94 OCEAN 10 OCEAN ON HORSEBACK. 



colony of friends, made a settlement on the fertile 

 meadows of the Indian Agawam. The spot was 

 obtained by a deed signed by thirteen Indians, and 

 Pinchon, in loving remembrance of his old English 

 home, christened the new settlement Springfield. 

 From the little we can glean of them, the ancient 

 inhabitants of the village must have been a grim old 

 race. 



Hugh Parsons, and Mary, his wife, were tried for 

 witchcraft. 



Good wife Hunter was gagged and made to stand in 

 the stocks for "Sundry exhorbitance of ye toung.'' 



Men were fined for not attending town meeting and 

 voting. 



In August, 1734, the Rev. Robert Breck was called 

 to the church in Springfield. 



Shortly before that he had used the following ^orda 

 in one of his sermons : " What will become of the 

 heathen who never heard of the gospel, I do not pre- 

 tend to say, but I cannot but indulge a hope that God, 

 in his boundless benevolence, will find out a way 

 whereby those heathen who act up to the light they 

 have may be saved.'' 



The news of this alarming hope came to Spring- 

 field, and a few other so-called unorthodox utter- 

 ances were attributed to him. "In the minds of the 

 River Gods heterodoxy was his crime. For this the 

 Rev. gentleman was not only tried by a council of the 

 church, but a sheriff and his posse appeared and 

 arrested Mr. Breck in his Majesty's name, and the 

 prisoner was taken first to the town-house, and after- 

 ward to New London for trial." 



The early Sprintrfield settlers had lew of the 



