mbodied spirit of Greece or Rome had revisited the earth in the
vast physical and mental proportions of Canonchet.

Forty years before, the friendship of his father, Miantonomo, and the
qualified hostility he assumed towards Sassacus and the Pequots had
saved the infant colonies from destruction. Sassacus, the Pequot
chief, had proposed to Canonicus an alliance against the English, but
in consequence of the advice of Roger Williams, Miantonomo visited
Governor Winthrop at Boston, was received and entertained with great
ceremony, and finally concluded with the colonies a treaty of peace
and alliance. Its main provisions were these:

1st. Peace with Massachusetts and the other English plantations.

2nd. Neither party to make peace with the Pequots without the consent
of the other.

3rd. Neither party to harbor Pequots.

4th. Murderers escaping from either party to be put to death or
delivered up to the other.

5th. Fugitive servants to be returned.

This treaty rendered the cause of the Pequots hopeless, and secured the
safety of the English.

It was in the main observed by the Narragansets. They allowed the
colonial army to pass through their territories, and furnished five
hundred men for the war.

Uncas, the chief of the Mohegans, had also been an ally of the English
against the Pequots. After the destruction of this tribe, the three
parties declared a peace, and the spoils of the war were divided
between the allies. But the Narragansets and Mohegans were naturally
enemies. The latter were of the Pequot race, and Uncas himself, having
married the daughter of Sassacus, was but a revolted subject of that
great chief. It is said that one of Uncas' dependent sachems attacked
Miantonomo, who referred the matter to the English and was told to take
his own course, and invaded the Mohegan country with a thousand
warriors. The fortunes of war were against him and he fell into the
hands of Uncas. The victor now referred the fate of his victim to the
English. They decided that the rules of war permitted, and the safety
of Uncas required, the death of Miantonomo. They were careful,
however, not to permit his execution within their jurisdiction. The
colonies were responsible for the death of this chief. Uncas was
nominally their ally, but really their subject. From first to last
he did their bidding with a spirit so craven and a manner so
treacherous that he was neither trusted nor respected by them.