The name of this league was "The United Colonies of New England," and it was the first attempt in America at federal government. All its affairs were managed by a board of eight commissioners,--two from each colony,--who must be church members. They had no power to lay taxes or to meddle with the internal concerns of the colonies, but they had entire control over all dealings with Indians or with foreign powers. %45. The Year 1643.%--The year 1643 is thus an important one in colonial history. It was in that year that the New Haven colony was founded; that the league of The United Colonies of New England was formed; and that Roger Williams obtained the first charter of Rhode Island. %46. New Charters.%--During the next twenty years no changes took place in the boundaries of the colonies. This was the period of the Civil War in England, of the Commonwealth, of the rule of Cromwell and the Puritans; and affairs in New England were left to take care of themselves. But in 1660 Charles II. was restored to the throne of England, and a new era opens in colonial history. In 1661 the little colony of Connecticut promptly acknowledged the restoration of Charles II. and applied for a charter. The application was more than granted; for to Connecticut (1662) was given not only a charter and an immense tract of land, but also the colony of New Haven.[1] The land grant was comprised in a strip that stretched across the continent from Rhode Island to the Pacific and was as wide as the present state.[2] In 1663 Rhode Island was given a new charter. [Footnote 1: In 1660, after the restoration of Charles II., Edward Whalley and William Goffe (the regicides, "king-killers," as they were called), two of the judges who had condemned Charles I. to be beheaded, fled to New Haven and were protected by the people. This act had much to do with the annexation of New Haven to Connecticut.] [Footnote 2: Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 192-196. Many of the New Haven colonists were disgusted by the union of their colony with Connecticut, and in June, 1667, migrated to New Jersey, where they founded "New-Ark" or Newark.] In 1684 the King's judges declared the Massachusetts charter void, and James II. was about to make New England one royal colony, when the English people drove him from the throne. William and Mary in 1691 granted a new charter and united the Plymouth colony, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia, in one colony called Massachusetts Bay. This charter was in force when the Revolution opened. SUMMARY 1. The first colony established by the Plymouth Company (1607, on the coast of Maine) was a failure. 2. Captain John Smith explored the New England coast and mapped it (1613), but did not succeed in planting any colonies. 3. The permanent settlement of New England began with the arrival of a body of Separatists in the _Mayflower_ (1620), who founded the colony of Plymouth.