The sachems are said to have wavered on that occasion, between the gratification of present revenge upon the Pequots, and the prospect of an ultimate triumph over the English power by uniting with them. Their friendship for Roger Williams, and the influence he was consequently enabled to exercise, probably turned the scale. Miantonomo informed him of the Pequot application; Mr. Williams forwarded the news immediately to Governor Winthrop at Boston; and Canonicus, by the same messenger, sent word of recent depredations which he had just understood to have been committed by the Pequots at Saybrook. The Governor, probably following the suggestion of Mr. Williams, sent for Miantonomo to do him the honor of a visit.
He came to Boston accordingly in September 1636, attended by two of the sons of Canonicus, another sachem, and about twenty sanops (or male adults.) As he had given notice of his approach the day previous, the Governor sent a corps of musketeers to meet him at Roxbury; and they escorted him into town about noon. By this time, Mr. Winthrop had called together most of the magistrates and ministers of Boston, but it being now dinner time, ceremony and business were both postponed. The sachems dined by themselves in the same room with the governor, while the sanops were amply provided for at an inn. In the afternoon, Miantonomo made his proposals of peace; and said that, in case of their acceptance, he should in two months send a present to confirm them. The governor, according to their own custom, asked time to consider this proposal. At the second conference, which took place the next morning, the following terms were agreed upon, and subscribed by the governor on the one hand, and the marks of the sachems on the other.
1. A firm peace between the Massachusetts colony, and the other English plantations, (with their consent,) and their confederates (with their consent.)
2. Neither party to make peace with the Pequots, without consultation with the other.
3. Not to harbor the Pequots.
4. To put to death or deliver over murderers, and to return fugitive servants.
5. The English to notify them, when they marched against the Pequots, and they to send guides.
6. Free trade between the two nations.
7. None of them to visit the English settlements during the war with the Pequots, without some Englishman or known Indian in company.
The treaty was to continue to the posterity of both nations. On its conclusion, the parties dined together as before. They then took formal leave of each other; and the sachems were escorted out of town, and dismissed with a volley of musketry. The present promised by Miantonomo appears to have been sent in early in 1637, when a deputation of twenty-six Narraghansetts came to Boston, with forty fathom of Wampum and a Pequot's hand. The governor gave each of the four sachems in the company, "a coat of fourteen shillings price, and deferred to return his present till after, according to their manner." [FN] It is well known, how fully the Narraghansetts discharged their engagements in the expedition which took place about this time against the Pequots. They also furnished, through Mr. Williams, not a little useful information. respecting the common enemy, by which the expedition was guided at the outset; and offered the use of the harbors of the Narraghansett coast, for the English vessels.