council of Boston wrote beseeching him to use his speediest endeavours with his friends, the Mohegans and Narragansetts, to prevent their league of destruction with the bloody Pequods. “And the Lord,” says he, “helped me to put my life into my hands;” and scarcely acquainting his wife, he embarked, all alone, in a poor canoe, and through a violent storm reached the dwelling of the sachem. Here he found the Pequod ambassadors reeking as it seemed with blood; and for three days and three nights the tardy business of mediation kept him among them whose bloody knives he expected each night at his own throat. The Narragansetts and Mohegans wavered, but God was with the messenger of peace, and “wondrously preserved and helped him.” The terrible league was broken, and the Narragansetts and Mohegans were induced by Williams to become allies of the English. A braver, nobler action never was performed. The banished man had heaped coals of fire on the heads of his persecutors. After this generous act of interference on their behalf, some of the leading men of Massachusetts wished that, at least, the sentence of banishment against him should be revoked; but the fear of his principles and his influence overcame the sense of gratitude, and he remained a banished man. The same year that Roger Williams was expelled from Massachusetts, Anne Hutchinson, a woman of deep religious experience and great powers of mind, arrived with her husband and family from England. Religious discussion was at this time one of the occupations of the Puritans of Boston; twice, or oftener, in the week, they met to canvass the sermons of the preceding Sabbath, in order that the religious life might be kept active. Men, however, were only admitted on these occasions, and this, to the masculine intellect and large spirit of Anne Hutchinson, seemed like doing the divine work only by halves. She therefore opened similar meetings in her own house, to which her own sex were invited. Twice in the week were these meetings held, and soon attracted great numbers of the principal women of the place. Henry Vane, the once popular governor, who had, by this time, been discovered to hold heretical opinions, favoured her greatly; her views were supported by her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright, a highly respected and learned minister, and even by the orthodox Cotton. Nevertheless, it was soon noised abroad that this eloquent and able woman was promulgating all kinds of new and unthought-of heresies. Her views, it was said, threatened destruction to church and state. The utmost excitement prevailed; sermons were preached, public discussions were held, and finally a synod was convened, which ended by banishing her and her friends. Vane, in the meantime, had returned to England, and Cotton, afraid of the storm, attached himself to the persecuting party.