church should take care to send two ministers among the Indians every
year to make known to them by the help of an interpreter "the heavenly
counsel of God." In four years two colonies of Indians were
established, one at Nonantum and the other at Concord. But the
converts were still under the influence of their sagamores, who were
hostile to Eliot's schemes, and in 1651 he removed his Indians to
Natick, on the Charles River, where they might be free from all
heathenish subjection.

In the mean time, the intelligence of what was taking place was
communicated to Edward Winslow, the agent of the colony in England. He
brought the matter to the attention of Parliament, and July 19, 1649,
an ordinance was passed incorporating "the society for the promoting
and propagating of the gospel of Jesus Christ in New England." This
society selected the federal commissioners as the managers of the fund
which flowed into them from persons charitably inclined, and in seven
years the sums which were remitted to New England amounted to more
than L1700. The commissioners laid out the money in paying Eliot and
Mayhew and other teachers, in printing catechisms in the Indian
language, and providing the Indian converts with implements of labor.
By 1674 the number of these "praying Indians," as they were called,
was estimated at four thousand.[7]

The commissioners also rendered many services in the domestic affairs
of the colonies. In order to secure the claim which she had advanced
in 1637 to the Pequot River as her southern boundary, Massachusetts in
1644 authorized John Winthrop, Jr., to plant a colony on Pequot Bay at
a spot called Nameaug, now New London.[8] The Connecticut government
protested against the authority of Massachusetts, and in 1647 the
commissioners decided that "the jurisdiction of the plantation doth
and ought to belong to Connecticut."[9] This decision, however, only
settled the ownership of a particular place, and the exact southern
and northern boundaries of Connecticut remained for several years a
matter of contention.

In another matter of internal interest the influence of the
confederacy was manifested. Among other considerations for the cession
of the Saybrook fort, Fenwick was promised the proceeds for the term
of ten years of a duty on all corn, biscuit, beaver, and cattle
exported from the Connecticut River.[10] March 4, 1645, the general
court of Connecticut passed an act to carry out their promise; but as