ourselves the urgency for the public safety which must exist to force the wise men of the General Court to order, not only every person who was present, to take his place as sentinel, and his share of the common danger, but the families of the absent, and even widows and impotent old men, to furnish their sentinel in turn, by substitute, unless they were so poverty-stricken that they had not the means wherewith to hire one. After all, there is a manifest equity in this distribution, and comports well with a late legal decision by our Supreme Court, in Booth vs. Town of Woodbury. It is not certain but that the Court obtained light from this old statute. A very curious order was issued at the same session, showing that the early colonial legislators were careful and "troubled about many things." They left little to the discretion of the common scout. Perhaps this was the more necessary, because the watch did not consist of enlisted men, set apart and educated for the purpose, but every able bodied man must take his turn, while earning his daily bread, and might well be considered less likely to be judicious and skillful in the various emergencies that might arise in the irregularity of savage warfare. The order runs th: "This Court orders, that the charge, that shall be given to the military watch, shall be as follows, viz:-that they shall charge the watch in his Ma ties name, that they faythfully attend the watch, by walkeing or standing in such place or places where they may best discover danger by the approach of an enemie, or by fire which, if they discover, they are to give notice thereof by crying Fire, Fire, or Arme, Arme; they are allso to examine all such persons as they meet with unseasonably, and they are to command them to stand twice, and the third time, to command them to stand on their perill, but if they will not stand, but oppose them, or fly from them, they may shoot at them, but to shoot low, unless they judg him to be an enemie, and then they are to shoot as directly at them as they may, and all such persons as they find out unseasonably, they are to examine them, and if they give no good occasions, they are to return them to the Court of guarde, to be secured till the morning, and then they are to carry them to the next authority, to be examined and disposed of according to law, and they are to give the next watch notice to watch them the night following." It is to be feared that if the town should now be placed under the care of such a "watch," with power to examine all persons who are out "unseasonably," and require them to "give a good account of their occasions," that the magistrates would have more to do each morning, on the report of the "watch," than they would be able to perform well, and the parties themselves would be as little able to give a satisfactory account of themselves, as the lurking "tramps" of the early days. In this time of general alarm and danger, it was further ordered by the General Court, "that soldiers in all plantations bring their arms and ammunition to meeting on Sabbath days, and days of publique worship, when and as often as the County major, or chief military officers in any town shall appoint, upon the penalty of five shillings, to be paid to the town treasury by every soldier convict of neglect hereof before authority, to be levied by distress upon their estate." Some twelve years had elapsed since the dispersions and alarms occasioned by King Philip's war had ceased, and it would seem, from the above order, that the former custom of carrying arms to the church had fallen into disuse, and it had become necessary to cause its resumption by the somewhat sharp general enactment just cited. The first church, being located on the site ow occupied by Hon. N. B. Smith's carriage house, was admirably situated for the purpose of being guarded against surprise. Sentinels placed on Lodge Rock, were in full view of the approaches in every direction, while a large fortified house was near by, on the homestead of the late Erastus Minor, a little south of his dwelling house. In Feb. 1693-4, a unique order was promulgated for the impressing, making and storing of what the soldier of the present day would call "hardtack." It shows vividly with what anxious care the authorities guarded the safety of the plantations. It enacts:-"Whereas it is a time of warr, and there are fears of suddain surprizalls of the enemie, which may occasion suddain marches of the soldiery to repell the enemies of their Maj tie, and a provission of biskit to that end is necessary, this Court doe therefore order, that in each of the countyes of this colony, fifty bushells of good winter wheat be forthwith empressed by warrant from some of the majestrates of the respective countyes, and that the same be by their order made into biskit as soon as is possible, and kept by their order in convenient places, to be used as occasion and lawfull order shall require the same, and the wheat so 'Hoadley's Conn. Col. Rec., p. 41. impressed to be repayd in specia out of the country rate as soone as may be." After the treaty of 1675 with our Woodbury Indians, they seem to have been close allies in time of war, and to have been under the entire direction of the whites. This is shown by an act passed by the General Assembly, at its October Session, 1703. It also gives us an idea of the labor and care of fortifying the frontier towns. It enacts: "that the civil and commission officers of each towne shall take all due care concerning the friend Indians belonging to their townes, and assign them their limitts, to the intent that none of them be exposed, or the enemies escape under pretence of being friends; and that said officers doe strictly charge said friend Indians, not to move out of their respective limitts, or bounds assigned them, without order in writing under the hands of such officers, as they tender their own safetie and at their perill; and all friend Indians are hereby forbidden to hold any communication with, harbour, or conceal, any of the enemie Indians, requiring them to seize and secure all such as may come among them, an to deliver them up to justice; and