“And, therefore, (lastly) be pleased to know, that there are (upon the point) but two families which are so obstructive and destructive to an equal proceeding of civil order amongst us; for one of these four families, Stephen Arnold, desires to be uniform with us; a second, Zacharie Rhodes, being in the way of dipping is (potentially) banished by you. Only William Arnold and William Carpenter, (very far, also, in religion, from you, if you knew all) they have some color, yet in a late conference, they all plead that all the obstacle is their offending of yourselves. “Fourthly, whereas, (I humbly conceive) with the people of this colony your commerce is as great as with any in the country, and our dangers (being a frontier people to the barbarians) are greater than those of other colonies, and the ill consequences to yourselves would be not a few nor small, and to the whole land, were we first massacred or mastered by them. I pray your equal and favorable reflection upon that your law, which prohibits us to buy of you all means of our necessary defence of our lives and families, (yea in this most bloody and massacreing time.) “We are informed that tickets have rarely been denied to any English of the country; yea, the barbarians (though notorious in lies) if they profess subjection, they are furnished; only ourselves, by former and later denial, seem to be devoted to the Indian shambles and massacres. “The barbarians all the land over, are filled with artillery and ammunition from the Dutch, openly and horridly, and from all the English over the country, (by stealth.) I know they abound so wonderfully, that their activity and insolence is grown so high that they daily consult, and hope, and threaten to render us slaves, as they long since (and now most horribly) have made the Dutch. “For myself (as through God’s goodness) I have refused the gain of thousands by such a murderous trade, and think no law yet extant, amongst yourselves or us, secure enough against such villany; so am I loth to see so many hundreds (if not some thousands) in this colony, destroyed like fools and beasts without resistance. I grieve that so much blood should cry against yourselves, yea, and I grieve that (at this instant by these ships) this cry and the premises should now trouble his Highness and his Council. For the seasonable preventing of which, is this humble address presented to your wisdom, by him who desires to be “Your unfeigned and faithful servant, “ROGER WILLIAMS, “_Of Providence Plantations, President_.