“Upon letters received from the Governor and Council at Boston, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest endeavors to break and hinder the league labored for by the Pequods and Mohegans against the English, (excusing the not sending of company and supplies by the haste of the business) the Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and, scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of life, to the sachem’s house. Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought, reeked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and massacred by them on Connecticut river, and from whom I could not but nightly look for their bloody knives at my own throat also. God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to pieces the Pequods’ negotiation and design; and to make and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with the Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequods.” In consequence of Mr. Williams’ agency, the Narraganset sachem, Miantinomo, came to Boston, on the 21st of October, 1636, with two sons of Canonicus, besides another sachem, and about twenty attendants. He was received with much parade, and a treaty of perpetual peace and alliance was concluded, in which it was stipulated, that neither party should make peace with the Pequods without the consent of the other.[168] Governor Winthrop mentions a circumstance, which is highly honorable to Mr. Williams, because it proves the confidence which was reposed in him, both by the Indians and by the government of Massachusetts. The treaty was written in the English language, and as it was found difficult to make the Indians understand the articles perfectly, “we agreed,” says Winthrop, “to send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who could best interpret them to them.” This measure was probably adopted, at the suggestion of the Indians, who knew that Mr. Williams was their friend, and would neither himself deceive them, nor connive at any attempt at deception on the part of others. It is a proof, also, of the integrity of the Massachusetts rulers, on this occasion, that they were willing to submit their proceedings to the scrutiny of a man, whom they knew to be a steadfast advocate of the rights of the Indians. The Pequods, though disappointed in their attempts to secure the alliance of the Narragansets, resolved to maintain the conflict single handed. They probably thought, that it was better policy to make one desperate effort to overpower the English, though aided by the Narragansets, than to wait for the gradual approach of that ruin, which they had the forecast to apprehend from the multiplication of the colonists. It was a bold though a hopeless effort. Their undisciplined bravery and simple weapons were unequal to a contest with the military skill and the fire-arms of the English.