When we last left the Pilgrims and other settlers (see previous blog post), they had arrived at the abandoned village of Patuxet, but stayed huddled onboard the Mayflower, freezing and dying thru the winter. Finally, in March 1621, the weather warmed enough that they moved ashore, cleared the homes and corn fields of the skeletons left behind by a plague a few years earlier, and began to turn the village into Plymouth.

It was in this context that Squanto came to them, speaking perfect London English.

He had grown up in Patuxet. Seven years earlier, in 1614, an English trading vessel (captained by a colleague of John Smith) lured him aboard, along with about two dozen other Patuxet and Nauset. He told them his name was Tisquantum, “Anger of the Gods”; they shortened it to Squanto.

They were taken to Spain to be sold into slavery. In Málaga, Tisquantum was rescued by concerned friars and made his way to London. Five years later, he arranged passage for himself on an English vessel bound for the fishing grounds off Newfoundland. Once there, Tisquantum talked the captain, Thomas Dermer, into heading south to Cape Cod Bay.

Finally, after five years in exile, he was on a vessel bound for his home. When the vessel dropped anchor off Patuxet in June 1619, no one was there to greet them. The alewives were shimmering in the creek mouth and yet no one was there to catch them. No one was standing on the beach, waving, pointing, and calling. No movement was seen among the homes.

Ashore, Tisquantum found corpses and skeletons in many of the homes, even in the abandoned corn fields. Surrounded by only English, he was the last Patuxet.

In the spring of 1621, when the Pilgrims finally left the Mayflower and came ashore, Tisquantum was there to meet them—but not right away. Massasoit, great sachem of the Wampanoag, held all the cards. He used Tisquantum as a translator and an ambassador, but only under close supervision. Eventually, Tisquantum moved into Plymouth, teaching the English how to plant their crops and serving as their only translator for dozens of diplomatic meetings with the Natives.

Massasoit’s oversight of Tisquantum, and diplomatic maneuvers with the Pilgrims, will be covered in a coming blog post.