He
refused to conform to the use of the common prayer, and so cut himself
off from all chance of preferment; he renounced a property of some
thousands of pounds rather than take the oath required by law; and at
last was forced to flee the country, reaching Massachusetts in 1631.

He was, of course, soon at war with the constituted authorities over
questions of doctrine, and at last it was decided to get rid of him by
sending him back to England. He was at Salem at the time, and hearing
that a warrant had been despatched from Boston for him, he promptly took
to the woods, and, making his way with a few followers to Narragansett
Bay, broke ground for a settlement which he named Providence. It was the
beginning of the first state in the world which took no cognizance
whatever of religious belief, so long as it did not interfere with civil
peace. He was soon joined by more adherents, and a few years later, he
obtained from the king a charter for the colony of Rhode Island.

Almost from the moment of his landing in America, Williams had
interested himself greatly in the welfare of the Indians. The principal
cause of his expulsion from Massachusetts was his contention that the
land belonged to the Indians and not to the King of England, who
therefore had no right to give it away, so that the colony's charter was
invalid. His town of Providence was built on land which the Indians had
given him, and he soon acquired considerable influence among them. He
learned to speak their language with great facility, translated the
Bible into their tongue, and on more than one occasion saved New England
from the horrors of an Indian war. But, despite his lofty character, it
is impossible at this day, to regard Williams with any degree of
sympathy or liking, or to think of him except as a trouble-maker over
trifles. Intolerance, happily, is fading from the world, and with it
that useless scrupulosity of behavior, which accomplishes no good, but
whose principal result is to make uncomfortable all who come in contact
with it.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, just to the south of Rhode Island, a prosperous little
settlement had been established, which was soon to grow into the most
commercially important on the continent. We have seen how Henry Hudson,
in 1609, in a vessel chartered by the Dutch West India Company, entered
the Hudson river and explored it for some hundred and fifty miles. The
Dutch claimed the region a