efoot, although leather boots and shoes were
sometimes used.

The implements which they used in subduing the wilderness, their axes,
saws, plows, hoes and scythes were of the rudest description. Their
horses, cattle, sheep and swine we should now regard as of very inferior
quality. The same was true of the few vegetables they cultivated, and of
their fruits, especially their apples. Turnips, squashes and beans were
the principal vegetables. Potatoes were not as yet cultivated in New
England, onions were not generally, and tomatoes were looked upon as
poisonous. Some of them owned negro slaves but worked the harder
themselves to make them work.

They had little or no currency, taxes and debts being paid in produce.
What they ate, what they wore, what they coaxed from the reluctant soil
of these hillsides, cost them infinite labor. As was to be expected, a
stingy avarice was their besetting sin, which manifested itself in all
the relations of life. They were without newspapers, none being
published in the Colony until 1755. They had few books, the first
printing press in the Colony not having been set up in New London until
1709. They suffered greatly from malaria and other forms of sickness, as
did all the early settlers in the State. Medical treatment was poor and
difficult to obtain. The women went to the limit in childbearing, and
the burden of rearing their large families was awful. The art of cooking
was little understood. They had no stoves or table forks. The food was
served in a very unsavory fashion, and was very indigestible. The people
therefore had frightful dreams, and dyspepsia was very prevalent. No
carpet was seen here for a hundred years after the settlement.
Communication with the outer world was slow, difficult and rare. On
several occasions, owing to the failure of their crops and the
difficulty in getting relief from distant places little better off, they
nearly starved to death.

Truly the task which they had undertaken to subdue this wilderness, to
plant here the civil, religious and educational institutions of
Connecticut, and to prepare this beautiful heritage for their children
and children's children, was no holiday pastime, no gainful speculation,
no romantic adventure. It was grim, persistent, weary toil and danger,
continued through many years, with the wolf at the door and the savage
in the neighboring thicket.

Beside the physical evils with which they were beset, they had spiritual
t