They invited him by a promise of ample pay for his troops, a large share of their common plunder, and the Isle of Thanet for a settlement.
The army which came over under Hengist did not exceed fifteen hundred men.

The opinion which the Britons had entertained of the Saxon prowess was well founded; for they had the principal share in a decisive victory which was obtained over the Picts soon after their arrival, a victory which forever freed the Britons from all terror of the Picts and Scots, but in the same moment exposed them to an enemy no less dangerous.
Hengist and his Saxons, who had obtained by the free vote of the Britons that introduction into this island they had so long in vain attempted by arms, saw that by being necessary they were superior to their allies.
They discovered the character of the king; they were eye-witnesses of the internal weakness and distraction of the kingdom.

This state of Britain was represented with so much effect to the Saxons in Germany, that another and much greater embarkation followed the first; new bodies daily crowded in.

As soon as the Saxons began to be sensible of their strength, they found it their interest to be discontented; they complained of breaches of a contract, which they construed according to their own designs; and then fell rudely upon their unprepared and feeble allies, who, as they had not been able to resist the Picts and Scots, were still less in a condition to oppose that force by which they had been protected against those enemies, when turned unexpectedly upon themselves.

Hengist, with very little opposition, subdued the province of Kent, and there laid the foundation of the first Saxon kingdom.