As a measure of security, the legislature, in 1704, enacted that negroes and Indians, whether freemen or slaves, who should be found abroad after nine o'clock at night without a certificate from their masters, or some English person of the family to which he, she or they belong, or some lawful excuse, might be arrested by any person and brought before an Assistant or a justice, who should cause them to be whipped, not exceeding thirteen stripes, "unless their incorrigible behaviour deserve more." No housekeeper was to entertain any slaves or servants, negroes or Indians after nine o'clock at night, without their owner's leave. White men of every grade were allowed to keep their own hours.

In this state of servitude and debasement, the surviving Niantics and Narragansetts were provided with a resting place. In 1709, the Ninigret of that time, the Sachem also of the Connecticut kinsmen of the Niantics, transferred his Rhode Island lands to the General Assembly, thus providing a reservation for the remnant of his tribe and blood.' He covenanted that the assembly should have the care and oversight of his estates, and all grants, leases and mortgages since the 28th of March, were to be void. More than half of the surviving Indians were there subjected to guardianship and control. They now acquired some of the habits of civilisation-dwelling in houses and wearing clothes."

(1)22d and 28th of March, 1709.

(2) Ninigret and his tribe were mere wards of the colonial legislature. Their lands were wholly subject to its control. (See R. I. Col. Records, IV. 52; March, 1709, pp. 61-63, 1713, p. 151, 1716, p. 211, 1718, p. 236). Thenceforth the assembly was frequently called upon to exercise its authority for their protection and relief. (R. I. Col. Records, IV. 221, A. D. 1717). Commissioners were from time to time appointed to oversee and lease Ninigret's lands, as should seem most for the Sachem's interests. (Subsequent acts, A. D. 1716, A. D. 1717, A. D. 1727, A. D 1739, pp. 550, 562). He could make no sales, but by consent of the assembly. (R. I. Col. Records, IV. 450-51, A. D. 1731, A. D. 1739, A. D. 1742). As times went on, there was some change in the mode of management, (A. D. 1759). The laws prohibiting the purchase of Indian lands were repealed, and a committee was appointed to set off

The remainder of the Indians were scattered throughout the colony, and bore a more sorry reputation, than their brethren of the reservation. They sunk, from a public danger, into a public nuisance. They were said to have furnished some valuable labourers, but they gained little improvement or elevation. They filled a disproportionate space in the criminal records of the last century. All efforts in their behalf were defeated by their migratory and dissolute habits, and their tramping and wandering life,—an inheritance from their tribal and communistic days. The thrifty yeoman of the last century regarded them with no sentimental or poetic feelings, but saw in them only the worthless descendants of murderers and thieves. Being thus fixed in a hopeless degradation, there was small incitement to virtues of any sort. The Town Records of the last century furnish numerous instances of emancipated negroes, who became householders and useful members of the community, and who left some property behind them, for the care of the Courts of Probate. It would be difficult to find such examples among those of pure Indian blood.

To remedy this debasement, the legislature made a vigorous application of the correctives deemed effectual in an age of severe penal laws. In 1718, negro and Indian slaves, found stealing or thieving, were to be summarily tried before a justice without a jury, and whipped or banished. In the same year, Indians were exempted from being sued for debt. As this was found to be a feeble restraint upon the cupidity of white men, in June, 1724, this privilege was limited to the heirs of old Ninigret, except that Indians were not to be liable to suits for "tavern scores "and liquors which had been sold to them.

The act of 1729 recites that it is very common for Indians to make dances, which has been found by experience, to be

lands for the sole use of the tribe. In 1773, farther legislation was found necessary for securing the Indian lands, and so onward to the present day, the guardianship of the legislature has been actively and kindly exercised for the poor remnant of the ancient possessors of the soil.

(1) Potter's "Hist. Narragansett." R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll., III. 94.

very prejudicial to the adjacent inhabitants, by their excessive drinking and fighting and wounding each other; and that many servants are enticed to outstay their time at such dances, and then run away from their masters. It is then enacted that the Town councils of each town have full power to make such laws and orders for the better regulating of such Indian dances in their respective towns, as they shall think needful, and to fine all such persons, either English, Indians, or others that shall sell or give any strong liquors at such dances not exceeding 40s. The act of 1730 recites that evil minded persons often draw Indians into their debt, by selling them goods at extravagant rates, and then get the Indians bound to them for a longer time than is just and reasonable, to the great hurt and damage of the Indians, and to the dishonour of the government. It enacts that no Indian is to be bound apprentice or servant except by two justices of the peace. Such was their evil reputation for theft and other crimes, that Indian slaves were not suffered to be imported, while the trade in negroes was permitted if not encouraged.1

