Almost from the moment of his landing in America, Williams had
interested himself greatly in the welfare of the Indians. The principal
cause of his expulsion from Massachusetts was his contention that the
land belonged to the Indians and not to the King of England, who
therefore had no right to give it away, so that the colony's charter was
invalid. His town of Providence was built on land which the Indians had
given him, and he soon acquired considerable influence among them. He
learned to speak their language with great facility, translated the
Bible into their tongue, and on more than one occasion saved New England
from the horrors of an Indian war. But, despite his lofty character, it
is impossible at this day, to regard Williams with any degree of
sympathy or liking, or to think of him except as a trouble-maker over
trifles. Intolerance, happily, is fading from the world, and with it
that useless scrupulosity of behavior, which accomplishes no good, but
whose principal result is to make uncomfortable all who come in contact
with it.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, just to the south of Rhode Island, a prosperous little
settlement had been established, which was soon to grow into the most
commercially important on the continent. We have seen how Henry Hudson,
in 1609, in a vessel chartered by the Dutch West India Company, entered
the Hudson river and explored it for some hundred and fifty miles. The
Dutch claimed the region as the result of that voyage, and during the
next few years, Dutch traders visited it regularly and did a lively
business in furs; but no attempt was made at colonization until 1624,
although small trading-posts had existed at various points along the
river for ten years previously.