this time he discovered that the Indians there bore "an inveterate malice to the English", according to a June 30, 1620 letter transcribed by Bradford. This sudden and dramatic change from friendliness to hostility was due to an incident the previous year, when a European coastal vessel lured some Indians on board with the promise of trade, only to mercilessly slaughter them. Dermer wrote that "Squanto cannot deny but they would have killed me when I was in Nemask, had he not entreated hard for me." Some time after this encounter, Indians attacked Dermer and Tisquantum and their party on Martha's Vineyard, and Dermer received "14 mortal wounds in the process". He fled to Virginia where he died, but nothing is known of Tisquantum's life until he suddenly appears to the Pilgrims in Plymouth Colony. Plymouth Colony The Massachusett Indians were north of Plymouth Colony, led by Chief Massasoit, and the Pokanoket tribe were north, east, and south. Tisquantum was living with the Pokanokets, as his native tribe of the Patuxets had been effectively wiped out prior to the arrival of the Mayflower; indeed, the Pilgrims had established the Patuxets former habitation as the site of Plymouth Colony. The Narragansett tribe inhabited Rhode Island. Massasoit was faced with the dilemma whether to form an alliance with the Plymouth colonists, who might protect him from the Narragansetts, or try to put together a tribal coalition to drive out the colonists. To decide the issue, according to Bradford's account, "they got all the Powachs of the country, for three days together in a horrid and devilish manner, to curse and execrate them with their conjurations, which assembly and service they held in a dark and dismal swamp." Philbrick sees this as a convocation of shamans brought together to drive the colonists from the shores by supernatural means. Tisquantum had lived in England, and he told Massassoit "what wonders he had seen" there. He urged Massasoit to become friends with the Plymouth colonists, because his enemies would then be "Constrained to bowe to him". Also connected to Massasoit was Samoset, a minor Abenakki sachem who hailed from the Muscongus Bay area of Maine. Samoset (a mispronunciation of Somerset) had learned English in England as a captive of the Merchant Tailors Guild. On Friday, March 16, 1621 (Old Style), the settlers were conducting military training when Samoset "boldly came alone" into the settlement. The