In his description of the Pilgrims' first encounter with Native Americans, William Bradford writes:

It is recorded in scripture as a mercy to ye apostle and his shipwrecked company, yt the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows then otherwise.

Bradford regards the Maltese, who welcomed the apostle Paul to their island, as barbarians, but contrasts these kindly barbarians with the savage variety to be found in the New World. It is notable that Bradford also describes the landscape as "savage" (a word he does not use often), suggesting that the inhabitants reflect their environment.

Bradford's early descriptions of the native people are all similarly damning, remarking on their aggression and savagery. He seems to regard them as a natural hazard, like the harsh landscape and the Winter cold. When the natives attack the Pilgrims at midnight, Bradford does not regard this as a natural consequence of the Pilgrims having stolen their corn and beans—an incident he describes in the preceding paragraph—but as further evidence of their savagery and malice.

Bradford's attitude changes when Samaset and then Squanto visit Plymouth. Squanto has been in England and can speak enough English to negotiate a peace treaty with the Pilgrims. Although Bradford remains suspicious of the Native Americans, the fact that he meets individuals who introduce themselves by names and speak to him in English stops him from referring to them as a single malign mass.

William Bradford initially viewed the Native Americans as "savage people who are cruel, barbarious, and most treacherous." He based this on accounts he had read and heard while living in Europe. Thus, when the Pilgrims first arrived in Massachusetts, Bradford was highly fearful of the natives. The population of English was very small, and his people were dying all the time. Bradford had a cannon mounted prominently on the Plymouth plantation fort and insisted that corpses be buried at night so the natives would not know how weak and vulnerable his people were. He hoped to intimidate the Native Americans by projecting more power than his small group really had, and so deter attacks.

But as Bradford got to know the Indians, his views changed somewhat. When an Indian visited them who knew how to speak some English, Bradford realized he could safely trade with the local natives, obtaining badly needed food supplies. He and the other settlers could also learn from the natives how to better survive. Bradford never lost his wariness toward the Indians, knowing how outnumbered his settlers were, but he did enter into peaceful commerce with them.