The English settlers of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies initially referred to Massachusett as the Indian language, at first because they were unaware of the ethnic and linguistic boundaries between peoples, and later as they discovered that nearly all the Indians spoke the same language. Massachusett was adopted as a general term, although due to the influence of the Indian mission and the success of the Praying Town of Natick, Natick also was a common reference to the language, especially in written form. In the Plymouth Colony, both Massachusett and Wampanoag, especially since the colony covered most of their traditional territory, were in general use. These three terms remain the most common way of referring to the language in English today, supplanting older colonial names such as Nonantum, Pokanoket or Aberginian.