up in a corn field, about two miles from the Fort. Three of them went forth a fowling, which the Lieutenant1 had strictly forbidden them; two had pieces, and the third only a sword; when suddenly about an hundred Indians came out of the covert, and set upon them. He who had the sword brake through, and received only two shot, and those not dangerous, and so escaped to the house, which was not §above§ a bow-shot off, and persuaded the other two to follow him; but they staid still, till the Indians came and took them, and carried them away with their pieces. Soon after they beat down the said house and out houses, and haystacks, and within a bow-shot of the fort killed a cow, and shot divers others, which came home with arrows sticking in them.

Soon after this,3 Miantonimo, sachem of the Narrhagansets, came to Boston, (being sent for by the Governor,) with two of Canonicus's sons, and another sachem, and near twenty of their men, whom they call sannaps. The Governor having notice by Cushamakin, the Massachusetts Governor, sent twenty musketeers to Roxbury to meet them. They came to Boston about noon, where the Governor had called together all the magistrates and ministers to give countenance to their proceedings, and to advise about the terms of peace. After dinner Miantonimo declared what he had to say to them, in several propositions, which were to this effect: That they had always loved the English, and now desired a firm peace with them, and that they would continue war with the Pequods and their confederates, till they were subdued, and desired the English would do so too; promising to deliver their enemies to them, or kill them, and two months after to send them a present. The Governor told them they should have an answer the next morning, which was done, upon Articles subscribed by him; and they also subscribed with him, wherein a firm peace was concluded: but because they could not make them well understand the Articles, they told them they would send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who could best interpret the same to them. So, after dinner,

1 Lyon Gardiner. See page 179; Trumbull, i. 76.—H. Should be, burnt. Sav. Win. i. 198.-H.

• The word should probably be Sachem.—H.

3

Oct. 21st.-H.

they took leave, and were conveyed out of town by some musketeers, and dismissed with a volley of shot. The Articles here follow.

1. A firm peace betwixt them and their friends on either part, (if they consent,) and their confederates, (if they will observe the Articles,) and their posterity.

2. Neither party' to make peace with the Pequods without the other's consent.

3. Not to harbor any of the Pequods.

4. To put to death or deliver up any of the murderers of the English.

5. To return fugitive servants.

6. The English to give them notice when they go out against the Pequods, and the other to send them guides.

7. Free trade to be between them.

8. None of them to come near the English Plantations, during the war with the Pequods, without some Englishman or known Indian.

9. To continue to the posterity of both parties.'

These Articles were indifferently well observed by the Narrhagansets, till the Pequods, their mortal enemies, were totally subdued; but then they began to grow insolent and treacherous, especially this Miantonimo himself, as will appear in the sequel.

Cushamakin also, the sachem of the Massachusetts, subscribed those Articles with the English.

The issue of the Pequod War is related in a discourse by itself, which may be annexed to this history, and therefore is here passed over, only with this intimation, that they were wholly rooted out of their country, or made to shelter themselves under the neighboring sachems. About seven hundred of them [were] thought to be destroyed; and Sassachus, their chief sachem, flying with twenty of his men, that escaped at the last fight, to the Mohawks, were all killed by them, and Sassacus's scalp sent down to the English.

2

On the 12th of July, 1637, one Aganemo, a sachem of the Niantick Indians, (who were a branch of the Narrha

1 Part and parts in the MS.-H.

2

Ayanemo, says Winthrop.-H.

gansets,) came to Boston with seventeen of his men. He made divers propositions to the English, which they took into consideration, and promised to give him an answer the next day. But finding that he had received' divers of the Pequods, submitting to him since the last defeat, they first demand the delivery of them, which he sticking at, they refused further conference with him; but the next morning he came and offered what they desired. So the Governor referred him to the captains at the Pequod Country, and wrote instructions to them how to deal with him. So, receiving his ten fathom of Wampam, they friendly dismissed him.

