The disposition of Miantonimoh was haughty and aspiring, and he seemed to infuse the same spirit into the minds of his people. He possessed a fine figure, was tall of stature, and was a master of cunning and subtlely. It was strongly suspected that, in the year 1642, he had contrived to draw all the Indians throughout the country into a general conspiracy against the English. Letters from Connecticut, received at Boston, had announced the existence of such a conspiracy, and even the details of it were given. The time appointed for the assault was said to be after harvest--the manner, to be by several companies entering into the houses of the principal men, professedly for the purposes of trade, and then to kill them there; one company seizing their arms, and others being at hand to prosecute the massacre. It was urged on the part of Connecticut, that war should be begun with them, and that if Massachusetts would send one hundred and twenty men to Saybrook, at the mouth of the river, they would meet them with a proportionable number. Though there was a probability in the stories afloat, respecting the Narragansets, yet the general court of Massachusetts did not think the information to be a sufficient ground for commencing a war. The court, however, ordered that the Indians within their jurisdiction should be disarmed, and to this they willingly assented. The sachem of the Narragansets was, moreover, sent for to Boston, and, by his readiness to appear, confirmed the English in the opinion that nothing had as yet occurred which could be construed into a justifiable cause of war. The sachem's quarrel with the Mohegans would very naturally render them a subject of such a report, whether there was a foundation for it or not. Miantonimoh very consistently urged before the court, that his accusers should be confronted to him, and their allegations sifted, so that the truth might be ascertained--that if they could not prove their charges, they might receive the punishment which was their due, and which would have been inflicted on himself if found guilty, that is, death--and that as the English must have believed the report, because they ordered the disarming of the Indians, so equity required that they who accused him, should be punished according to the offence charged upon his own person. He, moreover, engaged to prove that the report was raised by Uncas himself, or some of his people. On the part of English, the disarming of the Indians was excused on the ground that Englishmen's houses had been robbed in several instances by the Indians, which was a consideration that somewhat satisfied the chief. The Connecticut people yielded, though with reluctance, to the decision of the Massachusetts court.