Nothing came of it all; not an Indian appeared; and when Habbamak’s wife returned, she said that she found Massasoit at home and quiet.[350] “After this,” says Bradford, “the traders proceeded on their voyage, and had a good traffic; returning in safety, blessed by God.”[351] From various circumstances, the settlers began to suspect that Squanto “sought his own ends and played his own game” in his relations with them. He was the most travelled and learned of the Indians, and with the spirit of braggadocio and the love of great stories common to his race, and also to his white prototypes, he was fond of working on the fears of his more ignorant and credulous brothers of the wood, by boasting of his influence with the pale-faces, by reciting wild and terror-striking stories of the magical power of the English, and by offering to insure the peace and security of all who bought his services.[352] In this way Squanto drove quite a trade, the patent for his truth being his knowledge and singular European adventures. “These English,” he would say to a wondering and superstitious group of Indians, “are a wise and powerful people. Diseases are at their command. They have now buried under their storehouse the plague. They can send it forth to any place or upon any people they please, and sweep them all away, though they went not a step from home.”[353] “Ugh! ugh!” would be the responses of the gaping believers. Many was the skin, many the piece of wampum, given Squanto to purchase his powerful intercession on their behalf, to lay the plague of the pale-face magicians. Once Squanto, being sent for by the governor, entered the house accompanied by Habbamak and several other Indians. A hole had been dug in the floor for the purpose of concealing certain articles, and the ground was left in a broken state. Habbamak, glancing at it, asked Squanto, “What does that mean?” “That,” retorted the wily sachem, “is the place where the plague is buried that I told you about.” Habbamak, to satisfy himself of the truth or falsity of this statement, asked one of the settlers, shortly after, if this was so. “No,” said the stern, truthful Puritan; “we have not the plague at our command; but the God whom we worship has, and he can send it forth to the destruction both of his enemies and ours.”[354] Having learned these things, the Pilgrims spared no pains to contradict Squanto’s misstatements; and so angered were the neighboring tribes, all of whom he had repeatedly swindled and misled, that Massasoit and Habbamak both strenuously insisted upon putting him to death; for the American Indian forgave any thing sooner than an attempt to cheat him; in which he was unlike civilized communities, which often admire in proportion as they are cozened, and frown on and resent nothing but a _clumsy_ cheat.