for their incouragement, they shall have ten pounds for every Indian enemie, they shall so seize and deliver up. And what extraordinarie charge there shall be about Wiantonuck and Potatuck Indians shall be born by the Colonie, and that Capt. Ebenezer Johnson have the care and ordering of the Paugassuck Indians." "It is ordered and enacted by this Court: That the inhabitants of every town in this Colonie shall be called together with as convenient speed as may be, to consider what houses shall be fortified, and if the towne do not agree to fortifie any house or houses, then it shall be in the power of the civill and militarie officers in commission, with the selectmen, or major part of them, if they thinke it necessaire, to order what house or houses shall be fortified; and what they do order to be fortified, shall be done forthwith, and shall also order on whose charge; and if any persons doe refuse or neglect to make their proportions, they shall pay a fine answerable to their proportions, to be levied by the constable by warrant from civill authority. The proportion of each person to be ordered according to their estate in the common list of èstates." "It is ordered and enacted by this Court: That there shall be 1 constantly eight men upon the scout, untill the grand scout be settled, viz: two from Symsbury, two from Woodbury, and two from Waterbury, and two from Danbury, to be ordered by the discretion of the civil and militarie commission officers in each towne, as also a scout from Windzor, to meet with the scouts from Newroxbury, to be ordered by the councill of Warre."1 If It was, very properly, the constant care and anxiety of the founders of the colony to protect and maintain the frontier towns, as the best and most reliable defence to the remaining towns. an enemy met with stern and effective resistance on the borders, he would have less hope of successful invasion and victory over the whole. This thought was forcibly stated in the letter of Rev. John Bowers, of Derby, and Rev. Zechariah Walker of Woodbury, in their letter of 1676 urging the protection of their respective towns, as printed on page 49. "The securing of those two plantations," they say, "of Woodbury and Darby, will, according to second causes, be one of ye most considerable securities, in a time of such dangers, unto ye two western counties, viz: of New Haven and Fairfield: for it can hardly be expected y any strength of indians will adventure to set upon any lower plantation, till they have attempted ones above, and if they fail, they will be ye more shy of pounding themselves by coming lower." Acting upon this theory, we find our colonial legislators, at their May session, 1704, enacting as follows: "Forasmuch as the maintaining and defending of the frontiers in time of warre is of very great importance, and in regard it ould greatly prejudice her Majesties interest and encourage an enemy, if any of the outposts should be quitted, or exposed by lessening the strength thereof, "It is therefore ordered by this Court: That the frontier towns hereafter named are to be so accounted, that is to say, Symsbury, Waterbury, Woodbury, Danbury, Colchester, Windham, Mansfield and Plainfield, and should not be broken up, or voluntarily deserted without application first made by the inhabitants and allowance had and obtained from this Court; nor shall any inhabitant of the frontiers mentioned, having an estate of freehold in lands and tenements within the same, at the time of any insurrection or breaking forth of warre, remove from thence with intent to sojourn elsewhere, without liberty as aforesaid, on penalty of 1 Hoadley's Conn. Col. Rec. 1 vol. 455. forfeiting all his estate in lands and tenements lying within such township, to be recovered by information of and proof made by the Selectmen of such towne." "And it is further enacted: That no male person of sixteen years old and upwards, that should be an inhabitant of or belonging to any of the townes aforementioned at the time of such warre or insurrection, shall presume to leave such place on penaltie of ten pounds, to be recovrred as aforesaid; all which penalties to be improved towards the defence of such place, or places whereof such person or persons were inhabitants." "It is ordered by this Court: That ten men shall be put in garrison in each of these townes hereafter mentioned, that is to say, Danbury, Woodbury, Waterbury and Symsbury, and that the rest of the men to be raised out of the Counties of New Haven and Fairfield, with such Indians as can be procured, shall be put under sufficient commanders, and have their chief headquarters at Westfield, unlesse otherwise ordered by the Councill of Warre in the Countie of Hartford; and said company of English and Indians shall, from time to time, at the discretion of their chief commander, range the woods to endeavour the discovery of an approaching enemy, and in an especial manner from Westfield to Ousatunnuck." "It is ordered by this Court, that as many of our friend In'dians as are fit for warre and can be prevailed with, and furnished with all things suitable, shall goe with our forces against the common enemie; and Major Ebenezer Johnson is hereby impowered and ordered to imploy suitable persons to acquaint the Indians in the counties of New Haven and Fairfield, of this conclusion concerning them, and to furnish such of said Indians as shall offer themselves for the service as abovesaid, with arms and ammunition, and what else may be needful to fitt them out for warre, and cause them forthwith to repair to Derby, to march with our English forces under the command of the chief officer for the said service. The like to be done with respect to raising Indians in the Countie of New London by the may of said Countie. And this Court allows the wages to such Indian volunteers as those have that are gone to the eastward. And the superiour officer of the forces now to be raised shall have power to release so many English from the service as there are Indians added to them, so that the whole number be still four hundred. And for the incouragement of our forces gone, or going against the enemy, this |