128 CONNECTICUT’S INFLUENCE 
Ohio, of the seventy-three volumes of Jesuit Relations 
written during two centuries by missionaries in North 
America to their superiors in France or Italy. Such 
things speak eloquently of the change that has come 
over us. They show that while we can still draw les- 
sons from the Roman Forum and the Frankish Field- 
of-March, we have awakened to the fact that the New 
England town-meeting also has its historic lessons. 
Now when we come to the early history of Connecti- 
cut and consider the circumstances under which it was 
founded, we are soon impressed with the unusual sig- 
nificance and importance of every step in the story. 
We are soon brought to see that the secession of the 
three river towns from Massachusetts was an event no 
less memorable than the voyage of the Mayflower or 
the arrival of Winthrop’s great colony in Massachu- 
setts Bay. In order to appreciate its significance, we 
may begin by pointing out one very marked and _ no- 
ticeable peculiarity of the early arrangement and dis- 
tribution of population in New England. It formed 
a great contrast to what occurred in Virginia. The 
decisive circumstance which insured the success of the 
Virginia colony after its early period of distress some- 
times reaching despair, was the growing European 
demand for tobacco. The commercial basis of Old 
Virginia’s existence was the exportation of tobacco 
raised upon large estates along the bank of the James 
and neighbouring rivers. Now we find that colony 
growing steadily inland ina compact mass presenting 
a united front against the wilderness and its denizens. 
We do not find a few settlements on James River, a few © 
on the Rappahannock, and another group perhaps at 
Lynchburg, quite out of military supporting distance 
