“For my much honored, kind friend, Mr. John Winthrop, at his house, at Nameug, these.
“Cawcawmsqussick, 23, 7, 48, (so called.)
“Kind Sir,
“Best salutations to your dear selves and loving sister. I am bold and yet glad to trouble you, that by this occasion I may hear of your welfare. Capt. Mason lately requested me to forbid the Narragansets to hunt at Pequod, and to assure them of his visiting of them if they so did. I have written now an answer, which I am bold to request you to send at your next opportunity. Two days since I was at Providence, and then Mr. Brown was not returned, only he had wrote home some angry passage against the Narragansets, who are now in expectation of some assault from the English. Sir, whether it please God to visit us with peace or war, in life and death I desire to be
“Yours ever in Christ Jesus,
“ROGER WILLIAMS.
“Sir, our neighbors Mr. Coddington and Capt. Partridge, ten days since, returned from Plymouth with propositions for Rhode-Island to subject to Plymouth; to which himself and Portsmouth incline; our other three towns decline, and Mr. Holden and Mr. Warner, of Warwick, came from thence also, and they say, gave satisfaction why they dare not (the other three towns) depart from the charter. Sir, in this division of our neighbors, I have kept myself unengaged, and presented motions of pacification, amongst which I was bold to propose a reference to your worthy self and some other friend to be chosen; our town yields to it, and Mr. Boston (though opposite) and possibly you may have the trouble and honor of a peace-maker.
“Sir, pray seal the enclosed.”
It appears by this letter, and by other evidence, that Plymouth was desirous to add the beautiful island to her territory. Three years before, she claimed it as belonging to her jurisdiction; and Massachusetts insisted on her title to the allegiance of the inhabitants of Pawtuxet and Warwick.[[261]] Winthrop says, under the date of May, 1645:[[262]] “The government of Plymouth sent one of their magistrates, Mr. Brown, to Aquetneck island, to forbid Mr. Williams, &c. to exercise any of their pretended authority upon the island, claiming it to be within their jurisdiction. Our Court also sent to forbid them to exercise any authority within that part of our jurisdiction at Pawtuxet and Shawomet, and although they had boasted to do great matters there, by virtue of their charter, yet they dared not to attempt any thing.”
Connecticut afterwards laid claim to a part of the western territory of Rhode-Island. Thus was the little colony pressed on each side by her more powerful neighbors, who would gladly have enacted, at that early day, the same scene which was long afterwards presented in Poland, though the wrong would certainly have been less flagrant, and the motive less criminal. Thanks to the protection of God, and to the prudent firmness of Mr. Williams and others, the colony escaped all the designs of her neighbors, and has continued till this day, small in territory, but strong in her love of freedom, and consistent in her maintenance of the principles of her founder.