Outdoor Life and Indian Stories / Making open air life attractive to young Americans by telling them all about woodcraft, signs and signaling, the stars, fishing, camping, camp cooking, how to tie knots and how to make fire without matches, and many other fascinating open air pursuits. Also, stories of noted hunters and scouts, great indians and warriors, including Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, General Custer, Pontiac, Tecumseh, King Philip, Black Hawk, Brandt, Sitting Bull, and a host of others whose names are famous; all of them true and interesting

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

It will be recalled that Powhatan had several homes. The same was true of Massasoit, though his principal home was at Mount Hope. Governor Bradford had hardly come into office when he sent an agent to Massasoit to confirm the treaty made with Carver, to procure seed corn and to explore the country. Massasoit did as requested, and a piece of better fortune could not have come to New England. Plymouth and her neighbors for a long time were so weak, and their sufferings from disease and hardship so severe, that a union of the Indian confederacies would have swept them from the earth. The feebleness of the colonists could not be hidden from the Indians, but Massasoit checked the enmity of the surrounding tribes, and by uniting with Roger Williams in 1637, the other red men were kept from joining the Pequots in their war against the colonists. Thus more than once, and through many years, this great man really saved the settlements from destruction.

There are few American Indians whose fame is not wholly due to their military skill. Many were great orators, and not a few showed noble traits of character. The case of Massasoit, therefore, is the more remarkable, for no man not gifted by nature with fine ability and tact, could have held peace for so long a time among the fierce tribes, not only under his direct rule, but that belonged to the confederacies surrounding his own people. Soon after the signing of the treaty, one of Massasoit's sachems tried to start a rebellion against his sovereign. With the help of the bold Miles Standish, the scheme was brought to naught, and the example of Massasoit led nine other sachems to come to Plymouth and sign a treaty of submission to the English king.

MILES STANDISH AND HIS SOLDIERS ENTERING THE INDIAN COUNTRY

In 1623, news reached Plymouth that the great sachem was mortally ill. Governor Bradford sent at once two of his people and a friendly Indian to the chief, who was found near death. No doubt he would have soon passed away, but for the prompt action of his white friends, who gave him cordials and took such measures that he was soon restored to rugged health, and lived many years afterwards. Massasoit was very grateful all his life for this kindness. He told his visitors of a plot that was on foot among the Massachusetts tribe and several others to massacre the English settlers at Wessagusset. He urged that sharp measures be taken against the plotters, and Captain Standish did so with such vigor that the evil men were terrified, many of them killed, and the peril ended.

In 1632, Massasoit was set upon by a party of Narragansetts, and fled for his life to an English house near at hand. As soon as news of his danger reached Plymouth, Captain Standish with a small armed force was sent to aid the brave chief in his danger. It did not take the "man that never feared" very long to scatter the Narragansetts and to rescue the good friend of the English from his great danger.

MASSASOIT VISITING THE GOVERNOR

As Massasoit grew in years, he united his oldest son with him in the government of the people. In the autumn of 1639, the two came into open court at Plymouth with the request that the treaty of 1621 should continue unbroken. Not only that, but the two chiefs made new pledges which gave the colony a first claim to the Pokanoket lands. The exact date of Massasoit's death is not known, but it was probably soon after 1660. That he was one of the best friends the white men ever had they were soon to learn in the most alarming manner.

More than one neighbor of Massasoit was famous at this same time. Next in power to the Wampanoag confederacy was that of the Narragansetts, who, it will be remembered inhabited a large part of the territory which afterward became Rhode Island, including all the islands in the bay named for them. The Sagamores of a portion of Long Island, Block Island and Niantic were also under their sway. They had more than two thousand warriors, one-half of whom owned firearms and knew how to use them. They had long been enemies of the Pequots on the west and the Wampanoags on the north.