The New Haven colony was distinguished among the sister-colonies for its zeal in behalf of education, for its great strictness in the administration of the laws, for its scrupulous justice towards the Indians, and for the absence of a frivolous or extravagant legislation, which in some instances had been thought to characterize the other colonies.[12] The colony, however, was not exempt from occasional providential calamities, particularly in its commercial pursuits. For a period, the colonists did not succeed in their principal secular object. Their plans may not have been the most judicious; but their greatest misfortune in this concern was the loss of a large ship, which contained a valuable cargo of about five thousand pounds. The ship, with its precious burden, and more precious navigators, was never heard of more after it left the harbor. Several other settlements in the vicinity were nearly coëval with that of New Haven. Milford and Guilford were settled in 1639, as also Stratford and Fairfield the same year; Stamford in 1641, and soon after the town of Brandford. [Illustration: Portsmouth founded.] A settlement, at an early period, was made in NEW HAMPSHIRE, but it did not, until some time afterwards, constitute a distinct colony. In the spring of the year 1623, two members of the council of Plymouth (Gorges and Mason) having obtained a grant of a tract of country, sent over a few persons for the purpose of establishing a colony and fishing at the river Piscataqua. This was the beginning of the town of Portsmouth; but, for several years, together with the town of Dover, which had a fish-house erected about the same time, it was a small and scarcely permanent settlement. In 1629, some of the settlers about the Massachusetts bay, purchased a tract of country of the Indians, with a view to unite with the settlement at Piscataqua. After this purchase, the latter settlement was favored with a small increase; but no other settlements were made till the year 1638, when the towns of Exeter and Hampton commenced. Exeter was settled by people chiefly from Boston, who had been regularly dismissed from their church relations, and were constituted at once into a church in their new locality. Like the settlers of the other New England colonies, those of New Hampshire were desirous of enjoying the ministrations and ordinances of the Gospel, and were able to obtain excellent ministers.