The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut

Front matter

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Prefatory Note

THE story of the Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut is so mingled with the history of the country, and particularly of the formative periods, that in the proper telling of it much of history must also be related. Accordingly in the following pages there will be found blended with descriptions of the longest river in New England and one of the fairest valleys in the country, narrations of Indian and colonial wars ; of the establishment or evolution of democratic government ; of the pioneer development of internal improvements and of industries ; of the planting and upbuilding of many and varied institutions of learning, colleges, academies, and schools, for higher education — more than on any other river in the world — and withal of the growth and unfolding of the genuine American character. In the study of my subject, besides consulting the various histories, colonial, state, county, and town, bearing upon it, historical monographs, family papers, diaries, and contemporary narrative, I have gone, so far as they were accessible, to original authorities. As a result of this research new readings of popular history have viii Contents

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IV. A Significant Chapter of Colonial History 38

The Political Motive that Inspired the Dispersion from the Bay Colony to the Valley — Democracy versus Theocracy — Thomas Hooker and John Cotton, Spokesman for the Differing Parties — The Hookerites' Petition in tlie Bay General Court — Winthrop's Report of the Unrecorded Proceedings — Alleged and Real Reasons for Removal — Provisional Government for the Valley Plantations — The Independent Establishment — Hooker's epoch-making Sermon — The first Written Constitution — " True Birth of American Democracy" — Hooker's Illuminating Letter : a Colonial Classic.

V. The Fall of the House of Hope .... 56

Troubled Life of the Dutch among their English Neighbors — Petty Aggressions on Both Sides — De Vries's Observations in 1639 — His Dinner-table Talk with Governor Hay nes — A Pleasant Episode of his Visit — Commander Provoost's Strenuous Five yeare — A Dramatic Scene at the Fort — Diplomatic Gysbert opDyck — Peter Stuyvesant at Hartford — The Hartford Treaty of 1650 — A brief >

"Happy Peace" — Captain John Underbill upon the Scene — He seizes the House of Hope — End of Dutch Occupation.

VI. Satbrook Fort ........ 67

The Saybrook Plantation for Important Colonists who never came

— The Questioned Story of the Embarkation of Cromwell and Hampden — Beginnings by George Fenwick — Lion Gardiner's grim Humor — John Winthrop the Younger: A Remarkable Personage

— Fenwick's Home on Saybrook Point — Lady Fenwick — John Higginson, the Chaplain — Lady Fenwick's lonely Tomb — The second Saybrook Fort, Scene of an Adventure of Andros in 1675 — Beginnings of Yale College at Saybrook — The " Saybrook Platform" — First Book Printed in Connecticut.

Vn. Early Perils of Colonial Life .... 80

The Kiver Settlements of the Colonial Period — Confined to the Lower Valley for a Century — The First Settlers completely environed by Savages — The Various Tribes and their Seats — The Dominating Pequots — Covert Attacks upon the Settlers — Massacre of Captains Stone and Norton with their Ship's Crew — The Killing of John Oldham off Block Island — Avenged by Captain John Gallop ^ — The " Earliest Sea-Fight of the Nation " — A Graphic Colonial Sea-Story.

VIII. The Pequot Wars 91

First Expedition from the Bay Colony under Endicott — Lion Gardiner's Practical Advice — Plot to Destroy the River Settlements

Contents ix

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— Tragedies on the River — The Connecticut Colony's Campaign — The "Army" drawn from the Three River Tovpns — Major John Mason, the Myles Standish of the Colony — Hooker's Godspeed at the Embarkation — Scene on the down-river Voyage — Debate of the Captains at Say brook Fort — Mason's Master-Stroke — The March in the Enemy's Country — Burning of Mystic Fort — End of the Pequots.

