d in the old country. They wished to bring about a
reform in the church, in such wise that the members of a congregation
should have more voice than formerly in the church-government, and
that the minister of each congregation should be more independent than
formerly of the bishop and of the civil government. They also wished
to abolish sundry rites and customs of the church of which they had
come to disapprove. Finding the resistance to their reforms quite
formidable in England, and having some reason to fear that they might
be themselves crushed in the struggle, they crossed the ocean in order
to carry out their ideas in a new and remote country where they might
be comparatively secure from interference. Hence it was quite natural
that they should come in congregations, led by their favourite
ministers,--such men, for example, as Higginson and Cotton, Hooker and
Davenport. When such men, famous in England for their bold preaching
and imperiled thereby, decided to move to America, a considerable
number of their parishioners would decide to accompany them, and
similarly minded members of neighbouring churches would leave their
own pastor and join in the migration. Such a group of people, arriving
on the coast of Massachusetts, would naturally select some convenient
locality, where they might build their houses near together and all go
to the same church.

[Sidenote: Land grants.]
This migration, therefore, was a movement, not of individuals or of
separate families, but of church-congregations, and it continued to be
so as the settlers made their way inland and westward. The first
river towns of Connecticut were founded by congregations coming from
Dorchester, Cambridge, and Watertown. This kind of settlement was
favoured by the government of Massachusetts, which made grants of
land, not to individuals but to companies of people who wished to live
together and attend the same church.

In the second place, the soil of New England was not favourable to the
cultivation of great quantities of staple articles, such as rice
or tobacco, so that there was nothing to tempt people to undertake
extensive plantations.

[Sidenote: Small farms.]
Most of the people lived on small farms, each family raising but
little more than enough food for its own support; and the small size
of the farms made it possible to have a good many in a compact
neighbourhood. It appeared also that towns could be more easily
defended against the Indians