* Massachusetts Historical Collections, i., 276.
** Seekonk is the Indian name for the wild or black goose with which the waters in that region originally abounded. The town is the ancient Rehoboth, first settled by William Blackstone, an English non-conformist minister, a few months previous to the arrival here of Roger Williams. Blackstone was the first white man who lived upon the peninsula of Shawmut, where Boston now stands. Williams's plantation was on the little Seekonk River, the navigable portion of which is really an arm of Narraganset Bay. Although Williams was the real founder of Rhode Island, Blackstone was the first white settler within its borders. He had no sympathy with Williams, and continued his allegiance to Massachusetts, though without its jurisdiction.
*** Backus's History of New England, i., 290.
**** Bancroft, i., 380.
(v) Callender's Historical Discourse.
Williams's Negotiations with the Indians.—Ingratitude of the Massachusetts Colony.—March of the French Army to Providence.
Massachusetts people, Mr. Williams informed the latter of the fact. They solicited his mediation, and, forgetting the many injuries he had received from those who now needed his favor, he set out on a stormy day, in a poor canoe, upon the rough bay, and through many dangers repaired to the cabin of Canonicus. The Pequots and Narragansets were already assembled in council. The former threatened him with death, yet he remained there three days and nights. "God wonderfully preserved me," he said, "and helped me to break in pieces the designs of the enemy, and to finish the English league, by many travels and changes, with the Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequots." This alliance we noticed in the last chapter. Notwithstanding this great service, the Massachusetts court would not revoke Williams's sentence of banishment.
Let us now close the volume for a time, and visit other places of historic interest.
Leaving the Seekonk, we walked to the site of the encampment of the French army in the autumn of 1782, while on its march to Boston for embarkation. It had remained in Virginia after the battle of Yorktown, in the autumn of 1781, until the summer of 1782, when it joined Washington and his army on the Hudson. The place of its encampment there was near Peekskill. The order and discipline of this army, and its uniform respect for property—the soldiers not even taking fruit from the trees without leave—were remarkable, and on their march northward Rochambeau and his officers received many congratulatory addresses. ** The army remained at Peekskill until October, when it commenced its march for Boston, going by the way of Hartford and Providence. Count de October 22, 1732 Rochambeau accompanied it to the latter place, where he took his leave of the troops and returned to Washington's head-quarters. The army had received orders to sail to the West Indies in the French fleet of fifteen sail of the line and four frigates, then lying in the harbor of Boston, in the event of the evacuation of New York or Charleston by the British. The Baron de Viomenil was ordered to accompany the troops as commander instead of Rochambeau. The latter, with several other officers, returned from Rhode Island to Virginia, and at Norfolk embarked for France.
* Roger Williams was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He became a minister in the Church of England, but his views of religious liberty made him a non-conformist, and he came to America. Bold in the annunciation of his tenets respecting the perfect liberty of mind and conscience, he was banished from Massachusetts, and planted a colony at the head of Narraganset Bay, now the city of Providence. In 1639 he embraced the doctrines of the Baptists, and being baptized by one of his brethren, he baptized ten others. Doubts as to the correctness of his principles arose in his mind, and he finally concluded that it would be wrong to perform the rite of baptism without a revelation from Heaven. The Chureh which he had formed was accordingly dissolved. He went to England in 1643, as agent for the colony, and obtained a charter, with which he returned in September, 1644. This charter was granted on the 14th of March, and included the shores and islands of Narraganset Bay, west of Plymouth and south of Massachusetts, and as far as the Pequot River and eountry, to be known as the Providence Plantations. He landed at Boston, but was not molested on account of being under sentence of banishment, for he brought with him recommendatory letters from influential members of Parliament. He went to England again for the colony in 1651, where he remained until 1654. He was chosen president of the government on his return, which office he held until 1657, when Benedict Arnold was appointed. In 1672 he held a dispute with the Quakers for three days at Newport, of whieh he wrote an account. * He died in April, 1683, aged eighty-four years.