[Illustration: MASSASOIT VISITING THE GOVERNOR] As Massasoit grew in years, he united his oldest son with him in the government of the people. In the autumn of 1639, the two came into open court at Plymouth with the request that the treaty of 1621 should continue unbroken. Not only that, but the two chiefs made new pledges which gave the colony a first claim to the Pokanoket lands. The exact date of Massasoit's death is not known, but it was probably soon after 1660. That he was one of the best friends the white men ever had they were soon to learn in the most alarming manner. More than one neighbor of Massasoit was famous at this same time. Next in power to the Wampanoag confederacy was that of the Narragansetts, who, it will be remembered inhabited a large part of the territory which afterward became Rhode Island, including all the islands in the bay named for them. The Sagamores of a portion of Long Island, Block Island and Niantic were also under their sway. They had more than two thousand warriors, one-half of whom owned firearms and knew how to use them. They had long been enemies of the Pequots on the west and the Wampanoags on the north. The chief sachem during the days of Massasoit was Canonicus, who after a time joined his nephew Miantonomah with him in the government of his tribes. This was probably due to the youth and wisdom of his relative. When Roger Williams was driven out of Salem because of his too plain preaching, he fled to the country of Canonicus. The chief, although a little distant at first, received him kindly, and gave him a large tract of land, which Williams divided among those who followed him into exile. Thus the city of Providence was founded and the settlement of Rhode Island begun. This friendship on the part of Canonicus was the more notable because he disliked the English from the first. As early at 1622, he was determined to attack them, and sent a messenger to Plymouth with a bundle of arrows wrapped about with a rattlesnake skin. This was a challenge to war, and Governor Bradford could not mistake its meaning. He snatched up the rattlesnake covering, flung aside the arrows, and stuffed the skin full of gunpowder and bullets. He ordered the messenger to tell his chief that if the white ruler had a vessel, he would not wait for Canonicus to come to Plymouth to fight him, but would seek him out and give him all he wished of war. The chief was invited to come to Plymouth at once and start the fighting. The bold message had its effect. Canonicus decided to leave the white men for the present alone. It was Canonicus who led the attack on Massasoit in 1632, when he had to flee to an English house and Captain Miles Standish hurried to his rescue.