as we shall presently see, when they were able to do quite as much
for him as he could for them.

[Footnote 1: See paragraph 73.]

[Footnote 2: Salem (Sa'lem).]

[Footnote 3: See paragraph 68.]


83. Who owned the greater part of America? what the king of England
thought; what Roger Williams thought and said.--The company that had
settled Boston held the land by permission of the king of England.
He considered that most of the land in America belonged to him,
because John Cabot[4] had discovered it.

But Roger Williams said that the king had no right to the land unless
he bought it of the Indians, who were living here when the English
came.

Now the people of Massachusetts were always quite willing to pay the
Indians a fair price for whatever land they wanted; but many of them
were afraid to have Mr. Williams preach and write as he did. They
believed that if they allowed him to go on speaking out so boldly
against the king that the English monarch would get so angry that
he would take away Massachusetts from them and give it to a new
company. In that case, those who had settled here would lose
everything. For this reason the people of Boston tried to make the
young minister agree to keep silent on this subject.