, and it has survived to the present
day among the descendants of the Dutch colonists of New
Netherland."

The little settlement at Manhattan was entitled to the feudal right of
levying a tax upon all the merchandise passing up or down the river.
The English were, at this time, so ignorant of this region of the
North American coast that a sloop was dispatched to Delaware Bay "to
see if there were any river there." As the Dutch had vacated the
Delaware, the English decided to attempt to obtain a foothold on those
waters. Accordingly, in the year 1635, they sent a party of fourteen
or fifteen Englishmen, under George Holmes, to seize the vacant Dutch
fort.

Van Twiller, informed of this fact, with much energy sent an armed
vessel, by which the whole company was arrested and brought to
Manhattan, whence they were sent, "pack and sack," to an English
settlement on the Chesapeake.

The Plymouth people had now been two years in undisturbed possession
of their post at Windsor, on the Connecticut. Stimulated by their
example, the General Court of Massachusetts encouraged emigration to
the Connecticut valley, urging, as a consideration, their need of
pasturage for their increasing flocks and herds; the great beauty and
fruitfulness of the Connecticut valley, and the danger that the Dutch,
or other English colonies, might get possession of it. "Like the banks
of the Hudson," it was said, "the Connecticut had been first explored
and even occupied by the Dutch. But should a log hut and a few
straggling soldiers seal a territory against other emigrants?"[5]

Thus solicited, families from Watertown and Roxbury commenced a
settlement at Wethersfield in the year 1635. Some emigrants, from
Dorchester, established themselves just below the colony of the
Plymouth people at Windsor. This led to a stern remonstrance on the
part of Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, denouncing their unrighteous
intrusion.

"Thus the Plymouth colonists on the Connecticut, themselves
intruders within the territory of New Netherland, soon began
to quarrel with their Massachusetts brethren for trespassing
upon their usurped domain."

In November of this year, Governor Winthrop dispatched a bark of
twenty tons from Boston, with about twenty armed men, to take
possession of the mouth of the Connecticut. It will be remembered that
the Dutch had purchased this land of the Indians three years before,
and, in token of their possessi