Indian troubles were never settled without his intervention. Here he knew his ground perfectly and could be trusted by all parties concerned to give just decisions. The Indians of Warwick, as we have seen, caused endless trouble for the colonists, claiming that as they had pledged allegiance to Massachusetts, Providence Plantations had no right to punish them for lawless acts. Now the sachem Pumham, who occupied Warwick Neck, had no legal right to the land, as his superior sachem had sold it years before. Again and again he stubbornly refused to budge an inch, though the town of Warwick had paid him twenty pounds to seek a home elsewhere.
About this time, four commissioners were sent over to New England by King Charles for the purpose of hearing complaints, settling boundary disputes and like claims, and establishing the peace and security of the country. They now applied themselves to the task of ousting the mulish Indian chief.
Before long Roger Williams took a hand in the matter. He got in touch with Sir Robert Carr, one of the royal agents, and calmly and clearly reviewed for him the entire history of the quarrel. Then, instead of urging force and harshness, he explained that very different means must be employed with the natives. He likened them to oxen, who, if treated with cruelty, will die rather than yield, but with patience and gentleness, can be made to give good and willing service. “Lay all the blame on me,” he concluded, “and on my intercession and mediation, for a little further breathing to the barbarians until harvest, in which time a peaceable and loving agreement may be wrought, to mutual consent and satisfaction.”
Roger Williams was a wise prophet. The sensible commissioner took advantage of his co-operation and finally the matter was closed to everybody’s satisfaction. And this without a drop of blood being shed, thanks to the man who believed that even erring natives should be treated as human beings. “I respect not one party more than the other,” he once said in a similar quarrel, “but I desire to witness truth; and as I desire to witness against oppression, so, also, against the slighting of civil, yea, of barbarous order and government.”
We are glad to know that the commissioners of King Charles handed their royal master a very favorable report of the Rhode Island colony. They even had a good word for the Narragansett Indians. The natives had pledged their allegiance to the king and, in token of their subjection, promised to pay His Majesty two wolfskins a year. They also sent Charles some truly barbarous tokens of affection, including two wampum caps, two clubs inlaid with wampum, and a feather mantle, besides a porcupine bag for the queen. It is a pity these gifts fell into the hands of the Dutch and never reached their destination. What a sensation they would have made at court among the nobles and ladies-in-waiting! But the giving was not all on one side. Two coats were presented the sachems in the king’s name, with which they were greatly pleased. It would not be surprising if Roger Williams had made the suggestion, knowing the Indian weakness in matters of dress.
An opportunity came for Roger Williams to use his influence in behalf of John Clarke, the good friend of the colony who had labored in her interests in the mother country for twelve long years. It had been voted to pay him for his trouble, but due either to poverty or unwillingness (probably both), the required amount had not been forthcoming. So the matter dragged on, long after the charter affair was settled and the agent had returned to America. Even back in London days, Mr. Clarke was so short of funds that he had been obliged to mortgage his Newport home. Stung to the quick by what he considered rank ingratitude, Roger Williams wrote a sharp letter to Warwick, the most backward town.
“It is no more honest,” he wrote, “for us to withdraw in this case than for men to come to an ordinary [tavern] and to call for the best wine and liquors, the best meats, roast and baked, the best attendance, etc., and to be able to pay for all and yet most unworthily steal away and not discharge the reckoning.” Then changing his figure of speech, he continued:
“Shall we say we are Christians ... to ride securely in a troublous sea and time by a new cable and anchor of Mr. Clarke’s procuring, and be so far from satisfying his engagement about them, that we turn him adrift to languish and sink, with his back broke for putting under his shoulder to ease us?”
The letter quickened the colony to further action. The mortgaged home was saved, but, unfortunately, the debt was never paid in full.
There were boundary disputes during these years, both among the colonists themselves and with outsiders. In Providence, troubles arose from the Indian grants made so many years before. Mr. Harris, Roger Williams’ old enemy, and others interpreted the language of the Indian deed to mean that Canonicus and Miantonomo had really given away several hundred thousand acres of land that had never been taken possession of by the colonists. To-day, if a pretended claim of a similar nature should come up, we would very likely call it a case of clear “graft.” Roger Williams, ever on the defensive when the Indians were concerned, declared stoutly that the chiefs had meant nothing of the kind. And, indeed, what man was better informed on this subject than Roger Williams himself? Had he not dealt directly with the Narragansett sachems? Had he not talked with them in their own tongue? He so persistently blocked and delayed every measure to appropriate the territory in question that the matter was never carried to a successful finish. Still the short-sighted grumblers called his whole-hearted interest “meddling.” With saddened heart, he recorded their taunts: