Page:Columbus and other heroes of American discovery; (IA columbusotherher00bell).pdf/121

 he hoped his new home might be a shelter for those distressed in conscience."

The dream of Williams was realized. "Slate Rock," as the stone on which he landed from his boat on the Seekonk in his search for a new home was called, soon became worn with the tread of the oppressed, who came to him for help in their troubles, fleeing, some from the bigotry of the Boston Puritans, some from the vengeance of the authorities for civil offenses. As a matter of necessity, the Providence colony, recruited from such sources, was not only a thorn in the side of the Massachusetts Company, but one presenting special difficulties to its founder, who, however, in spite of much trouble in the flesh, was pre-eminently successful in all he undertook. Two years after his first arrival, he bought extensive tracts of land on Rhode Island, and in 1642 his little community was so prosperous, that he went to England to obtain a charter for the colony he had founded. On his return to Providence, he was able to be of great use to the other colonies in their dissensions with the Indians, who looked upon him as their champion; but his heresy was never forgiven, and when, in 1643, a confederation for mutual protection was made between the New England colonies, Rhode Island was left out.

Roger Williams was, however, but one of many to go forth from the original Massachusetts colonies and found new communities, each of which, while sharing the general character of the Puritan settlements, was distinguished by some special religious peculiarity, into the nature of which none but the initiated could enter with full appreciation. In 1631, intercourse with the Indians of the Connecticut Valley—already, as we shall presently see, colonized by the Dutch—was opened by a visit to Boston of Wahginnacut, a sagamore, or chief, from the river Quonchtacut, on the west of Narragansett, who gave the whites a general invitation to settle in his country, which he reported to be very fruitful.

In 1633, one William Holmes, taking with him a few sturdy followers, and also the frame of a house ready to set up in a suitable locality, left Plymouth in obedience to the call of the sagamore, and, in spite of the opposition of the Dutch, opened a successful trade with the Indians, although, so far as we have been able to ascertain, he failed to make any permanent settlement in the new district. This was, however, atoned for by the emigration to the Connecticut Valley, in the fall and winter of 1634, of several different parties from Massachusetts, who made their way on foot, driving