In a frail Indian canoe, he and his companions rowed up the arm of the sea, now called the river Seacock.  They knew not where to land, or where again to pitch their tent in the wilderness; but they were soon guided by the friendly voices of a party of Narragansetts on the opposite shore.  These natives had recognized their friend Williams, and now shouted out, in broken English, the welcome words, ‘What cheer?’ The sound fell like music on the ears of the desolate exiles; and, in remembrance of the event, the spot of ground where they first landed on the Narragansett territory received the name of ’What Cheer?’ which it still retains.  A spring, called ’Williams’s Spring,’ is also shown by the present inhabitants of this district, in proud and grateful memory of the spot where the founder of a future free state first set foot on shore.

The place where the wanderer landed was called by the Indians Maushasuck; and it was made over to him by the generous Cundincus, as a free and absolute possession, and also all the land included between the rivers Pawtucket and Maushasuck.[*] This property he shared equally with his present comrades, and also with some others who shortly after joined him from Salem, and made their whole number amount to thirteen.  He did not reserve any advantage to himself, although the land actually belonged to him alone; but divided it into thirteen equal portions, on each of which a rude hut was immediately erected.  These were soon improved, and became a rising village, to which Williams gave the name of Providence, in grateful remembrance of the Divine guidance and protection which had brought him at length to ’the haven where he would be.’

[Footnote:  Now called the Providence River.]

He and his associates united themselves into a sort of ’town-fellowship,’ and independent church; and one of the first rules which they laid down, for their future guidance and government, was that no one should ever suffer, in that settlement, for conscience’ sake.

It was summer when the little village began to be built; and, before the land could be cleared and prepared for cultivation, the season was too far advanced to allow any hope of a corn-harvest.  The new settlers had, therefore, to endure the same poverty and privation that had been the lot of the earlier planters in New England.  They had no means of obtaining any of the comforts of civilized life, except from Boston or Plymouth:  and as they possessed no vessel besides an Indian canoe, this was a service of toil and much hazard.  Still they did not repine, for liberty was here their precious portion; and hope for the future sustained them through the trials of the present time.

But where was Edith?  Where was that true-hearted woman while her husband was thus struggling with difficulties and privations?  She was where both inclination and duty had led her—­by his side; and smiling at trials that she was permitted to share with him, and to lighten by her presence.