There had been rumors of a general rising of the natives in the preceding year, and the Commissioners of the United Colonies, meeting at Boston, after serious consideration decided that it would not be safe to set the unexpected captive free; but they had no grounds upon which to kill him. As usual, they turned to the church for advice, and, as usual, that advice was for blood, “the most judicious elders,” who had been consulted, unanimously agreeing “that he ought to be put to death.” Of the four reasons for their decision as given by Winthrop, not one justified the sentence. One of them, that he was “of a turbulent and proud spirit,” was hardly a capital offense even in Massachusetts, nor could the beating of one of his own subjects be thus construed. His alleged heading of an Indian conspiracy had not been proved, and if the authorities had really believed it, it is not likely that they would have granted him formal permission to take the warpath with a thousand warriors against another of their own allies. Opposed to the charges were to be set the facts that, in the past, he had performed inestimable service as a friend of the English, and that he was now in their hands at his own suggestion, trusting in the white man's justice. He had not, however, reckoned on the church, and it is impossible not to agree with the often expressed surmise that the leaders of that institution condemned him, not as the enemy of the English, but as the friend of the heretic Gorton and the tolerant Williams.[588] Footnote 588: _Cf._, _e.g._, editor's note in J. Winthrop, _History_, vol. II, pp. 158 _f._