IX. Philip's Wae in the Valley 113

The Direful Conflict of 1675-1676 Centering in the Massachusetts Reach — Philip of the Wampauoags — The frontier River Towns — Hadley the Military Headquarters — Gathering of the Colonial forces — The "Regicide" Goffe perhaps a Secret Observer of the Spectacle — The apocryphal Tale of the " Angel of Deliverance " — First Assault upon Deerfield — Northfield Destroyed — Fatal March of Captain Beers toward Northfield — The Ambuscade on "Beers's Plain" — Ghastly Sight meeting the Gaze of a Relief Force — A Sunday Attack upon Deerfield.

X. The Battle of Bloody Beook 126

Slaughter of the " Flower of Essex " at South Deerfield while Convoying a Provision Train — The Sudden Attack from Ambtish by a Swarm of Braves — Many of Captain Lothrop's Men idly gathering Grapes by the Brookside when the Warwhoop rang out — Desperate After-fight by Captain Moseley — Memorials of the Battle

— The Legend of "King Philip's Chair" — Destruction of Deerfield.

XI. The Buening of Speingfield 132

With Pledges of Fidelity the Agawam Indians concoct a " Horrible Plot " — Bands of Philip's Warriors secretly admitted to the Indian Fort on the Outskirts of the Town — A Night Alarm — Early Morning Attack upon Messengers riding out to Reconnoitre — The full Pack soon upon the Village — The People crowding the Garrison House — A wild Scene of Havocrwith the Town in Flames — Major Pynchon's Forced March from Hadley to its Relief — Grave After-events.

XII. The Rising of the Naeeagansetts . 142

Canonchet drawn into Philip's War — Flight of his Tribe toward the Valley — Ravages of Frontier Towns on the Way — The great Indian Rendezvous about Northfield — Attacks upon Northampton, Hatfield, and Longmeadow — Death of Canonchet : A Hero of his Race — The Great Falls Fight : An English Victory followed by a Disastrous Rout — A Chaplain's Experience — Final Attacks upon Hatfield and Hadley — End of Philip's War— Death of Philip, deserted and betrayed — Results of the War to the Colonists.

xii Contents

II. ROMANCES OF NAVIGATION

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XXI. An Early Coi.oxiai, IIighttat .... 303 The River an important Thoroughfare through Colony Times — The

first White Man's Craft on its Waters — Dutch and English Trading Ships — William Pynchon the first River Merchant — Prosperous Traffic in Furs, Skins, and Hemp — The earliest Flatboats operating between the Falls — Seventeenth Century Shipbuilding

— River-built Ships sent out on long Foreign Voyages — The Rig of the Flatboat as developed by Colonial Builders — System of XJp-River Transportation in the latter Colonial Period — Lumber Rafts — Early Ferries.

XXII. Locks axd Canals 310

The first River in the Country to be Improved by Canals — The Initial

Charter issued by Vermont in 1791 — First Work in the Massachusetts Reach — Locking of South Hadley Falls in 1795 — A Remarkable Achievement for that Day — Unique Features of the Construction — The System as Developed Northward — Wells River Village Head of Navigation — River Life then Animated and Bustling — Improved Types of Freight-Boats — -Schemes for Extending the System with great Rival Projects — Final crushing Competition of the Railroads.

XXIII. Steamboats and Steamboating .... 325

Connecticut Valley Inventors of the Steamboat — Claims of John Fitch and Samuel Morey to Priority over Fulton — Morey's tiny Steamer on the River — First Steamboats in Regular Service — Gallant Efforts for Steamboat Navigation to the Upper Valley — Triumphant Progress of the Pioneer " Bamet " up to Bellows Falls

— The "Ledyard's" Achievement in Reaching Wells River — A Song of Triumph by a Local Bard — The last Fated Up-River Enterprise — Steamboating on the Lower Reaches — Dickens's Voyage in the " Massachusetts " — End of Passenger Service above Hartford.

