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do it by waving some potent wand, would bid all this teeming population, this wide spread happiness, this wonderful triumph of civilization, freedom and religion, disappear, like a gorgeous vision, and restore this whole land to the condition in which the Pilgrims found it, or even place it in the situation in which it would have been, at this moment, if no civilized man had landed on these shores. Human happiness has been immeasurably increased by the settlement of this continent. Christianity has extended her conquests; and no thoughtful man can doubt, that the landing of the Pilgrims, and the subsequent history of this country, have been controlled by Him, who accomplishes his great designs of mercy to the universe, by means which often involve individual suffering, and sometimes produce national ruin.

Let us feel our obligation to treat the feeble remnants of the tribes who yet remain with generous kindness. Let us recompense them for whatever wrongs their fathers may have received. Let us, now that they are weak, and we are strong, be scrupulously attentive to their rights, and seek to promote their highest temporal and eternal welfare. Without the friendship of their fathers, at the beginning, ours must have perished. Let the children of the white man prove their gratitude, by saving from ruin the helpiess descendants of the savage.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. Williams proceeds to Seekonk-crosses the river and founds the town of Providence.

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ABOUT the middle of January, 1635-6,* Mr. Williams left Salem, in secrecy and haste. It is not certain, that any one accompanied him, though a number of persons were with him a short time afterwards. He proceeded to the south, towards the Narraganset Bay. The weather was very severe, and his sufferings were great. In a letter written thirty-five years afterwards, he said: "I was sorely tossed for one fourteen weeks, in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean;" and he added, that he still felt the effects of his exposure to the severity of the weather.t

He appears to have visited Ousamequin, the sachem of Pokanoket, who resided at Mount Hope, near the present town of Bristol (R. I.) From him he obtained a grant of land now included in the town of Seekonk, in Massachusetts, on the east bank of Pawtucket (now Seekonk) river.‡ This territory was within the limits of the Plymouth colony, but Mr. Williams recognised the Indians only as the proprietors, and bought a title from the sachem. Ousamequin doubtless granted his request with pleasure, as a return for the services and presents which he had formerly received from Mr. Williams. If, as we have supposed, the exile was obliged to visit the sachem, and make these arrangements, the journey, on foot, increased that exposure to the severity of the elements, of which he complains.

He was, moreover, unprovided with a dwelling. Mr. Cotton (in his Bloody Tenet washed, p. 8.) says, "that some of his friends went to the place appointed by himself beforehand, to make provision of housing, and other neces

* There is a strange confusion in the statements of different authors respecting the time of Mr. Williams' banishment, and of the settlement of Providence. The above date is unquestionably correct, for reasons which will hereafter be presented.

+ Letter to Major Mason.

Letter of Roger Williams.

saries for him against his coming." This statement however, must be incorrect. Mr. Williams' departure from Salem was sudden and unexpected; and his assertion, just quoted, that he did not know "what bread or bed did mean, ," for fourteen weeks, must be understood as excluding the idea of such a preparation as Mr. Cotton mentions. Mr. Williams, too, says, I first pitched, and began to build and plant at Seekonk."* He had no house, it would seem, till he built one.

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For the means of subsistence, he must have been dependent on the Indians. At that season, hunting and fishing were impracticable, if he had possessed the proper instruments. The earth was covered with snow, and he had not even the poor resource of roots. He may refer to his situation at this time, in the following lines, alluding to the Indians:

"God's Providence is rich to his,

Let none distrustful be;

In wilderness, in great distress,
These ravens have fed me."t

The spot, in Seekonk, where he reared his habitation, is believed, on good authority, to have been at Manton's Neck, near the cove, a short distance above the Central Bridge.‡

Here he probably hoped, that he might live in peace. He was soon joined by several friends, if they did not at first accompany him. His wife and children were still at Salem.

But Seekonk was not to be his home. In a short time, to use his own language, “I received a letter from my ancient friend, Mr. Winslow, the Governor of Plymouth, professing his own and others' love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising me, since I was fallen into the edge of their bounds, and they were loath to displease the Bay, to remove to the other side of the water, and there, he said, I had the country free before me, and might be as free as themselves, and we should be loving neighbors together."

