South on the Ocean, and on the West and Northwest by the Indians called Nahigganeucks, alias Narregansets—­the whole Tract extending about twenty-five English miles unto the Pequot River and Country.”  The charter contained no mention of religion or citizenship, though it gave the inhabitants full power “to rule themselves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit within any Part of the said Tract, by such a Form of Civil Government, as by voluntary consent of all, or the greater Parte of them, they shall find most suitable to their Estate and Condition.”

Williams returned to America in September, 1644.  On account of the unfriendly disposition of Massachusetts he was compelled, when leaving for England, to take his departure from the Dutch port of New Amsterdam.  Now, like one vindicated in name and character, he landed in Boston, and, protected by a letter[21] from “divers Lords and others of the Parliament,” passed unmolested through Massachusetts, and reached Providence by the same route which, as a homeless wanderer, he had pursued eight years before.  It is said that at Seekonk he was met by fourteen canoes filled with people, who escorted him across the water to Providence with shouts of triumph.[22]

Peace and union, however, did not at once flow from the labors of Williams.  The hostility of Massachusetts and Plymouth towards the Rhode-Islanders seemed at first increased; and the principle of self-government, to which the Rhode Island townships owed their existence, delayed their confederation.  At last, in May, 1647, an assembly of freemen from the four towns of Portsmouth, Newport, Providence, and Warwick met at Portsmouth, and proceeded to make laws in the name of the whole body politic, incorporated under the charter.  The first president was John Coggeshall; and Roger Williams and William Coddington were two of the first assistants.

Massachusetts, aided by the Plymouth colony, still continued her machinations, and an ally was found in Rhode Island itself in the person of William Coddington.  In 1650 he went to England and obtained an order, dated April 3, 1651, for the severance of the island from the main-land settlements.[23] Fortunately, however, for the preservation of Rhode Island unity, an act of intemperate bigotry on the part of Massachusetts saved the state from Coddington’s interference.

The sect called Anabaptists, or Baptists, opposed to infant baptism, made their appearance in New England soon after the banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson.  Rhode Island became a stronghold for them, and in 1638 Roger Williams adopted their tenets and was rebaptized.[24] In 1644 a Baptist church was established at Newport.[25] The same year Massachusetts passed a law decreeing banishment of all professors of the new opinions.[26] In October, 1650, three prominent Baptists, John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and John Crandall, visited Massachusetts, when they were seized, whipped, fined, imprisoned, and barely escaped with their lives.[27]