Synopsis of the New England Indians at the date of the Plymouth Settlement--The Pokanoket confederacy--The Wampanoag tribe--Their first head-Sachem, known to the English--Massasoit--The first interview between him and the whites--His visit to Plymouth, in 1621--Treaty of peace and friendship--Embassy sent to him at Sowams, by the English--Anecdotes respecting it--He is suspected of treachery or hostility, in 1622--His sickness in 1623--A second deputation visits him--Ceremonies and results of the visit--His intercourse with other tribes--Conveyances of land to the English--His death and character--Anecdotes. The clearest, if not the completest classification of the New England Indians, at the date of the settlement of Plymouth, includes five principal confederacies, each occupying their own territory, and governed by their own chiefs. The Pequots inhabited the eastern part of Connecticut. East of them were the Narraghansetts, within whose limits Rhode Island, and various smaller islands in the vicinity, were comprised. The Pawtucket tribes were situated chiefly in the southern section of New Hampshire, the Massachusetts tribes around the bay of their own name; and between these upon the north and the Narraghansetts upon the south, the Pokanokets claimed a tract of what is now Bristol county, (Rhode Island) bounded laterally by Taunton and Pawtucket rivers for some distance, together with large parts of Plymouth and Barnstable. This confederacy exercised some dominion over the Indians of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and over several of the nearest Massachusetts and Nipmuck tribes;--the latter name designating an interior territory, now mostly within the boundaries of Worcester county. Of the Pokanokets, there were nine separate cantons or tribes, each governed by its own petty sagamore or squaw, but subject to one grand-sachem, who was also the particular chief of the Wampanoag canton, living about Montaup. [FN] * * * * * [FN] This celebrated eminence (frequently called, by corruption of the Indian name, Mount-Hope) is a mile or two east of the village of Bristol. It is very steep on all sides, and terminates in a large rock, having the appearance to a distant spectator, of an immense dome.