proofe. And that upon the escape of any prisoner whatsoever, or fugitive for any criminall cause, whether breaking prison, or getting from the officer, or otherwise escaping, upon the certificate of 2. magistrates of the jurisdiction out of which the escape is made, that he was a prisoner, or such an offender at the time of the escape, they [the] magistrates, or sume of them of that jurisdiction wher for the presente the said prisoner or fugitive abideth, shall forthwith grante shuch a warrante as the case will beare, for the apprehending of any shuch person, and the delivering [delivery] of him into the hands of the officer, or other person who pursues him. And if ther be help required, for the safe returning of any shuch offender, then it shall be granted to him that craves the same, he paying the charges therof.1

9. And for that the justest warrs may be of dangerous consequence, espetially to the smaler plantations in these United Collonies, it is agreed that neither the Massachusets, Plimoth, Conightecutt, nor New-Haven, nor any [of the] member[s] of any of them, shall at any time hear after begine, undertake, or ingage them selves, or this confederation, or any parte therof, in any warr whatsoever, (sudden exegents, with the necessary consequents therof excepted which are also to be moderated as much as the case will permitte,) without the consente and agreemente of the forementioned [forenamed] 8. comissioners, or at the least 6. of them, as in the sixt article is provided. And that no charge be required of any of they [the] confederates, in case of a defensive warr, till the said comissioners have mett, and approved the justice of the warr, and have agreed upon the summe of money to be levied, which sume is then to be paid by the severall confederates in proportion according to the fourth article.

10. That in extraordinary occasions, when meetings are sumoned

1 The Constitution of the United States, Art. IV. § 2, contained a similar provision which had been adopted unanimously in the convention of 1787. "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." The Articles of Confederation (1781) contained no provision of this nature.

any

by three magistrates of any jurisdiction, or 2. as in the 5 article, if of the comissioners come not, due warning being given or sente, it is agreed that 4 of the comissioners shall have power, to directe a warr which cannot be delayed, and to send for due proportions of men out of each jurisdiction, as well as 6. might doe if all mett; but not less then 6 shall determine the justice of the warr, or alow the demands or bills of charges, or cause any levies to be made for the same.

II. It is further agreed, that if any of the confederates shall hereafter breake any of these presente articles, or be any other ways injurious to any one of the other jurisdictions, such breach of agreemente or injurie shall be duly considered and ordered by the comissioners for the other jurisdiction[s]; that both peace and this presente confederation may be intirly preserved without violation.

12. Lastly, this perpetuall confederation, and the severall articles. [and agreements] therof being read, and seriously considered, both by the Generall Courte for the Massachusets, and by the comissioners for Plimoth, Conigtecute, and New-Haven, were fully alowed and confirmed by 3. of the forenamed confederates, namly, the Massachusets, Conightecutt, and New-Haven; only the comissioners for Plimoth haveing no commission to conclude, desired respite till they might advise with their Generall Courte; wher upon it was agreed and concluded by the said Courte of the Massachusets, and the comissioners for the other tow confederates, that, if Plimoth consente, then the whole treaty as it stands in these present articles is, and shall continue, firme and stable without alteration. But if Plimoth come not in, yet the other three confederates doe by these presents [260] confeirme the whole confederation, and [all] the articles therof; only in September nexte, when the second meeting of the commissioners is to be at Boston, new consideration may be taken of the 6. article, which concerns numbers of comissioners for meeting and concluding they [the] affaires of this confederation, to the satisfaction of the Courte of the Massachusets, and the comissioners for the other 2. confederates, but the rest to stand unquestioned. In the testimonie wherof, the Generall Courte of the Massachusets, by ther Secretary, and the comissioners for Conightecutt and New-Haven, have subscribed these presente articles this. 19 of the third month, comonly called May, Anno Dom: 1643.

At a meeting of the comissioners for the confederation held at Boston the 7 of Sept[ember], it appearing that the Generall Courte of New-Plimoth, and the severall towneshipes therof, have read and considered and approved these articles of confederation, as appeareth by commission from their Generall Courte bearing date the .29. of August, 1643. to Mr. Edward Winslow and Mr. William Collier, to ratifie and confirme the same on their behalfes. We, therfore, the Comissioners for the Massachusets,

Conightecutt, and New Haven, doe also, for our severall goverments, subscribe unto them.1

JOHN WINTHROP, Gov'. of the Massachusest.

1 It will be noticed that the Commissioners from Plymouth are not signatories of the Articles of Confederation, and the names of the Commissioners from the other plantations occur at the end of the state paper as printed, though the last paragraph must have been inserted after the signing in May, 1643. The original of this paper has not been preserved.

