The exile Williams, like Joseph of old, was now a prince among his brethren, but instead of assuming in his own person lordship and dominion, this simple-minded follower of Christ divided the land into twelve parts, one of which he gave to each of the friends who were with him, reserving for himself only an equal portion with them, his allotment, containing two fields, which he had on his first coming purchased from the Indians and planted with his own hands; one of which fields he called “What-cheer,” which being words learned from the English, was the first Indian salutation he received in the land of his exile; and the other, “Saxifrax Hill.” He had not come thither to seek his own aggrandisement, but, as he says, “his soul’s desire was to do the nation good;” and now that God had given him an opportunity to test and establish his principles, he firmly commenced his work, determining to “found a commonwealth, where a pure democracy should prevail, and the magistrate should rule only in civil things.” He desired, as he himself says, that it might be a shelter for persons distressed for conscience; and so it in truth became. From whatever side the character of Roger Williams is viewed, it is equally admirable; suffering from persecution, he himself never was a persecutor, and no sentiment of revenge found a place in his heart; like the Great Master, whose true disciple he was, he pitied and forgave his enemies, and sought only to do them good: so much so, indeed, that we shall presently find him endangering his own life to insure their safety. “Many hearts,” it is related, “seeing the steadfast nobility of his conduct, were touched with relentings.” Winslow, who had always been his secret friend, visited him on one occasion, and being affected by the poverty which surrounded him, left a piece of gold for the supply of himself and family; even his enemies confessed “that he had the root of the matter in him;” and his friends declare him to have been “one of the most disinterested of men, a most pious and heavenly-minded soul.”