ong by hanging four
persons for no other reason than that they were Quakers. The English
government thought that now the time had come to assert its power. It
ordered the Massachusetts rulers to send other Quakers to England for
trial. But, when this order reached Massachusetts, there were no Quakers
in prison awaiting trial, and none were ever sent to England.

[Sidenote: Charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, 1662-63.]

[Sidenote: New Haven absorbed by Connecticut.]

68. Connecticut and Rhode Island.--While the English government was
attacking Massachusetts it was giving most liberal charters to
Connecticut and to Rhode Island. Indeed, these charters were so liberal
that they remained the constitutions of the states of Connecticut and
Rhode Island until long after the American Revolution. The Connecticut
charter included New Haven within the limits of the larger colony and
thus put an end to the separate existence of New Haven.

[Illustration: THE OLDEST CHURCH SOUTH OF THE POTOMAC.]

[Sidenote: The English conquest of New Netherland, 1664. _Higginson_.
97-98.]

69. Conquest of New Netherland, 1664.--The English government now
determined to conquer New Netherland. An English fleet sailed to New
Amsterdam. Stuyvesant thumped up and down on his wooden leg. But he was
almost the only man in New Amsterdam who wanted to fight. He soon
surrendered, and New Netherland became an English colony. The Dutch
later recaptured it and held it for a time; but in 1674 they finally
handed it over to England.

[Sidenote: New Netherland given to the Duke of York and Albany.]

70. New York.--Even before the colony was seized in 1664, Charles
II gave it away to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, who
afterward became king as James II. The name of New Netherland was
therefore changed to New York, and the principal towns were also named
in his honor, New York and Albany. Little else was changed in the
colony. The Dutch were allowed to live very nearly as they had lived
before, and soon became even happier and more contented than they had
been under Dutch rule. Many English settlers now came in. The colony
became rich and prosperous, but the people had little to do with their
own government.

[Sidenote: Origin of New Jersey, 1664.]

[Sidenote: Settlement of New Jersey.]

71. New Jersey.--No sooner had James received New Netherland from
his brother than he hastened to give some of the best portions of it to
two faithfu