arrived in Boston on November 28, the snow was knee-deep, and the
winter set in so cold and forbidding that there was some delay in
carrying out the plans for the new colony. As Lieutenant Gardiner
was an "expert engineer," the people of Boston were glad to take
advantage of his stay with them to employ him in finishing some
fortifications for them on Fort Hill.

In the spring he sailed once more on the little Batcheler for the
mouth of the Connecticut River, where it had been decided to
build the new fort and plant the new colony. This place was
selected partly because of its good harbor, and partly because a
fort here would command the entrance to this "Long, Fresh, Rich
River."

The "Lords and Gentlemen" who planned this undertaking included
Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Brooke, John Pym, and other well-known
men in the Puritan party. They were opposed to the Government in
England both in politics and religion, and at one time, when
matters went strongly against their party, some of them expected
to come to America. It is said that Oliver Cromwell, afterward
Lord Protector of England, and John Hampden, his cousin, were
among this number. It is at least true that Lieutenant Gardiner
was ordered to construct "within the fort" houses suitable for
"men of quality" and to erect "some convenient buildings for the
receipt of gentlemen." The place was named Saybrook for Lord Saye
and Sele and for Lord Brooke. It was not a colony of merchants
like the New Haven Colony, nor of farmers like the Connecticut
Colony; it was a military post, and it was planned as a refuge in
the New World for influential men in public life in England who
might be forced to leave their own country.