divers of our loving friends and neighbors, freemen and
members of Newtown, Dorchester, Watertown, and other places, who are
resolved to transport themselves and their estates unto the river of
Connecticut, there to reside and inhabit; and to that end divers are
there already, and divers others shortly to go." This tacit permission
was the only authorization given by Massachusetts; but it should be
noted that the unwilling permission was made more gracious by a kindly
loan of cannon and ammunition for the protection of the new
settlements.

If it be true that some of the Watertown people had wintered at
Wethersfield in 1634-35, this was the first civil settlement in
Connecticut; and it is certain that, all through the following spring,
summer, and autumn, detached parties of Watertown people were settling
at Wethersfield. During the summer of 1635, a Dorchester party
appeared near the Plymouth factory, and laid the foundations of the
town of Windsor. In October of the same year a party of sixty persons,
including women and children, largely from Newtown, made the overland
march and settled where Hartford now stands. Their journey was begun
so late that the winter overtook them before they reached the river,
and, as they had brought their cattle with them, they found great
difficulty in getting everything across the river by means of rafts.

It may have been that the echoes of all these preparations had reached
England, and stirred the tardy patentees to action. During the autumn
of 1635, John Winthrop, Jr., agent of the Say and Sele associates,
reached Boston, with authority to build a large fort at the mouth of
the Connecticut River. He was to be "Governor of the River
Connecticut" for one year, and he at once issued a proclamation to the
Massachusetts emigrants, asking "under what right and preference they
had lately taken up their plantation."

It is said that they agreed to give up any lands demanded by him, or
to return on having their expenses repaid. A more dangerous influence,
however, soon claimed Winthrop's attention. Before the winter set in
he had sent a party to seize the designated spot for a fort at the
mouth of the Connecticut River. His promptness was needed. Just as his
men had thrown up a work sufficient for defense and had mounted a few
guns, a Dutch ship from New Amsterdam appeared, bringing a force
intended to appropriate the same place. Again the Dutch found
themselves a trifle late; and their