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So

lish and myself, for sending the plague among them, ** I sweetened his spirit," probably with a hope of favours to come. The old Sachem whose alliance was thus secured, was the ablest, even if we may not say the only able, man of whom the Narragansett history preserves any record. He had then numbered more than three score and ten years. His meeting with Williams was by no means his first acquaintance with Europeans. During nearly twenty years, before the first Englishman had set his cabin in Mooshassuc or Acquetneck, trading sloops from New Amsterdam, bearing the flag of the Dutch West India Company had carried their merchandise to the tribes living by the Sound and Narragansett Bay. These had already acquired a longing for sugar, personal ornaments, and fire arms. early as 1631, the son of Canonicus had visited Governor Winthrop in Boston, and there had been an exchange of gifts.* It is not improbable that the Sachem, or some trusty informant had gone on a like errand to New Amsterdam. He was thus acquainted with more than one race of white men, and had time to study their several characteristics. All the Englishmen who had any dealings with the old Sachem were impressed with his ability. The messengers to Canonicus informed Gov. Winthrop, that "they observed in the sachem much state, great command over his men, and marvellous wisdom in his answers, and the carriage of the whole treaty, clearing himself and his neighbors of the murder" (of John Oldham), "and offering assistance for revenge of it, yet upon very safe and wary conditions." Through his rough native vigour, he had become, as Gov. Winthrop says, "a chief sachem in New England." His manner befitted the character, for he was "always princely."

The government of Massachusetts, in its dealings with the Indians was generally bold, defiant and contemptuous. When

(1) Williams to Winthrop, May, 1637, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 16.

(2) French vessels from Nova Scotia had also visited their coast.

(3) Savage's "Winthrop,” ed. 1853, I. 69-70.

(4) Ibid., I. 227-29.

(5) Ibid., I. 227, 229, (1636).

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ever they wished to see even a Sachem, they sent him a peremptory order to come to Boston.1 Miantonomo was thus repeatedly sent for, as on Oct. 21, 1636, when he was received at Roxbury by a military escort. This is the manner in which Massachusetts made a treaty. "In the morning we met again and concluded the peace, upon the articles underwritten, which the governor subscribed, and they also subscribed with their marks." "But because we could not well make them understand the articles perfectly, we agreed to send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who could best interpret them to them." This done, "they took leave, and were conveyed out of towne by some musketeers, and dismissed with a volley of shot." The Narragansetts were forced to sign what they did not comprehend, and were referred to Mr. Williams who had been lately banishedto learn what it meant. Canonicus alone never showed any awe of the magistrates and elders of "the Bay." Sometime after the murder of his nephew, Miantonomo, Massachusetts sent two messengers to the Narragansetts to dissuade them from taking counsel with "evil men, and such as we have banished from us, and to persuade them to sit still and to have more regard to us than such as Gorton, etc." The bearers of this unselfish and disinterested counsel came to the house of Canonicus. "When our messengers came to them, Canonicus would not admit them into his wigwam for two hours, but suffered them to stay in the rain. When he did admit them, he lay along upon his couch and would not speak to them more than a few froward speeches, but referred them to Pesacus, who, coming after some four hours, carried them into an ordinary wigwam, and there had conference with them most part of the night. Their answers were witty and full to the questions," &c. Even Governor Winthrop seems to have thought it worth while to secure the good will of

(1) Savage's "Winthrop," I. 235-36.

(2) Compare also II. 9, (in 1640).

(3) Ibid., I. 237.

(4) Ibid., I. 237.

(5) Ibid., II. 203, (A. D. 1644).

Canonicus, and to have sent occasionally presents of sugar, as an assurance of friendship.1

We have no extended or trustworthy account of his ancestry or of his early life. He first comes to view, when his military ambition, if he had any, had been fully satisfied. Old age alone might incline him to peaceful counsels. His dealings with the white races, were but the completion of his long, barbarian, rule. He has left us no record of his thoughts, but if we may infer his opinions from the unbroken tenor of his life, we may believe that he, alone of the New England Sachems, comprehended that a new age was coming in. He was aware that his people were now confronted with a race, vigourous, enterprising, united, with resources far exceeding his own-before whom an Indian confederacy was but a rope of sand. He appreciated the fact that soon after their arrival, the English had alienated the Wampanoags from his allegiance, and that no dependency was left to him, save the small kindred tribe of the Niantics."

The remembrance of the swift destruction which had overtaken the Pequots when they had resisted the Englishmen's will, made the wary old Narragansett cautious of any encounter. Their power of combination, and the force of their government, so much superior to that of his own, made him distrustful of his superiority of numbers. For he knew not what forces were behind the new comers-held quietly in reserve.

