The Indians of Rhode Island gave much trouble by stealing the goods and cattle of the colonists. To prevent it, a law was passed, 1659, to the effect that, if the damage exceeded twenty shillings, the convict might be sold as a slave to any English plantation abroad unless he made restitution.[714] Instances are not lacking in which the law of 1659 was put into effect. On one occasion (between 1671 and 1685) an Indian convicted of breaking into a house and of beating and wounding a servant, was sentenced to pay a fine, or, if payment were not made in three months, to be sold as a slave in Barbadoes.[715] In 1676, the general court provided that all Indians who should come upon any island in the bay, must have written permission so to do from the committee appointed to dispose of Indians, without which they would be liable to be sold into servitude.[716] The first code of Connecticut laws, 1650, followed the Massachusetts Body of Liberties in authorizing enslavement as a mode of punishment.[717] In 1650, certain Indians who failed to make satisfaction for injuries were ordered to be seized and delivered to the injured party, “either to serve or to be shipped out ... as the case will justly bear”.[718] In 1660, the general court was empowered by the United Colonies to send a company of men to obtain satisfaction from the Narraganset for certain depredations upon the settlers. Four of the guilty Indians were to be demanded and sent to Barbadoes to be sold as slaves.[719] Not only did the New England colonies take separately such legislative action regarding the enslavement of Indians, but Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven acting together as the New England Confederation, took similar action. Alleged trespassing of Indians upon English territory, and the fear of a Narraganset war, led the United Colonies, in 1646, to pass an order authorizing, upon complaint of trespass by Indians, the seizure of any of them who should “entertain, protect or rescue the offender”. “And because it will be chargeable keeping Indians in prison, and if they should escape, they are like to prove more insolent and dangerous after, that upon such seizure, the delinquent or satisfaction be demanded of the sagamore or plantation of Indians guilty or accessory as before, and if it be denied, that the magistrates of the jurisdiction deliver up the Indians seized to the party or parties indamaged, either to serve or to be shipped out in exchange for negroes as the case will justly bear.” The commissioners agreed that this measure, though just, was severe, and that it might lead to the Indians seizing the English in return; but they could see no better means of preserving the peace of the colony. As a measure of fairness, therefore, they decreed that before any seizure of Indians was made, a copy of the declaration should be published and given to the particular sagamore. Copies were accordingly given to four leading sachems.[720]