One day in early spring, the Pilgrims were startled by the sudden appearance of an Indian, Samoset by name, who cried in English, "Welcome, Englishmen." A week later he returned with a friend, named Squanto,[6] who had formerly lived at Plymouth with other Indians, all of whom had been swept away by a plague. [6] Squanto had been taken to England by some white men in 1614. Squanto was glad to get back to his old home once more. He afterward came to live with the Pilgrims, acting as their messenger and interpreter and showing them how to hunt and how to catch fish. From him they learned how to plant corn. Putting one or two herring as a fertilizer in every hill, they would watch for a while to prevent the wolves from digging up and eating the fish, and in due time would have an abundant return. [Illustration: A Group of Pilgrim Relics.] About a week after Samoset's first appearance, he returned and announced the approach of Massasoit, an Indian chief living at Mount Hope, some forty miles southwest of Plymouth. Captain Miles Standish marched out with his men to escort the Indian chief to meet Governor Carver in an unfinished house. The Pilgrims had spread upon the floor a green mat, which they covered with cushions for the chief and the governor. When the chief, who was a man of fine presence and dignified bearing, was seated upon the cushions, Governor Carver was escorted to the place of meeting by the Pilgrim soldiers, amid the beating of drums and the blowing of trumpets. After the governor had kissed the chief's hand, the two men agreed to be friends and keep peace between the white men and the red. The friendship thus romantically begun lasted for more than fifty years. Before Massasoit's departure the Pilgrims gave him two skins and a copper necklace. As summer came on the condition of the Pilgrims improved. There was much less sickness, and food was more easily obtained. On the arrival of autumn the corn and barley planted by the Pilgrims yielded a good return, and ducks, geese, wild turkeys, and deer could be secured by hunting. When Massasoit with ninety men came to see the Pilgrims in the autumn, the Indians brought some deer and the Pilgrims furnished food from their supplies, so that a three days' feast was held. This was the first celebration of the New England Thanksgiving. But not all of the Indian neighbors were so friendly as Massasoit and his tribe. Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, sent to Plymouth an insolent greeting in the form of a number of arrows tied with a snake's skin. The Pilgrims on their part stuffed the snake's skin full of powder and bullets, and in defiance sent it back to Canonicus. So deeply impressed were the Indians by this fearless act that they let the whites alone.