Hunt, who, when cruising on these shores, had allured a number of
natives on board his ship, and had then treacherously carried them off,
and sold the greater part of them at Malaga, as slaves. Two he took
with him to England, and they at length got back to Cape Cod Bay, in a
vessel belonging to the Plymouth Company. This scandalous action had
filled the Nausetts and Pokanokits,[*] who were the injured tribes,
with bitter hatred against the white men; and five years afterwards,
they would have sacrificed the life of Captain Dermer, when he was
skirting these shores, had he not been saved by Squanto, one of the
kidnapped Pokanokits, whom he had brought back in his vessel, and who
had become attached to the English.

[Footnote: The Pokanokit, dwelt on the peninsula which forms the Bay of
Cape Cod, and on a small pert or Rhode Island; the rest being occupied
by the Wampanoge; of whom Masasoyt was Grand Sagamore.]

The feeling of animosity thus engendered had been aggravated by the
slaughter of Tisquantum's only son; and little hope could be
entertained of establishing a friendly intercourse with a tribe who
felt that they had so much to revenge against the white race.

In two days, according to the intimation of Rodolph to the Indian
women, a deputation of the settlers, headed by Captain Standish, and
accompanied by Maitland, repaired to the Indian village under the
guidance of Samoset. They were expected by the inhabitants; and, as
soon as they were perceived approaching round the margin of the lake,
two young men came forth to meet them, and accompany them to the tent
of the Chief. Mooanam was prepared for their reception, and attired in
his gala costume of furs and feathers, with his most elaborately worked
battle-axe hung to his side, and a long and slender spear, tipped with