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INCLUDING
A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, AND MANY CURIOUS
AND INTERESTING ANECDOTES.
WITH AN APPENDIX, POINTING OUT THE CAUSES OF THE REBELLION INAMERICA; TOGETHER WITH THE PARTICULAR PART TAKEN BYTHE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT IN ITS PROMOTION.
BY A GENTLEMAN OF THE PROVINCE.
LONDON: 1781.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED, ADDITIONS TO APPENDIX, NOTES, AND EXTRACTS
FROM LETTERS, VERIFYING MANY IMPORTANT STATEMENTS
MADE BY THE AUTHOR.
BY
SAMUEL JARVIS McCORMICK.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
549 & 551 BROADWAY.
1877.
COPYRIGHT BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1877.
Though Connecticut be the most flourishing, and,proportionally, the most populous, province in NorthAmerica, it has hitherto found no writer to introduceit, in its own right, to the notice of the world. Slightand cursory mention in the accounts of other provinces,or of America in general, has yet only been made ofit. The historians of New England have constantlyendeavored to aggrandize Massachusetts Bay as the parentof the other colonies, and as comprehending all thatis worthy of attention in that country. Thus GovernorHutchinson says, in the preface of his history of thatprovince, that “there was no importation of plantersfrom England to any part of the continent northwardof Maryland, excepting to Massachusetts, for morethan fifty years after the colony began;” not knowing,or willing to forget, or to conceal, that Saybrook, NewHaven, and Long Island, were settled with emigrantsfrom England within half that period. Another reason[Pg 4]for the obscurity in which the Connectitensians havehitherto been involved is to be found among their ownsinister views and purposes: Prudence dictated thattheir deficiency in point of right to the soil they occupied,their wanton and barbarous persecutions, illegalpractices, daring usurpations, etc., had better be concealedthan exposed to public view.
To dissipate this cloud of prejudice and knavery,and to bring to light truths long concealed, is the motiveof my offering the following sheets to the world.I am bold to assert that Connecticut merits a fuller accountthan envy or ignorance has yet suffered to begiven it; and that I have followed the line of truthfreely, and unbiased by partiality or prejudice. Thereader, therefore, will not be surpr