“But some cried out, when Roger Williams had laid himself down as a stone in the dust, for after-comers to step on in town and colony, ‘What is Roger Williams? We know the Indians and the sachems as well as he. We will trust Roger Williams no longer. We will have our bounds confirmed us under the sachems’ hands before us.’”
The details of the other boundary quarrels make dry, difficult reading in these days. They are interesting only as they bring out the character of Roger Williams and the part he played in trying to adjust them. The disputed land was principally the Narragansett country, or the southern half of the present state of Rhode Island. Massachusetts claimed territory here, so did Plymouth, and, added to their encroachments, were those of Connecticut. If the land had been divided up as they all wished, little enough would have been left of tiny Rhode Island to form a respectable state afterwards!
Roger Williams saw in this desire to annex territory a prevailing greed for land, which he looked upon as one of the greatest failings of New England. He could not understand how his countrymen of the other colonies “should not be content with those vast and large tracts (like platters and tables full of dainties), but pull and snatch away their poor neighbors’ bit or crust”; adding, “and a crust it is, and a dry, hard one, too, because of the natives’ continual troubles, trials and vexations.”
To Major Mason of Connecticut he wrote a letter (which has since become famous) upholding the rights of Rhode Island. That prominent man afterwards advised his colony that he hardly thought it wise to attempt to acquire the land in question. Thus we infer that Roger Williams’ diplomacy did much to avert further aggression on the Connecticut side at least.
Not all Roger Williams’ tasks were big ones. He was not the man to say that because he was capable of great things, he would let the little things slip by. He performed numberless neighborly services of a legal character, either as witness or executor. It fell upon him to take charge of the house and lot of a certain John Clawson, a Dutchman, whom he had befriended when needy and employed as a household servant. He had taught him to read and given him a Dutch Testament. It is amusing to think that this Providence real estate was valued at eleven pounds. More amusing still were the terms of its disposal. Roger Williams sold it for “current country pay” in three yearly instalments of cloth, stockings, corn and apples. Even on these easy terms, the buyer took about double the time for payment that the agreement allowed.
Public spirit was sometimes at a low ebb in early Providence. Thus there was no end of trouble trying to erect a suitable bridge near the center of the town and keeping it in proper repair. The townspeople argued, deliberated, debated, but nobody seemed aggressive enough to push the work. Finally Roger Williams stepped into the breach. “I will, with God’s help, take this bridge unto my care.” What a relief it must have been to realize that somebody had taken the initiative at last! He made Providence a business-like proposition, whereby the citizens were to donate their labor, the amount being apportioned to the use they would make of the bridge and whether they had a team or not. This sharing of work was only fair, for the inhabitants of the town were to be exempt from toll, a moderate sum being asked of strangers only.
There was nothing striking, nothing impressive, about these public services of Roger Williams and they did not win the applause of the crowd. Sometimes they gained for him nothing but unpopularity. Yet at no other period in his long career do we get a finer idea of the real nobility of the man than in these latter years when old age was coming on and his word was perhaps not listened to with the respect of former days. He cheerfully took up and faithfully performed the local duties that came his way, though he had been recognized by Parliament, had been on an intimate footing with the greatest statesmen of England, and was himself one of the wisest, most far-sighted men of his age. This was citizenship at its best.
CHAPTER XV
KING PHILIP’S WAR
It is not easy to tell the true cause of King Philip’s War. There were probably many causes, some of them dating years back. Such a struggle was bound to come, sooner or later, to determine who should remain masters of New England—the first comers or the white men from over the sea. More than once Roger Williams had postponed the evil day, but even his influence was not great enough to prevent the smouldering fires of jealousy, distrust and revenge from finally bursting into a destructive conflagration.
Back in 1620, when the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, they had formed a treaty of peace with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags. This faithful Indian sachem kept his word during the remaining years of his life.