Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/52



N the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1620, most fortunately they found their lot cast within the limits of a deserted Indian country. Of the name of the tribe which inhabited that section, its history, or the cause of its departure, they knew absolutely nothing. Three months after landing, on the 16th of March, 1621, an Indian named Samoset came among the settlers and addressed them in English with "Welcome, English! Welcome, English!" He informed them that the Indian name of the place was Patuxet, and that the tribe which had occupied the lands had been swept off by a plague, so severe that it spared neither man, woman nor child, and there were none who could claim the lands or rightfully molest them. Samoset also informed the whites that the territory to the west was known as Pokanoket, inhabited by a family of tribes, known as the Pokanokets; that these associated tribes were the Wampanoags of the west, the tribe of Massassoit, who was then chief sachem of the Pokanokets; the Pocassetts, the Saconets, the Nemaskets, the Nausites, the Mattachees, the Monamoys, the Saukatuckets, and the Nobsquassetts, to which, to complete the family, should be added the Patuxets of Plymouth, which had been destroyed by the plague. "These people," says Gen. Gookin, "were sorely smitten by the hand of God, but what the disease was that so generally and mortally swept