Unquestionably, these men acted in obedience to the orders of Aspinet, instigated, as he must have been, by the remembrance of Hunt's perfidy. Winslow, in his Relation, gives an affecting incident which occurred subsequently at this place, going to illustrate, very forcibly, the effect of such atrocious conduct on the disposition of the natives. "One thing," he says, "was grievous unto us at this place. There was an old woman, whom we judged to be no less than a hundred years old, which came to see us, because she never saw English; yet could not behold us without breaking forth into great passion, weeping and crying excessively. We demanding the reason of it; they told us _she had three sons, who, when Master Hunt was in these parts, went aboard his ship to trade with him, and he carried them captives into Spain, by which means she was deprived of the comfort of her children in her old age!_" The English made what explanation they could of the affair, and gave her a few "small trifles, which somewhat appeased her." The expedition alluded to in this case, which took place in the summer of 1621, was occasioned by the absence of an English boy, who had strayed away from the colony at Plymouth, and was understood to have fallen into Aspinet's hands. The accident gave that sachem an opportunity of gratifying his revenge, which to him might have appeared providential. But he was too intelligent a man to confound the innocent with the guilty; and too noble to avail himself of a misfortune, even for humbling the pride of an enemy. When, therefore, the English party, on this occasion, having landed on his coast, sent Squanto to inform him amicably of the purpose for which they had come,--and with instructions perhaps to appeal to his better feelings,--he threw down his enmity at once with his arms. "After sun-set,"--is the minute but touching description given of this singular scene:--"Aspinet came with a great train, and brought the boy with him, one bearing him through the water. He had not less than an hundred with him, the half whereof came to the shallop-side unarmed with him; the other stood aloof with their bows and arrows. There he delivered up the boy, behung with beads, and made peace with us, we bestowing a knife on him; and likewise on another that first entertained the boy, and brought him thither. So they departed from us." [FN] It was indeed a magnanimous revenge. * * * * * [FN] Journal of a Plantation.