Believing in the value of a strong relationship and thriving trade with the newcomer to his region, the powerful Wampanoag Indian chief Massasoit negotiated the earliest agreements with the Pilgrim leaders – treaties that would remain binding until his death decades later. In addition, historians credit Massasoit and his people with the settlers' success by sharing farming and fishing techniques. When Massasoit became ill in 1623, Edward Winslow traveled to the village of Pokanoket to care for him. Winslow ministered to the sachem, including making a homemade herbal remedy. Whether aided by Winslow's efforts or not, Massasoit would recover, and warn the Plymouth settlers of a plot by the Massachusetts to attack them, a plot which was then defused before it could be realized.
