The addition to their numbers, however, must have increased their feeling of security in the Indian troubles which soon threatened them. The powerful Narragansetts, who were hostile both to the Pilgrims and to their native allies, and who had suffered but slightly from the plague, sent them a challenge in the form of a bundle of arrows tied in a snake-skin. Squanto having interpreted the message, they returned the skin stuffed with powder and shot, with word to the natives that “if they had rather have warr then peace, they might begin when they would.” Nevertheless, in spite of their “high words and lofty looks,” Winslow wrote, they were not a little anxious, and took all the precautions possible, including the building of a palisade about the village. Nothing came of the episode, however, except the anxiety of the settlers, which was increased the following summer by the receipt of a letter telling them of the great and sudden massacre at Jamestown.[235] So greatly were they then worried that they faced another winter of short rations more willingly than they did the savages, and took much valuable time from the tilling of their crops for the building of a fort. Footnote 235: The letter was sent to them by a stranger, John Hudlston, whose name deserves to be remembered for his thoughtful kindness. It is in Bradford, _Plymouth_, pp. 124 _f._ Until the great immigration into Massachusetts Bay, in 1630, Plymouth continued to be the largest single settlement in New England; but, from 1622 onward, there were scattered beginnings at other points along the coast, many of which proved permanent. Gorges endeavored to put new life into colonization, and in that year published his “Briefe Narration” of the efforts he had made heretofore.[236] In less than two months after the granting of Pierce's patent for the benefit of the Pilgrims, another grant was made to Captain John Mason of all the lands lying between the Naumkeag and Merrimac rivers, and extending from their heads to the seacoast, thus including the shore from Salem to Newburyport.[237] In August, a third grant was passed, to Mason and Gorges jointly, of the coast from the Merrimac eastward to the Kennebec, extending sixty miles inland, and including all islands within fifteen miles of the shore, to be called the Province of Maine.[238] Other grants were also made in the same year,[239] and a small settlement may have been begun at Nantasket.[240] Footnote 236: Reprinted in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll._, Series II, vol. IX, pp. 1-25. Footnote 237: Printed in C. W. Tuttle, _Capt. John Mason_ (Prince Soc., Boston, 1887), pp. 170-77. _Cf._ _Ibid._, pp. 45-52. Footnote 238: _Ibid._, pp. 177-83. Footnote 239: For list of grants _cf._ S. F. Haven, “History of Grants under the Great Council for New England,” in _Lowell Lectures_, Boston, 1869; also the two volumes of the _Farnham Papers_; Maine Historical Society, Portland, 1901-2. Footnote 240: