Oglethorpe made his home in London where he was the friend of Walpole, Goldsmith, Johnson, and other famous men. He died at a ripe old age, having lived to see the colony which he had founded win its independence in the War of the Revolution. When John Adams came to England as minister from the United States, Oglethorpe called “to pay his respects to the first American ambassador and his family, whom he was glad to see in England; he expressed a great esteem and regard for America and much regret at the misunderstandings between the countries and felt very happy to have lived to see a termination of it.” Philip An Indian King The Pilgrims were not the first white men who had visited Massachusetts. Explorers and trading parties had landed on the coast. At one time a fishing party had come to trade for furs and skins, and had carried off five Indians, one of whom was Squanto. Later, another vessel carried off twenty-seven Indians. The red men early learned to distrust and fear the pale faces. The settlers of Plymouth endeavored to win the friendship of the Indians. They presented knives, copper chains, and other trinkets to Massasoit who was sachem, or chief, of the Indian tribes of the neighborhood, and made a treaty of friendship with him. As long as Massasoit lived, the Indians and the English lived in comparative peace. But year after year the natives and the colonists became less friendly to each other. The white men came in constantly-increasing numbers and occupied the best of the land. When the Indians had sold it for beads or knives or trinkets, they thought that the English wished it for a season’s hunting and fishing. But the English established farms and villages and towns and took permanent possession. Game and fish grew less plentiful and as the English prospered the Indians grew poorer. The Indians resented being treated as an inferior race by the white people. The Pilgrims resented the savages’ lack of regard for property rights, their gathering fruit and grain and shooting cows like deer. The two races were too different to thrive and prosper side by side. Some of the natives adopted the faith of the white men. These “praying Indians,” as they were called, identified themselves to a great extent with the white people and were regarded as traitors to their own race. However, there was no open outbreak till after the death of Massasoit. The old sachem left two sons whom the English called Alexander and Philip. Alexander, the elder, succeeded his father as sachem. The English suspected that Alexander was plotting with a hostile tribe against them, and they seized him and carried him as a prisoner to Plymouth. Nothing could be proved against him and he was soon released, but on the way home he died--probably of fever. The Indians, however, thought that he had been poisoned by the white men.