public void startConnection() {
        String host = plugin.getConfig().getString("hostname", "localhost");
        String port = plugin.getConfig().getString("port", "3306");
        String username = plugin.getConfig().getString("username", "root");
        String password = plugin.getConfig().getString("password", "");
        String db = plugin.getConfig().getString("database", "bans");

        Connection connection = null;

        try {
            // load the database driver (make sure this is in your classpath!)
            Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return;
        }

        try {
            // setup the connection pool
            BoneCPConfig config = new BoneCPConfig();
            config.setJdbcUrl("jdbc:mysql://" + host + ":" + port + "/" + db);
            config.setUsername(username);
            config.setPassword(password);
            config.setMinConnectionsPerPartition(5);
            config.setMaxConnectionsPerPartition(10);
            config.setPartitionCount(1);
            connectionPool = new BoneCP(config);

            connection = connectionPool.getConnection();
            if (connection != null) {
                Statement statement = connection.createStatement();
                statement.executeUpdate("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `backpacks` (\n" +
                        "  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,\n" +
                        "  `server` varchar(100) NOT NULL,\n" +
                        "  `playerUUID` varchar(40) NOT NULL,\n" +
                        "  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)\n" +
                        ") ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=10 ;");
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (connection != null) {
                try {
                    connection.close();
                } catch (SQLException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }