Its good effects were illustrated in the case of the chief Canonicus, who
was disposed to pick a quarrel with the Englishmen, and sent them, as a
symbol of his attitude, a rattlesnake's skin wrapped round a sheaf of
arrows. Bradford, to indicate that he also understood the language of
emblems, sent the skin back stuffed with powder and bullets. Canonicus
seems to have fancied that these substances were capable of destroying him
spontaneously, and returned them with pacific assurances. Such weapons,
combined with the alliance, were too much for him. Canonicus was chief of
the Narragansetts; Massasoit, of the Wampanoags. In 1676 the son of
Massasoit, for some fancied slight, made war upon the settlers, and the
Narragansetts helped him; in this war, known as King Philip's, the
settlers suffered severely, though they were victorious. But had it come
during the early years of their sojourn, not one of them would have
survived, and New England might never have become what she is now.

Meantime the Pilgrims, pilgrims no longer, settled down to make the
wilderness blossom as the rose. At their first landing they had agreed,
like the colonists of Virginia, to own their land and work it in common;
but they were much quicker than the Jamestown folk to perceive the
inexpediency of this plan, and reformed it by giving each man or family a
private plot of ground. Agriculture then developed so rapidly that corn
enough was raised to supply the Indians as well as the English; and the
importation of neat cattle increased the home look as well as the
prosperity of the farms. There was also a valuable trade in furs, which
stimulated an abortive attempt at rivalry. None could compete with the
Pilgrims on their own ground; for were they not growing up with the
country, and the Lord--was He not with them? More troublesome than this
effort of Weston was the obstruction of the Company in England, and its
usurious practices; the colonists finally bought them out, and relied
henceforth wholly on themselves, with the best results. As years went by