vited to accept of the Governor's place, and Mr. Endicot called by them to be Deputy. This year was the first time that the Laws of the Massachusetts, for the beter direction of the people, were ordered to be printed.1 And at this Court of Election Mr. Wheelwright, having given the Court and country satisfaction as to those things [which] were objected against him in the year 1636, was approved as a minister of the town of Hampton, where he had by permission preached some years before. At this Court, likewise, Mr. John Eliot, minister of Roxbury, that had heretofore by them been encouraged to go on with preaching the Gospel to the Indians, obtained several parcels of land for the Indians, that gave any sincere hopes for their embracing of the Christian religion, as at Hasanameset,* a place up into the woods beyond Medfield and Mendon, and at Punca poag, beyond Dorchester, as well as §at§ Natick, near Dedham, mentioned before. At this time Mr. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College, having entertained thoughts with himself for the resignation of his place, upon the account of some difference between him and some of the overseers, as being suspected for too much inclination to antipædobaptism, he had his liberty granted so to do, and the overseers took hold of the opportunity to invite Mr. Chauncey, of Scituate, to accept of the President's place, a man of great learning and worth, with incomparable diligence and labor in his study, which he held to the last, yet of the contrary extreme as to baptism, from his predecessor, it being his judgment not only to admit infants to baptism, but to wash or dip them all over; an opinion not tolerable at all seasons in a cold region, which made the notion less dangerous as to the spreading thereof, being altogether impracticable in so cold a country for the greatest part of the year. Thus are men apt to run into extremes, with Peter, who would either not be washed at all, or else over his whole body. In the last year of this lustre the government of the Massachusetts returned to Mr. Endicot, who missed not thereof to the end of his life, after this year; the *Grafton. ED. This must not be taken literally, for the Laws had been printed in 1649; reference is here made to the custom of publishing, at intervals, those laws which had been passed "since the books were printed." See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvIII. 212-13.-H. Deputy's place in like manner remaining with Mr. Bellingham, till his turn came to be advanced to the highest place, after the decease of the forementioned gentleman. Two more Plantations or townships were this year1 granted, the one at Shashin, upon a river falling into Merrimack, called Billerica; the other higher above Concord, called Groton. Thus did the inhabitants of New England, that it might not be forgotten whence they had their original, imprint some remembrance of their former habitations in England upon their new dwellings in America. CHAP. LX.2 A quarrel between the inhabitants of New Haven and the Dutch at Manhatoes; the Massachusetts not willing to engage therein; from 1651 to 1656. EVER Since the uniting of the four Colonies of New England, in the year 1643, they always had, as an obligation, so a Christian inclination, mutually to assist and strengthen the hands each of other; yet they all this while enjoyed peace and tranquillity in a way of amicable intercourse with their neighbors on all sides. But in the year 1653 there arose an unhappy difference between the Colony of New Haven and the Dutch at Manhatoes, who had intercepted the trading of the other at Delaware with the Indians. And indeed the principal part of the inhabitants of New Haven had some thoughts of removing thither, if they should meet with encouragement suitable to so great a change. But the Dutch Governor, to prevent any such enterprize, took all opportunities to obstruct the proceeding therein, which occasioned much altercation amongst the Commissioners of the Colonies, so as they were constrained to adjourn their meetings from one place to another, before they could come to a settled conclusion; but at the last, those of New Haven were persuaded by reason and judgment, or else overruled by the vote of the rest of the Commissioners, to surcease their quarrel, and rather put up [with] a lesser injury of that nature, than engage themselves, their friends, 1 1655.-H. LIX in the MS.-H. 21 and allies in a difficult war, the issue of which they could none of them at the present see, but might all in a little time have found to their sorrow. It was declared by the General Court of the Massachusetts, while the matter was under debate, that a bare major part of the Commissioners of the Colonies had not power to determine the justice of offensive war, which at this time might have been of dangerous consequence, if it should have been granted, for then each Colony might have been engaged in a mischievous war, without their knowledge or consent, if the Commissioners of any three Colonies determined thereof. The truth is, those of New Haven and the Dutch were at variance continually, both under the former Governor, Mr. William Kieft, (who returned homeward Anno 1647,') and so continued under Mr. Stuyvesant, that succeeded in his place, maintaining jealousies each against other, sometimes (as was thought) upon groundless surmises. For in the beginning of the year 1653, a rumor was spread through the Colonies, that the Dutch had conspired with the Indians against the English, insomuch that April 19th that year there was an extraordinary meeting of the Commissioners called at