One other event marked Roger Williams’ sojourn at Narragansett. A day came when exciting news spread like wildfire throughout the colony. Gold had been found--rich, precious gold--yes, and silver, too--on the island of Rhode Island. So the word went round. What a future for the poor, struggling little colony! Roger Williams, with the others, believed that a mine of wealth was in their midst and wrote in one of his letters that the ore had been tested and found genuine. The arms of England and of the Lord High Admiral were posted over the mine and nobody allowed to take possession. Unfortunately, the golden dream soon changed to drab reality. A more careful test showed that what was believed to be gold was not gold at all. The disappointed dreamers, sadder but wiser, returned to their plows to earn a living out of the soil in the old humdrum but dependable way. What about Roger Williams’ charter money all this time? The colony had voted him the hundred pounds to pay the expenses of his trip across the water, but he had not yet collected it all. After patiently waiting several years, he gently hinted that Providence pay her share in goats! “I have here (through God’s providence) convenience of improving some goats; my request is, therefore, that if it may be without much trouble, you would be pleased to order the payment of it in cattle of that kind.” Let us hope that the “cattle” duly reached Narragansett. CHAPTER X THE CHARTER ON TRIAL Meanwhile, what of the charter itself which Roger Williams had gained at the expense of so much time and trouble? Had it succeeded in uniting the struggling settlements? Were they now a harmonious, happy family? Alas! No such miracle had occurred. In fact, two years and a half passed before any kind of union was brought about. [Illustration: Canonicus Bridge, Roger Williams Park, Providence, appropriately named after the Narragansett sachem who was the steadfast friend of Roger Williams.] [Illustration: The Betsy Williams Cottage, Roger Williams Park, Providence. It is an old-fashioned red dwelling, well covered with vines in summer, not far from the statue of Roger Williams. The cottage is appropriately furnished with Colonial relics.]