The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World* by Nathaniel Philbrick Page A

were several days of unseasonably warm weather, and “birds sang in the woods most pleasantly.” At precisely one o’clock on March 3, they heard their first rumble of American thunder. “It was strong and great claps,” they wrote, “but short.” They later realized that even though temperatures had been bitterly cold during their earlier explorations along Cape Cod, the winter had been, for the most part, unusually mild—a lucky break that undoubtedly prevented even more of them from dying.
    On Friday, March 16, they had yet another meeting about military matters. And as had happened the last time they had gathered for such a purpose, they were interrupted by the Indians. But this time there was only one of them atop Watson’s Hill, and unlike the previous two Indians, this man appeared to be without hesitation or fear. He began to walk toward them “very boldly.” The alarm was sounded, and still the Indian continued walking down Watson’s Hill and across the brook. Once he’d climbed the path to Cole’s Hill, he came past the row of houses toward the rendezvous, where the women and children had been assembled in case of attack. It was clear that if no one stopped him, the Indian was going to walk right into the entrance of the rendezvous. Finally, some of the men stepped into the Indian’s path and indicated that he was not to go in. Apparently enjoying the fuss he had created, the Indian “saluted” them and with great enthusiasm spoke the now famous words, “Welcome, Englishmen!”

SIX
    In a Dark and Dismal Swamp

    THEY COULD NOT help but stare. He was so different from themselves. For one thing, he towered over them, “a tall straight man.” His hair was black, short in front and long in back, and his face was hairless. Interestingly, the Pilgrims made no mention of his skin color in their writings.
    What impressed them most was that he was “stark naked,” with just a fringed strap of leather around his waist. When a cold gust of wind kicked up, one of the Pilgrims was moved to throw his coat over the Indian’s bare shoulders.
    He was armed with a bow and just two arrows, “the one headed, the other unheaded.” The Pilgrims do not seem to have attached any special significance to them, but the arrows may have represented the alternatives of war and peace. In any event, they offered him something to eat. He immediately requested beer.
    With their supplies running short, they offered him some “strong water”—perhaps the aqua vitae they’d drunk during their first days on Cape Cod—as well as some biscuits, butter, cheese, pudding, and a slice of roasted duck, “all of which he liked well.”
    He introduced himself as samoset—at least that was how the Pilgrims heard it—but he may actually have been telling them his English name, somerset. He was not, he explained in broken English, from this part of New England. He was a sachem from Pemaquid Point in Maine, near Monhegan Island, a region frequented by English fishermen. It was from these fishermen, many of whom he named, that he’d learned to speak English. Despite occasional trouble understanding him, the Pilgrims hung on samoset’s every word as he told them about their new home.

    â—† A nineteenth-century engraving of the Pilgrims meeting Samoset. While the Pilgrim and Native American dress here is based on later stereotypes, this image does show the cultural differences between the two groups.
    He explained that the harbor’s name was Patuxet, and that just about every person who had once lived there had “died of an extraordinary plague.” The supreme leader of the region was named Massasoit, who lived in a place called Pokanoket about forty miles to the southwest. samoset said that the Nausets controlled the part of Cape Cod where the Pilgrims had stolen the corn. The Nausets were “ill affected