HISTORY OF VERMONT. 46t 



impossible that the settlement of the country 

 should proceed with its natural progress, in such 

 a state of things. And hence the colonies were 

 obliged to adopt u debilitating caution, reserve, 

 and slowness, in making their advances, and 

 extending their settlements into the country. 



In the year 1752, a proposal was made to ef- 

 fect a settlement on the rich lands at Coos, on 

 Connecticut river. It was proposed to lay out 

 one township on the east side, and another on 

 the west, at the place now called Newbury, in 

 Vermoiit. The governors of Massachusetts 

 and New Hampshire approved of the proceed- 

 ings, and a large number of persons engaged in 

 the enterprise, A. party of men were sent up 

 the river in the spring, to view the lands, and 

 lay out t)ie proposed townships. Some of the 

 Indians of the St. Francois tribe observed their 

 motions, suspected their design, and forbade 

 their proceedings ; at the same time they sent 

 a message to the commander of the fort at Num- 

 ber Four, informing him that they would not 

 suffer the English to settle at Coos. The In- 

 dian mandate \v<{-6 communicated to the gover- 

 nors of the two English provinces, and such was 

 their fear of the Indians, that they meekly and 

 quietly 1 lid aside the whole business. To such 

 mortifying disi^^race and caution, was the agri- 

 culture, the settlement and the cultivation of the 

 country, constantly subject. And yet on these, 

 the safety, the wealth, stiength, population, and 

 commerce of the whole country depended. Of 

 ail objects this was the most important, to the 

 colonies ; and the men, who in that state of 

 things settled a new town, did more importajit 