III. TOPOGRAPHY OF RI^^:R ANT) VALLEY

XXIV. "The Beautiful River" 345

Winding down its Luxurious Valley 360 Miles to the Sea — Ahnost a Continuous Succession of Delightful Scenerj- — The River's Highland Fountains — The four Upper Connecticut Lakes — Topography of the Valley — The bounding Summits — The River's Tributaries — Historic Streams entering from Each Side — The Tenace System —

Contents xiii

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Charming Intervals with deep-spreading Meadows — The Panorama in Detail from the Headwaters to Long Island Sound — Fossil Footprints of the Lower Valley.

XXV. Along the Uppee Valley 367

The Romantic Region about the Connecticut Lakes — Pioneer Upper

Settlements — Story of a Forest State of the Eighteen-Twenties and Thirties — At the Valley's Head — Upper Coos Towns — Old Trail from Canada to Maine — The Country of the Fifteen-Miles Falls

— Lower Coos Towns — About the Great and Little Ox-Bows — Dartmouth College and its Surroundings — Between White River Junction and "Old Number 4" — Historic Towns of the Lower Reaches to the Massachiwetts Line.

XXVI. The Massachtisetts Reach 392

Northfield's attractive Seat at its Head — The Dwight L. Moody Institutions — Landmarlcs of the Indian Wars — Clarke's Island and its Spectre Pirate — Rural Hill Towns below Northfield — Beautiful Greenfield — Turner's Falls — Historic Deerfield — Rare Deerfleld Old Street and its Landmarks — Picturesque Sunderland and Whately — Old Hatfield and Hadley — The Russell Parsonage and the " Regicides" — " Elm Valley": a fine Type of the Colonial Farm-seat.

XIXVII. CiTiEf? OP THE Massachusetts Reach . . 406

Northampton, the "Meadow City" — Its Crop of Exceptional Men

— The Dwights and the Whitneys — Sites of Jonathan Edwards's • Home and Pulpit — Scenes of the Ely Insurrection and of Shays's Rebellion — Smith College — An Educational Centre — Mounts Tom and Holyoke — Holyoke, the " Paper City " — Its great Hydraulic Works — Chioopee and its Notable Manufactures — Springfield, the "Queen City" — Beauty of its Setting — Its choice Institutions — The United States Arsenal — Scene of the Overthrow of Shays's Rebellion.

XXVIII. The Lower Valley 430

Enfield and Suffield at the Connecticut State Line — Windsor Locks and Warehouse Point — Site of Pynchon's Warehouse of 1636 — Ancient Windsor to-day and its Landmarks — Charms of the East- Side Windsors — A Romance of the Colony — Roger Wolcott and his Homestead — Birthplace of Jonathan Edwards — Timothy Edwards and his remarkable Family — Modem Hartford : Yet a " Gallant Towne " — Its Historic and Literary Landmarks — Trinity College.

xvi Illustrations

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Door of the "Ensign Sheldon House," with its "Hatchet-Hewn Face." Relic of the Sack of Deerfield, February, 1703/4 .... 164

The "Redeemed Captive's" Son, Stephen Williams, Minister of Longmeadow for Sixty-six Years (1716-1782) ........ 180

White River Junction, and West Lebanon, New

Hampshire Side ....... 186

White River Junction and Lebanon Bridge, at High

Water 188

The Great Ox Bow, Newbury, Vermont Side . . 202

Site of the Historic Fort "No. 4" of the French and

Indian Wars, Charlestown . . .210

A River Island — -Chase's Island, Looking North . 220

An Island View, near Hanover .... 224

Windsor Bridge, Windsor, Mount Ascutney in the

Pine Grove on the River's Bank, near Hanover . 234

View from Kilburn Peak, near Bellows Falls, Looking South — Kilburn Peak Side at the Left . . 244

The Bend — Two Miles North of Hanover -252

Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779), Founder of Dartmouth College ....... 258

From an old painting.

John Wheelock (1754-1817), Son of Eleazar Wheelock,

Second President of Dartmouth College . . 264

Dartmouth College in 1790 ..... 300 From a print in the Massachusetts Magazine, 1800.

