Arnold was governor under the new charter.' The years of his authority whether as governor or as a member of the council were years of peculiar anxiety. Whenever England was at war with France or Holland, (as in 1667), frequent alarms of Indian confederacies with French or Dutch, overspread the colonies. In Rhode Island, the Governor, Deputy Governor and assistants, were made a permanent council, to sit during the intervals of the legislative sessions, and to make orders respecting impending dangers. They did not suffer their authority to rust in their keeping. A few citations will suffice to illustrate the new rule over the Narragansetts. Whenever an Indian panic now overspread the community, the suspected Sachems received peremptory orders to appear before the Governor and Council. In 1669, letters were received from the Governors of Connecticut and New York, and also from Major Mason, averring that "Ninecraft, the Niantic" and the Long Island Indians were plotting against the English, in combination with the French and Dutch,3 and that Ninecraft had held a great dance, at which Philip of Mount Hope had been represented by seven of his chief men. The strong will and sound judgment of Benedict Arnold were best fitted for times like these. Ninecraft and other Sachems were ordered to appear before the Governor, etc., at Newport, Aug. 1669. They obeyed, for the invitation came from a host who would take no denial-in fact, Ninecraft came under arrest. As the council was not satisfied with their answers, all the Town Councils were advised to set watches, to seize the arms of Indians, to furnish the inhabitants with ammunition and to put the colony in a posture of defence. The year 1669 was one of especial disquiet, throughout the northern colonies. The danger passed away, in great part, through the

5

(1) In 1663-64, 1664-65, 1665-66, 1669-70, 1670-71, 1671-72, and after the war, in 1677-78.

(2) R. I. Col. Records, II. 191-92, 197, A. D. 1667.

(3) Ibid., II. 267, Letter to Gov. Prince, July 22, 1669.

(4) Ibid., III. 281.

(5) Ibid., II. 264, 269, 281.

firmness of the Rhode Island Council. In times of panic, Gov. Benedict Arnold was not carried away by unfounded rumours, and knew how much importance was to be ascribed to Indian growls and threats. His opinion was esteemed in other colonies, and allayed apprehensions far beyond the limits of Rhode Island. Governor Lovelace, of New York, thus acknowledges his letter of the 29th of July, 1669, in a reply, of 24th of August:1

"I must render you my most particular thanks for those ciuilities you were pleased to afford me, in your freindly expressions; next I cannot but kindly resent that care you have showne in setling the mynds of some ouer credulous persons amongst us (who being possest with a panick feare), were apt to entertain very melancholly thoughts, according as they were instilled by the intelligence and informations of some fond Indians to the great disturbance of the publique peace, and by it animating the heathens who taking courage from our feare, might be apt to break forth into extravagances not to be redrest without a war and all the miseries attending it; but those apprehensions are now vanisht, and mens mynds by reason of your excellent lettre, well pacified and settled, neither do I believe they will too hastily againe, give credence to the information of a faithlesse and false generation."

The year 1671 saw a renewal of the general apprehensions. The Council consulted with Plymouth concerning their common safety, and ordered a meeting for the safely of the Island,―disarming the Indians,-enquiry for arms and powder among the English-and required all arms to be repaired.

Through the firmness of the Rhode Island council, nothing occurred among the Narragansetts to excite alarm, until 1673. At the General Assembly in May, it was

*

"Voted that the Governor, Deputy Governor," [Wm. Harris and others] "are appointed and authorized" [to] agree of some way to prevent the extreme excess of the Indians' drunkennesse, that soe if possible such enormities as thereupon ensue may be prevented and the remedy attended.

(1)R. I. Col. Records, II. 263, 264, 265, 276.

(2) Ibid., II. 263, 278.

(3) Ibid.,II.409-10, Aug. 31, 1671.

(4) Ibid., II. 486-87, 500.

unto, that soe peace and good order may be maintained. And also to consult of any other matter, that doe or may appear to be in difference between the Indians and concerninge this Collony."

The treaty with the Narragansetts was to be arranged at Newport, on the 24th of June. on the 24th of June. The Indians with whom the negotiations were to be held were Mausup and Ninecraft of Narragansett, Philip of Mount Hope, Wetamo of Pocassett, Awashanks of Seaconnett. But it was too late for the English to undo their own destructive work. The Indians would make no treaty, and legislative restraints upon traders were now unavailing.

