Great Lives

Tisquantum (Squanto)

d. 1622 · Patuxet interpreter and guide who had been taken to Spain in 1614 and later lived among the Plymouth colonists until 1622.

Statesmen & FoundersRenaissance Early ModernRecord-breaker

Tisquantum, whom the English at Plymouth called Squanto, was a Native man of Patuxet, the village on whose site the Mayflower passengers settled. His birth year is not known. In 1614 the English captain Thomas Hunt seized him and other men and took them to Málaga, Spain, to be sold. Tisquantum reached England, learned the language, and returned to New England in 1619, only to find that disease had already destroyed his community. In the spring of 1621 he came to Plymouth, served as interpreter in the peace with Massasoit, and, as William Bradford later wrote, taught the colonists where to set corn and take fish and guided them to unknown places. Winslow’s Good Newes also records a later rupture: Massasoit demanded him back under the treaty, and Winslow judged that Tisquantum had raised a false alarm against the sachem. In November 1622, while guiding Governor Bradford around Cape Cod, Tisquantum died of a fever at what is now Chatham, Massachusetts.

See also: Massasoit (Ousamequin) · William Bradford · Edward Winslow

Key dates

  • 1614 Seized by Thomas Hunt and taken to Málaga, Spain, to be sold
  • 1619 Returns to New England and finds Patuxet destroyed by disease
  • 1621 Comes to Plymouth as interpreter and helps make the peace with Massasoit
  • 1622 Dies of a fever in November at Chatham Harbor, on Cape Cod

Fun facts

  • After being taken to Spain in 1614 he reached England, learned English, and returned in 1619 to find that disease had already destroyed his community at Patuxet. (Source: Squanto (Wikipedia))
  • Winslow records that Massasoit later demanded him back as a subject under the 1621 peace, and that the governor judged he had raised a false alarm against the sachem. (Source: Good Newes from New England, Young 1841 (Project Gutenberg #66332))

Record-breaker

Firsts and records, worded as the sources give them ("first known", "at the time").

  • In 1614 the English captain Thomas Hunt kidnapped him and sold him in Málaga, Spain; he returned to New England in 1619 to find that disease had already destroyed the Patuxet community. (Source: Squanto (Wikipedia))
  • He died of a fever in November 1622 at Chatham Harbor on Cape Cod, while guiding Governor Bradford. (Source: Squanto (Wikipedia))

Read about them

Grades 9–12

More lives

Francis Bacon · William Bradford · Oliver Cromwell · Niccolò Machiavelli · Massasoit (Ousamequin) · Thomas More