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LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS

By Romeo Elton

CHAPTER 8.

WE must here narrate briefly the agency of Roger Williams, in averting the imminent danger of a general league among the Indians, for the destruction of the New England colonists. The Pequods, who, as we have already remarked, had always been treacherous and hostile to the whites, were endeavoring to unite the neighboring tribes in a war of extermination against the English. In 1634, the governor and council of Massachusetts Bay had concluded with this tribe a treaty of peace and friendship, but no treaty could restrain their hostility. In July, 1636, a short time after Williams’s removal to Providence, they attacked a party of traders in a sloop, near Block Island, and murdered John Oldham, one of the company, from Massachusetts. The first intelligence of the proposed Indian league, and of the murder of Oldham, was communicated by Roger Williams in a letter to Governor Vane, at Boston. He harbored no vindictive feelings against those who had so recently expelled him from the colony, but promptly informed his persecutors of the calamities that threatened to overwhelm them.

The magistrates of Massachusetts solicited his mediation with the Narragansetts, and he immediately accepted the hazardous commission, and succeeding in defeating the endeavors of the Pequods to win over the Narragansetts to a coalition. In his letter to Major Mason, who was distinguished for his services in the war we are about to relate. Williams has incidentally mentioned his own agency in this undertaking, which we give in his simple and energetic language: -

"Upon letters received from the governor and council of Boston, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and hinder the league labored for by the Pequods and Mohegans against the English - excusing the not sending of company and supplies by the haste of the business - the Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself alone in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of life, to the sachem’s house. Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought, reeked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also. God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to pieces the Pequod’s negotiation and design and to make and finish, by many travels and changes, the English league with the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequods."

In consequence of the agency of Williams, Miantonomoh, the Narragansett sachem, and two sons of Canonicus, with a large number of attendants, made a visit to the authorities of Massachusetts Bay, at Boston, October, 1636. They were received with much parade and demonstration of respect, and a treaty of perpetual peace and alliance was concluded between the English and the Narragansetts, in which it was stipulated that neither party should make peace with the hostile Pequods without the consent of the other. The terms of the treaty were arranged by the negotiation of Williams, but being written in the English language, and the explanations of the magistrates being imperfect, it was found difficult to make the Indians understand the articles. "We agreed," says Governor Winthrop, "to send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who could best interpret them." This measure was probably adopted at the request of the Indians. who knew that Williams was their friend; and it is a fact that demonstrates the confidence reposed in him, both by the Indians and by the government of Massachusetts.