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as the governor appointed for the colony by the
proprietaries.
In vain did
Nicolls protest against the division of his province, and struggle to secure for his patron the territory which had been released in ignorance.
The incipient people had no motive to second his complaints; the freedom of
New Jersey assured its separate existence.
Yet so feeble were the beginnings of the commonwealth, it was but a cluster of four houses, which, in honor of the kind-hearted
Lady Carteret, was now called
Elizabethtown, and rose into dignity as the capital of the province.
To
New England messengers were despatched to publish the tidings that Puritan liberties were warranted a shelter on the
Raritan.
Immediately, an association
of church members from the New Haven colony sailed into the
Passaic, and, at the request of the governor, holding a council with the
Hackensack tribe, themselves extinguished the
Indian title to
Newark.
‘With one
heart, they resolved to carry on their spiritual and town affairs according to godly government;’ to be ruled un-
der their old laws by officers chosen from among themselves; and when, in May, 1668, a colonial legislative
assembly was for the first time convened at
Elizabethtown, the influence of Puritans transferred the chief features of the
New England codes to the statute book of
New Jersey.
The province increased in numbers and prosperity.
The land was accessible and productive; the temperate climate delighted by its salubrity; there was little danger from the neighboring
Indians, whose strength had been broken by long hostilities with the
Dutch; the Five Nations guarded the approaches from the interior; and the vicinity of older settlements saved the emigrants from the distresses of a first adventure in the
