Luck or Miracle? Samoset and the Pilgrims, 400 Years Later

The Plymouth colonists met what were perhaps the only two English-speaking Indians on the eastern seaboard

"Thanksgiving at Plymouth" by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, (1925). Public domain

Today marks an historic milestone. Its story is a real-life adventure marked by what some regard as pure luck while others label as miraculous.

Four hundred years ago—on March 16, 1621—an English-speaking Indian from the Abenaki tribe strode into the new settlement of Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. He greeted the astonished Pilgrims and requested a beverage brewed from fermented cereal grains.