third blog post: Squanto.

At Plymouth Rock, Squanto became a friend to the pilgrims. In his own language, he was called Tisquantum. When the pilgrims first arrived, Squanto was living in a nearby village. By now, he had already been agross the ocean three times. At this point, Squanto, from the Patuxet village, was already a world traveler. He first traveled when he was around twenty and his curiosity took him to Captian Weymouth's ship where other natives were being held captive. He was employed at Weymouth's household in Plymouth England for nine years. Weymouth taught him English for he wanted to know all he could about native life in North America.

In 1614, Squanto set sail for North American with Captain John Smith. Squanto left Smith and was temporarily employed by Captain Thomas Hunt, who sold Squanto and twenty other Indians from the Cape Cod area to a Spanish trader who took human cargo to spain. Squanto, luckily ended up at a home of some Spanish Friars who took good care of the New England Native. He was taught the Christian way here.

In two years, Squanto was back on his way to London. He took his second trip across the Atlantic as a guide and intrepreter for John Slaney. This voyage was not very successful so by the end of 1617, Squanto was back to England.

In 1619, Squanto returned to the New World. He visited his original village during this voyage. He discovered that the whole settlement had been wiped out by the plague. He went to live in a nearby indian willage and never returned to the British Isles. It was after this that the pilgrims arrived and Squanto began to be an invaluable intrepreter to them. Samoset the Indian was there the first winter of the pilgrim arrival, and ask Squanto to come with him to an English Settlement because his English was much better.


It is obvious to me that Squanto was a very well rounded man. He had traveled many places but did not get boastful about this. He was very helpful to the Indians and many other people before them.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/453236/thanksgiving_story_of_squanto_the_indian_pg2.html?cat=37