Mr. Williams prevents the Indian league—war with the Pequods—their defeat and ruin.
The Pequods were, as we have already remarked, the most warlike tribe of Indians in New-England, and the most hostile to the colonists, not perhaps so much from a greater degree of ferocity, as from a clearer foresight of the effects which the natives had reason to apprehend from the increase of the whites.
In 1634, Captains Stone and Norton, of Massachusetts, with eight other Englishmen, were murdered by the Indians, in a small trading vessel, on Connecticut river. It is not certain, that the murderers were Pequods, but they fled to this tribe for protection, and divided with them the property which they had plundered. The Pequods thus became responsible for the crime; and the magistrates of Massachusetts sent to them messengers to demand satisfaction, but without success. The Pequods afterwards sent messengers, with gifts, to Massachusetts, exculpating the tribe from the guilt of the murder. The Governor and Council, after a conference of several days, and a consultation, as usual, with the principal ministers, concluded with them a treaty of peace and friendship.[[166]]
But no treaty could appease the jealous hostility of the Pequods. In July, 1636, a short time after Mr. Williams’ removal to Providence, a party of Indians murdered Mr. John Oldham, near Block-Island, whither he had gone from Massachusetts, in a small barque, for purposes of trade. The murderers fled to the Pequods, by whom they were protected. It was suspected, however, that the murder was contrived by some of the Narragansets and Nianticks; and there was evidently some disposition among these tribes and the Pequods to form a league for the destruction of the English.
The first intelligence of the murder of Mr. Oldham, and of the proposed league, was communicated by Mr. Williams, in a letter to Governor Vane, at Boston, a few days after the event. With a spirit of forgiveness and philanthropy, which honors his memory, he promptly informed those who had so recently expelled him from the colony, of the peril which now threatened them. It may be alleged, that self-preservation impelled him to appeal to Massachusetts for assistance to defeat a project, which, if accomplished, would have overwhelmed himself and his colony in ruin. But his influence with the Indians was so great, that it is probable he might have secured his own safety and that of his companions. The merit of his generous mediation ought not to be sullied, because his own welfare was at the same time advanced. Violent passions often make men forget or disregard their own interests. A vindictive spirit might have been willing to hazard its own safety, for the pleasure of ample vengeance on the authors of its wrongs.
The Massachusetts government, on the 24th of August, sent by water an armed force of eighty volunteers, under the command of John Endicott, Esq. with instructions to “put to death the men of Block-Island, but to spare the women and children, and to bring them away, and to take possession of the island; and from thence to go to the Pequods, to demand the murderers of Captain Stone and other English, some thousand fathoms of wampum, for damages, and some of their children as hostages, which, if they should refuse, they were to obtain it by force.”[[167]] These stern orders were not strictly executed; yet many Indians were killed, a large number of wigwams were burnt, at Block-Island and on Connecticut river, some corn was destroyed, and other damage was done. The troops returned to Boston, on the 14th of September, without the loss of a man.
This expedition had little effect, except to exasperate the natives. Mr. Endicott was the object of many censures for returning, without striking a severer blow. But his force was small, the winter was approaching, and prudence, undoubtedly, required his return.
The Pequods became more decidedly hostile. They killed several white persons, and made strenuous efforts to induce the powerful Narraganset tribe to forget their mutual animosity, and join with them in a war of extermination against the English. “There had been,” says Hutchinson, (vol. i. p. 60) “a fixed, inveterate enmity, between the two tribes; but on this occasion the Pequods were willing to smother it, their enmity against the English being the strongest of the two: and although they had never heard the story of Polypheme and Ulysses, yet they artfully urged, that the English were come to dispossess them of their country, and that all the Narragansets could hope for from their friendship, was the favor of being the last devoured: whereas, if the Indians would unite, they might easily destroy the English, or force them to leave the country, without being exposed themselves to any hazard. They need not come to open battles; firing their houses, killing their cattle, and lying in wait for them as they went about their ordinary business, would soon deprive them of all means of subsisting. But the Narragansets preferred the present pleasure of revenge upon their mortal enemies, to the future happiness of themselves and their posterity.”
The chief merit of preventing this league, and thus, perhaps, saving the whites from destruction, is due to Mr. Williams. The magistrates of Massachusetts solicited his mediation with the Narragansets. They did not ask it in vain. Mr. Williams instantly undertook the service, and with much toil, expense and hazard, he succeeded in defeating the endeavors of the Pequods to win over the Narragansets to a coalition against the English. Mr. Williams, in his letter to Major Mason, has incidentally related his agency in this affair. It is due to him, to quote here his own simple and energetic words:
“Upon letters received from the Governor and Council at 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 Pequods’ negotiation and design; and to make and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with the Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequods.”