es proportioned to the number of
inhabitants in each colony between sixteen and sixty; and for this
purpose a census was to be taken at stated times by the commissioners.
In domestic affairs the federal government was not to interfere, but
each colony was guaranteed the integrity of its territory and local
jurisdiction.

Two defects were apparent in this constitution: the federal government
had no authority to act directly upon individuals, and thus it had no
coercive power; the equal number of votes allowed the members of the
confederation in the federal council was a standing contradiction of
the measure of contribution to the burdens of government. The
confederacy contained a population of about twenty-three thousand five
hundred souls, of which number fifteen thousand may be assigned to
Massachusetts, three thousand each to Connecticut and Plymouth, and
two thousand five hundred to New Haven. Massachusetts, with two out of
eight commissioners, possessed a population greater than that of the
other three colonies combined.

There was really no Indian combination in 1643 against the colonists,
but the rivalry between the Narragansetts and the Mohegans gave
grounds for uneasiness. After the death of Miantonomoh, under the
circumstances already related, the fear of an Indian attack was
temporarily removed. But the Narragansetts were grief-stricken over
the loss of their chieftain and thought only of revenge upon the hated
Uncas and his Indians, at whose door they laid all the blame. To give
opportunity for intended operations, they made Gorton and others
intermediaries for a complete cession of their country to the king of
England in April, 1644. Then, when summoned by the general court of
Massachusetts to Boston, Canonicus and Pessacus, the two leading
chiefs, pleaded the king's jurisdiction and declined to appear.[4] Two
envoys sent by the general court in May, 1644, to the wigwam of
Canonicus, were compelled to stay out in the rain for two hours before
being admitted, and Pessacus, instead of giving them satisfaction,
persisted in his threat of hostilities against Uncas, agreeing only
not to attack Uncas "till after next planting-time," nor then till
after due notice given to the English.[5]

The truce did not restrain the Narragansetts, and in the spring of
1645 they attacked the Mohegans and defeated them, and thereupon the
federal commissioners, in July, 1645, met at Boston, and upon the
refusal of the Narragan