WAR WITH THE PEQUODS. 397 IX. Haynes had for one year been the governor of Massa- CHAP. chusetts; and Hooker had no rival in public estimation but Cotton, whom he surpassed in force of character, in boldness of spirit, and in honorable clemency. Historians, investigating the causes of events, have endeavored to find the motives of this settlement in the jealous ambition of the minister of Hartford. Such ingenuity is gratuitous. The Connecticut was at that time supposed to be the best channel for a great internal traffic in furs; and its meadows, already proverbial for the richness of their soil, had accquired the same celebrity as in a later day the banks of the Genesee, or the bottom lands of the Miami. The new settlement, that seemed so far towards the west, was environed by perils. The Dutch still indulged a hope of dispossessing the English, and the natives of the country beheld the approach of Europeans with malignant hatred. No part of New England was more thickly covered with aboriginal inhabitants than Connecticut. The Pequods, who were settled round the Thames, could muster at least seven hundred warriors; the whole number of the effective men of the emigrants was much less than two hundred. The danger was incessant; and while the settlers, with hardly a plough or a yoke of oxen, turned the wild fertility of nature into productiveness, they were at the same time exposed to the incursions of a savage enemy, whose delight was carnage. For the Pequods had already shown a hostile spirit. 1633. Several years had elapsed since they had murdered the crew of a small trading vessel in Connecticut River. With some appearance of justice they pleaded the necessity of self-defence, and sent messengers to Boston 1634. to desire the alliance of the white men. The govern Nov. IX. CHAP. ment of Massachusetts accepted the excuse, and im mediately conferred the benefit which was due from civilization to the ignorant and passionate tribes; it reconciled the Pequods with their hereditary enemies, the Narragansetts. No longer at variance with a pow1636. erful neighbor, the Pequods again displayed their bitJuly. ter and imboldened hostility to the English by murdering Oldham, near Block Island. The outrage was punished by a sanguinary but ineffectual expedition. The warlike tribe was not overawed, but rather courted the alliance of its neighbors, the Narragansetts and the Mohegans, that a union and a general rising of the natives might sweep the hated intruders from the ancient hunting-grounds of the Indian race. The design could be frustrated by none but Roger Williams; and the exile, who had been the first to communicate to the governor of Massachusetts the news of the impending conspiracy, encountered the extremity of peril with magnanimous heroism. Having received letters from Vane and the council of Massachusetts, requesting his utmost and speediest endeavors to prevent the league, neither storms of wind nor high seas could detain the adventurous envoy. Shipping himself alone in a poor canoe, every moment at the hazard of his life, he hastened to the house of the sachem of the Narragansetts. The Pequod ambassadors, reeking with blood, were already there; and for three days and nights the business compelled him to lodge and mix with them; having cause every night to expect their knives at his throat. The Narragansetts were wavering; but Roger Williams succeeded in dissolving the formidable conspiracy. It was the most intrepid and most successful achievement in the whole Pequod war-an action as perilous in its execution CONNECTICUT LEVIES TROOPS FOR THE WAR. 399 IX. as it was fortunate in its issue. When the Pequods CHAP. were left to contend single-handed against the English, it was their ignorance only which could still inspire 1637 confidence in their courage. Continued injuries and murders roused Connecticut to action; and the court of its three infant towns May decreed immediate war. Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, was their ally. To John Mason the staff of command was delivered at Hartford by the venerated Hooker; and after nearly a whole night spent, at the request of the soldiers, in importunate prayer by the very learned and godly Stone, about sixty men, one 19. third of the whole colony, aided by John Underhill and twenty gallant recruits, whom the forethought of Vane had sent from the Bay State, sailed past the Thames, 20 and, designing to reach the Pequod fort unobserved, entered a harbor near Wickford, in the bay of the 21 Narragansetts. The next day was the Lord's, sacred to religion and rest. Early in the week, the captains 22. of the expedition, with the pomp of a military escort, repaired to the court of Canonicus, the patriarch and ruler of the tribe; and the younger and more fiery 23 Miantonomoh, surrounded by two hundred of his bravest warriors, received them in council. "Your design," said he, "is good; but your numbers are too weak to brave the Pequods, who have mighty chieftains, and are skilful in battle;" and after doubtful friendship, he deserted the desperate enterprise. Nor did the unhappy clans on Mistic River distrust their strength. To their hundreds of brave men their bows and arrows still seemed formidable weapons; ignorant of European fortresses, they viewed their rushwork palisades with complacency; and as the English boats sailed by the places where the |