[Illustration:  THE Mayflower IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.]

[Footnote 6:  Manomet (Man’o-met).]

[Footnote 7:  See paragraph 46.]

67.  Sickness and death.—­During that winter nearly half the Pilgrims died.  Captain Standish showed himself to be as good a nurse as he was a soldier.  He, with Governor Carver and their minister, Elder Brewster, cooked, washed, waited on the sick, and did everything that kind hearts and willing hands could to help their suffering friends.  But the men who had begun to build houses had to stop that work to dig graves.  When these graves were filled, they were smoothed down flat so that no prowling Indian should count them and see how few white men there were left.

68.  Samoset,[8] Squanto,[9] and Massasoit[10] visit the Pilgrims.—­One day in the spring the Pilgrims were startled at seeing an Indian walk boldly into their little settlement.  He cried out in good English, “Welcome!  Welcome!” This visitor was named Samoset; he had met some sailors years before, and had learned a few English words from them.

The next time Samoset came he brought with him another Indian, whose name was Squanto.  Squanto was the only one left of the tribe that had once lived at Plymouth.  All the rest had died of a dreadful sickness, or plague.  He had been stolen by some sailors and carried to England; there he had learned the language.  After his return he had joined an Indian tribe that lived about thirty miles further west.  The chief of that tribe was named Massasoit, and Squanto said that he was coming directly to visit the Pilgrims.

In about an hour Massasoit, with some sixty warriors, appeared on a hill just outside the settlement.  The Indians had painted their faces in their very gayest style—­black, red, and yellow.  If paint could make them handsome, they were determined to look their best.

[Footnote 8:  Samoset (Sam’o-set).]

[Footnote 9:  Squanto (Skwon’to).]

[Footnote 10:  Massasoit (Mas’sa-soit’).]

69.  Massasoit and Governor Carver make a treaty of friendship; how Thanksgiving was kept; what Squanto did for the Pilgrims.—­Captain Standish, attended by a guard of honor, went out and brought the chief to Governor Carver.  Then Massasoit and the governor made a solemn promise or treaty, in which they agreed that the Indians of his tribe and the Pilgrims should live like friends and brothers, doing all they could to help each other.  That promise was kept for more than fifty years; it was never broken until long after the two men who made it were in their graves.

[Illustration:  CAPTAIN STANDISH AND MASSASOIT.]

When the Pilgrims had their first Thanksgiving, they invited Massasoit and his men to come and share it.  The Indians brought venison and other good things; there were plenty of wild turkeys roasted; and so they all sat down together to a great dinner, and had a merry time in the wilderness.