Tisquantum's Journey

All stills from the film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale

On our long walk from Patuxet, Tisquantum had told me about his experience of being kidnapped by an Englishman named Thomas Hunt about seven years earlier. He was going to be sold into slavery in Spain along with nearly twenty other Indians. After a brutal cross-Atlantic venture, Hunt succeeded in selling off several of the Indians in Spain until a collection of Catholic friars were able to use what local political powers they had to free the remaining Patuxet natives from Hunt’s control. The friars brought these last few Indians to a monastery near the Spanish city of Malaga so they could be taught the Catholic faith.

Eventually, Tisquantum was able to talk one of the friars into helping him escape the monastery to England where he began living with a man named John Slaney in London.  That was where he began learning the English language. John Slaney worked for the Newfoundland Company which had been managing a colony in Newfoundland since 1610. Newfoundland is an eastern part of modern day Canada, just north of Maine. Mr. Slaney employed Tisquantum as an interpreter and sent him to Newfoundland to work with a sea captain named John Mason who was also the governor of the Newfoundland colony. Apparently, there were a lot of men named John during this time. 

          While in Newfoundland, Tisquantum met another captain named Thomas Dermer.  This time, Capt. Dermer was the one to hire Tisquantum as an interpreter in hopes that he could also act as a peacemaker between the English and the enraged Patuxet and Nauset Indians.  These Natives were still sore over having members of their tribes stolen from them. Capt. Dermer and Tisquantum returned to England to finalize their plans and then sailed back to Patuxet with high hopes of establishing peaceful commerce with the local Indian population. Instead they found most of the people dead from a disease that had ravaged the area while Tisquantum was away. The lack of meaningful contacts in the Cape Cod area caused Capt. Dermer to move on, but Tisquantum was developing his own ideas of how the tribes should be organized during this era of rebuilding.

Massasoit wasn’t convinced of Tisquantum’s pro-English arguments yet, but over the next few days Tisquantum would continue to build his case. Eventually the chief began to give in to Tisquantum’s point of view, especially with regards to the growing imbalance of power the people of Sowams had to deal with. The rising tributes being demanded by Canonicus was becoming unbearable. Maybe the white, hairy-faced visitors from the east could be useful to them after all. They just had to find a group willing to trade with the Natives.

-- Tisquantum's Journey 

from Time Trip #3: Witness to the First Thanksgiving

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3

WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 1

THE JOURNEY TO ANCIENT GREECE 

Available at Amazon.com!

TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2

A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Available at Amazon.com!