Information of these designs was immediately communicated by William Arnold to the Governor of Massachusetts. The following letter, preserved in Hutchinson’s Collection, is worthy of perusal, both from its connection with Mr. Williams, and from the light which it throws on the state of the times. Mr. Arnold, it will be seen, was not disposed to look on any of the proceedings of Rhode-Island with a favorable eye; and hence he accuses its inhabitants of hostility to the united colonies, though facts do not seem to sustain the charge, unless hostility was indicated by a patient endurance of wrong, and by generous services in time of danger. Copy of a letter from Mr. William Arnold to the Governor of Massachusetts: “_From Pawtuxet, this 1st day of the 7th month, 1651._ “Much honored, “I thought it my duty to give intelligence unto the much honored Court, of that which I understand is now working here in these parts; so that if it be the will of God, an evil may be prevented, before it come to too great a head, viz: “Whereas Mr. Coddington has gotten a charter of Rhode-Island and Canonicut Island to himself, he has thereby broken the force of their charter, that went under the name of Providence, because he has gotten away the greater part of that colony. “Now these company of the Gortonists, that live at Shawomet, and that company of Providence, are gathering of £200, to send Mr. Roger Williams unto the Parliament, to get them a charter of these parts, they of Shawomet have given £100 already, and there be some men of Providence that have given £10 and £20 a man, to help it forward with speed; they say here is a fair inlet, and I hear they have said, that if the Parliament do take displeasure against Massachusetts, or the rest of the colonies, as they have done against Barbadoes and other places, then this will serve for an inroad to let in forces to overrun the whole country. “It is great pity, and very unfit, that such a company as these are, they all stand professed enemies against all the united colonies, that they should get a charter for so small a quantity of land as lieth in and about Providence, Shawomet, Pawtuxet, and Coweset, all which, now Rhode-Island is taken out from it, is but a strip of land lying in between the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut, by which means, if they should get them a charter, of it there may come some mischief and trouble upon the whole country, if their project be not prevented in time, for under the pretence of liberty of conscience, about these parts, there comes to live all the scum, the runaways of the country, which, in time, for want of better order, may bring a heavy burthen upon the land, &c. This I humbly commend unto the serious consideration of the much honored Court, and rest your humble servant to command, “WILLIAM ARNOLD.