ral days on wild fruits and berries, had reached a camp of the
Nausett Indians, hitherto so adverse to the Pilgrims. This seemed a
good opportunity for endeavoring to establish more friendly relations
with the tribe, and Bradford sent off ten men in the shallop to
negotiate for the boy's restoration, and to offer gifts to the
Nausetts, who, happily, were not so cruel and blood-thirsty a party as
those who had kidnapped Henrich Maitland. The overtures of the settlers
were well received, and they presented the Chief of the village with a
pair of knives, and also returned to the natives a quantity of corn,
more than equal to that which they had taken from the graves and huts
that they had discovered on their first landing, and which belonged to
the Nausetts. This act of justice gained for the settlers the esteem
and confidence of the Indians; and as these original possessors of the
soil did not dispute the title of the newcomers to the portion of the
American soil on which they had established themselves, they considered
henceforth that their claim was valid, and that they could stand before
the natives on terms of equality.

The lost child was safely restored to Rodolph, who, as usual, shared
the conduct of the expedition with Edward Winslow. The joy and
gratitude of the boy's father, at being permitted to convey him home
uninjured, may be better imagined than described; and while Maitland
sympathized in his feelings, he could not help sadly contrasting the
fate of his own lost Henrich with that of the more fortunate Francis
Billington. But he believed that his son's earthly career had closed
for ever; and both he and Helen had submitted to the bereavement with
Christian piety and resignation, and had taught their wounded hearts to
restrain every impulse to repine, and even to feel thankful that their
beloved boy had been spared any protracted sufferings and trials, and
had been permitted so speedily to enter into his rest. Had they known
his actual late and condition, how much of painful anxiety would have
mingled with the sorrow of separation, from which they were now exempt!

The restoration of the little wanderer having been effected, and a good
understanding having been established with the Nausetts of Cape Cod,
the negotiating party lost no time in returning to New Plymouth, and
communicating to Governor Bradford the intelligence of the conspiracy
against Masasoyt, to which allusion has already been made, and of wh