In accordance with the promptness which has ever characterized the Massachusetts colony, scarcely an hour elapsed, after the tidings reached Boston, ere the men were on the march. Governor Bradford, speaking of the insolent tone adopted by the Narragansets, writes,
“They received the English commissioners with scorn and contempt, and told them that they would have no peace with Uncas without his head. They also gave them this further answer,—that it mattered not who began the war, they were resolved to follow it up, and that the English should withdraw their garrison from Uncas, or they would bring down the Mohawks upon them. And withal they gave them this threatening answer, that they would lay the English cattle on heaps as high as their houses, and that no Englishman should step out of his door but that he should be shot.”
The English commissioners needed guides to lead them through the wilderness of the Narraganset country, to communicate the reply of the Narraganset chiefs to Uncas. They refused to furnish them with any guide. At last, in scorn they brought forward a poor, old, decrepit Pequot woman saying, with derisive laughter, that they might take her if they pleased. In addition to all these indignities the commissioners were seriously menaced with personal violence. As their interpreter was communicating his message to the sachems, three burly savages came and stood behind him, brandishing their tomahawks in the most insulting and threatening manner. The friendly Indians, who had accompanied the English, were so alarmed by this conduct of the Narragansets that they fled in the utmost haste, leaving the commissioners to go home alone.
“Thus,” writes Governor Bradford, “while the commissioners in care of the public peace sought to quench the fire kindled among the Indians, these children of strife breathe out threatenings, provocation and war against the English themselves. So that unless they should dishonor and provoke God by violating a just engagement, and expose the colonies to contempt and danger from the barbarians, they cannot but exercise force, when no other means will prevail to reduce the Narragansets and their confederates to a more just and sober temper.”
The Plymouth colonists were as prompt in action as those of Massachusetts. Captain Miles Standish was of course placed at the head of the command. With rapid steps his little army of forty men traversed the forest to the appointed rendezvous at Seekonk, now Rehoboth. Having a much shorter journey to take, he was encamped upon the spot before the Massachusetts men reached it. The Connecticut and New Haven forces also soon arrived. Quite a large number of friendly Indian warriors also joined them. They were armed with muskets, and placed under the command of Captain Standish.
All these measures were adopted with the greatest energy and promptness. The sachem of the Narragansets had, a short time before, sent a present to the Governor of Massachusetts. It was intended either to blind him as to their hostile designs, or to bribe him not to interpose in behalf of the Mohegans. But the Governor was not thus to be duped. He frankly informed the messenger that he was not fully satisfied respecting the friendly intentions of the sachem of the Narragansets,—that he could not, therefore, immediately accept the present. He would not however refuse it, but would lay it aside to wait the developments of the future.
The military bands being now all assembled at Rehoboth and ready to march into the territory of the Narragansets, the Governor of Massachusetts, before commencing hostilities, sent two commissioners, with an interpreter, to return the present to the Narraganset sachem, and to inform him that he had already sent forty men for the protection of Uncas, and that another armed force was on the march to defend him. They were also directed to inform the Narraganset sachem that the English troops had express orders to stand only upon his and their own defence; that they should make no attempt to invade the Narraganset country; and that if the sachem would make reparation for the wrongs which he had already inflicted upon the Mohegans, and would give security for his peaceful conduct in future, he would find that the English were as desirous of peace, and as reluctant to shed Narraganset blood, as they ever had been. In conclusion, this messenger, seeking only peace, said:
“If, therefore, Pessecus and Innemo, with the other sachems, will, without further delay, come to Boston, they shall have free liberty to come and return without molestation, or any just grievance from the English. But deputies will not now serve; nor may the preparations in hand be now stayed, or the directions given recalled, till the forementioned sagamores come, and some further order be taken. But if the Narragansets will have nothing but war, the English are providing for it, and will proceed accordingly.”
These wise measures accomplished the desired results. The Narraganset sachems had sufficient intelligence to perceive that they were arraying against themselves forces which they were but poorly able to withstand. Three of their most prominent chiefs, with a large array of warriors, after a few days visited Boston, and entered into a treaty of peace.
The Indians agreed to pay to Massachusetts two thousand fathoms of good white wampum, in payments extending through two years; to restore to Uncas all the captives, men, women and children they had taken, and all the canoes, and to pay in full for the corn they had destroyed or carried away. They also agreed to meet the commissioners from the several colonies at New Haven, and submit to their arbitration those grievances which would otherwise result in war. There were one or two other articles in the treaty of a similar nature. Four children of the sachems were, within fourteen days, to be surrendered as hostages to the English, to be tenderly cared for by them, until the terms of the treaty should be fulfilled. Thus happily this menace of war was dispelled.