interview closed with a liberal provision of excellent bread upon his part, which he had ordered his women to bake and bring in whatever quantities it was wanted. But notwithstanding all the pains which the chief of the Nausets took to maintain a good understanding with his new neighbors, he was destined to incur their suspicion, and to meet with a miserable ruin under the weight of their hostility. When the English visited Massasoit, in his sickness, early in 1683, that chieftain disclosed to them, by the medium of Hobamock, the particulars of an extensive combination, reported to be formed among the Indian tribes, "against Master Weston's colony at Weymouth," as Winslow expresses it, "_and so against us._" The Massachusetts Indians were ringleaders in the affair, it was said; but Aspinet, and the sachems of many other settlements, including even Capawack, (Martha's Vineyard) were charged with being privy to it. Whether they were so or not, need not be discussed, and cannot be decided. It is observable, however, in relation to Aspinet, that the evidence of Massasoit, which was the only evidence in the case, went to show, that "_the men of Massachusetts,_ were the _authors_ of the intended business." This very much confirms our conclusion to the same effect, in the Life of Chickatabot. But, granting all that is charged, it may easily be imagined how much provocation the Indians had received from Weston's notorious banditti, and how much reason they had to make common cause against them in their own self-defence. Winslow himself bears witness, that immediately after Weston's settlement was commenced, "the Indians filled our ears with clamors against them, for stealing their corn, and other abuses;" as also that the Plymouth Government "_knew no way to redress these abuses, save reproof._" It seems to have been hardly considered,---when the English undertook to wage a preventative or precautionary war, as they did, upon all the parties accused by Massasoit,--not only that the good Sachem might be misinformed by rivals or enemies of those parties; and that there might be a fault upon their own side; but also that the Indians might well be disposed to punish the Weymouth ruffians, without necessarily carrying their hostilities any farther. _They_ looked upon Weston's clan as one _tribe,_ and upon the Plymouth people as another; and the conduct of the two settlements respectively had hitherto given good cause for the distinction.