Boston, by Mr. Bellingham, Mr. Hibbins, Mr. Nowell, and Mr. Glover, to consider of several rumors of reports gathered from the Indians and others, that the Dutch had plotted with the Indians, and stirred them up to cut off the English. Those who raised, or at least made, this report, were seven Indians, taken in a canoe by Uncas's men, who were four of them Pequots, two were strangers, the seventh was said to be employed to poison Uncas, whom therefore they presently killed in a rage, for fear he should escape. It was said he was hired by Ninicraft, one of the Narrhaganset sachems, who was all the winter before at Manhatoes, and that spring sent home in a Dutch sloop. The Commissioners sent Sergeant Richard Way, and Sergeant John Barrell, of Boston, to Narrhaganset to inquire into the truth of those reports. The sachems there denied the thing, but the Commissioners were so moved with the reports, that they urged the necessity of a war with the Dutch, and called See page 444.—н. 2 In Hazard this name is Waite.-H. in the Council of the Massachusetts, advising also with the ministers about the matter, but they all dissuaded from the war, although they found the presumptions to be very strong, and it could not be denied, that there was some such design in hand to destroy the English. The Commissioners, after a debate with them, were of different apprehensions, and could not all of them be induced to enter upon a war, remembering what Solomon saith, "with good advice make war." The ministers also consulted with, left it with them to consider how unexpedient and unsafe it would be for such a people as those of New England, to err either in point of lawfulness or expediency, or both, in a matter of this nature; and whether a people, professing to walk in the spirit of the Gospel of peace, and having to do with a people pretending to the same profession, should not give the Dutch Governor an opportunity to answer for himself, either by purgation, acceptance, or disacceptance of some satisfactory propositions for security as the matter shall require, by whose answer their call to war or peace might be further cleared, and the incolumity of the Colonies in the mean time provided for; but April 28 following, they received letters from the Dutch Governor, utterly denying the charge, and offering to send or come himself to clear the matter, though letters from others affirmed it, and that the execution of the Indians was hastened, and said to be on the Election-day, when the towns were naked of inhabitants; hereupon they presently sent Captain Leveret, Captain Davis, and Mr. Newman,1 from New Haven, as their agents, with a letter1 to inquire more particularly into the business of the conspiracy charged, and to require satisfaction for some former injuries. They carried also copies of letters1 from Captain Ünderhill, with the original of nine sagamores' confessions, with their names, declaring the plot. They were ordered also to desire the Dutch Governor and his Council that they might meet at Stamford, if they chose that, rather than at Manhatoes. Captain Leveret and Captain Davis returned to Boston May 21 after, and declared what propositions "Mr. Francis Newman, a magistrate of New Haven Jurisdiction, and Captain John Leverett and Leiftenant William Davis of Boston." See their Commission, instructions, and despatches, in Hazard, ii. 225-30.-H. they made, and what answers they received for clearing themselves, that this matter might be rightly examined, the author found, the business proved, and the offender might, by his superiors, be duly committed and punished. The Dutch Governor propounded, 1. The continuation of neighborly friendship, without either side taking notice of the unhappy differences between their nations in Europe, with continuation of trade, mutual justice against those that should seek to defraud their creditors, because of the differences arisen between the two nations. 2. For the future, to prevent all false reports rising from Indians. The agents complained that their answers were dilatory, and not direct, though plausible, and at last concluded of accepting their proposals for the future, if satisfaction were made for what is past, and returned answer, that as they would do no wrong, so would they not suffer their countrymen in those parts to be oppressed, they doing nothing to bring it upon themselves. Also before their return, they took several testimonies from sundry persons, declaring just suspicion of the plot, but being taken some of them at the second and third hand, were the less to be minded. Some of them intimated that the Dutch Governor, Ninicraft, and the Fiscal, were up in a close room together, sometimes two days, which, if true, could only raise §a§ suspicion, but afford no certain evidence.1 After this return of their agents the Commissioners had much agitation among themselves before they could agree. At the last it was referred to two gentlemen, each of them to draw up a draught of the case in difference, viz. Mr. Theophilus Eaton, Governor of New Haven, on the one side, and Major Daniel Denison on the other side; upon the perusal of which it did not appear that the proofs alleged were a sufficient ground for such a procedure, and therefore it was judged best to forbear the use of the sword till the providence of God should by further evidence clear up the case to the consciences of them who were concerned in the determination of that matter; to which the General Court of the Massachusetts assented, not judging it expedient for those who came into 1 See the whole proceedings of the Colonial agents in Hazard, ii. 233-48.—H. |