The main object of the union was the security of the colonies against the natives, who becoming now acquainted with some of the arts of civilised life, were more and more formidable as antagonists. The destruction of the Pequods had not secured peace to the colonies. Unfortunately by this time, too, an idea was becoming prevalent in New England that the Indians were of the accursed race of Ham, and fit only to be rooted out; and hence a spirit of vengeance prevailed against them. In vain the milder-tempered settlers of Connecticut and Rhode Island combated such a doctrine; their pity for the heathen was only regarded as of a piece with their heretical notions. In proportion as the English became vindictive towards the Indian, his savage nature became excited. To be the allies of the hated English drew down upon the feebler tribes the vengeance of their Indian enemies. The bold Miantonomoh hated the Mohegans for this cause. He had been taken to Boston as a criminal on the accusation of Uncas, the Mohegan chief, and now he thirsted for vengeance. Accordingly, at the head of 1000 warriors, and in defiance of a treaty with the English, he suddenly fell upon the Mohegans. He was defeated and taken prisoner, and by the laws of Indian warfare death was his doom. Samuel Gorton, however, and some other heretical English settlers, on the lands of Miantonomoh, interceded for him, and his life was spared. The unfortunate and haughty chief, being conducted a prisoner to Hartford, his fate was referred to the court of Boston, the cruel Uncas, who charged him with an attempt to bewitch and assassinate him, being his accuser; the good services of the forest chief to the colonists, and the aid he had given in the Pequod war, were all forgotten. Murder was one of the crimes punished by death among the Puritans, and as they themselves had on one occasion put to death two of their own people for the murder of one Indian, Miantonomoh, against whom it was easy to found such an accusation, to say nothing of his having in spite of the league of amity commenced a bloody war, was condemned to death as a murderer. He was again given up to his enemy Uncas, the conditions simply being that he should be executed beyond the English boundaries, and that no torture should accompany his death. Uncas conveyed him back to the place whence he was taken, and then one of his men marching behind him clove his head with a hatchet, and he fell dead with the blow. Such was the hard fate of one of the noblest chiefs of the wilderness, “the fast friend of the exiles of Massachusetts, the fathers of Rhode Island.” Later and more enlightened times have attempted in some measure to evince respect to this bold and ill-used chief; Cooper has written of him, and a block of granite inscribed with his name now marks the spot where he fell. It was about this time, and in consequence of the unquiet state of the Indians, that a law was passed, requiring all towns to be well provided with powder,