A Typical Chain Ferry ...... 308

Seal of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals. Showing THE Contrivance First Used at South Hadley for Passing Boats . . . . , .312

Illustrations

Remains of the Old Olcott Falls Locks, New Hampshire Side. Two Miles North of White River Junction ........

Olcott Falls Dam of To-day, Olcott

The Modern Olcott — "Wilder's" ....

Entrance of the Enfield Canal at Windsor Locks .

The River between Fairlee and Orford. Scene of the Trials of Morey's First Steamboat, 1792-93

Middle Haddam Landing

Rock Landing .....

East Haddam Upper Landing

Deep River Landing ....

Modern Steamboating on the River — -The ' Line" ......

Hartford

Fountains of the River. The Upper Connecticut Lake .........

Fountains of the River. First, or Connecticut, Lake — Mount Magalloway at the Left

McIndoe's — Below the Fifteen-Miles Falls

Bellows Falls Dam .......

At the Head of the Massachusetts Reach — Northfield: the Dwight L. Moody Institutions on the Left Bank ....

The Straits — Below Middletown

Looking toward the Straits

The Promontory — ^Above Saybrook

A Logmen's Houseboat

Breaking up A Log Jam

XVll

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314 316 318 324

330 332 334 336 338

350 356 358

360 362

364 366 368 xviii Illustrations

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Junction of the Ammonoosuc, Wells River, and the Connecticut — Woods ville, New Hampshire Side . 372

The Little Ox Bow — Haverhill, New Hampshire Side 374

Dartmouth College Bridge. Between Norwich,

Vermont Side, and the College Town . . . 376

Dartmouth College — The Campus .... 378

Dartmouth College — Dartmouth Hall . . . 380

Dartmouth College — The College Inn and the

College Club, from the Campus .... 382

Dartmouth College — Looking down from the Tower

IN the College Park ...... 384

John Ledyard, the Traveller ..... 386 "One of the most romantic and original manifestations of the Dartmouth spirit."

Dartmouth College^The Rollins Chapel . . . 388

Suspension Bridge, near Brattleborough . . 390

Deerfield Old Street, 1671-1906 .... 394

Looking down from Sugarloaf, South Deerfield —

Sunderland across the River .... 398

"Elm Valley" — The Porter-Phelps-Huntington Homestead, Hadley ....... 402

"One of the finest types of the Colonial Farm Seat in the VaUey."

Round Hill, Northampton, in the Eighteen-thirties 404 (The period of Cogswell and Bancroft's Round Hill School

for Boys here.) From an old print.

Jonathan Edwards ....... 406

From a portrait of 1740, the most authentic portrait existing.

Wife of Jonathan Edwards ..... 406

From a portrait of 1740.

Illustrations xix

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The Jonathan Edwards Elm, Northampton: in Front OF THE Whitney House on the Site of the House of Jonathan Edwards. The Whitney Family Grouped about the Tree ..... 408

Smith College — College Hall ..... 410

From photographs by Miss Katherine E. McClellan, Northampton.

Smith College — The Students' Building . . .412

Smith College — Seelye Hall ..... 414 From photographs by Miss Katherine E. McClellan, Northampton.

Smith College — View across the Campus . . . 416

Smith College Commencement, 1905, Ivy Day . . 418

From a photograph by Miss Katherine E. McClellan, Northampton.

The Railroad up Mount Tom ..... 420

The Dam at Holyoke ...... 422

Holyoke. Looking North from the City Hall . . 424

City Library and Art Museum, Springfield . . 426

The Springfield Home of George Bancroft . . 428

A Connecticut Valley Tobacco Farm . . .432

The Connecticut State Capitol and Bushnell Park,

Main Street, Hartford ...... 440

Old State House, Hartford, and City Hall. Place OF the Sitting of the Hartford Convention during the War of 1812 ....... 442

