Mr. Gorton, and his eleven friends, thought it prudent to remove from Providence. They accordingly crossed the Pawtuxet river, the southern boundary of the territory purchased by Mr. Williams. They obtained from Miantinomo the cession of a tract of country, called Shawomet, afterwards named Warwick, for which they paid one hundred and forty-four fathoms of wampum.[[233]] Here they fixed their residence; but, if the object of their removal was to escape the grasp of Massachusetts, they fared like many others, who have fled from apparent into real danger. Two Indian sachems, Pomham and Sochonocho, who lived at Shawomet and Pawtuxet, claimed the territory as their own, and went to Boston, in June, 1643, where they complained of Mr. Gorton and his friends, as having taken their lands from them. These sachems then made a surrender of themselves, and of the lands which they claimed, to Massachusetts, and promised fidelity, for themselves and their descendants.

It appears, however, that Miantinomo, as the greatest and most powerful sachem, claimed the right to dispose of the land.[[234]] Pomham himself had signed the deed; and he and Sochonocho, as subordinate sachems, seem to have had no authority to dispute the validity of the sale, or to cede the territory to Massachusetts. Roger Williams, the best authority on a question touching the usages of the Indians, says, in a letter written several years afterwards, to the General Court of Massachusetts, concerning this transaction: “What was done was according to the law and tenor of the natives, I take it, in all New-England and America, viz. that the inferior sachems and subjects shall plant and remove at the pleasure of the highest and supreme sachems; and I humbly conceive, that it pleaseth the Most High and Only Wise to make use of such a bond of authority over them, without which they could not long subsist in human societies, in this wild condition wherein they are.”

These facts must be deemed a sufficient proof, that Mr. Gorton and his friends had a fair title to the lands, or, at least, that they must be acquitted of the charge of defrauding the inferior sachems. But Massachusetts was not destitute of the inclination, which all states have usually possessed, to extend her authority. The submission of these sachems gave her a plausible pretext; and her rulers again summoned Gorton and his friends to appear at Boston, informing them that they were within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. They again refused; and an armed force of forty men was sent to Shawomet, who seized Mr. Gorton and ten of his friends, and carried them to Boston, where they were imprisoned. Their cattle were carried away with them, their property otherwise injured or seized, and their families left to the mercy of the Indians.

At Boston, they were tried for their lives, not for any specific civil crime, but on the general charge of being enemies to true religion, and to civil authority. They were saved from death, by a majority, it is said, of two votes only. They were, nevertheless, sentenced to a severe punishment. Mr. Gorton was ordered to be confined at Charlestown, and the others in different towns. Each was compelled to wear an iron chain, fast bolted round the leg, and in this manner to labor. If they spoke to any person, except an officer of church or state, they were to suffer death. They were kept at labor during the winter, and were then banished, from Massachusetts, and from the lands at Shawomet, on pain of death.

Mr. Gorton, and two of his friends, afterwards went to England, where they obtained an order from the Earl of Warwick and the other commissioners of the plantations, dated August 19, 1644, requiring Massachusetts not to molest the settlers at Shawomet. Massachusetts reluctantly complied, and Mr. Gorton and his followers occupied their lands in quiet. Mr. Gorton lived to a great age.[[235]]

We have stated these proceedings at considerable length, because they are connected with the history of Mr. Williams. They exhibit strongly the temper of those times. The conduct of Massachusetts none will now defend. It was a manifest usurpation, and a cruel abuse of power. It is a profitable example of the manifold evils of erecting the civil government into a court of inquisition. It was the alleged heresies and blasphemies of Mr. Gorton and his friends, against which the edge of this persecution was directed; and these unhappy men narrowly escaped the fate which, a few years later, befel the Quakers. The rulers and clergy of Massachusetts, undoubtedly, thought that they were impelled by an honest zeal for the purity of religion and the glory of God. Their conduct proves, that a being so fallible as man, is unfit to be intrusted with power over the conscience.

It is difficult to ascertain the true character and real opinions of Mr. Gorton. If the statements of his opponents could be safely received, we should view him as a wild and turbulent fanatic. But we have seen much reason to distrust the representations, which writers of that age have furnished of Mr. Gorton, and others. He was, unquestionably, a bold, zealous, eloquent man, of considerable talents and learning, and easily exasperated, by opposition, to stubborn and contumacious resistance. He possessed the art of securing the firm attachment of his friends; a proof that he possessed some virtues, besides consistency of character. A competent authority, quoted in a preceding page, has testified to the general purity of his morals, and to the high estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, as indicated by the fact, that, “from the first establishment of government, he was almost constantly in office.” As to his religious opinions, it is affirmed, by the same authority, that “he spiritualized every thing, and one would almost have thought that he had taken the tour of Swedenborg.”[[236]]

It is certain that Roger Williams disapproved Mr. Gorton’s religious opinions, but did not consider them as dangerous, or as impairing his civil rights.[[237]]

CHAPTER XV.

Birth of Mr. Williams’ second son—league of the colonies—war between the Narragansets and Mohegans—capture and death of Miantinomo—Mr. Williams embarks for England.