on, had affixed the arms of the
States-General to a tree. The English contemptuously tore down these
arms, "and engraved a ridiculous face in their place."

The Dutch had called this region, Kievit's Hook. The English named it
Saybrook, in honor of lords Say and Brook, who were regarded as the
leading English proprietors. Early the next year the Massachusetts
people established a colony at Agawam, now Springfield. Thus, step by
step, the English encroached upon the Dutch, until nearly the whole
valley of the Connecticut was wrested from them.

About this time Van Twiller issued a grant of sixty-two acres of land,
a little northwest of fort Amsterdam, to Roelof Jansen. This was the
original conveyance of the now almost priceless estate, held by the
corporation of Trinity Church. The directors, in Holland, encouraged
emigration by all the means in their power. Free passage was offered
to farmers and their families. They were also promised the lease of a
farm, fit for the plough, for six years, with a dwelling house, a
barn, four horses and four cows. They were to pay a rent for these six
years, of forty dollars a year, and eighty pounds of butter.

At the expiration of the six years the tenants were to restore the
number of cattle they had received, retaining the increase. They were
also assisted with clothing, provisions, etc., on credit, at an
advance of fifty per cent. But notwithstanding the rapid increase of
the Dutch settlements, thus secured, the English settlements were
increasing with still greater rapidity. Not satisfied with their
encroachments on the Connecticut, the English looked wistfully upon
the fertile lands extending between that stream and the Hudson.

The region about New Haven, which, from the East and West rocks, was
called the Red Rocks, attracted especial attention. Some men from
Boston, who had visited it, greatly extolled the beauty and fertility
of the region, declaring it to be far superior to Massachusetts Bay.
"The Dutch will seize it," they wrote, "if we do not. And it is too
good for any but friends."

Just then an English non-conformist clergyman, John Davenport, and two
merchants from London, men of property and high religious worth,
arrived at Boston. They sailed to the Red Rocks, purchased a large
territory of the Indians, and regardless of the Dutch title, under the
shadow of a great oak, laid the foundations of New Haven. The colony
was very prosperous, and, in one year's time,