Peter Marshall was born in 1940. He was the son of the former Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall and author Catherine Marshall. He wrote the book The Light and the Glory, published in 1977, a history of America from the Pilgrims through the Presidency of George Washington. The information below is taken from that book.

On November 11, the Mayflower dropped anchor on Cape Cod. In December, the crew moved the Mayflower into a more sheltered harbor inside Cape Cod Bay. In March, as they were creating their settlement, an Indian strolled casually down their main street and into their common house where he said “Welcome.”

That Indian was Samoset, the Chief of the Algonquin Tribe of Maine. He asked for a beer. They didn’t have beer, so they offered him brandy, which he accepted. He provided the Pilgrims with information about the Indian tribes in the area. He explained to the Pilgrims that the land they were settling on had belonged to the Patuxet Indians, a hostile tribe known for killing any white man they encountered. The Patuxet Tribe had been wiped out by a mysterious plague four years before the Pilgrims arrived. Other tribes considered the land cursed and would not settle there. The nearest Indians were the Wampanoag Tribe about 50 miles southwest of where the Pilgrims had settled.  Samoset spent the night with the Pilgrims and headed off the next day with gifts for Massasoit, the head of the Wampanoag Tribe.

The next week, Samoset returned with Massasoit, some of his braves, and Squanto, who would act as a translator. Squanto was a Patuxet Indian who had escaped the plague because he had been captured and sold into slavery twice—once to England and once to Spain. Because Squanto was devastated when he finally got back to Massachusetts and found out that all of his tribe had perished, he decided to stay with the Pilgrims to help them settle in their new land.

Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to hunt deer, plant pumpkins among the corn, refine maple syrup, collect beaver pelts, and other much needed survival skills. Without the help of Squanto, the Pilgrims would probably not have survived.