The Pequod Indians were not so ready as the Dutch to admit that resistance was hopeless. They attacked Wethersfield. They killed several colonists, and carried others away into captivity. Captain John Mason of Connecticut and Captain John Underhill of Massachusetts went against them with about one hundred men. They surprised the Indians in their fort. They set fire to the fort, and shot down the Indians as they strove to escape from their burning wigwams. In a short time the Pequod tribe was destroyed.

The Connecticut colonists had leisure now to settle the form of their government. Massachusetts had such a liberal charter that nothing more seemed to be necessary in that colony. The Mayflower Compact did well enough for the Pilgrims. The Connecticut people had no charter, and they wanted something more definite than a vague compact. So in the winter of 1638-39 they met at Hartford and set down on paper a complete set of rules for their guidance. This was the first time in the history of the English race that any people had tried to do this. The Connecticut constitution of 1638-39 is therefore looked upon as “the first truly political written constitution in history.” The government thus established was very much the same as that of Massachusetts with the exception that in Connecticut there was no religious condition for the right to vote as there was in Massachusetts.

The settlers of New Haven went even farther than the Massachusetts rulers and held that the State should really be a part of the Church. Massachusetts was not entirely to their tastes. They passed only one winter there and then moved away and settled New Haven. But this colony was not well situated for commerce, and was too near the Dutch settlements. It was never as prosperous as Connecticut and was finally joined to that colony.