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Sept. 25.

foot-soldiers from Connecticut, forty-one from Plymouth, and thirty-one from New Haven. A commission and instructions were prepared for the Commander-in-chief. The appointment of that officer was left to Massachusetts; but the Commissioners expressed their hope that it might fall to Major-General Gibbons, Major Denison, or Captain Atherton.1

66

Oct. 3.

Oct. 9.

Oct. 13.

It seems that Gibbons and Denison declined the trust, and that Atherton was absent. At all events, it was assigned to Simon Willard, of Concord, one of the Assistants of Massachusetts, and Sergeant-Major of the militia of Middlesex County. He mustered his Massachusetts force at Dedham, and led it by Providence, and along the western shore of Narragansett Bay, to Ninigret's customary residence, in what is now the town of Westerly. Ninigret had withdrawn up into the country, into a great swamp;" and Willard deferred the pursuit till the troops from Connecticut and New Haven should come up. Three or four days passed before they arrived. The delay was highly unfavorable to the success of the expedition. The place of Ninigret's retreat was fifteen miles from Willard's camp. Captain Seely, of New Haven, and Captain Davis, of the Massachusetts cavalry, were despatched to confer with him. He professed to be in great alarm; but the only distinct engagement which he could be prevailed upon to make, was to surrender the Pequot captives, whose hire, or tribute, he had neglected to pay. The season and the weather were unsuitable for further operations. Possibly Willard had instructions from his immediate superiors not to put too much at hazard for what in Massachusetts had scarcely been regarded as an urgent cause. He attempted no more, and brought back

1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 318,319. Just as Willard was beginning his march from Massachusetts, the Magistrates received a long letter from Wil

Oct. 18.

liams, in which he pleaded with them earnestly against using severe measures with Ninigret. The letter is in Knowles, p. 272.

his immediate command to Boston in fifteen days

Oct. 24. from his departure.1

1655.

When the next meeting of the Commissioners, which was held at New Haven, afforded them opportunity to express their sense of Willard's conduct, nearly a year had passed, giving time for passion to subside. But they then unanimously announced their disapprobation of it in earnest terms.2 On the other hand, the government Sept. 19. of Massachusetts, entertaining the opinion that intimidation had more cheaply answered the purpose of violence, and that "the peace of the country, through the blessing of God upon the late expedition, was comforta bly secured," gave their thanks to the troops for “their cheerful and ready service." Willard did not lose the public confidence; and though afterwards, from time to time, the perverse savage, whom he was blamed for sparing, gave occasions for complaint, these were never again of such moment as to create serious anxiety, or to call for any costly measures of coercion. The English found that the easiest way to protect their countrymen, and the friendly Indians on Long Island, against Ninigret's inroads, was to give them a frugal supply of arms and ammunition, and employ a little vessel to cruise in the Sound and intercept his boats. And, as matters stood between the parties, occasional threats probably accomplished as much towards repressing the disorders of these unreason

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1 Joseph Willard, Willard Memoir, a Deputy in the General Court for that or Life and Times of Major Simon place. In 1653, having previously Willard, &c., 204 – 215. - Simon Wil- gone through the inferior degrees of lard, born, in 1605, at Horsmonden, military command, he was promoted to in Kent, came to Massachusetts in be Sergeant-Major of the troops of 1634, and established himself at Cam- Middlesex County, and in the followbridge. In the autumn of 1635, he ing year was first chosen to be an went with the Reverend Mr. Bulkeley, Assistant. (Mass. Rec., IV. (i.) 181.) "and about twelve more families, to begin a town at Musketaquid, . . . . . and it was named Concord." (Winthrop, I. 167.) In 1636 (Mass. Rec., I. 185) and for many years afterwards, he was 343.

.....

Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 340.
Archives of Massachusetts, XXX.

44, 45.

Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 341 –

ing people, as could have been effected by any sterner policy, not too severe for Christian charity to allow.1

extended to

the remnant

of

the Pe

quot tribe.

But the relations of the colonists to the natives were by no means merely hostile. If the English felt it to be necessary to watch against a constant danger Protection from the enmity, or the uncertain humor, of their neighbors, they were not wanting in exertions to promote both their comfort and their spiritual well-being. After the war with the Pequots, the captive survivors of that nation had been distributed among the Mohegans, the Narragansetts, and the Nyantics, who engaged to make a yearly payment to the English for their services. This guardianship was liable to much abuse, and the Pequots from time to time complained to the English of being ill-treated by their masters. The irregularity of the payments made by the Indian allies, under the stipulation by which they held the Pequots, gave the English good authority for interfering; and, after proving the illsuccess of mere remonstrance and admonition, they adopted the humane course of establishing the Pequots in settlements of their own, at the same time transferring to them the obligation of tribute, and releasing the governing tribes. To the communities thus formed, of which there were three or more, the Commissioners prescribed a simple system of laws, and appointed native magistrates to administer it; and as, for greater security, the settlements were formed in the neighborhood of the English, daily intercourse and example had some effect, and some approach was made to an orderly way of living.3

The enthusiasm for the conversion of the natives to

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Continued

efforts to

natives in

religion.

