The Landing of the Pilgrims by James Daugherty

mount, as well as the town, down to the water’s edge. Everybody agreed to the plan.Axmen felled the straight pine trunks, and others worked on the six-foot-deep trench encircling the town.
    Within a month, a stout log palisade twelve feet high enclosed the town. At the corners were projecting bastions that commanded the sides. At sunset the gates were closed and a guard kept watch during the night.
    Captain Standish was very proud of the new fortification. He proceeded to organize his fighting men into four companies with a leader for each. Each soldier was assigned his post for defense, in case of an attack or fire. From now on the settlers slept more peacefully in their beds at night.

Of a Strange Plot
    (Spring 1622)

    Miles Standish was not a captain to sit idly in the shelter of the new palisade. He decided they should let the Indians know that the English would not remain shut up in the town fearfully awaiting an attack. The Captain would go forth boldly among them, for Plymouth was badly in need of provisions and the Indians of Massachusetts were known to have much corn. The shallop was fitted out for this trip with trading goods, guns, and gunpowder.
    The Captain and his ten musketeers, together with Squanto and Hobomok, sailed out of the harbor for Massachusetts Bay. As they rounded the point called Gernet’s Nose, the wind died down. Standish threw out the anchor while the men got out their oars.
    Suddenly a distant cannon shot sounded across the water. Then another and then a third. It was a signal from Plymouth telling them to come back. They loaded their muskets and rowed with all speed.
    At Plymouth they found every man and boy standing at his post prepared for an Indian attack. Squanto’s brother had come running into the town, his face covered with blood, to warn them that the Narragansetts, together with Corbitant and Massasoit, were on the way to attack the town. The Indians, he said, were close behind him.
    All night they stood watch. No Indians appeared. The messenger who brought the news had disappeared. It was a false alarm.
    Not long after, Hobomok came secretly to Standish, saying he knew that his chief, Massasoit, would not make war on the English. It was a plot by Squanto to turn the English against Massasoit.
    When Standish said he could not believe this of their faithful friend, Squanto, Hobomok revealed that Squanto, for a long time, had been terrifying the Indians. It had been his boast that he had great power to influence the English to destroy the tribes. He had told them that the English kept the dreadful plague hidden in the ground. Only he could prevent them from loosing it on the Indians. Squanto was blackmailing the Indians and influencing them against Massasoit.
    To prove his story, Hobomok said he would send his wife secretly to Massasoit’s village to discover whether he was plotting against the English. She came back with word from Massasoit that he always had and always would keep the peace treaty with his friends, the English. Squanto was a bad man and should die, Massasoit declared.
    At this news, Standish angrily told Squanto that he deserved death. But he realized the Indian was too valuable to the English as an interpreter to be killed.
    The expedition now set off again for Massachusetts and in a short time came back with a good supply of corn. On his return Standish found Massasoit in Plymouth, angrily demanding that Squanto be killed for his treachery. In fact Massasoit wanted to murder the traitor on the spot with his own ax. Bradford refused to surrender Squanto, saying that he was “the tongue of the English.” Without him they would not be able to talk with the Indians. Massasoit left in a rage.
    A few days later messengers came from the Chief with Massasoit’s knife. With it the English should kill Squanto and send his severed head and hands to Massasoit. Squanto stood silently by, awaiting his fate. The Indians claimed that he was Massasoit’s subject and