weaknes herin is great we confess, therfore we will bear this check patiently amongst y^e rest, till God send us wiser men. But they which tould you we spent so much time in discoursing & consulting, &c., their harts can tell their toungs, they lye. They cared not, so they might salve their owne sores, how they wounded others." Two problems quickly confronted the new chief magistrate, and they were surely serious enough: the problem of a bare subsistence, and of defense against hostile invasion by the natives. New Plymouth was not new as a plantation. This was the site of the Indian village of Patuxet, whose occupants had worked its somewhat restricted area of tillage, until about four years previously, when they and other settlements of the aborigines were desolated by plague. A survivor of these Patuxets, Tisquantum or Squanto, showed himself to the Englishmen, and became their valued friend and helper. Doubtless glad to return to his old home, he instructed the colonists in the cultivation of the maize, or Indian corn, an indigenous American product which has become appreciated over the world wherever it thrives. It was the Pilgrims' dependence, and a staple article of trade. The wheat and peas they brought with them failed, and without the corn, threatening starvation must soon have closed their career. As it was, during the first two years they had a veritable battle for existence. Though distemper did not return to them after the horrors of the first winter, they became emaciated under reduced rations; but regulations in severity here were merciful, saving the Colony from annihilation, from one planting time to another. Squanto lightened this task of the authorities by his lessons in hunting venison, snaring rabbits, catching wild fowl, and fishing, especially during the yearly herring run in the town brook up to the lovely pond called Billington Sea because its discoverer, young Francis Billington mistook it for a salt inlet. Also the faithful shallop was in constant use by successive parties, who went out into the bay and came not back without a haul of lobsters, cod, or other fish, though at first they were poorly provided with deep-sea tackle and proper nets. Clams afforded a further help, the people treading and digging the flats at low tide, while eels and crabs supplemented this. They were grateful for these means of nourishment from sea and shore, preventing their extinction; yet such could not suffice for permanent living.