1650. Sept. 5.

Christianity continued to grow and spread. At the meeting of the Federal Commissioners in the next instruct the year after the institution of "the Society for the Promoting and Propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," a letter1 was laid before them from Mr. William Steele, the President of that Corporation, beginning a correspondence which was actively carried on as long as a Confederacy existed. The Commissioners kept the Society freshly informed of the prospects of the enterprise, and specified its necessities as they arose, and the kind of supplies which they desired to receive. The Society reported their progress in spreading information, enlisting friends, and collecting contributions in England; they made remittances of money, tools, and commodities for the use of the converts; and they gave advice as to the course of operations to be pursued on the spot.2

Under such favorable auspices the business proceeded. In the seventh year after the establishment of the Corporation, the sums which it had remitted to New England amounted to more than seventeen hundred pounds; and, four years later, its property yielded an annual income of six or seven hundred pounds. Edward Rawson, Secretary of the Colony of Massachusetts, was the "steward or agent" of the Commissioners for the management of their business affairs. The Commissioners placed Sept. 12. themselves in communication with Eliot and Mayhew; and, as opportunity permitted, they employed oth

1651.

1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 145 – 147. This letter recommends that Winslow be continued in the agency, alike because of his "integrity, abilities, and diligence," and of "his great interest and acquaintance with the members of Parliament and other gentlemen of quality in the respective counties." 2 Ibid., 145-150, 174-180, 312, 325, 327-331, 350-358, 373-378, 383, 384, 389-395.

8 Ibid., 353.

Hutchinson, 155.- Gookin, writing in 1674, expressed the opinion that for this charity "New-England people" had done "not less, but far more, in proportion, than their countrymen in England." (Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 213.)

'Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 187. 6 Ibid., 185, 186.

ers, Englishmen and natives, in the capacity of assistants to those missionaries, and in other places.1 They selected some young men to "be maintained at Cambridge to be educated and fitted for future service to be helpful in teaching such Indian children as should be taken into the College for that end;" and they authorized the Commissioners of Massachusetts to erect within the College precincts a building not over "thirty feet in length and twenty in breadth," for the accommodation of native pupils. They made provision for printing catechisms in the Indian languages. They furnished their chief missionaries with an apparatus of books. They encouraged some "deserving Indians" by small pecuniary bounties.5 In the eighth year of their administration of the trust, their outlay, according to the account then Sept. 22. rendered, amounted to five hundred and twenty pounds.

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1658.

1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 232, dry places," had each £10. "Peter Foul321, 371-373, 395. gier, English schoolmaster that taught Ibid., 321, 322; comp. 313, 379; the Indians and instructed them on the Hutch. Coll., 231.

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Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 300, 366. See Mr. Pierson's catechism in Progress of the Gospel," &c., 25 et seq. * Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 178, 179; "Further Discovery," &c., 24, 25.

Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 366."Ordered, that . . . a coat of about three yards of the coarsest cloth be made up and given to the sagamore of Agawam, to encourage him to learn to know God, and to excite other Indians to do the like." (Ibid., 333.)

Eliot's salary was £ 50. That of Mayhew, who was now dead, had been the same. (Ibid., 378.) His father, who succeeded him, had £ 20, and his widow had a gratuity of the same amount. "Thomas and Jacob, two Indian interpreters and schoolmasters that instructed the Indians at Martha's Vineyard," and "five Indian interpreters and schoolmasters employed by Mr. Eliot in sun

Lord's day," received £ 25, and “Mr. Eliot's son," and Mr. Pierson, of Branford, Connecticut, for their "labors among the Indians," each £ 20. Major Atherton, by "keeping courts amongst the Indians in divers places, and instructing them in their civil conversation," earned £10; Richard Bourne, and William Leverich of Sandwich, £15 and £ 5 respectively by "pains in teaching the Indians there." The Governor of New Haven had £ 5 “to give to well-deserving Indians," the Governor of Plymouth £ 2 for " Bibles, &c.," and Mr. Eliot £ 2 for " Bibles, spectacles, and primers for the Indians." Nine Indian students at Cambridge and Roxbury cost their patrons £174 for "diet, clothing, bedding, and tutorage," and £ 6 for "books, paper, and inkhorns." Bills for medical treatment and medicine came to £ 10, and the salary of Rawson, the financial agent,

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