With the formation of the Confederation the political importance of Plymouth declined. Not only did the population of Massachusetts Bay give that Plantation greater weight in the councils of the Confederation, but its connection with the Connecticut settlements and its much greater territory and wide sphere of influence tended to make it the source of activity. In the second meeting of the Commissioners, held at Hartford, in September, 1644, this superiority of the Bay colony was asserted by its representatives, who "expressed not onely their owne apprehensions but the judgment of their generall Court, that by the Articles of Confederacon the first place [in signing] did of right belong to the Massachusetts, as being first named." The Commissioners from the other colonies demurred somewhat on the ground that such a privilege had not been propounded, granted, or practised at a former meeting of the Commissioners, but "out of their respects to the Gouerment of the Massachusetts they did willingly graunt that their Commissioners should first subscribe after the President in this and all future meetings." Plymouth Col. Rec., 1x. 16.

Having acceded to the Confederation the plantation began its preparations for war. A "military discipline," established and maintained by the towns of Plymouth, Duxbury and Marshfield, appointed the following officers for the year: Myles Standish,

These were the articles of agreemente in the union and confederation which they now first entered into; and in this their first meeting, held at Boston the day and year abovesaid, amongst other things they had this matter of great consequence to considere on: the Narigansets, after the subduing of the Pequents, thought to have ruled over all the Indeans aboute them; but the English, espetially those of Conightecutt holding correspondence and frenship with Uncass, sachem of the Monhigg Indeans which lived nere them,' (as the Massachusets had done with the Narigansets,) and captain, Nathaniel Thomas, lieutenant, Nathaniel Souther, clerk, and Matthew Fuller and Samuel Nash, sergeants. The rules or orders are printed in Plymouth Col. Rec., 11. 61. The nature of the first three orders shows the distinction that may be made between this company and the earlier and more famous organization of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery of Boston. These three rules are: "1. That the exercise be alwayes begunn and ended with prayer. 2. That there be one procured to preach them a sermon once a year, viz. at the elecĉon of their officers, and the first to begin in September next. 3. That none shalbe receiued into this millitary company but such as are of honest and good report, and freemen, not servants, and shalbe well approued by the officers and the whole company, or the major part.”

The town of Plymouth appointed a watch to be kept "in regard of the danger of the Indians." Each watch was composed of six men and a corporal, and a watch continued twenty-three hours, from sunset to sunset. The whole township was liable to do duty in thus watching, and if any one could not perform his stated time, he was at his own cost to provide a substitute. A brick watch house was to be constructed, and smaller pieces of ordnance be obtained. Two captains, or masters of the watch, were named, Nathaniel Souther and Thomas Southworth, who were to serve a week alternately, and the first watch fell to Southworth. In October a joint committee or council of war came into being. The General Court appointed Governor Bradford, who was also to be the president of the Council, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prence, William Collier and Capt. Myles Standish. The town named Bradford, Prence, Stephen Hopkins, John Jenney, William Paddy and Nathaniel Souther. Records of the Town of Plymouth, 1. 15, 16; Plymouth Col. Rec., 11. 64.

1 The settlements at Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, later to be known as the Connecticut plantations, had obtained the Indian cession of lands from Uncas and Sequasson, and held some of the tribes under tribute. It was good policy to stand well with the Indians, for the English settlers had differences with the Dutch, and active hostilities were probable. Continued friendly relations were, under the conditions then necessarily prevailing, practically impossible. Roger Ludlow, deputy governor of Connecticut, in August, 1642, received information from a neighbor

he had been faithfull to them in the Pequente warr, they were ingaged to supporte him in his just liberties, and were contented that such of the surviving Pequents as had submited to him should remaine with him and quietly under his protection. This did much increase his power and augmente his greatnes, which the Narigansets could not indure to see. But Myantinomo,1 their cheefe sachem, (an ambitious and politick man,) sought privatly and by trearchery (according to the Indean maner) to make him away, by hiring some to kill him. Sometime they assayed to poyson him; that not takeing, then in the night time to knock him on the head in his house, or

ing sachem of a conspiracy among the Indians to exterminate the whites. The leader was said to be Miantunomo, and all of the chiefs in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Long Island were involved, except Uncas. Ludlow, after receiving some confirmation of the intelligence, transmitted it to Massachusetts Bay, and thus opened the train of events that led to the death of the Narragansett sachem. 3 Mass. Hist. Collections, III. 161.

1 The confusion of Indian names is almost beyond a solution. Hutchinson, from a manuscript before him, states that the Narragansetts, when the English first arrived in New England, were under a very powerful sachem, named Tashtussuck. “He had only two children, a son and a daughter. Not being able to match them according to their dignity, he joined them together in matrimony," and they had four sons, of whom Canonicus was the eldest. History, 1. 458 n.

Miantunomo (also called Mecumeh) was the son of Mascus, youngest brother of Canonicus. His wife's name, as given in the deed of the Sosoa purchase in Westerly,

A third son of Canonicus is variously called Meika, Meiksah, Meaksaw, or Maxanus, and is supposed to be the Mishaunno who witnessed the deed of Aquethnick. He married a sister of Ninigret, named Magnus, Matantuck or Quaiapen, afterwards called the Sunke Squaw or Old Queen of the Narragansetts.