At the same time the Plymouth colony made a move to obtain a foothold upon the Connecticut.  To secure the color of a title, the colony purchased of a company of Indians who had been driven from their homes by the all-victorious Pequods, a tract of land just above fort Hope, embracing the territory where the town of Windsor now stands.  Lieutenant Holmes was then dispatched with a chosen company, in a vessel which conveyed the frame of a small house carefully stowed away, and which could be very expeditiously put together.  He was directed to push directly by fort Hope, and raise and fortify his house upon the purchased lands.  Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, gives the following quaint account of this adventure: 

“When they came up the river the Dutch demanded what they intended, and whither they would go?  They answered, ’up the river to trade.’  Now their order was to go and seat above them.  They bid them strike and stay or they would shoot them, and stood by their ordnance ready fitted.  They answered, they had commission from the Governor of Plymouth to go up the river to such a place, and if they did shoot they must obey their order and proceed; they would not molest them but go on.  So they passed along.  And though the Dutch threatened them hard yet they shot not.  Coming to their place they clapped up their house quickly, and landed their provisions, and left the company appointed, and sent the bark home, and afterward palisaded their house about, and fortified themselves better.”

Van Twiller, informed of this intrusion, sent a commissioner, protesting against this conduct and ordering Holmes to depart, with all his people.  Holmes replied, “I am here in the name of the king of England, and here I shall remain.”

Matters soon became seriously complicated.  A boat’s crew was robbed and murdered by some vagabond Indians.  The culprits were taken and hung.

This exasperated against the Dutch the powerful Pequods who had the supremacy over all that territory.  Open war soon ensued.  The Pequods sent an embassy to Boston, and entered into a treaty of alliance with the Massachusetts colony, in which they surrendered to that colony the Connecticut valley.

In the meantime, Van Twiller having received instructions from the home government, dispatched a force of seventy well armed men to drive Lieutenant Holmes and his men from their post.  The English stood firmly upon their defence.  The Dutch, seeing that a bloody battle must ensue, with uncertain results, withdrew without offering any violence.  In many respects the Dutch colonies continued to enjoy much prosperity.  Mr. Brodhead gives the following interesting account of the state of affairs at the mouth of the Hudson, in the year 1633: