ich
they had been informed by the Nausett Sachem. The news was startling to
Bradford and to his council, who all felt the imperative necessity of
using immediate efforts for the assistance of the friendly Wampanoges.
They were impelled to this resolution, not only in consideration of the
alliance that had been formed between themselves and the Sagamore
Masasoyt, but also from a conviction that the safety and welfare of the
infant colony depended essentially upon their possessing the friendship
and the protection of some powerful tribe, like the Wampanoges, whose
numbers and warlike character caused them to be both feared and
respected by their weaker neighbors. It could only be by a combination
of several tribes that any important defeat Of the Wampanoges could
possibly be effected: and such a combination the Nausetts declared they
knew to have been already formed; though by what means, and with what
motive, remained at present a mystery.

The Indian interpreter, Squanto, was therefore sent off to Masasoyt's
residence at Lowams, in order to ascertain the grounds of the quarrel,
and to effect, if possible, a reconciliation, without the necessity of
the Pilgrims having recourse to arms in defense of their allies. The
interpreter was also accompanied by Hobomak, a subject of the Wampanoge
chieftain's, who had lately left his own wigwams and settled among the
English, and who had already attached himself to the white men with an
uncommon degree of devotion. But ere the swarthy ambassadors reached
the village of Packanokick, they were suddenly attacked by a small
party of Narragansett warriors, who lay in ambush near their path
through the forest, and were conveyed away captives to the presence of
a fierce looking Indian, who appeared to be a man of power and
authority, and who was evidently awaiting their arrival in a small
temporary encampment at a little distance.

No sooner had Hobomak glanced at this dark chieftain, than he
recognized Coubitant, the bitter foe of the settlers, and the captor of
Henrich Maitland. Coubitant had originally been a subject of the
Sachem Masasoyt; but some offence, either real or imaginary, had
converted him from a friend into a bitter foe; and then it was that he
had wandered towards the Spanish settlements, and obtained that
prejudiced notion of Christianity to which we have formerly alluded.
When tired of his wild roaming life, he had united himself to that
portion of the Nausett tribe