t commodious place for any public
assembly.

Almost from the first they had heard now and then a strange clamor on
the outskirts, and occasionally they had caught sight of one or more
savages lurking about. Several attempts to hold a general meeting had
been prevented by the appearance of red men, including an agreeable
visit from Samoset, a chief from the north who had learned sufficiently
from English fishermen to enable him to converse with the Pilgrims and
give them much valuable information. And within a week from that, the
head of all the Old Colony tribes, Massasoit, came with about sixty men,
forty of whom tarried outside while he and the others approached unarmed
into the midst of ready firearms and within the secure walls of a house.
Here was offered and received the mutual covenant of a friendship that
proved lasting. Both contracting parties remained ever faithful to this
solemn treaty.

After the departure of Massasoit, the colonists held their first full
convention, choosing officers and making a few statutes such as were
then needed. John Carver, their excellent deacon and the senior of them
all, was re-elected Governor, to continue for one year, the regular time
limit adopted.

But the Mayflower had not long sailed away, in the middle of April,
before Carver succumbed to an early heat, as he toiled with his younger
comrades in their planting; and the messenger of death released him from
those initial responsibilities, which had weighed heavily upon him. His
obsequies were performed with appropriate dignity, the seaside
resounding with volleys discharged in his honor above the grave.

Then the reduced Colony assembled again, and voted to place William
Bradford in the office vacated by their worthy first leader.

III

THE GOVERNOR: EARLY DUTIES

_They are dead, God rest their souls, but their lives are still
the strength of ours.... Let us stand aside in silent veneration
of their heroic characters and achievements, and thank God who
strengthened them for labors we cannot even comprehend._

JANE G. AUSTIN, in "Standish of Standish."

_All great & honorable actions are accompanied with great
difficulties, and must be enterprised and overcome with
answerable courages._

WILLIAM BRADFORD.

The new executive was still handicapped by the weakness of convalescence
after his critical illness, though the election had been postponed till
he was bett