The Tisquantum (Squanto) Story

The Tisquantum (Squanto) Story. . , Tisquantum (also known as Squanto), the most famous Native American to encounter the Pilgrims, died near here in 1622, roughly 40 years before William and Anne (Busby) Nickerson established their homestead on this site. , Born at Patuxet, a Wampanoag community that would later become the site of the Pilgrim’s settlement at Plymouth, Tisquantum led a remarkable life. After being stolen from Patuxet and sold into slavery in Spain, he was freed and spent five years as a servant in London and Newfoundland. When he returned home in about 1619 he discovered that his community had been decimated by disease – Tisquantum himself was spared, living in London . As he had learned to speak English, he acted as a liaison between the natives and Pilgrims, who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. During the Pilgrim’s first winter and spring he taught the newcomers to catch eels and to grow corn by fertilizing the poor soil with dried herring and shad. , Governor William Bradford’s journal referred to Tisquantum “as a special instrument sent by God for their good beyond their expectation.” , Yet even as he mediated the sometimes-treacherous arena of Native American-Pilgrim relations, some said he was hatching intrigues of his own, and the powerful Wampanoag sachem Massasoit came to hate him, writes Nathaniel Philbrick in Mayflower (2006). , In November 1622 Tisquantum traveled with Governor Bradford from Plymouth to Chatham, then known as Monomoit, on a mission to trade with the Monomoyicks for eight hogsheads of corn and beans. Their sloop, the Swan, anchored in Pleasant Bay, perhaps at jackknife Cove, about a quarter of a mile from here. The trip was a success but just before departure Squanto feel ill, bleeding from the nose and within a few days he died. Tisquantum asked Bradford to pray for him that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in Heaven. , After he died, Tisquantum was placed in an unmarked grave. But where? One theory, by Warren Sears Nickerson (1880-1966) is that Tisquantum is buried at Jackknife Cove at Pleasant Bay.