mitted themselves and their lands under that government; and then their rulers wrote to Gorton and others to come to Boston, and answer to the complaints of these men. But they were so far from going, that they wrote a long letter, containing a mystical paraphrase upon their writing, and many provoking sentences against said rulers, and their religious principles and conduct, and a refusal to go, dated November 20, 1642, signed by twelve men.

And

to get out of their reach, these men went over the river, and bought the lands at Shawomet, of the Indians, and received a deed of it, January 12, 1643, signed by Miantanimo and Pumham.

In May following the general court at Boston sent men into those parts; and finding that Gorton and his company were gone out of what they called their jurisdiction, they got Pumham and Socononco, two Indian sachems, to come to Boston in June, and to submit themselves and their lands unto their government, and then to enter a complaint against Gorton and his company, that they had taken away their lands, by the influence of Miantanimo, who forced Pumham to sign the deed, as they said, though he would not receive any of the pay for it. Upon which the governor and one assistant wrote to Gorton and his company to come to Boston, and answer to these complaints; and they sent to Miantanimo also to come to Boston for the same end. But Gorton and his company sent a long and provoking letter, and refused to go. Miantanimo went down and justified his sale of those lands, and said those sachems were his subjects, or rulers under him. And it appears by many writings, that he was a man of the greatest powers of mind, and of the greatest influence among the Indians of almost any one in the land, which caused the English to be greatly afraid of him.

After much consultation, commissioners from New Haven, Connecticut, Plymouth, and Massachusetts, met at Boston in September, and signed articles of confederation for mutual assistance and defence; that two commissioners from each colony should meet once a year, or oftener, if necessary, to order the general affairs of all,

1643.]

GORTON AND OTHERS CONFINED.

57

while the internal government of each should be as before. And Massachusetts declared that Shawomet was within Plymouth colony, and called upon them to relieve the Indians there, whom they said Gorton's company had oppressed; but rather than attempt it, they gave up all the right they had there to Massachusetts, and the other commissioners assented to it.

Massachusetts then put their government into a posture of war, and sent three officers and forty armed soldiers to Shawomet, and brought Gorton and a number of his company to Boston by force. They also brought away about eighty head of their cattle, to pay the cost of this expedition. And when they had got these men there, they left the affair about lands, and tried them for their lives upon a charge of heresy and blasphemy; but a small majority saved their lives for that time; and they enacted that Samuel Gorton, John Weeks, Randal Holden, Robert Potter, Richard Carder, Francis Weston, and John Warner, should be confined in seven of their chief towns, during the pleasure of the court, to work for their living, and not to publish their errors nor to speak against the government, each upon pain of death. Some others had smaller punishments.

In the mean time war had broken out between the Narragansets and the Mohegans, in which Uncas prevailed, and took Miantanimo prisoner, and carried him to Hartford, and left him in the hands of the English, at his own request; and when the commissioners met at Boston in September, they debated about what they should do with him; and though they could not see any right they had to put him to death, yet they feared that if he was set at liberty it would be very dangerous to themselves, and therefore they delivered him to Uncas, for him to execute him without torture, which he did.* Thus one evil leads on to others, like the breaking forth of waters.

For the confinement of Gorton and his company did no good to them, and it caused uneasiness to many of their own people; and therefore when the general court met

Winthrop, p. 262. 295. 303, 305, 306.

at Boston, March 7, 1644, they passed an act, which said, “ It is ordered that Samuel Gorton and the rest of that company, who stand confined, shall be set at liberty; provided that if they or any of them shall, after fourteen days after such enlargement, come within any part of our jurisdiction, either in Massachusetts, or in or near Providence, or any of the lands of Pumham and Socononco, or elsewhere within our jurisdiction, then such person or persons shall be apprehended, wheresoever they may be taken, and shall suffer death by course of law; provided also, that during all their continuance in our bounds inhabiting for the said time of fourteen days, they shall be still bound to the rest of the articles of their former confinement, upon the penalty therein expressed."

