a profusion as Connecticut. The numerous dams, which more lately have been erected upon it, have very greatly obstructed. their passage. Of Pe quot. Pequot river, or the Thames, empties into the sound at New-London. It is navigable fourteen miles, to Norwich landing. Here it loses its name, and branches into She- Book I. tucket on the east, and Norwich or little river on the west. cataract at : Norwich. About a mile from the mouth of the little river, is a re- Descripmarkable romantic cataract. A perpendicular rock, about tion of the twelve feet high, extends itself across the whole channel: over this the river pitches, in one entire sheet, on to a bed of rocks here it is compressed by a very narrow and crooked passage, between two craggy cliffs, and for fifteen or twenty rods, forces its way over numerous pointed rocks, with the most violent agitation; thence it flows into a large bason, which spreads itself for its reception. The long and constant falling of the waters, have excavated the rocks, even to admiration. In some, cavities are made, of a circular form, not less than five or six feet deep. The smooth and gentle flow of the river above the fall, the regularity and beauty of its descent, the roughness and foam of the waters below, and the rugged, towering cliff impending the whole, presents the spectator with a scene majestic and pleasing beyond description. tic, and The Shetucket, which name it bears as far only as the of Shesouthern boundary of Windham, is formed by the Willa- tucket, mantick and Quenibaug rivers. The Willamantick has Willamanits source in Massachusetts, enters Connecticut at Stafford, Quenibaug and is the boundary line between Tolland and Willington, Coventry and Mansfield, and passing by Windham, loses itself in the Shetucket. Quenibaug rises in Brimfield, in Massachusetts, and passing through Sturbridge and Dudley, crosses the line between that state and Connecticut, at Thompson; and dividing Pomfret from Killingly, Canterbury from Plainfield, and Lisbon from Preston, flows into the Shetucket. The colony is watered and fertilized by numerous other rivers, of less extent and utility. As the people at Plymouth had explored Connecticut river, and fixed upon a place convenient for building and commerce, and found the original proprietors of the soil desirous of their making settlements among them, they judged it an affair worthy of public, and immediate attention. In July, 1633, Mr. Winslow and Mr. Bradford therefore made a journey to Boston, to confer with governor Winthrop and his council, on the subject. Governor Winslow and Mr. Bradford proposed it to them, to join with Plymouth, in a trade to Connecticut, for hemp and beaver, and to erect a house for the purposes of commerce. was represented as necessary, to prevent the Dutch from taking possession of that fine country, who, it was report E It |