Massasoit
Indian chief; born in Massachusetts about 1580. His dominions comprised the district in the S. E. part of Massachusetts between Cape Cod and Narragansett Bay. In March, 1621, three months after the landing of the Pilgrims, he sent a warrior named Samoset to Plymouth who shouted in English, which he had learned from Penobscot fishermen, "Welcome Englishmen!" Later Massasoit visited the Pilgrims in person and arranged a treaty of friendship in which both sides promised to refrain from all overt and hostile acts and to aid each other if either were unjustly attacked. This promise was faithfully kept for 54 years. Massasoit died near the present Warren, R. I., in 1660.