in the congregational churches, until the year 1686, when an Episcopal church, consisting of about four hundred persons, met regularly for worship. The first Episcopal church in Connecticut was collected at Rye, in 1704, under Mr. Muirson. The second was formed at Stratford, in 1706. Some opposition was made to the establishment of that church in the colony, which served only to increase the zeal of its advocates. From such small beginnings, the Episcopal church has become large and respectable in many parts of New England, especially in the commercial towns.

358. Community of lands and goods in Plymouth. The first adventurers to Plymouth placed all their property in a common stock, to be used and improved for the benefit of the company. The lands also were at first cultivated in common, and the fruits of the earth deposited in a common magazine. Within three years, experience convinced the people of the absurdity of the project; for many persons, expecting to be maintained out of the public fund, neglected to labor, and the colony was in danger of perishing with hunger. In 1623, the company placed every single person in some family, assigned a portion of land to each, and left every family to trust to its own labor for food. The consequence was, the settlers became more contented, and had food in abundance.

359. Sumptuary and regulating laws. The planters of New England, on their arrival in a wilderness, where it was difficult at first to obtain the necessaries of life, and impossible to enjoy luxuries, attempted by example and law to restrain all excesses in diet or dress. Gov ernor Winthrop, soon after he arrived, laid aside the practice of drinking healths, at his own table, and recommended it to others. In 1639, the practice was forbid by law. In 1634, laws were passed prohibiting the use of tobacco, immodest fashions, and costly apparel. In 1633, a law was made to limit the price of labor; workmen being scarce, and demanding high wages. Master workmen were allowed two shillings, and laborers eighteen pence a day; money being of sterling value. It was also ordered, that the advance on goods

should not exceed four pence on a shilling, beyond the price in England. These laws had no durable effect, and the general court, in 1640, finding that laborers would either transgress the laws or leave the colony, repealed the act regulating wages, and left every town to fix the price of labor among its own inhabitants, which had a better effect.

360. First shipping built in New England. The first attempt to build water craft in New England, was in 1626. The Plymouth people, finding themselves exposed to great hazards in coasting with an open boat, and having no ship carpenter, employed a house carpenter, who sawed into two parts their largest boat, inserted timbers to lengthen it five or six feet, built a deck, and rigged it into a convenient vessel, which did service for seven years.

The first vessel built in Massachusetts, was a bark of thirty tons, built by governor Winthrop, at Mistic, lanched July 4, 1631, and called the Blessing of the Bay. The day of the first lanch is now the anniversary of independence. In 1633, a small ship of sixty tons was built at Medford. In 1636, a ship of one hundred and thirty tons was built at Marblehead, and called the Desire, which belonged to the people of Salem, whose descendants are remarkable for their commercial enterprise. This was the first American ship that made a voyage to England.

361. Causes which promoted ship building. The planters of New England had vested all their property in money, or necessaries for beginning a plantation; but having little commerce, their money was, in a few years, expended, and they had few resources to supply themselves. Foreign ships came to trade with them, but took little besides money in payment, by which means the colonies were soon drained of cash. Brass farthings were sometimes used for small change, and afterwards, bullets. In 1640, money had become so scarce, that the government directed grain to be given in payment of debts, at fixed prices; and when no personal estate could be found, lands to be apprized to creditors upon execution. This was the origin of tender

laws. In this situation, the price of lands and of cattle fell to a fourth of their former nominal value. This put the people upon sowing flax and hemp, and importing cotton.

362. First attempt to encourage commerce. In this languishing state of trade, the apprehension of a want of foreign commodities alarmed the people in Massachusetts, and they determined to provide shipping of their own. Mr. Peters, a public spirited man, procured a number of persons to join him in building a ship of three hundred tons, at Salem, in 1640, and this example was soon followed by the inhabitants of Boston, who built one of one hundred and sixty tons. Both were finished in 1641. That of Boston was called the Trial. Money was not obtainable to pay the carpenters, but they agreed to take the produce of the country. Thus commenced a spirit of commerce, which has made the northern states rich and respectable.

