English have seized upon our country, they cut down the grass
with scythes, and the trees with axes. Their cows and horses eat
up the grass, and their hogs spoil our beds of clams; and finally
we shall starve to death. Therefore, I beseech you to act like
men. All the sachems both to the east and west have joined with
us and we are resolved to fall upon them."

The English were much alarmed on hearing this. It was quite true
that the Indians had sold their lands without realizing that the
settlers would use them for anything else than for hunting
grounds and for fishing places, as they themselves had done. They
could not know that the forests would be cleared, that farms
would spread over the countryside, and towns grow up along the
river courses, and they themselves be driven farther and farther
back into the wilderness. But Miantonomo denied that he had
planned a united attack on the settlements. He told the
messengers who were sent to him from Boston that all such reports
came from Uncas, and he agreed to go to Boston and appear before
the court of Massachusetts. He said, too, that he would like to
meet his accusers face to face and prove their treachery.

Miantonomo was a tall, fine-looking chief with serious and
stately manners, and he made a favorable impression in Boston on
the magistrates who were not very well disposed toward him. "When
he came in, the court was assembled and he was set down at the
lower end of the table over against the governor." A Pequot
interpreter was given him. Now, in his own country he had refused
to make use of a Pequot as interpreter because he was not on good
terms with that tribe and could not trust them, but here,
"surrounded by armed men," he could not help himself. He