This advice was apparently prudent and friendly, prompted by a desire of peace, and by a kind regard to Mr. Williams. It does not seem to deserve the harsh comments which have sometimes been made on it. Mr. Williams himself does not speak of it in a tone of reproach. He immediately resolved to comply with the advice. He accordingly embarked in a canoe, with five others,[128] and proceeded down the stream. As they approached the little cove, near Tockwotten, now India Point, they were saluted, by a company of Indians, with the friendly interrogation, “_What cheer?_” a common English phrase, which they had learned from the colonists.[129] At this spot, they probably went on shore, but they did not long remain there.[130] They passed round India Point and Fox Point, and proceeded up the river on the west side of the peninsula, to a spot near the mouth of the Moshassuck river. Tradition reports, that Mr. Williams landed near a spring, which remains till this day.[131] At this spot, the settlement of Rhode-Island commenced: “O call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod, They have left unstained, what there they found, FREEDOM TO WORSHIP GOD.”[132] To the town here founded, Mr. Williams, with his habitual piety, and in grateful remembrance of “God’s merciful Providence to him in his distress,” gave the name of PROVIDENCE. There has been much discussion respecting the precise period at which this memorable event occurred. There is a perplexing confusion in the statements of different writers. We shall be excused, if we examine the subject with some minuteness. Callender, in his Century Sermon, (p. 18) says, that it was “in the spring of the year 1634–5.” Governor Hopkins, in his History of Providence,[133] places it “some time in the year 1634.” Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 41) assigns the same year. Later writers have naturally been led into the same mistake. Backus (vol. i. p. 70) states, that in January, 1636, Mr. Williams left Massachusetts, which is the right date, according to the modern mode of computing time, though, by the style, which then prevailed, it was 1635. But the period of his banishment is fixed decisively by the records of Massachusetts, and by Winthrop’s Journal. His sentence of banishment was passed, November 3, 1635.[134] In January following, according to Winthrop (vol. i. p. 175) the Court resolved to send him to England, and the messengers found, that he had departed from Salem three days before their arrival. In his letter to Major Mason, Mr. Williams says, “The next year after my banishment, the Lord drew the bow of the Pequod war against the country.” This war commenced in July, 1636, with the murder of Oldham. This fact corroborates the preceding statement. The time of his leaving Seekonk for Providence cannot be accurately determined, but we may approach very near to the true date.