Having relieved the immediate necessities of his unlucky fellow-countrymen, and directed them to keep together as much as possible, Standish endeavored to open negotiations with the Indians, but they had lost all fear of the white men, and met his advances with ridicule. Seeing that it was absolutely necessary to make an example, although hitherto no blood had been shed by the Puritans, the Christian captain succeeded in enticing two of the ringleaders, Peeksuot and Wituwamat by name, into a house, and there slew them, assisted by two or three of his men. The result was what he had anticipated――the heads being gone, the minor members of the conspiracy fled. A few English, who had neglected the advice to keep together, were murdered, and one or two other Indians fell in a fitful struggle between scattered parties at isolated points. The general massacre was averted, however, and out of consideration for the benefit to all obtained by his severe measure, Captain Miles Standish was forgiven by his superiors for the shedding of blood, though, on hearing of the affair, Mr. Robinson wrote from Holland, “Concerning the killing of those poor Indians ... oh, how happy a thing had it been if you had converted some before you had killed any.” Illustration: FANEUIL HALL, BOSTON. The energetic conduct of Standish, however it may have been judged by those who were not on the spot, was, so to speak, the foundation-stone of the prosperity of the Plymouth colony, which henceforth grew with wonderful rapidity, sending out offshoots in various directions, which in their turn, became in due course parent communities. Internal difficulties with certain schismatic members, named Lyford and Oldham, were dealt with in the same rigorous manner as those with the Indians; and though the first result――condemnation of the conduct of the settlers by the London members of the Plymouth Company――seemed, by cutting off their supplies, to threaten their very existence, it resulted in the breaking up of a confederation which had long held within its heterogeneous elements the seeds of dissolution. Left entirely to their own resources, the Puritans developed new energies; and they were already carrying on a brisk trade with the Indians, when there came news of the settlement of some rival colonists on Cape Ann, which the Plymouth people considered to be within their territory.