He knew that a nation greater than his own (the Mohawks) either would not, or could not expel the Dutch from Manhattan. Little as he knew about Europe, he felt that there was a power behind the Englishmen, which would conquer in the end. He had discernment to perceive (what it would have been well for Philip and Canonchet to have learned by forty years more of observation) that a race whose pioneers could carry multitudes

(1) Williams to Winthrop, Feb. 28, 1637-8, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 86-87,. (2) The legislature of Rhode Island made no distinction of tribes and races, but called them both alike, "Indians," as soon as they begun to legislate for them, and regulated the sale of rum and the use of the whipping post, by one law for Narragansett and Niantic.

across a sea impassable to him, and fabricate utensils of iron, and set their houses upon foundations of stone, who had flocks and herds and probably other resources yet unknown, could not be starved or exterminated or driven away. He had the wisdom

to make the best of neighbours whom he had not invited, and whom he could not expel. His barbaric sense of honour coincided with his views of interest. It was for his benefit that there should be in his neighbourhood, rival traders less exacting than the Dutch, and less overbearing than the men of Massachusetts Bay, and who, being within his own territory could be made tributaries to his revenue. He accepted the situation, and with all his force of will, compelled his people to acquiesce in it.' Said Williams, that "wise and peaceable prince" declared, "I have never suffered any wrong to be offered to the English since they landed: nor never will." During the whole of his remaining years, Winthrop and Williams recognise the fact that Canonicus kept the peace of New England.

Even if the old Sachem's action had been prompted only by an enlightened self interest, even this was far above the barbarian level. With the fearful portents, even then threatening his people, it is doing him no discredit to suspect, that at best, he hoped like a potentate of later days, that things would outlast his time, and "after him,-the deluge."

Williams's earlier enthusiasm was then at its height, and with the sanguine spirit of his hopeful days, he believed that Canonicus's grants of Indian territory were "gifts of love.” In his devotion to the great project of his life, he seems to have misconceived the old Sachem's feelings, and to have believed that his own benevolence must awaken a like emotion in return. The manner and tone of Williams were doubtless more kindly than those of the white Sachems of "the Bay," and gained him a more friendly hearing. Still, like some more recent missionaries, he believed that his offers of spiritual benefits excited the regard, which was in fact due to more mercenary hopes or expec

(1) Key, p. 64.

tations. Each, in fact misconceived the other's character and purposes. Williams thought that he had secured the "love" of a shrewd old Indian politician, who had long been dead to any motive but his own interests, and Canonicus was not aware that he was dealing with an exile and a fugitive, without influence which could do him service.' That such an able chief should have freely bestowed his best lands upon strangers with whose religion, manners, and designs he had no sympathy, seems to have been an imagination suggested by Williams's early hopes. John Clarke, a man of more cool and practical judgment, says that Acquetneck was a purchase. Williams* calls it a gift of love. It appears that the transfer was accompanied by a present which the people at Acquetneck may well have deemed a valuable consideration, by whatever name it may have been disguised. We have in Williams's writings frequent mention of the favourable dispositions of the Indians, but equally copious accounts of the largesses which they expected and received. "Not a penny was demanded for either," but "what was paid was only gratuity, though I chose, for better assurance and form, to call it sale."4

(1) See testimony of Williams, August 25, 1658, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 305-6, also Clarke's Narrative, Callender's Hist. Discourse, Elton's ed., R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV. 85, 86, as to gratuities. Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, I. 45-51, 1637-8, conveyance of Acquetneck.

(2) Letter to Winthrop, June, 1638, p. 104. Deposition, June 18, 1682, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 406-8.

(3)1 Backus's History, I. 73.

(4) Williams to Winthrop, June, 1638, Narr. Club Pub., VI. 104.

Williams's

testimony at Providence, December 13, 1661, Narr. Club Pub.. VI. 317. Williams's Deed of 1661, Bartlett's R. I. Col. Records, I. 22-25. Williams says that the purchase at Mooshassuc was not obtained by money. Narr. Club Pub., VI. 407. Williams's letters, etc., Narr. Club Pub., VI. 408, (June 18, 1682). "I never denied him or Miantonomo, whatever they desired of me, as to goods or gifts or use of my boats or pinnace, or the travels of my own person day and night." "It is known what favor God pleased to give me with old Canonicus, (though at a dear-bought rate) so that I had what I would." October 18, 1677, Narr, Club Pub., VI. 393.

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