The Charter Oak, Hartford ..... 444

Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch, Hartford . 446

The Portland Quarry ...... 448

XX Illustrations

PAGB

Wesleyan University — "College Row" . . . 450

Wesleyan University — North College. Destroyed

Wesleyan University — Wilbur Fisk Hall . . 454

Wesleyan University — Orange Judd Hall of Natural

Wesleyan University — Scott Laboratory of Physics 458

Wesleyan University — Memorial Chapel . . . 460

Saybrook Lighthouse at the River's Mouth . . 462

Map of the Connecticut River .... at end

I

HISTORICAL

The Connecticut River

I

Adriaen Block on the River in 1614 — First of European Navigatoi-s to Enter and Explore it — His Sixty-mile Cruise up the Stream in an American Built Yacht — Story of Block and his Voyage along the New England Coast — Action by the States General on his Discoveries — The "Figurative Map" — A Remarkable Coincidence — The Dutch alone Established on the River for nearly Eighteen Years — The first Rapier Thnist between the_ Dutch and the English.

IN the year 1614 Adriaen Block, Dutch navigator, came first of all Europeans upon the Connecticut and explored its lower waters for sixty miles in an American built "yacht." That was six years before the advent of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, and before a single enduring settlement of white men had been effected on the North Atlantic coast. The native Indians called the stream Quinni-tickq-ut, or Quoneh-ta-cut, the "Long Tidal River." Block, perceiving a strong downward current a short distance above its mouth, named it De Versche Riviere, the " Freshwater River." Block's name held with the Dutch who came after him so long as they remained about the River. The English adopted that of Connecticut, a form evolved from the more euphonious and significant Indian name.

Unkind and partisan historians have sought to rob the

Dutch of the credit of the River's first discovery and its opening to civilization. Some have belittled Block's achievement by dwelling upon the unfruitful discoveries, or reputed discoveries, of earlier navigators. Some insist that Estevan Gomez, the Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, was the true discoverer, when he skirted the coast from Labrador to Florida in 1525. Others are disposed to credit its discovery to Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Florentine corsair, commanding the first North American expedition sent out by the king of France, who sailed the coast from North Carolina to Newfoundland two years before Gomez, and discovered New York, Block Island, and Narragansett Bay. But it is not at all clear that either of these mariners even sighted this River. Verrazzano apparently v/as quite ignorant of its existence, for he passed Long Island on the sea side. In his letter to the king (the genuineness of which is no longer questioned by most authorities) he records no incident of his voyage between New York and Narragansett Bay. His first mention is of Block Island, to which he gave the name of " Luisa," in compliment to the King's " illustrious mother," Louise of Saxony. As for Gomez, there is little or nothing substantial of record concerning his voyage. Indeed, Professor George Dexter, most thorough of investigators, has shown that it is impossible to determine with certainty in what direction Gomez explored the American coast. His explorations were of no value whatever with respect to our River. While these and perhaps other navigators may have coasted in its neighborhood, it remained virtually unknown to Europeans and untouched by European craft till Block, under the Dutch flag, turned his prow into its placid waters.

Just as to the Dutch, and Henry Hudson sailing under their patronage, belongs the credit of the practical discovery and opening of the great river of New York, so to the Dutch and Adriaen Block is due the honor of the discovery and occupation of the great river of New England, an achievement as important in its way in the consequences that followed.

That the Dutch were unable long to hold the River after the English pushed in is no justification for filching from them the laurels that they fairly won. Nor was the successful elbowing of them from the fertile lands and the River's trade, by virtue of conflicting claims, warrant for the assumption that they, albeit the first comers, were the interlopers. While it is apparent that the rich intervals of the Valley were lovelier in the Dutchman's eye for the profitable beaver-skins to be gathered here than as the " home and inheritance of his race," he had doubtless come to stay. It is doubtless as true that when the Englishman had once got the " smell of the excellence and convenience of the River," he was bound to possess it whether or no, quieting his conscience with the reflection that it were " a sin to leave uncultivated so valuable a land which could produce such excellent com." True, too, that the fixed settlement of communities, the establishment of the town, and the organization of government came with the English. But let the Dutch have the credit which is justly theirs for discovering and opening the way ; and not the less for carrying themselves on the whole with patience and discretion when their stolid eyes witnessed the pressing of their more rapid competitors upon their preserves.

