Accordingly, he and five of his friends rowed down the river and, landing at a place pointed out by the Indians as having a spring of good water, made a settlement, which they called Providence, in token of God's watchful care over them. This was the beginning of Rhode Island, a colony where all men, whatever their religious belief might be, were welcome. Men who had been persecuted elsewhere on account of their religion were glad to go to Rhode Island, where they were allowed to worship as they pleased. And thus it soon grew to be a prosperous settlement.
Roger Williams was a man of pure and noble soul. He did not seem to bear any grudge against the people of Massachusetts. For when, in 1637, the Pequots tried to get the Narragansett Indians to join them in a general uprising against the whites, and especially against those living in Massachusetts, he did all he could to frustrate their plans. At this time he set out one stormy day in his canoe to visit Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, and succeeded, at the risk of his life, in preventing the union of the two tribes against the whites.
He died in 1683 at the age of eighty-four years. Although his judgment was not always wise, his motives were upright. In his struggle with the Puritans he was ahead of his age, which was not yet ready for such advanced ideas of religious toleration.
REVIEW OUTLINE
Small number of Pilgrims at Plymouth.
The Puritans decide to go to America.
They are people of influence in England.
The Puritan settlers in Massachusetts.
The New England village.
The meeting-house; the block-house; the great fireplace.
Modes of travel.
The stranger welcomed.
Education.
Puritan ideas of Sabbath observance and religious worship.
Roger Williams comes to New England.
He wins the friendship of the Indians.
He makes Puritan enemies.
The Puritans banish Roger Williams.
He escapes in midwinter.
A lonely journey through the forest.
Roger Williams makes a settlement at Providence.
He prevents the Narragansetts from joining the Pequots in their war.
Death of Roger Williams.
TO THE PUPIL
1. Picture to yourself the New England village; also the big fire-place with the Puritan family gathered about the blazing fire at night.
2. What do you admire in Roger Williams? How did he make many Puritan enemies?
3. Write an account of his midwinter journey through the woods.
4. Tell how he befriended the people of Massachusetts at the outbreak of the Pequot War.