soon followed, while a party from Roxbury settled at Springfield. During
three years these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 1639,
Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a constitution and formed a
little republic which in time was called Connecticut. Their "Fundamental
Orders of Connecticut" was the first written constitution made in
America. Their republic was the first in the history of the world to be
founded by a written constitution, and marks the beginning of democratic
government in our country.

%43. The New Haven Colony.%--Just at the time these things were
happening in the Connecticut valley, the beginnings of another little
republic were made on the shores of Long Island Sound. One day in the
summer of 1637 there came to Boston a company of rich London merchants
under the lead of an eloquent preacher named John Davenport. The people
of Boston would gladly have kept the newcomers at that town. But the
strangers desired to found a state of their own, and so, after spending
some months in seeking for a spot with a good harbor, they left Boston
in 1638 and founded New Haven. In 1639 Milford and Guilford were laid
out, and Stamford was started in 1640. Three years later these four
towns joined in a sort of federal union and took the name of the New
Haven colony.[1]

[Footnote 1: Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 134-137.]

[Illustration: NEW ENGLAND AND NEW NETHERLAND]

%44. "The United Colonies of New England."%--There were now five
colonies in New England; namely, Plymouth, or the "Old Colony,"
Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven.
Geographically, they were near each other. But each was weak in numbers,