12. The last of the Patuxets
Six years before the arrival of the Pilgrims an English fishing expedition left the New England coast with cargo other than just dried cod. English Captain Thomas Hunt kidnaped several Patuxet Indians, including a young native named Tisquantum. He carried the Patuxets to Spain, where he sold several of them into slavery, before monks intervened. Tisquantum found himself in the care of the monks, who both educated him and converted him to Christianity. At some point, the young Patuxet made his way to England, where according to William Bradford, he lived for some time in Cornhill. Bradford recorded he knew the native well, and while in England the young man became known by the diminutive of his name, Squanto.
Squanto returned to his homeland, by way of an English expedition to Newfoundland, sometime before the Pilgrims arrived in the New World. Upon his eventual return to his home village, he found the tribe had been wiped out, likely as a result of an epidemic. Squanto, the last of the Patuxets, moved to the village of Nemasket, accompanying an English exploration party led by adventurer Thomas Dermer. Dermer sent Squanto to meet with Massasoit, the powerful chieftain of the Massachusetts Indian tribes. Squanto then lived primarily in the village of Pokanoket, though he remained in contact with both English explorers and adventurers, as well as with Massasoit. When and how he became aware of the settlement at Plymouth remains uncertain. Contrary to popular belief, Samoset contacted the English first.