sms of a new country lent strength to the arm and courage to the
heart. In every direction homes sprang up, surrounded by young orchards,
and beyond and around these, cultivated fields.

Suddenly the settlers were set to wondering and worrying at the sight of
strange surveyors taking new measurements through the farms wrenched
from the wilds with so much of hard labor and wearisome toil. And then
the blow fell. New York was claiming all this tract of land as part of
her province, and declaring New Hampshire grants to be null and void. A
second payment for their farms was demanded, based upon their present
value as improved property.

In some cases new owners put in an appearance and attempted to take
possession, having purchased, in good faith, of land speculators in New
York City, to whom Governor Colden, of New York, had issued immense
grants covering a large part of the disputed territory. These
speculators were mostly lawyers, who were favorites or friends of the
governor. Against these shrewd men of wealth and education, with their
powerful backing, the puny defence of the original settlers seemed
wellnigh hopeless. But it was to be a contest between might and right,
and that invisible influence which seems ever to weaken the one and
strengthen the other was surely, though silently at work.

Upon this scene of trouble and uncertainty appears Ethan Allen, a
farmer, born about thirty years before in Coventry, Conn., large of
frame, of great personal strength, and with mental characteristics in
harmony with his powerful physique: a tender-hearted giant whose
standard of honor and honesty soon measured the injustice of New York's
position in the land controversy, and at once sided with the besieged
farmers, with whom he had many generalities of sympathy.

With fiery energy of will and purpose, he immediately assumed the
leadership of the defence, guiding its combined strength into the legal
side of the question, thus meeting the power of alleged law with like
weapons. Selecting the best legal talent of Connecticut as assistants,
and armed with New Hampshire's charter and seal, he appeared in the
Albany courts to contest New York's claim that the Connecticut River was
the boundary between that province and New Hampshire.

But the trial was a farce, stripped of all dignity and justice by the
fact that the judge upon the bench, the prosecuting attorneys, and other
officials were personally interested, each holding New