it from the French point of view exists in a letter from Sieur D'Aulney to Governor John Endecott of Massachusetts. Willett's early and continuing experiences in the fur trade provided valuable skills in native languages and frontier trade for use in his later career. Willett remained active in the colony's remaining fur trading efforts, including being appointed to a committee in 1637 to advise the governor concerning the decline in the trade, and in 1649 and again in 1656, with others, taking over the remaining trading post on the Kennebunk River. He probably spent little time at the Kennebunk River trading post given his other activities, but Winthrop recorded one incident where a potential theft or worse by some native Americans was thwarted by Willett in 1639. Landowner in Plymouth Willett was "Admitted to the freedom of this society" (i.e., recognized as a full citizen, or "freeman") in 1633/4 and married Mary Browne on July 6, 1636. He received several grants of land from the colony in 1638/9 and 1640 plus six acres in 1640 for a houselot. As the years passed, he assumed more and more responsibility in the colony including becoming the co-captain of the colony's military company (with Myles Standish) in 1647/8; he remained in this post after Standish retired and for almost all of the remainder of his life. His initial appointment as Assistant to the Governor was in 1651; and he was reappointed to that post many times in the following years. Merchant and Land Development Willett's initial beginning as a merchant in addition to the continuing involvement in the fur trade may have come in 1641/2 when he furnished a sixteenth portion of the construction cost to build a 40-50 ton bark (ship). In time he became the major merchant in the lucrative trade with the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (later New York) where his early knowledge of the Dutch language and customs was of great advantage. His later merchant activities included at least some trade with Virginia and across the Atlantic. Willett's abilities in the native languages led to his becoming a trusted translator and to establishing friendships among the native Americans, particularly with the principal leaders of the Pokanokets, who were led successively by Massasoit, and his sons Wamsutta (or Alexander) and Metacom (known as Prince Phillip). (The Pokanokets today are usually referred to as members of a larger group of