ration was discussed, but
Plymouth and Massachusetts quarrelled over their boundary-line, and
the desirable event was once more postponed. Nearly three more years
passed, and the founding of a confederacy was still delayed. Then, at
a general court held at Boston, September 27, 1642, letters from
Connecticut were read "certifying us that the Indians all over the
country had combined themselves to cut off all the English."

At this time the war between De la Tour and D'Aulnay was at its
height, and the Dutch complaints added to the general alarm. Thus the
Connecticut proposition for a league received a more favorable
consideration and was referred to a committee "to consider" after the
court. At the next general court which met in Boston, May 10, 1643, a
compact of confederation in writing was duly signed by commissioners
from Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven.[2] The
settlement of Gorges and Mason at Piscataqua and the plantations about
Narragansett Bay were denied admission into the confederacy--the
former "because they ran a different course from us both in their
ministry and administration,"[3] and the latter because they were
regarded as "tumultuous" and "schismatic."

After a preamble setting forth that "we live encompassed with people
of several nations and strange languages," that "the savages have of
late combined themselves against us," and that "the sad distractions
in England prevent the hope of advice and protection," the document
states that the contracting parties' object was to maintain "a firm
and perpetual league of friendship and amity, for offence and defence,
mutual advice and succor upon all just occasions both for preserving
and propagating the truth and liberties of the gospel, and for their
own mutual safety and walfare." It then declared the name of the new
confederation to be "the United Colonies of New England," and in ten
articles set out the organization and powers of the federal
government. The management was placed in the hands of eight
commissioners, two for each colony, "all in church-fellowship with
us," who were to hold an annual meeting in each of the colonies by
rotation, and to have power by a vote of six "to determine all affairs
of war or peace, leagues, aids, charges, and number of men for war,
division of spoils, or whatever is gotten by conquest," the admission
of new confederates, etc. All public charges were to be paid by
contributions levied on the coloni