Banished to Plymouth, and there but coldly received, Williams employed his exile in learning the Indian dialects, and printing a work on them which created great astonishment in England. In 1634 he returned to Salem, where he was eagerly received by his people, but was soon again compelled to flee, for questioning the right of the settlers to take the lands of the Indians without purchase. Our old acquaintance, Winthrop, now Governor of Massachusetts, who appears to have had a private leaning toward the enthusiastic young reformer, gave him a hint that he would do well to go to Narragansett Bay in the South, that being without the jurisdiction of any English Company, while it was within reach of the Indians, whose love he had won by his championship of their cause. To the Bay, therefore, though it was now mid-winter, Roger directed his course, and, early in 1636, he found a refuge with the chief, Massasoit, whose life had been saved by the English nine years before, and who now gave his white brother some land on the Seekonk River, east of the modern Providence, where in the early spring the lonely hero built himself a home. He was soon joined by a few friends from Salem; and, having received a kindly hint from Governor ♦Winthrop of Plymouth, that he would be less likely to be interfered with on the other side of the river, the site of his house being within the original grant to the Pilgrim Fathers, he removed with his companions to the Indian village of Mooshausick, to which he gave the name of Providence, in “gratitude to God’s merciful providence to him in his distress, and also because he hoped his new home might be a shelter for those distressed in conscience.” ♦ ‘Williams’ replaced with ‘Winthrop’ Illustration: PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. The dream of Williams was realized. “Slate Rock,” as the stone on which he landed from his boat on the Seekonk in his search for a new home was called, soon became worn with the tread of the oppressed, who came to him for help in their troubles, fleeing, some from the bigotry of the Boston Puritans, some from the vengeance of the authorities for civil offenses. As a matter of necessity, the Providence colony, recruited from such sources, was not only a thorn in the side of the Massachusetts Company, but one presenting special difficulties to its founder, who, however, in spite of much trouble in the flesh, was pre-eminently successful in all he undertook. Two years after his first arrival, he bought extensive tracts of land on Rhode Island, and in 1642 his little community was so prosperous, that he went to England to obtain a charter for the colony he had founded. On his return to Providence, he was able to be of great use to the other colonies in their dissensions with the Indians, who looked upon him as their champion; but his heresy was never forgiven, and when, in 1643, a confederation for mutual protection was made between the New England colonies, Rhode Island was left out.