Squanto: Difference between revisions

Tisquantum was kidnapped by English explorer Thomas Hunt who trafficked him to Spain, where he sold him in the city of [[Málaga]]. He was among a number of captives ransomed<ref>{{cite book |author1=Nies, Judith |title=Native American history : a chronology of the vast achievements of a culture and their links to world events |date=1996 |publisher=Ballantine Books |location=New York |isbn=0345393503 |page=122 |url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanhi0000nies/page/122/mode/2up?q=squanto |access-date=25 November 2022 |quote=Ransomed by monks, he worked in a monastery}}</ref> by local monks who focused on their education and evangelization. Tisquantum eventually traveled to England, where he may have met [[Pocahontas]], a Native American from Virginia, in 1616–1617.<ref>{{cite news |last=Rose|first=E.M.|year=2020|title=Did Squanto meet Pocahontas, and What Might they have Discussed? |url=https://earlyamericanists.com/2017/11/21/did-squanto-meet-pocahontas-and-what-might-they-have-discussed/|publisher=The Junto|access-date=September 24, 2020}}</ref> He then returned to America in 1619 to his native village, only to find that his tribe had been wiped out by an epidemic infection; Tisquantum was the last of the Patuxets, and went to live with the [[Wampanoag|Wampanoags]].

The ''Mayflower'' landed in Cape Cod Bay in 1620, and Tisquantum worked to broker peaceable relations between the Pilgrims and the local [[Pokanoket]]s. He played a key role in the early meetings in March 1621, partly because he spoke English. He then lived with the Pilgrims for 20 months, acting as an interpreter, guide, and advisor. He introduced the settlers to the fur trade and taught them how to sow and fertilize native crops; this proved vital, because the seeds which the Pilgrims had brought from England mostly failed. As food shortages worsened, [[Plymouth Colony]] Governor [[William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor)|William Bradford]] relied on Tisquantum to pilot a ship of settlers on a trading expedition around Cape Cod and through dangerous shoals. During that voyage, Tisquantum contracted what Bradford called an "Indian fever". Bradford stayed with him for several days until he died, which Bradford described as a "great loss".