In July, 1638, Uncus, the sachem of the Mohegins, having entertained some of the Pequods, came to the Governor, at Boston, with a present, and was much dejected because that it was not at first accepted. But afterward, the Governor and Council being satisfied about his innocency, they accepted it; whereupon he promised to submit to the order of the English, both touching the Pequods he had received, and as concerning the differences betwixt the Narrhagansets and himself, and confirmed all with his compliment: "This heart," said he, (laying his hand upon his heart,) " is not mine, but yours; command me any difficult service, and I will do it; I have no men, but they are all yours; I will never believe any Indian against the English any more." And so he continued forever after, as may be seen in the following transactions between the Indians and the English: whereupon he was dismissed with some small reward, and went home very joyful, carrying a letter of protection, for himself and his men, through the English Plantations.

CHAP. XXXV.

The state of affairs in the Massachusetts, Anno 1636, while Mr. Vane was Governor.

WITH how much applause soever Mr. Vane was advanced to the Governor's place, and, at the first, managed the same, yet, in the latter end of the year, perceiving

Rescued in the MS.

that there was much discontent in the minds of men, occasioned by different opinions in religion, then stirring in the country, the blame of which was, in a great measure, imputed to himself, he grew weary of the government, and was ready to take any occasion [which] offered to be freed therefrom. For in December, receiving letters from his friends, which necessarily required his presence there, he imparted the same to the Council, (which at that time consisted but of two, besides himself,1) and some others; and thereupon, being resolved of his return for England, he called a Court of Deputies, to the end he might have free leave of the country. They being assembled in Court, and himself declaring the necessity ⚫ of his departure, and those of the Council affirming the reasons to be very urgent, though not fit to be imparted to the whole Court, they desired respite to consider thereof till the morning; when, being assembled again, one of the Assistants using some pathetical expressions of the loss of such a Governor in time of such danger as did hang over them from the Indians and Frenchmen, the Governor brake forth into tears, and professed that, howsoever the causes, propounded for his departure did concern the utter ruin of his outward estate, yet he would rather have hazarded all, than have gone from them at such a time, if something else had not pressed him more, viz., the inevitable danger of God's judgments, which he feared were coming upon them, for the differences and dissensions which he saw amongst them, and the scandalous imputation brought upon himself, as if he should be the cause of all; and therefore he thought it were best for him to give place for a time. Upon this the Court concluded it would not be fit to give way to his departure upon those grounds; whereupon he recalled himself, and professed that the reasons concerning his own estate were sufficient, (to his own satisfaction,) for his departure, and therefore desired the Court he might have leave to go; as for the other passage, it slipped from him out of passion, and not out of judgment: upon this the Court consented, silently, to his departure. And in point

See Sav. Win. i. 207.-H.

of prudence it had been much better for himself, as well as for the country, to have taken that occasion of removing, rather than to have been, in a manner, thrust away, as things fell out afterwards; but man knoweth not his time. But then the question in the Court was about supply of his place. Some were of opinion that it should be executed by the Deputy; but this scruple being cast in, that if the Deputy should die, then the government would be vacated, and none have power to call a Court, or preside therein, it was agreed therefore to call a Court of Election, for a new Governor and Deputy, in case the present Deputy should be chosen Governor and an order was made, (in regard of the season,) that such as would might send their votes by proxy, in papers sealed up, and delivered to the deputies. And so their Court was adjourned four days, and two days after, the Court of Election was to assemble. These things having thus passed in the Court, divers of the congregation at Boston met together, and agreed that they did not apprehend the necessity of the Governor's departure upon the reasons alleged, and sent some of them to declare the same to the Court; whereby it may be observed, by the way, that politicians were not much mistaken, when they accounted that the crosier as well as the distaff, (i. e. that persons led by their private passions and particular interests,) would always be found but as a broken reed for a State to lean upon. But to return: by these insinuations the Governor was so overpowered, that he expressed himself to be such an obedient child of the church, that, notwithstanding the license of the Court, yet, without the leave of the church, he durst not go away. Whereupon a great part of the Court and country, who understood hereof, declared their purpose to continue him still in his place and therefore so soon as the day of election came, and the countrymen assembled, it was thought the best way for avoiding of trouble not to proceed to election, but to adjourn the Court, intended for election, to the great General Court in May. And so the Court of Deputies continued still to consider of such things, as were then most needful to be attended; which were the differences up and down the country in matters