The only result had been to turn the resentment of the Pequots against
himself; and he sought the protection of the Plymouth government by
encouraging them to plant a settlement on the Connecticut in his own
neighborhood.[34]

These persuasions had at length some effect, and in 1632 Edward
Winslow, being sent in a bark to examine the river, reported the
country as conforming in every respect to the account given of it by
the Dutch and the Indians.[35] Meanwhile, the Indians, not liking the
delay, visited Boston and tried to induce the authorities there to
send out a colony, but, though Governor Winthrop received them
politely, he dismissed them without the hoped-for assistance.[36]

In July, 1633, Bradford and Winslow made a special visit to Boston to
discuss the plan of a joint trading-post, but they did not receive
much encouragement. Winthrop and his council suggested various
objections: the impediments to commerce due to the sand-bar at the
mouth; the long continuance of ice in spring, and the multitude of
Indians in the neighborhood. But it seems likely that these
allegations were pretexts, since we read in Winthrop's _Journal_ that
in September, 1633, a bark was sent from Boston to Connecticut; and
John Oldham, with three others, set out from Watertown overland to
explore the river.[37]

Plymouth determined to wait no longer, and in October, 1633, sent a
vessel, commanded by William Holmes, with workmen and the frame of a
building for a trading-post. When they arrived in the river, they were
surprised to find other Europeans in possession. The Dutch, aroused
from their dream of security by the growth of the English settlement,
made haste in the June previous to purchase from the Indians twenty
acres where Hartford now stands, upon which they built a fort a short
time after. When the vessel bearing the Plymouth traders reached this
point in the river, the Dutch commander, John van Curler, commanded
Holmes to stop and strike his flag. But Holmes, paying little
attention to the threats of the Dutchman, continued his voyage and
established a rival post ten miles above, at a place now known as
Windsor.[38]

Meanwhile, the ship which Winthrop sent to Connecticut went onward to
New Netherland, where the captain notified Governor Van Twiller, in
Winthrop's name, that the English had a royal grant to the territory
about the Connecticut River. It returned to Boston in October, 1633,
and brought a reply from Van Twille