Roger Williams -- "What Cheer, Netop?"
The pupils gather around a series of paintings that depict
Williams's most celebrated moment, his crossing of the
Seekonk River and being greeted by Indians. It is a moment
commemorated through the centuries in the phrase "What cheer?"
Odd as it sounds to the pupils, or anyone else hearing it for
the first time -- the youngsters are delighted with the way
Rhode Islanders have used the phrase to name: a steamboat line,
a brewery, a livery stable, a laundry, hop yeast cakes, a
chauffeur service, a catering service, a brand of coffee ...
Mary Williams and the two children join Roger, perhaps by the
summer of 1636. They live on a plot of land by the present
235 North Main Street, across from today's Roger Williams
National Memorial, a park that includes the site of the spring
that the settlers used.
What cheer, revisited
Lest there be confusion about the details of Williams's
arrival, the Providence City Council on the evening of April
17, 1941, attempted to settle all questions.
Councilman Frederick S. Barnes, Democratic floor leader, had
proposed changing the city's seal to show the correct number
of white men in Williams's canoe -- he said it was four. As
early as 1845, the seal had shown two white men in the canoe
being greeted by Indians on shore. Other seals showed the
same scene, except with three, or four, or even six white men
in the canoe. The "What cheer ?" painting outside the mayor's
office depicted four in the canoe.
After caustic debate between Democrats and Republicans, they
were unanimous: It was a canoe with four white men, Williams
in the bow, being greeted by the Indians. (The number of
Indians doesn't seem to have mattered.)
To do the natives good
Encased nearby is the book that has prompted the interest in
Williams's remarkable relations with the Indians. The book,
A Key into the Language of America, offers an insight
not only into Williams but also into the people, and country,
he encountered when he came to Narragansett Bay. Williams
wrote the book while sailing to England in 1643 to secure a
charter for his colony.
Of New England's winter, he writes: "The Nor West wind ...
comes over the cold frozen Land, and over many millions of
Loads of Snow; and yet the pure wholsomnesse of the Aire is
wonderfull, and the warmth of the Sunne, such in the sharpest
weather, that I have often seen the Natives Children runne
about starke naked in the coldest dayes, and the Indians men
and women lye by a Fire, in the Woods in the coldest nights,
and I have been often out my selfe such nights without fire,
mercifully, and wonderfully preserved."
By 1644, having obtained a charter for his colony, Williams
returns to Rhode Island and sets up a trading post at Cocumcussoc,
near today's Wickford. During the next decade, he will spend
months at a time here while his family remains in Providence.
The Indians give him wampum and pelts in exchange for pots and
pans. He is among the few traders who refuse to deal in guns
or liquor.
"Though instrumental in keeping the peace on numerous occasions,"
the museum's commentary says, "Williams was unable to prevent
the outbread of King Philip's War, which led to the destruction
of Providence."
Legend, and it is a legend that historians say rings true,
records the "What cheer?" story this way:
In the spring of 1636, Governor Winslow of Plymouth, a friend
of Williams's, alerts Williams that he hasn't gone far enough
into the wilderness -- he is still in Massachusetts.
Concerning this event, Williams writes: "... and, having ...
a sense of God's merciful providence unto me in my distress
called the place Providence, I desire it might be a shelter
for persons distressed for conscience."
In a canoe, Williams crosses the Seekonk and lands near
Tockwotten Cove, and he is greeted by a band of Indians.
"What cheer, netop?" come the native American voices. It is
symbolic and significant, mixing the Elizabethan greeting
"What cheer?" with the Indian word netop, meaning
friend. Presumably Williams knew these Indians from earlier
crossings and had taught them "What cheer?" as they had
taught him netop.
After a brief stop on the slate rocks along the shore, Williams
and the Indians travel, by water, around the land jutting from
Foxes Hill (today's Fox Point) and go upriver to near the mouth
of the Moshassuck River. There, at a spring in a swampy area
by a large cove, they disembark and have a feast of boiled
bass (a delicacy), succotash, and corn.
Within two years, the Williamses' third child is born. They
call him Providence.
The Rhodes School pupils read a quotation from Williams on
the Aldrich House wall: "My soul's desire was to do the natives
good and to that end learn their language."
