But Squanto, with all his faults, was too useful to the Pilgrims to be surrendered to the cruel vengeance of his foes; so he was saved from death, though not without difficulty, and at the risk of estranging Massasoit.[355] This made the rescued sachem “walk more squarely, and cleave unto the English till he died.” There was great jealousy between Squanto and Habbamak. Both were competitors for the good-will of the Pilgrims; and of this emulation good use was made. The governor seemed to countenance the one, and the captain the other, by which _rûse_ the colonists got better intelligence, and kept the two scouts more diligent.[356] Towards the latter part of May, 1622, the scanty provisions of the Pilgrims quite gave out. Actual hunger began to pinch. The wild fowl, so plenty in the preceding season, were now grown shy of Plymouth, and could not be found. Their hooks and seines for fishing were worn out. It was yet hardly time to plant, as the frost still clutched the soil in its icy hand; and even if it were, weary weeks must elapse ere a crop could be reaped. The future looked black, yet even in this strait they trusted in God, “knowing that he would not desert his own.”[357] While the Pilgrims were thus perplexed to know where their next mouthful was to come from, they espied one day a shallop off their harbor. It proved to be a boat from a ship sent by Thomas Weston to fish off the coast of Maine. It contained six or seven passengers and a parcel of home-letters.[358] These emigrants, like those who came in the “Fortune,” were destitute of provisions, and the colonists were requested by Weston to provide for their necessities. Despite their own wants, “they took compassion on the needy new-comers, and in this famine gave them as good as any of their own.”[359] The Pilgrims got cold comfort from their letter-bag. “Some of the adventurers,” wrote Weston, “have sent you herewith some directions for your furtherance in the common good. It seems to me that they are like those St. James speaks of, that bade their brother eat and warm himself, but gave him nothing; so they bid you make salt and uphold the plantation, but send you no means wherewithal to do it. Soon I purpose to send more people on my own account.”[360] It seemed from other letters, that the company of Merchant-adventurers was exhausting its energy in internal bickerings. Nothing was said about forwarding the remainder of the congregation at Leyden; nothing was promised for the future; a simple command was sent, that the colonists should assent to the breakage of the joint-stock contract, and despatch to them a paper to that effect, ratified and certified.[361]