Famous Indian Chiefs / Their Battles, Treaties, Sieges, and Struggles with the Whites for the Possession of America

by Charles H. L. Johnston

"Let me speak with him, then. Let me speak one word with him," muttered the great Sachem.

Winslow stepped forward to the matted platform where he lay, and grasped the feeble hand which the emasculated Indian held out to him.

"Art thou Winsnow?" whispered Massasoit. "Art thou, indeed, Winsnow? O Winsnow, I shall never see thee again, for I go to the Great Spirit—to the land of the Hereafter."

"I do not think that thee will die," said Winslow soothingly. "Here, Hobbammak, bring me the cordials which I have transported hither for the good King of the Wampanoags!" And as the guide presented them to him, he soon poured some liquid into a cup and gave it to the weakened Sachem. The effect was immediate. With several more drafts, the chief began to show signs of renewed strength, and, after he had lain quietly for an hour, he was so much improved that his eyesight began to return.

"Now I know that the English are my friends," cried Massasoit. "Now I know that they love me, and while I live I will not ever forget this kindness, and here, good Winsnow, bring me some English pottage from a roasted fowl, as I have seen you English make at Plymouth, and I shall grow entirely well."

This was done for him, and so much other care administered to the sinking chieftain that his strength and appetite were wonderfully restored. In two days' time he was up and about, while his attendants showered Winslow and Hampden with expressions of gratitude. Meanwhile the fame of the kindly Winslow, as a physician, spread so rapidly that crowds gathered in an encampment around Montaup, in order to have him prescribe for their various ills. Some, indeed, came from a distance of from sixty to a hundred miles, and the readymade physician might have remained with them indefinitely, had not rumors of a conspiracy among the Pokanokets and other Indians of Massachusetts against the settlement of Plymouth soon decided the two wayfarers to return. Information of their plot was told to Hobbammak by Massasoit, who said that he, himself, had been invited to join in it. "A chief was here at the setting of the sun," said he, "and he told me that the palefaces did not love me, else they would visit me in my pain, and he urged me to join their war party. But I said no. Now, Hobbammak, go tell Winsnow to take the chiefs of this league and kill them, and it will end the war-trail in the blood of those that made it, and will save the inhabitants of the settlement." This advice was afterwards taken by Miles Standish and his men, who, with little difficulty, captured and put to death the very Indians who had plotted against the peaceful Puritans. But Winslow and Hampden, thinking that their presence would be of far more value at Plymouth than at Sowams, quickly bade adieu to the aged chieftain and were soon hastening towards the unprotected settlement upon the seacoast which they had left behind them.

Nine years after this the Narragansetts went upon the warpath against Massasoit, and attacked him so vigorously at Sowams that he was obliged to take refuge in the wooden house which an Englishman had erected near by. Here he held the enemy at bay, while one of his own braves bore news of his predicament to the English at Plymouth, who immediately sent an armed force to his relief under the command of Miles Standish. The Narragansetts had learned to fear the guns of the Puritans, at their cost, so, at the approach of the white troops, they quickly made off into the woods. With joy and many tokens of gratitude, the Sachem of the Wampanoags welcomed this deliverance and showered presents and deerskins upon the rescuing white men.

The friendship of this famous chieftain was further shown the English, when—during a period of great religious controversy—he gave a welcome shelter to Roger Williams, a young Welsh, dissenting minister, who was forced to leave the Puritan Colonists, because of differences with them in respect to their religious beliefs. Williams had come to Massachusetts in 1631, and had settled at Salem, where a struggling band of Puritans had started a settlement. Here he soon came into disfavor because he considered that the strict laws regulating the doctrine and worship of the Puritans were too narrow, and openly preached against the teachings of those who guided the spiritual welfare of the Colonists. Several times he was told to appear before the magistrates, and at last the general court, or legislature of the colony of Massachusetts, pronounced the sentence of exile upon him, because he had taught doctrines which "subverted the fundamental state and government." It was determined to dispatch him to the mother country upon a ship which was soon to leave for England, but someone told the bold minister of this, so he escaped from his house in Salem, in January, 1636, and, after wandering half starved and half chilled for fourteen weeks in the dense forest, he finally reached Plymouth. Here—with a few friends—he determined to make a settlement and begin his life afresh. But now Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts wrote to him—because he believed him to have been badly treated by the Colonists—and advised him to make a home somewhere on Narragansett Bay, and beyond the territory claimed by the other Colonists—advice which Williams had the good sense to adopt. So with five companions, in June, 1636, he paddled into the Seekonk, or Blackstone River, in a canoe, and landed at the head of Narragansett Bay, where he founded the city of Providence—so called because of his belief that he had found it only by divine guidance.

This land had been given to him by Massasoit, with whom he had found a refuge at Mount Hope during his wanderings in the wilderness, and who had fed and housed him during the black storms of winter. The old chief had showed him every care and attention, and had the greatest friendship for this noble-hearted man of God, who had not only written an essay upon the rights of the Indians to the American soil, which had made him many enemies among the Colonists (because they considered it an attack upon the King of England), but who had a real regard for the savages. It is said that love begets love, and so it would seem with Roger Williams and the Wampanoags. The Colony of Providence prospered; each year brought it additional settlers; and, protected from the attacks of savages by their friendship and high regard, the little town soon grew in strength and prominence.

Perhaps the pleasantest picture that we have of this friendly Chief of the Wampanoags is that presented by the first Thanksgiving ceremony held by the Puritan fathers, in the autumn of 1621. After grave and serious struggles with starvation and disease, the time came when the white settlers had an abundance, not only for the present need, but also for the future. Their corn crop had been ample, pumpkins and fat squashes ripened upon their vines, and a quantity of codfish had been caught and dried upon the beach. With houses now tight plastered against the blasts of the elements, and with a stout palisade to repel the attacks of any savages who might take the warpath against them, they waited for the cold snows of winter with none of the dread which had before consumed their spirits. So they prepared a great feast of Thanksgiving, and to it invited Massasoit—their friend and ally—who, in deerskin and feathers, came with several of his tribe to the festival of rejoicing. With grunts of contentment the Wampanoags feasted upon the supplies of the Puritans, who, laying aside their arms and armor, mingled with the red men upon terms of the greatest freedom and still further cemented the bonds of peace and good-will which already existed between them.