"5th. That the Colony be put in such a posture of defence that if there should be any invasion upon this island, or elsewhere in this Colony (which God forbid) you might in some measure be in readiness to defend yourselves, or if need be to relieve your neighbors, according to the power given you by the King in your charter and to us in the King's commission and instructions." This, also, struck a familiar cord. Provisions for self-defence had already been made as circumstances called for them. A new militia law was now passed, requiring six trainings a year under heavy penalties, and allowing nine shillings a year for each enlisted soldier. Every man was to keep on hand two pounds of powder and four of lead, and each town was required to maintain a public magazine. To defray the expenses of these magazines Newport was taxed fifty pounds, and the other three towns twenty pounds each. The Royal Commissioners were well satisfied with the conduct of Rhode Island, and Rhode Island, surrounded by powerful enemies, had every reason to be well satisfied with the Commissioners. Still the encroachments and aggressions of Massachusetts and Connecticut continued. As a prospective means of defence against them John Clarke was again asked to carry the complaints of the suffering Colony to England, and John Greene was chosen to accompany him. In 1672 a new claimant appeared in the lists. The Council of Plymouth had been lavish of its gifts of land, and in its ignorance of American geography had formed a perplexing map of conflicting claims. In one of its grants it had given the greater part of Maine, together with Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Long Island and the adjacent islands, to the Earl of Stirling. The Earl of Stirling sold his grant to the Duke of York, already proprietor by royal gift of the recently conquered province of New Netherlands. The term adjacent islands would have included Acquidneck and the other islands of Narragansett Bay. Prudence, one of the pleasantest and most valuable of them, had been bought of the Indian proprietors by Roger Williams and John Winthrop. In the course of time it passed by regular sale to John Paine, a Boston merchant, who had won the favor of the Duke of York by contributing liberally to the rebuilding of Fort James, in New York harbor. Governor Lovelace, the Duke's attorney, felt that such liberality was deserving of a signal reward. Paine was already the owner of Prudence. Lovelace resolved to make it a free-manor by the name of Toply manor, and confer the governership for life on Paine. By a second grant the original quit-rent of two barrels of cider and six pairs of capons was remitted, and this territory of seven miles in length became an untaxed and independent government.