While the ancient possessors of the soil were in this hopeless dependence, speculators and claimants deemed that something might be made out of titles derived from Sachems of the century before, and invoked the aid of the Assembly. The early law givers of the colony had felt little reverence for the kings of the Narragansetts, and their successors were utterly dry-eyed and unsympathetic towards their grandchildren. One specimen may suffice. In 1717-18, the granddaughters of Miantonomo appeared before the Assembly as claimants and heirs of tribal lands in Narragansett, which, they averred, had belonged to their grandfather, in his royal character and capacity. An elaborate argument in their behalf was patiently heard by the legislators. It claimed for Miantonomo the sovereign rights which a king of Great Britain asserted in his own dominions. The Assembly, with much show of reason, asserted (1) R. I. Col. Records, IV. 191-93, A. D. 1715.

(2) R. I. Col. Records, IV. 229-33.

that they only are the true successors to the Narragansett royalty. They emphatically deny that Miantonomo's children were ever Sachems or Kings, or that he or they had any proper territorial sovereignty.

"We say that old Miantonomo, in his days, was acknowledged to be one of the Sachems of the Narragansetts, but that he, or any of his successors was ever king of this government, we deny, as in duty to our royal sovereigns, the Kings and Queens of Great Britain, we are and ever have been obliged to do."

A sense of their own colonial interests often happily coincided with a feeling of loyalty to the reigning family of Great Britain, in the legislators of those days.

In the earlier decades of the last century, slavery had become widely diffused throughout the colony. Although the apprenticeships of many of them had long expired, it would seem that those Narragansetts who had been sold into slavery after Philip's War did not always recover their freedom. Indian slaves appear among other "effects," in the Probate inventories, and we may learn from thence, the estimate which was set upon their services. Indian slaves are generally appraised at eight and ten pounds each, while negroes are valued at from sixty to eighty pounds. It would now be difficult to ascertain the exact price which those sums represented in "old tenor bills." It is sufficient for our present purpose, that a negro labourer was reckoned as the equivalent of five or six Indians. They only became efficient workmen, under a stern and vigorous discipline. We have a like record in Massachusetts. In Little Compton, (then a part of Massachusetts), the Indians were the chief builders of stone fences, and, says the historian, were summarily "flagellated" when they had not worked according to their contracts,'-an effectual persuasive to industry, in an age not tolerant of strikes.

Religious zeal and charity attempted something in behalf of the remnant of the Narragansetts and Niantics. These, as in

(1) Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1st series, IX. 201.

earlier days, had small desire to listen to the emissaries of Massachusetts. A new influence, which had been unknown in the colony in the days of their tribal life, was now exerted for their improvement.1

The missionaries of the English Church were instructed to pay attention to their wants, and they did so, with some success. At the request of the Ninigret of the time, a committee of the Assembly was authorized to lay out twenty acres of Ninigret's land, and he was empowered to give a deed of them for the use of the Church of England in Westerly. A church was erected and a minister appointed. That more was not accomplished was probably due to the same causes which thwarted the efforts of all others. During Dean Berkeley's residence in Rhode Island, he made many visits to Narragansett, to see the remnant of the Indians, and to render them such service as he might. He found little to encourage his hopes. In his sermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, (London, 1731),

he says:

"The native Indians who are said to have been thousands within the compass of this colony, do not at present, amount to a thousand, including every age and sex, and these are nearly all servants or labourers for the English, who have contributed more to destroy their bodies by means of strong liquors, than by any means to improve their minds, or save their souls. This slow poison, jointly operating with the small pox and their wars, (but much more destructive than both), has consumed the Indians, not only in our colonies, but far and wide upon our confines, and having made havoc of them, is now doing the same thing by those who taught them this odious vice.

In their degraded condition, there was little efficacy in the laws of the colony, regulating the behaviour of the Indians and

(1)See Reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. London. A copy is in the library of Brown University. Their labours continued until the end of the colonial time. In 1764, the society sent a missionary schoolmaster among the Rhode Island Indians, provided with books,

etc.

(2) See R. I. Col. Records, IV. 397, A. D. 1727; Feb. 1734-35, p. 501. (3) This view of their hopeless state is like that of Callender, "Hist. discourse," Elton's ed. R. I. Hist. Soc. Coll. IV. 140-41.