Thus it stands upon their records. And one of the officers who brought them to Boston, says, "To be sure there be them in New England, that have Christ Jesus and his blessed ordinances in such esteem, that, the Lord assisting, they had rather lose their lives than suffer them to be thus blasphemed, if they can help it. And whereas some have favoured them, and endeavoured to bring under blame such as have been zealous against their abominable doctrines; the good God be favourable unto them, and prevent them from coming under the like blame with Ahab. Yet they remained in their old way; and there is somewhat to be considered in it, to be sure, that in these days, when all look for the fall of antichrist, such detestable doctrines should be upheld, and persons suffered, who exceed the beast himself for blasphemy; and this to be done by those that would be counted reformers, and such as seek the utter subversion of antichrist.”*

This history was finished in 1652; and it discovers the sincerity of the actors in those measures, which now appear very strange. And if any men had a right to use force with others about religious affairs, perhaps these were as pious men as ever did so, as I observed before. But nothing serves more to prejudice sinful men against the truth, than injurious treatment from those who teach

* Johnson's History, p. 187.

1643.]

WILLIAMS VISITS ENGLAND.

59

it; which Gorton and his company have evidenced even to this day. For when they were released, they went to Rhode Island, and from thence over to the Narragansets, where they procured a deed from the Indians of all their people and lands, which they resigned over to the King of England, and appointed Gorton and others as their agents to carry the same to him, dated April 19, 1644. And they went over to England with it, and there published an account of their sufferings at Boston; and though the king could not help them, yet they obtained an order from the Parliament to Massachusetts, to allow them to enjoy the lands which they had purchased, and to remove any obstructions that they had put in the way of it. And as the Earl of Warwick was their great friend in this affair, they called their town Warwick. And Gorton taught his doctrines there for many years; and the effects of them, and of the persecutions which these men suffered, with the general nature of sin, have caused a large part of their posterity to neglect all religion to this day; others of them have become professors of religion, but not in the Congregational way.

66

When Mr. Williams saw how things went here, and that some light opened in England, he went there in the spring of 1643, and published a key to the language and customs of the Indians in our country; which the Historical Society at Boston reprinted in 1794. And as Sir Henry Vane, who was Governor at Boston in the time of the Pequot war, was now a member of Parliament, and had a great regard for Mr. Williams: he used his great influence in procuring a charter for him, Bordering northward and north-east on the patent of Massachusetts, east and south-east on Plymouth patent, south on the ocean, and on the west and north-west by the Indians called Narragansets; the whole tract extending about twenty-five miles unto the Pequot river and country; to be known by the name of the incorporation of Providence plantations in the Narraganset bay, in New England."" It gave them power to form their own government, elect all their officers, and to make all their laws, as near the laws of England as they could. This charter

was dated March 14, 1644, and was signed by Robert Warwick, Philip Pembroke, Say and Seal, Philip Wharton, Arthur Haslerig, Cornelius Holland, Henry Vane, Samuel Vassel, John Rolle, Miles Corbet, and William Spurstow.

With this they sent a letter to the rulers and other friends in Massachusetts, saying, "Taking notice, some of us of long time, of Mr. Roger Williams, his good affections and conscience, and of his sufferings by our common enemies and oppressors of God's people-the prelates; as also of his great industry and travel in his printed Indian labours in your parts, the like whereof we have not seen extant from any part of America, and in which respect it hath pleased both houses of Parliament freely to grant unto him and friends with him a free and absolute charter of civil government for these parts of his abode; and withal sorrowfully resenting, that amongst good men, our friends, driven to the ends of the earth, exercised with the trials of a wilderness, and who mutually give good testimony each of other, as we observe you do of him, and he abundantly of you; there should be such a distance. We thought it fit upon divers considerations, to profess our great desires of both your utmost endeavours of nearer closing, and of ready expressing of these good affections, which we perceive you bear each to other, in the actual performance of all friendly offices; the rather because of those bad neighbours you are like to find too near you in Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the west of England and from Ireland ;* that howsoever it may please the Most High to shake our foundations, yet the report of your peaceable and prosperous plantations may be some refreshing to your true and faithful friends."t

Mr. Williams arrived at Boston with this letter, in September, 1644, and they let him pass on to Providence ; but they never took off his sentence of banishment, nor

* Places that were then in the king's party, but were soon after brought under the parliament.

Winthrop, p. 356.