MASSASOITS GRATITUDE. 6/ 



a savage, went to visit Massasoit, who dwelt 

 upon yonder hill called Mount Hope. 



This is the way the chief entertained them : 

 *' Victuals he offered none, for indeed he had 

 not any. He laid us in the bed with himself 

 and his wife, they at one end and we at the 

 other ; it being only planks laid a foot from the 

 ground and a thin mat upon them. Two more 

 of his men for want of room pressed by 

 and upon us, so that we were more weary of 

 our lodging than of our journey." 



Subsequently, Winslow gives a graceful nar- 

 ration of their journey to Mt. Hope, repeated 

 three years later. Their object in visiting the 

 sachem again, was to comfort and relieve him 

 in his illness. Their kindness was amply re- 

 warded, for whereas Massasoit was perhaps 

 likely to be influenced against the English by 

 other chiefs and by their jealous neighbors the 

 Dutch, the disinterested benevolence added 

 to the medical skill of Winslow and his com- 

 panions, so touched his heart that no repre- 

 sentations against the colonists could after- 

 wards have the least effect upon this noble and 

 grateful soul. 



Policy would have dictated the easy exter- 

 mination of the whites, but gratitude was a 