This advice was apparently prudent and friendly, prompted by a desire of peace, and by a kind regard to Mr. Williams. It does not seem to deserve the harsh comments which

+ Key, chap. ii.

* Letter to Major Mason. The venerable Moses Brown assures me, that he has ascertained this fact, to his own satisfaction.

have sometimes been made on it. Mr. Williams himself does not speak of it in a tone of reproach. He immediately resolved to comply with the advice. He accordingly embarked in a canoe, with five others,* and proceeded down the stream. As they approached the little cove, near Tockwotten, now India Point, they were saluted, by a company of Indians, with the friendly interrogation, "What cheer?" a common English phrase, which they had learned from the colonists.† At this spot, they probably went on shore, but they did not long remain there. They passed round India Point and Fox Point, and proceeded up the river on the west side of the peninsula, to a spot near the mouth of the Moshassuck river. Tradition reports, that Mr. Williams landed near a spring, which remains till this day. At this spot, the settlement of Rhode-Island commenced :

"O call it holy ground,

The soil where first they trod,

They have left unstained, what there they found,
FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD."||

To the town here founded, Mr. Williams, with his habitual piety, and in grateful remembrance of "God's merciful Providence to him in his distress," gave the name of PROVIDENCE.

There has been much discussion respecting the precise period at which this memorable event occurred. There is a perplexing confusion in the statements of different writers. We shall be excused, if we examine the subject with some minuteness. Callender, in his Century Sermon, (p. 18) says, that it was "in the spring of the year 1634–5." Governor Hopkins, in his History of Providence,¶ places it

* William_ Harris, John Smith, (miller,) Joshua Verin, Thomas Angell and Francis Wickes. R. I. Register, 1828, article written by Moses Brown.

† Equivalent to the modern How do you do?

The lands adjacent to this spot were called Whatcheer, in memory of the occurrence.

§ "Tradition has uniformly stated the place where they landed, to be at the spring southwest of the Episcopal church, at which a house has recently been built by Mr. Nehemiah Dodge." Moses Brown.

|| Mrs. Hemans' noble ode, "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers." This beautiful stanza applies with more literal truth to Roger Williams and his companions, than to all the Pilgrim fathers.

¶ Published in the Providence Gazette, from January to March, 1765, and republished in the 2 Mass. His. Col. ix.

"some time in the year 1634." Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 41) assigns the same year. Later writers have naturally been led into the same mistake. Backus (vol. i. p. 70) states, that in January, 1636, Mr. Williams left Massachusetts, which is the right date, according to the modern mode of computing time, though, by the style, which then prevailed, it was 1635.

But the period of his banishment is fixed decisively by the records of Massachusetts, and by Winthrop's Journal. His sentence of banishment was passed, November 3, 1635.* In January following, according to Winthrop (vol. i. p. 175) the Court resolved to send him to England, and the messengers found, that he had departed from Salem three days before their arrival.

"The

In his letter to Major Mason, Mr. Williams says, next year after my banishment, the Lord drew the bow of the Pequod war against the country." This war commen

ced in July, 1636, with the murder of Oldham. This fact corroborates the preceding statement.

The time of his leaving Seekonk for Providence cannot be accurately determined, but we may approach very near to the true date.

Governor Winslow, of Plymouth, who advised him to leave Seekonk, entered on his official duties in March, 1635–6. This was the only year that he held the office of Governor, between 1633 and 1644.† Mr. Williams must, therefore, have been at Seekonk, subsequently to the date of Governor Winslow's accession to office.

In Mr. Williams' letter to Major Mason, he says, that he "began to build and plant at Seekonk." He did not begin to plant, we may presume, till the middle of April, if so early. In the same letter, he speaks of his removal as occasioning his "loss of a harvest that year," from which remark we may reasonably infer, that the corn had attained a considerable growth before he left Seekonk, and consequently that he did not cross the river till the middle, perhaps, of June.

On the 26th of July, a letter was received from Mr. Williams, by Governor Vane, informing him of the murder

* Mass. Rec. vol. i. p. 163.

+ Backus, vol. i. 74.

The Plymouth settlers, in 1623, began to plant their corn the middle of April. Prince, p. 216.

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