THE OXFOED SETTT.EMENT 135 



tiers made their way in the summer of du Tiiifeau's ar- Arrival of 



^ r^. . -, i /- -T • Settlers 1687 



rival in Boston. There were not more than ten families in 

 the party which Daniel Bondet, an intrepid French Prot- , 

 estant minister who had come to Boston during the pre- 

 vious year, led forward into the wilderness. Hardly had 

 the work of clearing the land and building the rude log 

 cabins been gotten under way when du Tuflfeau himself 

 took up his residence in the colony. Fortunately for the 

 colonists the winter proved to be a very mild one ; and al- 

 though they had arrived too late for gathering any crops 

 they did not suffer for lack of food, as the woods abounded Game and Fish 

 in game and the numerous lakes and streams were well 

 stocked with fish, while from the neighboui-ing Indians 

 they were able to procure supplies of corn. Du Tuffeau's 

 first 'care was to erect a fort on a hill which commanded 

 the little village and the surrounding valley. The remains 

 of this fort are still extant, and show it to have been a The Fort 

 carefully planned and solidly built structure, consisting 

 of a roomy inclosure surrounded by a stockade, near the 

 centre of which stood a block-house about thirty feet long 

 by eighteen feet wide. The fort was equipped with a well 

 and a powder-magazine and was adapted to resist a sud- 

 den onslaught or an extended siege ; for the settlers of 

 those days were forced to hold themselves in readiness 

 against every conceivable stroke of ill fortune. But the 

 Indians were apparently peacefully disposed and the 

 Huguenots wasted but little thought on them. 



II 



The year following the establishment of the colony 

 Bernon himself set sail for America, bringing with him a 

 number of servants and several families of prospective 

 settlers. This company numbered about forty persons in 

 all, and Bernon took upon himself the expense of fitting 

 out the entire enterprise. As soon as he arrived at Bos- 1688 

 ton Bernon proceeded to get a confirmation of a grant of 

 land giving him a tract of twenty-five hundred acres 



