by Rosetta Taylor

Created on: October 27, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2012

Squanto, or Tisquantum as he was also known to the Pilgrims, was the last surviving member of the native American Patuxet tribe, a part of the Wampanoag nation in what is now Massachusetts. His birth date is not known, but it was probably some time around the year 1590.

In the years 1621 and 1622 Squanto's life became closely intertwined with that of the Pilgrims, and there are several journals and letters written at that time which supply many details about him and about his impact on the destiny of the Plymouth colonists. The all too brief life of this apparently intelligent and gifted linguist was filled with travel, adventure and misfortune.

During his short life he made several voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, not all of them voluntary. Although the 17th century sources disagree on this point, it is possible that he was kidnapped and taken to England when he was only fifteen years old. In the year 1605 an English sea captain named George Weymouth captured five native American men from the New England area and took them back to his homeland. Some accounts include the name of Squanto or Tisquantum in the list of kidnapped men, but others do not. It is however fairly certain that he arrived in England by some means in his early youth, because by 1614 he appears as a guide and interpreter on an expedition to the New World captained by John Smith, assisted by Captain Thomas Hunt in a second vessel.

John Smith returned Squanto to his home in Patuxet, at which point Smith and Hunt's vessels separated in their pursuit of furs and fish. Hunt, contrary to Smith's orders, recaptured Squanto and a large number of other natives. The men were taken to Malaga in Spain to be sold as slaves, but Squanto was rescued by Spanish friars who wished to convert him to Christianity. He was either freed or escaped and made his way back to England, where he once again found employment as a guide and translator for expeditions to north America.

In 1619 Squanto was taken to Newfoundland by a Mr Dermer, and eventually they made their way to Squanto's Patuxet village. All the misfortunes the native American had already suffered must have faded into insignificance before the horror that confronted him there. His entire village, including all his own family members, had been wiped out by an epidemic. The disease was probably smallpox, contracted from French fishermen. Instead of the loving and reassuring welcome he had no doubt anticipated, Squanto found only skeletons.

The Pilgrims

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