page_title: Squanto
section_title: The first kidnappings
hierarchical_section_title: Squanto / Early life and years of bondage / Contact with Europeans / The first kidnappings
caption_attribution_description: English: English explorer Captain George Weymouth
context_page_description: Tisquantum, more commonly known by the diminutive variant Squanto, was a member of the Patuxet tribe best known for being an early liaison between the Indian population in Southern New England and the Mayflower Pilgrims who made their settlement at the site of Squanto's former summer village. The Patuxet tribe had lived on the western coast of Cape Cod Bay, but they were wiped out by an epidemic infection.
  Squanto was kidnapped by English explorer Thomas Hunt who carried him to Spain, where he sold him in the city of Málaga. He was among a number of captives bought by local monks who focused on their education and evangelization. Squanto eventually traveled to England, then returned to America in 1619 to his native village, only to find that his tribe had been wiped out by an epidemic infection; Squanto was the last of the Patuxets.
  The Mayflower landed in Cape Cod Bay in 1620, and Squanto worked to broker peaceable relations between the Pilgrims and the local Pokanokets. He played a key role in the early meetings in March 1621, partly because he spoke English. He then lived with the Pilgrims for 20 months, acting as a translator, guide, and advisor.
context_section_description: In 1605, George Weymouth set out on an expedition to explore the possibility of settlement in upper New England, sponsored by Henry Wriothesley and Thomas Arundell. They had a chance encounter with a hunting party, then decided to kidnap a number of Indians. The capture of Indians was "a matter of great importance for the full accomplement of our voyage".
  They took five captives to England and gave three to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. Gorges was an investor in the Weymouth voyage and became the chief promoter of the scheme when Arundell withdrew from the project. Gorges wrote of his delight in Weymouth's kidnapping, and named Squanto as one of the three given to him.
  Captain George Weymouth, having failed at finding a Northwest Passage, happened into a River on the Coast of America, called Pemmaquid, from whence he brought five of the Natives, three of whose names were Manida, Sellwarroes, and Tasquantum, whom I seized upon, they were all of one Nation, but of severall parts, and severall Families; This accident must be acknowledged the meanes under God of putting on foote, and giving life to all our Plantations.
  Circumstantial evidence makes nearly impossible the claim that it was Squanto among the three taken by Gorges, Adams maintains that "it is not supposable that a member of the Pokánoket tribe would be passing the summer of 1605 in a visit among his deadly enemies the Tarratines, whose language was not even intelligible to him … and be captured as one of a party of them in the way described by Rosier". and no modern historian entertains this as fact.
caption: Captain Weymouth impressing Natives of Pemaquid, Maine with a sword he magnetized by means of a lodestone.
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