363. Fisheries and trade of the colonies. Within a few years after the discovery of North America by Cabot, the English and French began to take great quantities of fish on the American coast, especially on the banks of Newfoundland. This business had become of great importance, more than fifty years before the settlement of Plymouth. The fish were mostly carried to Spain and Portugal. The first planters in New England found their time and money so much occupied in procuring the means of subsistence, that for some years they could not carry on the fisheries to a great extent. Their principal article of export was peltry; and mostly beaver skins, which they purchased of the Indians for goods of small value. To procure beaver, was the first object of the colonies in establishing trading houses at Kennebec, Connecticut, and other places. In 1639, a fishing trade was begun at cape Ann, and the stock employed in it was exempted from taxation for seven years. This seems to have been the first act of government for encouraging the fishery. In 1641, three hundred thousand codfish were sent to market.

364. Importance of the peltry trade to the colonies. Of such value was the trade in peltry, to the first

planters, that each colony claimed and maintained an exclusive right of trading with the Indians within the limits of its own patent. Hence arose serious contests between the colonies. In 1631, a small pinnace, from Salem, bound to Boston, was driven into Plymouth by adverse winds, and the governor of Plymouth was so much alarmed with the fear that the people should open a trade with the natives, that he forbad them, and threatened to oppose them by force. A similar jealousy caused a contest between the Plymouth traders at Kennebec and a trading boat from Pascataqua, in which two men were killed. This trade also was a principal cause of the controversy between the English and the Dutch, concerning the right to Connecticut river. And so valuable was the trade, that the English even planted maiz for the Indians, the better to enable them to spend their time in collecting beaver.

365. Progress of trade in the colonies. The planters imported at first much of their provisions, and for many years, all their clothing from England. In 1631, on account of a scarcity in England, their wheat, with the freight, cost them fourteen shillings sterling a bushel, and pease eleven and six pence. From Virginia, they received small supplies of maiz. In 1631, a small pinnace from Virginia sold her maiz in Salem for ten shillings sterling the bushel. In the same year, an English ship, after landing some cattle at Boston, sailed to St. Kitts, but not to return to New England. In 1634, a vessel went to Bermuda, and returned by the way of Virginia, with corn and oats. The first vessel directly from the West Indies, was a Dutch ship, of 160 tons, which came from St. Kitts and arrived at Marble head, in May, 1635, laden with salt and tobacco. St. Kitts had then been settled twelve years, and contained about four thousand inhabitants. In June, the same year, arrived two Dutch ships from the Texel, with horses and cattle; the price of such animals being high -horses and mares from thirty to forty pounds sterling -cows and heifers, from twelve to twenty-five pounds, and sheep fifty shillings. In April, 1636, the small ship built at Medford, returned from Bermuda, with potatoes,

which were sold in Boston at two pence the pound; corn being very scarce.

366. Trade to the West Indies. The first American vessel that went to the West Indies, was a pinnace of thirty tons, which, in 1636, was bound to Bermuda, and attempting to return, was forced by stress of weather to Hispaniola, now Hayti. She returned the next spring with hides and tallow. The next year, the Salem ship, Desire, made a voyage to New Providence and Tortuga, and returned in March, 1638, laden with cotton, tobacco, salt, and negroes. This seems to be the date of the first introduction of Africans into New England. The next arrival from the West Indies was a small English vessel, in 1639, with indigo and sugar; and this is the first mention, in our annals, of the importation of these articles. In 1642, three ships were built, one at Boston, one at Salem, and the other at Dorchester. In the same year, a Dutch ship, from the West Indies, exchanged her cargo of salt for plank and pipe staves; the first export of lumber to the West Indies mentioned in the annals of New England. A second ship arrived the same year, and took a cargo of pipe staves, and ten ships sailed with lumber before winter. This first discovery of new markets for lumber excited no small joy among the planters; for staves had lain useless on their hands.

367. Trade to other foreign countries. In autumn, 1642, a small ship arrived at Boston from Madeira, laden with wine and sugar, which were exchanged for pipe staves and other commodities. One of the Boston ships, laden with lumber and fish, made a voyage to Fayal and the West Indies. The other lumber ships, which went to the West Indies, made successful voyages, and returned in the spring of 1643 with wine, sugar, and cotton. At that time, the colonies were in great distress for food, owing to a bad crop of corn; and otherwise impoverished, so that some of the people actually left New England, and many talked of abandoning the country. The successes of their infant trade at this juncture gave them new life, contributing to establish the settlements, and render them prosperous. 368. The trade of Connecticut. The planters on