Adriaen Block was no ordinary mariner. He had made a previous voyage from Holland to Manhattan in or about 1612, in company with another worthy Dutch captain, Hendrich Christiaensen. That was a venture planned by

Chi'istiaensen for observation and trade about Hudson's River. Christiaensen had been in the neighborhood of Manhattan the previous year, when returning from a voyage to the West Indies, and had then determined that his next adventure should be to this region. Thus it was that the scheme with Block was projected. The two comrades came out in a ship presumably chartered by themselves. They remained at Manhattan only long enough, apparently, to take on a cargo of furs and two " passengers." The passengers were natives, sons of " the chiefs there," whom they captured or had enticed to their vessel. Back in Holland the reports which they made of the riches of the new country, with the exhibition of the two Indians, — Orson and Valentine the dusky natives were called, — " added fresh impetus to the awakened enterprise of the Dutch merchants." For now, with the United Netherlands just emerged as an independent nation, the Dutch were leading in maritime commerce. Three merchants of Amsterdam, one of them Hans Horgers, a director of the East India Company, which had fitted out the " Half Moon" for Hudson in 1609, were quickest to act. Two vessels, the "Fortune" and the "Tiger," were equipped, and, placed respectively under the commands of Clmstiaeusen and Block, were despatched forthwith for traffic and exploration in the new region.

This was the voyage, begun in the summer of 1613, that brought Block to his discoveries. Other Dutch merchants almost immediately joined in the adventure, and close upon the "Fortune" and the "Tiger" three more ships were sent out under venturesome captains. These Dutch mariners were all exploring this region at the same time with Christiaensen and Block.

Had not Block's " Tiger" met with disaster, the course of our history might have been changed. Certainly a different story would have been told. Block was at Manhattan making ready to return to Holland with a full cargo of peltry on board his ship when she suddenly caught fire and was entirely destroyed. Her loss was his opportunity. He at once set about the building of a new craft from the fine ship's timber then abundant on Manhattan. Winter apjjroaching he and his companions put up some rude huts for shelter near the southern point of the island. These were probably the first white men's habitations in New York. The work on the new ship occupied the winter, during which the Dutclmaen were generously supplied with food "and all kinds of necessities" by the friendly native savages. In the spring the vessel was ready for launching. She took the water with the name of Onrust, — the " Restless," — a fitting title, as it proved, for the animated career in store for her. Her measm-ements were thus of record : thirty-eight feet keel, forty-four and a half feet upper length, eleven and a half feet wide ; and about eight casts or sixteen tons burthen.

Such was the little craft that has sailed into history as the " first American-built yacht." But the " Virginia of Sagadahoc," that " pretty pinnace " of thirty tons, built by the unhappy Popham Colony and launched on the Kennebec of Maine six years earlier, should not be ignored . The " Virginia," to be sure, had no such brilliant record as the " Restless." Her employment was not in gallant adventure, but in the dismal task of conveying a freight of disheartened colonists back to Europe upon the abandonment of an ill-advised settlement. Yet she was the pioneer American yacht, the forerunner of the great ship-building interests on the Kennebec, and should have the head place in the line. The " Restless " has glory sufficient as the " pioneer yessel launched by white men on the waters " of commercial New York ; the first of American build to sail through Long Island Sound, aroimd Cape Cod, and up Massachusetts Bay, when no white man's plantation was anywhere in the region ; and the first of all craft of white men to enter and explore " The Beautiful River."

