CHAPTER dition safe and free but in her subjection to her hus X. band's authority. Such is the liberty of the church 1645. under the authority of Christ, her king and her husband. His yoke is so easy and sweet to her as a bride's ornaments; and if through frowardness and wantonness she shake it off at any time, she is in no rest in her spirit until she take it up again; and whether her lord smiles upon her, and embraceth her in his arms, or whether he frowns, or rebukes, or smites her, she apprehends the sweetness of his love in all, and is refreshed, supported, and instructed by every such dispensation of his authority over her. On the other side, ye know who they are that complain of this yoke, and say, let us break their bonds; we will not have this man to rule over us. Even so, brethren, it will be between you and your magistrates. If you stand for your natural corrupt liberties, and will do what is good in your own eyes, you will not endure the least weight of authority, but will murmur and oppose, and be always striving to shake off that yoke. But if you will be satisfied to enjoy such civil and lawful liberties as Christ allows you, then will you quietly and cheerfully submit unto that authority which is set over you, in all the administrations of it, for your good. Wherein if we fail at any time, we hope we shall be willing, by God's assistance, to hearken to good advice from any of you, or in any other way of God; so shall your liberties be preserved in upholding the honor and power of authority among you." In spite, however, of Winthrop's eloquence and influence, there was still to be found in the colony some to whom the yoke of theocratic authority was not quite so October. easy and sweet. At the next session of the General Court, a petition was presented from divers merchants and others, asking a reconsideration of the law against X. Baptists, and a repeal of the act which prohibited the CHAPTER entertainment of strangers without license from a magistrate. In England, the doctrine of religious liberty 1645. had made great progress; the Independents already controlled the Parliament, and the petitioners complained that "many godly" in that country had taken great of fense at these laws. A portion of the court were inclined to listen to this petition; but the elders went first to the deputies, and then to the magistrates, and representing what advantage it would give the Baptists, whose notions were fast spreading, they succeeded in obtaining a peremptory vote that the laws complained of should neither be altered nor explained. The Commissioners for the United Colonies added their support, advising at their next meeting the suppression of the influx of error, "under a deceitful color of liberty of conscience." But, though any thing tending to liberty of conscience was not to be allowed, a concession was made to the jealousy of the freemen; the unpopular Council for Life was deprived of its military authority, and, thus stripped of the last vestige of power, it became but a mere name. Ever since the death of Miantonimoh, the young chief Pessacus, his brother and successor, and the rest of the Narragansets, had been in a state of great uneasiness. They had repeatedly sent presents to the colonists, requesting liberty to wage war against Uncas, whom they accused of having killed Miantonimoh, notwithstanding the acceptance of a ransom for him. This complaint had been specially investigated by the Commissioners for the United Colonies, and pronounced unfounded; for how could they fail to uphold their ally in an act done by their command and for their special benefit? They arranged a temporary truce, which having expired, the Narragansets sent war parties against Uncas. On news of these pro CHAPTER ceedings, a special meeting was forthwith called of the this occasion, they acknowledge their "lord and master" Alarmed at the preparations against him, and not placing any great reliance on that patience and long suffering, or that awful respect for divine rules of which the treatment of Miantonimoh had furnished but unpromising specimens, Pessacus listened to Williams's advice and hastened to Boston to make his peace. He could only X. obtain it by promising to indemnify Uncas for the depre- CHAPTER dations committed upon him; to pay the colonists, for the cost of their late preparations, wampum equivalent to 1645. $5000, and to give hostages for future good behavior— terms which he felt himself obliged to concede. In terror or admiration of a power so vigorously exercised, several inferior sagamores followed the example of the chiefs of Shawomet in subscribing to the ten commandments, and acknowledging themselves the subjects of Massachusetts. Besides the petty tribes about Massachusetts Bay, this course was adopted by two sachems near "the great hill of the west, called Wachusett," and even by Passaconoway, the Merrimac sachem. It was among the smaller and nearer of these subject tribes that the devoted Eliot now first began his missionary labors. The affairs of La Tour had at length reached a crisis. Early in the spring he had again visited Boston to solicit further aid. The courage and energy of Madame La Tour repulsed an attack which D'Aulney made during her husband's absence on the fort of St. John's; but a Boston ship, sent to St. John's with a supply of provisions, fell into D'Aulney's hands. He confiscated the vessel, and sent back the men in an old shallop, with loud complaints of breach of faith and threats of vengeance, to which the magistrates replied with equal spirit. A second attack on St. John's was more successful. The fort was taken, the garrison were hanged as rebels, and Madame La Tour died shortly after of grief and vexation. La Tour estimated his loss at £10,000, $48,000, and he was totally ruined by it, as was Major Gibbons and some other Boston merchants, to whom his fort was mortgaged. Gibbons's claim against La Tour amounted to upward of £2000, or near $10,000. So far from granting any further aid, the General CHAPTER Court caused a paper to be drawn up, and presented to X. the Commissioners for the United Colonies, strongly rep1645. robating the whole connection with La Tour, who pres 1646. ently went to seek aid of Sir David Kirk, governor of Newfoundland. He soon returned, however, with a small vessel lent him by Kirk, and remained during the winter a pensioner on the bounty of his Boston friends. They fitted him out in the spring with goods for trading with the Indians at the eastward; but he betrayed his trust, forced the English part of his crew on shore near Cape Sable, and ran away with the vessel and cargo; "whereby it appeared, as the Scripture saith," such is Winthrop's remark on the occasion, "that there is no confidence in an unfaithful or carnal man." The Boston sailors left on shore by La Tour wandered about in great distress, till some Indians gave them a shallop, provisions, and a pilot. La Tour, who did not lack capacity and enterprise, presently established himself as a fur trader in the distant region of Hudson's Bay. Not long after La Tour's final departure arrived another visitor no less remarkable. This was Captain Cromwell, who, ten years before, had been a common sailor in New England, but who now was commander of three fastsailing brigantines, each of some sixty tons burden, and full of armed men. Under a sort of second-hand commission from the Earl of Warwick to make reprisals on the Spaniards, he had captured in the West Indies several richly-laden Spanish vessels. He was doubtless a freebooter, among the earliest of those so famous presently as buccaneers. A storm drove him into Plymouth, "divine Providence," according to Winthrop, " so directing for the comfort and help of that town, which was now almost deserted." These providential visitors spent freely and gave liberally to many of the poorer sort; yet, |