nd the stories they had heard before leaving London were enough to create strong anxieties.
They knew they were being watched from the edges of forests and this prompted them to travel in pairs no matter where they went and to always have a musket at hand. The Pilgrims were sitting down to a council meeting one afternoon, when to their surprise and fear a young, tall, handsome Indian walked into the village. He strode toward the council house, bow and arrow in hand and entirely nude except for a hide string around his waist and bid the words with a hand gesture "welcome."
He had a smiling face and his name was "Samoset." The Pilgrims plied him with questions to learn how he had learned English and he responded that he had learned English from association with the English along the Maine shoreline.
He was Chief of a small sub tribe called Abnaki. He told them the areas dominant tribe was called Wampanoag.
They gave him a long red riding coat, to keep him warm, and to cover his nakedness. Samoset said the tribe surrounding the village was a band ofWampanoags called "Patuxet."
The Patuxet were almost entirely wiped out four years ago by disease (probably smallpox). Patuxet meant, "Little Bay" or "Little Falls."
The one surviving Indian from the tribe was named "Squanto" and he had been taken captive as a slave and transported to Europe, but returned.
Samoset said the chief overlord of the area tribe's was called "Yellow Feather" or "Massasoit." Samoset said he would return the next day with Wampanoag warriors to visit with them.
Several days later Samoset returned with his friend "Squanto" and several other braves and announced that in the forest nearby was Massasoit himself and that he wanted to powwow with the governor. There appeared on a nearby hill sixty painted warriors, with faces painted black and yellow, red and blue and blends of white with other colors. All of this with streaks of different colors across the cheek and brow. The great leader Massasoit stood proud and solemn among them.
He asked that he might meet with the white chief (Governor Carter). They agreed after an exchange of gifts that neither group, Indian or Pilgrim would "do the other no hurts." Yellow Feather agreed that all weapons would be left behind when visiting and the Pilgrims the same. Squanto had become famous in Europe in 1605. He returned to Europe in one of the ships and enjoyed meeting both royalty and wealth. Squanto was not a scholar, but he was a survivor who learned enough English to get by and developed enough polish to be accepted in the royal court.
Squanto returned to America in 1614 with Capt. John Smith only to find that the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by disease. At this time he and Samoset became friends with the Pilgrims. (There also was a period of time that he was taken as a slave with others to Europe and escaped to return.)
From the day he met the Pilgrims, Squanto became their friend and voice among the Indian nations.
Squanto with skills and know how of farming showed the Pilgrims how to plant and care for the new world food plants and seeds. He showed them how to store it, in order to have a mininimum of rodent and parasite loss and how to prepare it for the table. Squanto instructed the Pilgrims how to plant com (maize), to fertilize it with fish by placing the fish head first around the hill of com in spoke wheel fashion.
For weeks the corn hills were to be guarded day and night so that wolves, who could smell the fish below ground would not dig up the fertilizer. He instructed them to make noise makers to keep the birds away from the underground seeds and to watch the fields from a platform high enough to see the rows to scare off deer that might want to browse on the corn plants. He instructed the Pilgrims in what to say and how to negotiate in trading with Indians, and how to maximize their purchases. Squanto was killed before he could celebrate the first harvest with the Pilgrims. He was visiting a neighboring tribe and through a skirmish or jealous plan he was slain. The Pilgrims wrote "we lost our trusted