[Footnote 47: _Mass. Col. Records_, I., 146.] [Footnote 48: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_, 402-406.] [Footnote 49: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 204.] [Footnote 50: Ibid., 208, 219.] [Footnote 51: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 223.] [Footnote 52: Trumbull, _Memorial History of Hartford County_.] [Footnote 53: Palfrey, _New England_, I., 454.] [Footnote 54: Trumbull, _Connecticut_, I., 495.] [Footnote 55: Mass. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, 4th series, VI., 579.] [Footnote 56: Trumbull, _Connecticut_, I., 497.] [Footnote 57: Winthrop, _New England_, I., 207.] [Footnote 58: Brodhead, _New York_, I., 260.] [Footnote 59: _Mass, Col. Records_, I., 170.] CHAPTER XV FOUNDING OF CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN (1637-1652) The establishment of the new settlements on the Connecticut projected the whites into the immediate neighborhood of two powerful and warlike Indian nations--the Narragansetts in Rhode Island and the Pequots in Connecticut. With the first named there existed friendly relations, due to the politic conduct of Roger Williams, who always treated the Indians kindly. With the latter, conditions from the first were very threatening. As early as the summer of 1633, Stone, a reckless ship-captain from Virginia, and eight of his companions, were slain in the Connecticut River by some Pequots. When called to account by Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, the Indians justified themselves on the ground that Stone was the aggressor. Thereupon Winthrop desisted, and referred the matter to the Virginia authorities.[1] In 1634, when the settlements were forming on the Connecticut, a fresh irritation was caused by the course of the emigrants in negotiating for their lands with the Mohegan chiefs instead of with the Pequots, the lords paramount of the soil. The Pequots were greatly embarrassed at the time by threatened hostilities with the Narragansetts and the Dutch, and in November, 1634, they became reduced to the necessity of seeking the alliance of the Massachusetts colony. That authority inopportunely revived the question of Stone's death and required the Pequots to deliver annually a heavy tribute of wampum as the price of their forgiveness and protection.[2] Had the object of the Massachusetts people been to promote bad feeling, no better method than this could have been adopted. In July, 1636, John Oldham, who had been appointed collector of the tribute from the Pequots, was killed off Block Island by some of the Indians of the island who were subject to the Narragansett tribe.[3] Although the Pequots had nothing whatever to do with this affair, the Massachusetts government, under Harry Vane, sent a force against them, commanded by John Endicott. After stopping at Block Island and destroying some Indian houses, he proceeded to the main-land to make war on the Pequots, but beyond burning some wigwams and seizing some corn he accomplished very little.