Still Governor Winthrop looked wistfully towards the Connecticut.
Though he admitted that the lower part of the valley was "out of the
claim of the Massachusetts patent," it could not be denied that the
upper part of the valley was included in their grant. In the summer of
1633, John Oldham, with three companions, penetrated the wilderness,
through the Indian trails, one hundred and sixty miles to the
Connecticut river. They were hospitably entertained in the many Indian
villages they passed through by the way.

They brought back early in the autumn, glowing accounts of the beauty
of the region, and of the luxuriant meadows which bordered the stream.
Governor Winthrop then sent a vessel on a trading voyage, through Long
Island Sound, to Manhattan, there to inform the Dutch authorities that
the king of England had granted the Connecticut river and the adjacent
country to the subjects of Great Britain.

In most of these transactions the Dutch appear to great advantage.
After five weeks' absence the vessel returned to Boston to report the
friendly reception of the Massachusetts party at Manhattan, and
bearing a courteous letter to Governor Winthrop, in which Van Twiller,
in respectful terms, urged him to defer his claim to Connecticut until
the king of England and the States-General of Holland should agree
about their limits, so that the colonists of both nations, might live
"as good neighbors in these heathenish countries." Director Van
Twiller added, with good sense, which does him much credit:

"I have, in the name of the States-General and the West
India Company, taken possession of the forementioned river,
and, for testimony thereof, have set up an house on the