Connecticut, in the person of the younger Winthrop, then in London, applied for and obtained a favourable charter; the colonists having beforehand carefully drawn up the document, which they desired the king to ratify, claiming the land by purchase from the natives—by conquest from the Pequods, who had made on them a war of extermination—and by the sweat of their own brows, which had changed the wilderness into a garden. Their petition for this charter was not only seconded by the aged Lord Say and Seal, who obtained for it also the co-operation of the Earl of Manchester, but Winthrop, himself a man of the noblest endowments, at once a scholar, a gentleman and a Christian, won for it general good will by his merits alone. The son-in-law of Hugh Peters, whose execution had so lately taken place, “God gave him, nevertheless, favour,” as his own father Governor Winthrop, truly observed, “in the eyes of all with whom he had to do;” and in his interviews with Charles, whether it was by the charm of his conversation, his descriptions of Indian warfare, and the adventurous life in the wilderness; or whether, really, as was said, Winthrop presented a ring to the monarch, which had been given, under peculiar circumstances, by Charles I. to Winthrop’s grandfather, which constituted a claim on the house of Stuart, is not known; this, however, is a fact, the charter was obtained. Clarendon was full of good will, and certain courtiers, having themselves, it is believed, interested views, recommended no limitations. This charter embraced as one colony New Haven and Hartford, the limits of the latter being extended from the Narragansett river to the Pacific Ocean. On the colonists it conferred unqualified power to govern themselves; to elect their own officers; to enact their own laws; to administer justice; to exercise all power deliberative and executive, without appeal to England, or without reference to England under any circumstances. Connecticut was independent in everything but name. “After his successful negociation and efficient concert in founding the Royal Society,” says Bancroft, “Winthrop returned to America, bringing with him a name which England honoured, and which his country should never forget, and resumed his tranquil life in rural retirement.” Some little trouble he at first met with from the two colonies being amalgamated, without the consent of New Haven to such a measure being first obtained. New Haven, which seemed thus compelled to sink its own existence in that of the stronger sister-colony, very naturally made some opposition, but the wisdom and firm gentleness of Winthrop effected a reconciliation; the colonies were united as by a happy marriage, and thenceforth but one interest swayed the two. Connecticut showed her respect and affection for Winthrop, by annually electing him for fourteen consecutive years as her governor.