Within a few days of their leaving, eight more Quakers arrived on a ship from London, and were promptly accorded similar treatment, except that witchcraft was not charged.[668] Endicott's attitude was shown at once. “Take heed you break not our Ecclesiastical Laws,” he said to them, “for then ye are sure to stretch by a Halter.” At the trial, when they asked for a copy of the laws against them, he refused to allow them to see one—"to the grieving of the People then present," wrote our contemporary authority, “who said openly in the Court—How shall they know then when they Transgress?”[669] After some weeks' confinement, they were shipped back to England, and the Massachusetts authorities addressed a letter to the United Colonies, asking for the passage of a general regulation against allowing “such pests” as Quakers to be admitted to any of the colonies.[670] In October, the Massachusetts General Court passed the first law specifically directed against the sect, which provided that any master of a ship bringing a known Quaker to Massachusetts should be fined £100, and be required to give bonds for taking such out of the colony again, in default of which he was to be imprisoned. The Quaker was to be committed to the “house of correction,” to be severely whipped, “kept constantly to worke,” and not permitted to speak with anyone. If any resident of the colony defended any Quaker opinion, he was to be fined or, on the third offense, banished; while any person “reviling” a magistrate or minister, which meant criticizing them, was to be fined or whipped.[671] Few bits of legislation can be more complete than this, which thus provided punishment for an offender, denied anyone the right to speak in his behalf, and made it a crime to criticize the men who had passed the law. One voice, nevertheless, was publicly raised on behalf of liberty. Nicholas Upshall, “a weakly old man,” who, when the two Quakeresses were being starved in prison, had bribed the jailer to give them food, heard the new law being proclaimed in the streets. He protested against it, and for his temerity in daring to criticize the magistrates, he was fined £20, and banished at the beginning of winter.[672] On his way to free Rhode Island, he was offered a home by an Indian who took pity upon him, and who, after hearing of his misfortune, exclaimed, “What a God have the English who deal so with one another about the worship of their God!”[673] Upshall, however, continued his journey to Gorton's settlement, where he was welcomed and cared for. Footnote 668: Richard Smith also arrived from Long Island, being deported thither again. Footnote 669: Bishop, _New England Judged_, p. 10. Footnote 670: _Acts United Colonies_, vol. II, p. 156. Footnote 671: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. IV, pt. i, pp. 277 _f._ Footnote 672: _Ibid._, pp. 279 _f._ Footnote 673: Bishop, _New England Judged_, p. 40.