on
the island, burning and devastating the villages and fields, end firing
at random into the thickets, but without seeing a single being. They
then broke up the canoes that lay on the beach, and sailed away to the
country of the Pequodees to insist on the guilty individuals being
delivered to them and, on this condition, to offer peace. But neither
the murderers nor their protectors were to be found. All had fled to
the forests and the marshes, whither the English could not follow
them, and they merely succeeded in killing and wounding a few
stragglers, and burning the huts that came in their way.

This fruitless expedition rendered the Pequodees bolder than ever, and
the neighboring towns were harassed by their nightly attacks, and,
notwithstanding all their precautions, and the patrols that were set on
every side, the savages fell on the whites whenever they were at work
in the distant fields. They slew the men with their tomahawks end
dragged their wretched wives and daughters away to captivity; and thus,
in a short time, thirty of the English settlers had become the victims
of their fury. Meanwhile, messengers were sent to Plymouth and
Massachusetts, to implore their aid, and the latter state promised two
hundred soldiers, and the former forty, which were as many as its small
population could afford.

The Pequodees, dreading the power of the English, endeavored to move
the Narragansetts--who had from the most distant times been their
rivals and enemies--to join them in an offensive and defensive alliance
against the white men, whom they represented as a common foe to the
Indians, and the future destroyers of their race.

This intended confederation was discovered by Roger Williams, who spent
much of his time in visiting the Indian villages and instructing the
natives, with all of whom he obtained a remarkable degree of influence.
This noble-minded and truly Christian-spirited man immediately seized
the opportunity of repaying with benefits the heavy injuries that he
had received from the Massachusetts; and, with an admirable magnanimity
and self devotion, he set himself to prevent the dangerous alliance.

The government of Massachusetts were well aware that Williams was the
only man who could effect this desirable object; and, on hearing from
him of the schemes of Sassacus, they immediately requested the former
victim of their unjust persecution to employ his influence with the
natives for the benefit of his