The Massachusetts government, on the 24th of August, sent by water an armed force of eighty volunteers, under the command of John Endicott, Esq. with instructions to “put to death the men of Block-Island, but to spare the women and children, and to bring them away, and to take possession of the island; and from thence to go to the Pequods, to demand the murderers of Captain Stone and other English, some thousand fathoms of wampum, for damages, and some of their children as hostages, which, if they should refuse, they were to obtain it by force.”[167] These stern orders were not strictly executed; yet many Indians were killed, a large number of wigwams were burnt, at Block-Island and on Connecticut river, some corn was destroyed, and other damage was done. The troops returned to Boston, on the 14th of September, without the loss of a man. This expedition had little effect, except to exasperate the natives. Mr. Endicott was the object of many censures for returning, without striking a severer blow. But his force was small, the winter was approaching, and prudence, undoubtedly, required his return. The Pequods became more decidedly hostile. They killed several white persons, and made strenuous efforts to induce the powerful Narraganset tribe to forget their mutual animosity, and join with them in a war of extermination against the English. “There had been,” says Hutchinson, (vol. i. p. 60) “a fixed, inveterate enmity, between the two tribes; but on this occasion the Pequods were willing to smother it, their enmity against the English being the strongest of the two: and although they had never heard the story of Polypheme and Ulysses, yet they artfully urged, that the English were come to dispossess them of their country, and that all the Narragansets could hope for from their friendship, was the favor of being the last devoured: whereas, if the Indians would unite, they might easily destroy the English, or force them to leave the country, without being exposed themselves to any hazard. They need not come to open battles; firing their houses, killing their cattle, and lying in wait for them as they went about their ordinary business, would soon deprive them of all means of subsisting. But the Narragansets preferred the present pleasure of revenge upon their mortal enemies, to the future happiness of themselves and their posterity.” The chief merit of preventing this league, and thus, perhaps, saving the whites from destruction, is due to Mr. Williams. The magistrates of Massachusetts solicited his mediation with the Narragansets. They did not ask it in vain. Mr. Williams instantly undertook the service, and with much toil, expense and hazard, he succeeded in defeating the endeavors of the Pequods to win over the Narragansets to a coalition against the English. Mr. Williams, in his letter to Major Mason, has incidentally related his agency in this affair. It is due to him, to quote here his own simple and energetic words: