Puritan officials have become suspicious of the…

Puritan officials have become suspicious of the Narragansett, knowing that the natives of Block Island are allies of the Eastern Niantic, who are allied with the Narragansett.

In the weeks that follow the Oldham killings, colonial officials from Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, assume the Narragansett are the likely culprits.

Even so, the colonial English response to Oldham's death, the last in a series of escalating incidents, has traditionally been viewed as the beginning of the Pequot War.

News of Oldham's death has become the subject of sermons in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Governor Vane sends John Endecott to exact revenge on the natives of Block Island in August.

Endecott's party of roughly ninety men sails to Block Island and attacks a Niantic village.

Most of the Niantic escape, but fourteen are killed, while two of Endecott's men are injured.

The Puritan militia burns the village to the ground, carrying away crops which the Niantic have stored for winter, and destroying what they cannot carry.

Endecott goes on to Fort Saybrook.