On reaching New England he went to Salem, and was there appointed a minister of the church. After a very short time he left Salem, and went with his family to Plymouth. Remaining there for two years, he became deeply interested in the Indians, and began the difficult task of learning their language. He wrote afterward, "God was pleased to give me a painful, patient spirit to lodge with them in their filthy, smoky holes to gain their tongue." In this way he acquired a good knowledge of the Indians, whom he learned to love and who learned to love him. Little did he realize that this warm friendship would in after years save not only his own life but also the lives of many other Puritans. [Illustration: A Puritan Fireplace.] While winning the friendship of the Indians, Roger Williams incensed the Puritans by saying in strong language that they had no just claim to the lands they were living on. He said that the King had no right to grant to any company these lands, because they had never belonged to him. The Indians, and only the Indians, owned them. It is needless to say that such arguments made many bitter enemies for the youthful preacher. Of course he could not continue in this severe criticism of matters so important to the Puritan heart without losing many of his friends. The wrath of the Puritans at length became so great that they tried him in court and banished him from Massachusetts. As he became ill about this time, however, he was told that he might remain in the colony through the winter if he would not preach. But as soon as he grew better his friends, who were very fond of him, began to spend much time in talking with him at his home in Salem, where he now lived. The Puritans, fearing his influence, determined to send him at once to England. [Illustration: The Rhode Island Settlement.] When the heroic young minister heard of this, he hastily said good-by to his wife and two children--one of whom was a little girl two years old and the other a baby--and looked for safety in the home of his old friend Massasoit, living near Mount Hope, seventy or eighty miles away.