In such occupations passed the long administration of Gov. Benedict Arnold. It is not necessary to believe that he was the author of all the public documents which bear his name, or that he would have signed some of them with equal readiness, had he anticipated the return with which the "Foxians" would requite the colony for its protection. There were other writers in the Plantations more literate than he, who could have upheld their principles with equal vigour. The times did not admit of the cultivation of the arts of peace. He was long maintained in office because he was conversant with the Indian character, and could do a work, to which more lettered contemporaries were unequal. His repeated elections gave a sense of security. His native force of will fitted him for the work of repression. This was but temporary and superficial. It did not reach, as Williams had aimed to do, the causes of existing evils, and was sure to be undone when the government passed into the hands of feebler successors.

The rule of Gov. Benedict Arnold was contemporaneous with the rise of a new sect, and party. The Antinomians of Newport, some of whom had been among the foremost men of Massachusetts, and who had there caused much apprehension by their military proficiency, were not inattentive to martia. exercises in the early days of the town. The religious theories which they had learned from Mrs. Hutchinson in Boston, pre

pared for a ready reception of the teachings of Fox, and his disciples. The oratory of the "Foxians" was attractive, and their meetings-furnishing an excitement which nothing else could there supply-met the want of popular entertainment like the camp-meetings of later days. Their influence spread from house to house until within a few years the chief town of the colony was under their control. Their denial of any coercive force in government and their theories of non-resistance had attractions for those also who had reasons of their own for avoiding any close scrutiny of their affairs. Some found in the doctrines of the Quakers a means of relief from training-days, and from taxation for the support of the militia. Thus, the popular majority of the island towns, which had absolute control of the colony, passed under the rule of men who would neither defend their own households nor suffer others to do it for themselves. As was usual in the 17th century, a prosperous sect, it became also a political party. The supporters of the policy of Gov. Arnold fell away. Men less resolute succeeded to his place, and in 1675, (May 4th), in full view of the dangers which encompassed it on every side, William Coddington was chosen Governor of the colony. He was now grown old, and his late writings would indicate that his faculties had fallen into decay. But nothing in his earlier life gave proof of statesmanship or of vigorous common sense. He showed no interest in the colony as a whole, but his sympathies were limited to the islands of the Bay. Under his influence, they had refused during several years, to unite with the main land under the Earl of Warwick's charter-their only political guaranty. Under the same leadership, the islands had seceded. With equal want of forecast, Coddington had rent the colony in twain, and had obtained a commission, by which he was set over the islands as Governor during his life. His selfish policy did not permit him to foresee, that England would not long suffer itself to be annoyed by colonies of such microsopic dimensions, or that it would not endure the encroachment upon its prerogative, of governors appointed

during life. Under the influence of Coddington, the colony came near in its youth to absorption by Massachusetts. After its permanence was secured, his attachments never reached beyond Newport. His former notions had prepared him to do as little as possible for the colony,-those of his later years—to do nothing at all. It was for this purpose that he was elected, and his supporters were not disappointed. Newport had from the beginning, felt little sympathy with the Towns of the Main land. She had but few Indians, and was little apprehensive of invasion from without. The "Foxians" in their character as a religious sect, controlled the legislative elections. The times were so strangely altered that in the midst of public dangers warlike preparations had fallen into disesteem, and measures for the common defence were discountenanced by the Government itself.

That the Narragansetts had been for some time aware of the changed policy of the colony may be inferred from the. increasing complaints of their insolence and crimes, of the punishment of which they now felt little apprehension. A new generation had grown up, who knew nothing of Canonicus and his counsels of self-restraint and peace. The English despised the Sachems who succeeded him, and taught the inferior Indians the same lesson of disrespect.

Every safe-guard from their good will, or from their control over their subjects, was now gone. After forty years of contact with civilization, they had learned only its unhealthier lessons. After his efforts for their instruction had proved fruitless, Williams had done what he could, in the legislature and the Town Meetings, (where he was often moderator) to restrain the trade in spirits, and to preserve the public peace. In our day, we are accustomed to regard chiefly the effects of intemperance upon individuals and households. In the seventeenth century in Rhode Island, it threatened the existence of civilized society. In 1663, the Town Meeting of Providence, in a resolution making up in vigour of language what it wanted