It was a spring day, one of those fragrant days which bloom upon Manhattan in the vernal season, it is pleasant to fancy, when Block embarked with his crew in his " Restless " and pointed her nose eastward. Sailing boldly through the whirlpool of Hell Gate, the first European pilot to make this perilous strait, and giving it its expressive name, he entered the Sound, — the "Great Bay" as he termed it. Cautiously skirting the northern shore, he passed the group of islands off Norwalk, which he called the " Archipelagos." Farther along he discovered the Housatonic, the " river from over the mountains," as its Indian name is said to imply, which enters the Sound at the present Stratford. This he described as a " bow-shot wide," and named it the "River of Roodenberg" or Red HiUs. Passing by the bay at the head of which New Haven lies, he coursed on till he came to " the mouth of a large river running up northerly into the land." Observing here but few natives about the shores, he turned from tlie " Great Bay " and ventiu:ed the unknown stream.

So it happened that this River was discovered and its exploration begun by a Dutchman in an American-built yacht.

Block, as he sailed up the River, made careful notes of stream and shore. He found the water at the entrance " very shallow," and soon observed the fresh downward current which suggested his name for the River. Followo U

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Q ing the winding course, now between greening meadows, now past hilly banks, again by fertile intervals, by forestfringed shores and through the narrow pass, the explorer saw Uttle of human life till a point which he reckoned as about forty-five miles above the mouth was reached : the first principal bend at the present Middletown. Here Indians became numerous, and he marked then- lodges on both sides for a considerable distance up the stream, and learned that they were of the " nation called Seguins," one of the largest of the River tribes. Farther along, at about the present Hartford, and above, he came to " the country of the Nawaas," where "the natives plant maize." At a point on the east side, where is now South Windsor, between the two tributaries, the Podunk and Scantic Rivers, was their fortified village. This was palisaded or paled about for defence against the intruding Pequots, the common enemy of the River tribes, and originally of the Mohican nation of the Hudson River country, who, driven from their old homes by the Mohawks, had invaded Connecticut and planted themselves in seized territory on the Sound shores west of the Thames River.

At this village Block made a landing and had " parley" with the curious people, whom he found friendly and commimicative. From them he learned of another nation of savages dwelling "within the land," presumably about the lakes west of the far upper parts of the River, who navigated it in " canoes made of bark," and brought down rich peltry: very practical information to carry back to the trading merchants in Holland. Reembarking, our intrepid mariner continued up stream without fm-ther incident, so far as his relation indicates, till he reached the Enfield Rapids, through which he could not pass. Here, therefore, his exploration ended, and putting his ship about he returned to the Sound, after exploring practically the entire length of the River in the present state of Connecticut. He never saw the River again.

His voyage continued down the Sound eastward with a succession of important discoveries. He took note, first, of the Thames River, to which he gave the name of " River of the Siccanomos." Here he found the Pequots — Pequatos he termed them — in possession of the country. Observing land across the Sound and making for it, he discovered it to be the eastern extremity of Long Island. He was thus the first to determine the insular character of that great strip of territory. The point, now Montauk, was named " Visscher's Hoeck." Sailing then northeastward he came upon Block Island, Verrazzano's discovery of nearly a century before. Upon this his own name was bestowed, and it remains the sole memorial of his exploits. Next, following Verrazzano's track, he explored Narragansett Bay. Point Judith he named Wapanoos Point, from the Indian tribe whom he found dwelling along the westr em shore of the bay, and described as " strong of limb " but of " moderate size." Rhode Island he called " Roodt Eijlandt " from its " reddish appearance," through the prevalence of red clay on parts of it. Still onward, he ''' ran across " the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, by Cuttyhunk, where Bartholomew Gosnold had attempted a plantation twelve years before. Thence he sailed by Martha's Vineyard, and, southward, by No Man's Land, naming the latter " Hendrick Christiaensen's Island," in compliment to his brother mariner ; passed through Nantucket Sound ; explored the shores of Cape Cod ; coasted Cape Cod Bay ; glanced perhaps toward Plymouth Harbor; and, entering Massachusetts Bay, explored its primeval shores as far north as Nahant Bay, — the " Pye Bay " of the Dutch navigators.