d the coast,
and that the tribe occupying the region upon which they were settled
had been utterly annihilated. The dead had been left unburied to be
devoured by wolves. Thus the way had been prepared for the Pilgrims to
settle upon land which no man claimed, and thus had Providence gone
before them to shield them from the attacks of a savage foe.

Samoset was disposed to make himself quite at home. He wished to enter
the houses, and called freely for beer and for food. To make him a
little more presentable to their families, the Pilgrims put a large
horseman's coat upon him, and then led him into their houses, and
treated him with great hospitality. The savage seemed well satisfied
with his new friends, and manifested no disposition to leave quarters
so comfortable and entertainment so abundant. Night came, and he still
remained, and would take no hints to go. The colonists could not
rudely turn him out of doors, and they were very apprehensive of
treachery, should they allow him to continue with them for the night.
But all their gentle efforts to get rid of him were in vain--he
_would_ stay. They therefore made arrangements for him in Stephen
Hopkins's house, and carefully, though concealing their movements from
him, watched him all night.

Samoset was quite an intelligent man, and professed to be well
acquainted with all the tribes who peopled the New England coasts. He
said that the tribe inhabiting the end of the peninsula of Cape Cod
were called Nausites, and that they were exceedingly exasperated
against the whites, because, a few years before, one Captain Hunt,
from England, while trading with the Indians on the Cape, had
inveigled twenty-seven men on board, and then had fastened them below
and set sail. These poor creatures, thus infamously kidnapped, were
carried to Spain, and sold as slaves for one hundred dollars each. It
was in consequence of this outrage that the Pilgrims were so fiercely
attacked at _The First Encounter_. Samoset had heard from his brethren
of the forest all the incidents of this conflict.

He also informed his eager listeners that at two days' journey from
them, upon the margin of waters now called Bristol Bay, there was a
very powerful tribe, the Wampanoags, who exerted a sort of supremacy
over all the other tribes of the region. Massasoit was the sovereign
of this dominant people, and by his intelligence and energy he kept
the adjacent tribes in a state of vassalage. Not far from hi