124 



the "Flower of Essex," content myself with a mere passing 

 allusion to an event which, occurring more than two hun- 

 dred and fifteen years ago, created a bond of feeling be- 

 tween the people of these two counties, unreleased even in 

 this long lapse of time. 



The colonists having strengthened themselves during 

 the thirty years of their settlement on the line of the sea 

 coast, determined to enlarge the bounds of their habita- 

 tions, and to secure wider tracts, for better cultivation, and 

 for more desirable pasturage. Having informed them- 

 selves of the character of the land in the valley of the Con- 

 necticut Kiver, they concluded treaties with, and made 

 purchases from those who claimed to be, and were ac- 

 knowledged as the chiefs of various Indian tribes on the 

 Connecticut River, covering the land from Springfield to 

 the Deerfield river on the north. 



It is true the consideration was small to those who 

 bought the laud, and would seem puerile and trifling to us, 

 but the articles pleased and satisfied the Indians, and they 

 sold. 



They reserved a right to hunt the forests, to fish the 

 rivers and streams, to cultivate some land, and to gather 

 the nuts and berries of the woods, thus retaining really 

 about all the rights they ever had or needed. 



These Indians were quiet and well disposed, coming 

 and going and living among the settlers, and this con- 

 tinued for twenty years till the brave and crafty Philip 

 had combined all the Massachusetts Indians into a strong 

 bitter league of extermination against the white settlers. 



This war commencing in the south-eastern part of the 

 colony, was soon carried into the settlements on the Con- 

 necticut River, and the flourishing and prosperous colonies 

 from Springfield to Northfield were in great peril. It was 

 determined to abandon the extreme frontiers of Northfield 

 and Deerfield, and to concentrate all at Hatfield, Hadley 

 and Northampton, then the strongest and ablest of the 

 western settlements, and which were threatened by the 



