Squanto

 

   Squanto, originally named Tisquantum, was a Pawtuxet Indian, living near present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.  The Pawtuxet belonged to the Wampanoag confederation.  Nothing is really known about Squanto's early life.  His history picks up in 1614, when Captain John Smith and ships under his command arrived to map Cape Cod and the vicinity.  John Smith was perhaps better known for having been rescued by Pocahontas at the Jamestown Colony several years earlier.  After Captain Smith completed his exploration and mapping of the harbors, he departed, leaving behind an associate, Thomas Hunt, to trade with the Indians.  John Smith had hopes of founding a plantation in New England, and so he wanted to engage the Indians in trade.  Thomas Hunt, however, had other plans.  Offering them food and trinkets, Hunt lured 24 Nauset and Pawtuxet Indians to the beach.  Hunt and his crew overpowered the Indians, bound them hand and foot, rowed them to their ship, and locked them in the ship’s hold.

   Hunt left the New World, sailed to the Straits of Gibraltar, and on to the city of Malaga, Spain, where he sold the Indians as slaves.  But even in these difficult circumstances, God was watching over Squanto.  Some local Friars in Malaga pooled their meager money and bought Squanto.  They took him to their monastery, set him free, and taught him the Christian faith!  The friars began making plans to get Squanto back to his home in America.  After working and saving for five years, Squanto had enough money for passage to England.  The friars sent him to live with John Slaney in Cornhill, London., where he learned English.  John Slaney was the treasurer of the Newfoundland Company which had planted a colony at Cupper's Cove, Newfoundland in 1610.  Slaney Got Squanto a job as translator on the next ship to Newfoundland.  Slaney hoped Squanto could eventually get home to the Cape Cod area.  Squanto worked with Captain John Mason, governor of the Newfoundland Colony.

   While in Newfoundland, Squanto met a ship's captain by the name of Thomas Dermer.  Dermer had worked with Captain John Smith in 1614 mapping the Cape Cod area when Hunt had kidnapped Squanto!  Dermer wanted to use Squanto to help him to reestablish the fur trade with the Indians in Massachusetts.  So, they returned to England and arranged an expedition to Cape Cod.  Thomas Dermer depended on Squanto to act as an interpreter and peacemaker between the English and the still-enraged Indians of the Patuxent and Nauset tribes.

   In 1619, Captain Dermer and Squanto set off for New England, to attempt to make peace and re-establish trade with the Indians.  But upon arriving, they discovered Squanto’s entire town - all the Patuxent - were dead from the plague (smallpox or tuberculosis).  Squanto was crushed.  He went to live with Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoag Confederation.  Dermer tried to make peace with the Nauset but was attacked and taken captive.  When Squanto heard about the incident, he came to Dermer's rescue and negotiated his release. Dermer continued south without Squanto.  Squanto was so despondent that he left the Nauset village and lived alone in the woods.  But God was still at work.  God had prepared Squanto and had planted him right where he wanted him.

   That same fall, in November 1620, the 102 Mayflower Pilgrims sailed into Provincetown Harbor.  In December, the Pilgrims sent out exploration parties, and during their third expedition they were attacked in camp early one morning by the Nauset Indians.  Shots were fired and arrows flew, but in the end, no one was injured and the Nauset fled back into the woods.  After exploring the Cape Cod area, The Pilgrims selected the abandoned Pawtuxet village as the best place to settle.  The area had been named Plymouth by Captain John Smith on his 1614 mapping expedition.  The Pilgrims first set foot on Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620.

   The Pilgrims lived out of the Mayflower and ferried back and forth to land while they built a common house.  Next, they built storehouses and 17 living houses.  They labored all through the bitter winter months.  During that entire time, they saw almost no signs of any Indians, except for a few fires burning in the far distance.  By spring, over half of their numbers had perished!  Of the 102 settlers, only 47 were still alive.  On March 16, they got a surprise: an Indian named Samoset walked right into the Colony and spoke to them in broken English.  Samoset was from the Abenaki Indian tribe in Maine and had picked up a few English words from the fisherman that came into the harbors there.  He informed them that there was another Indian who had been to England and could speak better English than he could.  Two days later, Squanto arrived and, in perfect English, said, “Welcome to this land!  Can I help you?  Is there anything that I can do for you?”  What a timely blessing!  Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to use the natural resources on Cape Cod.  He taught them how to catch eels, how to catch lobsters, and how to plant corn, squash, and beans using fish as fertilizer.  Squanto’s first appearance was on March 22, just in time to plant the spring crops!  The Plymouth colony had built their village on the exact spot where Squanto had lived as a boy!  The Pilgrims accepted Squanto into their colony.  Squanto had lost his Pawtuxet family but had gained a new English family!

   Squanto arranged for Chief Massasoit of the Nauset tribe to visit Plymouth, and negotiated a peace treaty, the first in America.  Squanto helped to establish trading relations between the Pilgrims and the Nauset Indians.

   That fall, the Pilgrims had a bountiful harvest of maize, beans, and squash.  They killed turkeys and Massasoit’s braves brought five deer.  The ladies cooked and the men had games and feats of strength for three days.  This was the first Thanksgiving in America.

   In November 1622, Squanto (the last living Pawtuxet) died leaving all of his earthly possessions to his family, the Plymouth colony.