spread to this side of the ocean. Rumors got afloat that the
Dutch and Indians had conspired against the English, and Connecticut
and New Haven became hysterical for war; while Rhode Island
commissioned John Underhill, lately escaped from the Dutch, to take
all Dutch vessels he could find.[28] Stuyvesant indignantly denied the
charge of conspiring with the Indians, and proposed to refer the
examination of the facts to any impartial tribunal. Nevertheless, all
the old complaints were revived.

In 1652 the federal commissioners resolved on hostilities,[29] but the
Massachusetts general court, which had all along taken a position in
favor of peace, refused to be bound by a vote of six commissioners
representing Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven.[30] On the other
hand, the commissioners of the three smaller colonies protested
against the conduct of the court of Massachusetts as violating the
confederation.[31] New Haven and Connecticut took measures to wage war
on their own account,[32] and in April, 1654, Connecticut sequestered
the Dutch fort at Hartford.[33]

When, in June, 1654, a fleet despatched by Cromwell, in response to
appeals made to him, appeared in Boston harbor, Connecticut and New
Haven were overjoyed, and proceeded with alacrity to make arrangements
for an attack on the hated Dutch. Massachusetts refused to raise
troops, although she gave her citizens privilege to enlist if they
chose. Yet her policy of peace prevailed in the end, for before the
preparations described could be completed a stop was put to them by
the news that a treaty of peace had been signed between England and
Holland April 5, 1654.[34]

Massachusetts had successfully nullified the plain provisions of the
articles, and for a time it looked as if the dissolution of the
confederacy would be the consequence. New Haven voted at first not to
choose commissioners, but finally decided to do so,[35] and meetings
of the commissioners went on apparently as before. Nevertheless, the
effect of the action of Massachusetts was far-reaching--from that time
the respective colonies diverged more and more, till the hope of a
permanent intercolonial bond vanished.

[Footnote 1: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 283, 342-344.]

[Footnote 2: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 95, 99, 102, 121-127.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., 121.]

[Footnote 4: _Simplicities Defence_ (Force, _Tracts_, IV., No. vi.,
93).]

[Footnote 5: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 203, 243, 301,