Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/51

 1633-6] The Pequod war. 19 bottom of trouble with the savages. First of all, in 1633, a Virginian ship's captain named Stone was killed near the mouth of the Connecticut river. Two years later John Oldham, a trader who had previously given trouble to the authorities at Plymouth, was murdered. Neither Stone nor Oldham was a man of good character ; and it may well be that they provoked their fate. The former outrage was set down to the score of the Pequods, the latter to that of the Narragansetts two tribes whose mutual relations were unfriendly. The murder of Oldham was avenged by Massachusetts in a raid which made little discrimination between the guilty and the innocent. The punishment for this fell, not where it was deserved, on Massachusetts, but on the weaker colony of Connecticut. Desultory slaughter of settlers went on, and communication with the coast became impossible. Worst of all, tidings reached the English that the Pequods and Narragansetts were about to join hands. There was one man in New England, the exile Roger Williams, who knew how to earn the good-will and confidence of the savages. Forgetting his grievances he went as an ambassador to the Narragansetts and secured their neutrality. Connecticut naturally turned for help to Massachusetts and Plymouth. The rulers at Boston were too busy persecuting Mrs Hutchinson and her associates to give heed to aught else; the men of Plymouth had been exasperated by the grasping policy of Massachusetts in matters of trade and refused to cooperate. Connecticut had to rely on her own courage and soldiership; and happily these qualities did not fail her. A force of ninety men was raised ; and an old soldier trained in the Netherlands, John Mason, was placed at their head. Mason's original intention was to make straight inland against the Pequods. With the intuition of real military genius, he at the last moment changed his plan and by a forced march fell upon the flank of the Pequods and assailed their chief fort. The defenders had a vast superiority in numbers ; but bows and arrows were profitless against firearms and corslets. It is said that six hundred Pequods fell, and only two English, though of the latter more than one-fourth were wounded. The slaughter was no doubt merciless ; but the conditions of savage warfare make forbearance impossible. The few scattered bands that remained made but slight resistance ; and the Pequods ceased to exist as an independent nation. When Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts he purchased from the Indians a tract on the mainland. This in 1636 he shared with twelve other householders, forming a settlement which he named Providence. In four years the growing colony formed a second township ; and a simple form of government was instituted. Five "select men" were to transact all executive business, while the whole body of freemen were to hold quarterly meetings and to settle any judicial questions that might arise. About the same time some of those who had been banished from Massachusetts with Mrs Hutchinson purchased the island of en. i. 2 2