be enfeebled; the king himself will be a loser of the wonted benefit by customs, exported and imported from hence into England, and this hopeful plantation will in the issue be ruined.

"If the aime should be to gratify some particular gentlemen by livings and revenues here, that will also fail, for the poverty of the people. If all the charges of the whole government by the year were put together, and then doubled or trebled, it would not be counted for one of those gentlemen a considerable accommodation. To a coalition in this course the people will never come; and it will be hard to find another people that will stand under any considerable burden in this country, seeing it is not a country where men can subsist without hard labor and great frugality.

"God knows our greatest ambition is to live a quiet life, in a corner of the world. We came not into this wildernesse to seek great things to ourselves; and if any come after us to seeke them heere, they will be disappointed. We keep ourselves within our line, a just dépendence upon, and subjection to, your majestie, according to our charter, it is far from our hearts to disacknowledge. We would gladly do anything within our power to purchase the continuance of your favorable aspect. But it is a great unhappiness to have no testimony of our loyalty offered but this, to yield up our liberties, which are far dearer to us than our lives, and which we have willingly ventured our lives, and passed through many deaths to obtain.

"It was Job's excellency, when he sat as king among his people, that he was a father to the poor. A poor people, destitute of outward favor, wealth, and power,

now cry unto their lord the king. May your majestie regard their cause, and maintain their right; it will stand among the marks of lasting honor to after generations."

Such was the substance of an address full worthy of its origin. The spirit of the people corresponded with it; and if any dared to pay court to the commissioners, they became objects of derision. In February, 1665, three of the commissioners returned to Boston. Their reception was far from being cordial, and they were not slow to detect that their presence in the colony had stirred up against themselves the hatred of the multitude. At Plymouth, whither they soon went, they found little to tempt their cupidity; in Rhode Island and Connecticut they met with better success. Having in April returned to Massachusetts, they delivered five propositions to the deputy governor, Mr. Endicott, the governor, having recently deceased. On the next day was held the annual election. It proceeded quietly, and Mr. Bellingham was chosen to succeed Mr. Endicott, and Mr. Willoughby was appointed deputy governor. On the days immediately following, the commissioners communicated all his majesty's instructions, and the propositions before mentioned were laid before the court. The discussion waxed with heated animation; and the commissioners, finding themselves outmatched by the politicians of Massachusetts, asked, "Do you acknowledge his majesty's commission to be of full force to all the intents and purposes therein contained?" They received no definite auswer from the court.1

The commissioners now resolved to take more decided. ground, and on the 23d of May they ordered Joshua

1 Hutchinson, i. 217, seq.

Scottow, a Boston merchant, to present himself at the house of Captain Breeden, to answer to the charges of Thomas Deane and others. When the trial opened, a herald from the governor appeared, sounded his trumpet, and, in the name of the king, formally forbade any abetting the commissioners. The latter were astonished; the magistrates were inexorable. "Since you will misconstrue our endeavors," exclaimed the commissioners in tones of rage, "we shall not lose more of our labor upon you." So saying, they departed to the north.

When King Charles heard of these proceedings, he changed the scene of negotiations from Massachusetts to England; and Bellingham and Hathorne were ordered, under penalty, not to fail in their appearance. On the 11th of September, the court convened for the purpose of considering the king's letter of April 10. The most eminent clergymen of the colony were present. "Let some regular way be propounded for the debate," said Bellingham. "The king's prerogative gives him power to command our appearance," said Bradstreet; "before God and men we are to obey."-"You may have a trial at law; when you come to England, you may insist upon it and claim it," interposed a royalist. "We must as well consider God's displeasure, as the king's," remarked Willoughby, "the interest of ourselves and of God's things, as his majesty's prerogative." ."-"Prerogative is as necessary as law," replied the artful royalist. -"Prerogative is not above law," retorted Hathorne. "We have already furnished our views in writing, so that the ablest persons among us could not declare our case more fully," concluded the court.1

Bancroft, ii. 88.

The defiance of Massachusetts was followed by no immediate danger. For a season the contest with the crown ceased. The king himself was too much engaged with his women to bestow his attention upon matters of state; and thus, while England was lamenting the want of a good government, the colonies, true to themselves, their country, and their God, flourished in purity and peace

CHAPTER V.

KING PHILIP'S WAR.

PRIOR to the year 1675, four powerful tribes of Indians held territory in New England. Of all the tribes, not one was more dreaded by the English than the Narragansetts, who peopled almost the entire region which forms the present state of Rhode Island, extending west to the Thames River in Connecticut, and northward to the territory of the Nipmucks. The land of the Nipmucks lay principally in Massachusetts, about half way between Boston and the Connecticut. Wachusett Mountain was the favorite seat of the sachems of this tribe. The Mohegans, who had separated from the Pequots before the destruction of the latter, occupied the territory lying between the Connecticut and the Thames. The Wampanoags appear to have exercised sway over the petty tribes of the interior as far west as the Nipmucks, while their own territory extended from Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod through the disputed tracts north of the Narragansett country to the bay bearing the same Their influence was courted or dreaded by all the surrounding tribes; and had they been hostile to the Pilgrims, instead of friendly, there would have been small need, probably, to write the history of the latter. Besides these ruling tribes, there were many smaller ones, who were neither numerous nor powerful. These, for the most part,

name.