Rumors reached New Amsterdam of active military preparations in progress in New England. It was manifest that some hostile expedition was contemplated. Fort Amsterdam was repaired. The city was enclosed by a ditch and palisade, with a breastwork extending from the East river to the North river. The whole body of citizens mounted guard every night. A frigate in the harbor was ready at any moment to spread its sails, and its "guns were kept loaded day and night." The citizens without exception, were ordered to work upon the defences, under penalty of fine, loss of citizenship and banishment. Thus barbaric war came again to mar all the prosperity of the colony, and to undermine all its foundations of growth and happiness. The Mohican Indians, on the east side of the North river, and whose territory extended to the Connecticut, were allies of the English. Uncas, the chief of this tribe, declared that Governor Stuyvesant was plotting to arm the Narragansetts against New England. At the same time nine chiefs from the vicinity of Manhattan, sent a messenger to Stamford, who said: "The Dutch governor has earnestly solicited the Indians in these parts, to kill all the English. But we have all refused to be hired by him, for the English have done us no harm." The New England colonists were by no means satisfied that these charges were true. Veracity was not an Indian virtue. Cunning was a prominent trait in their character. An extraordinary meeting of commissioners was held in Boston, in April, 1653. Two messengers had been previously sent by the Massachusetts council, to interrogate three of the principal Narragansett chiefs, respecting the conduct of Governor Stuyvesant. They reported at the meeting, that the Narragansett chiefs utterly denied that Governor Stuyvesant had ever approached them with any such proposition. One of them, Ninigret, said: "It was winter when I visited the Dutch governor. I stood the great part of a winter's day, knocking at his door. He would neither open it nor suffer others to open it, to let me in. I found no proposal to stir me up against the English, my friends." Mixam, another of these chiefs, replied, "I do not know of any plot that is intended by the Dutch governor against the English, my friends." The third of the chiefs, who was conferred with, Pessacus, was still more emphatic in his denial. "Though I am far away," he said, "from the governor of the Dutch, I am not willing for the sake of pleasing the English, to invent any falsehood against him." The result of these investigations led some to suppose that individuals among the English had originated these rumors, and had bribed some of the Indian chiefs to false charges that they might instigate the governors to send out an expedition for the capture of New Netherland.