THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SOCIETY OF MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS IN WASHINGTON STATE VOLUME 19 ISSUE 2 - SUMMER 2006 TISQUANTUM, MASSASOIT, GOVERNOR’S MESSAGE AND HOBBAMOCK By Caleb Johnson Just a note to say I hope that all are having a great Summer. Tisquantum This year we are trying out a new location for the Summer isquantum, nicknamed "Squanto" by the English, was a Meeting. It has been asked if we could find a location that native of Patuxet, living at present-day Plymouth; the T would have more available things for our younger members to Patuxet belonged to the Wampanoag confederation of tribes. do. Nothing is really known about Squanto's early life. His history Camp Berachah appears to meet these requests. If all are picks up in 1614, when Captain John Smith and some of other satisfied, what we may do is alternate between the Easton ships under his command arrive to map Cape Cod and vicinity. Double K Ranch and Camp Berachah in Auburn. John Smith is perhaps better known for having been rescued by Let me or other Board members know your feelings after the Pocahontas at the Jamestown Colony several years earlier. After meeting in July. Smith completed his exploration and mapping of the harbors, he You will note maps and directions on how to get to Camp departed, leaving behind an associate, Captain Thomas Hunt, to Berachah on the page opposite the Reservation Form. trade with the Indians. John Smith had hopes of founding a plantation in New Eng- See you all there!! land, and so wanted to engage the Indians in trade. Thomas Hunt, however, had other plans. Offering to trade beaver, Hunt lured 24 Nauset and Patuxet Indians onboard his ship and took them captive. John Smith would later write that Master Hunt "most dishonestly, and inhumanely, for their kind usage of me Donald H Wingerson and all our men, carried them with him to Malaga, and there for Governor a little private gain sold those silly savages for rials of eight". Sir Ferdinando Gorges, head of the Council for New Eng- land, remembered it similarly: "one Hunt (a worthless fellow of our nation) set out by certain merchants for love of gain; who (not content with the commodity he had by the fish, and peacea- But outrage against Europeans would soon become a low ble trade he found among the savages) after he had made his priority amongst the Nauset and Patuxet. In 1618 and 1619, a dispatch, and was ready to set sail, (more savage-like than they) devastating plague, described variously in historical sources as seized upon the poor innocent creatures, that in confidence of either tuberculosis or smallpox (and perhaps a combination of his honesty had put themselves into his hands." both), wiped out the entire village at Patuxet, and many sur- Hunt stored the Indians below the hatches, and sailed them rounding areas were heavily hit. to the Straits of Gibraltar, and on to the city of Malaga, Spain, One Patuxet did survive, however: Tisquantum. He had where he sold as many of them as he could. But when some somehow found himself passage from Malaga, Spain into Eng- local Friars in Malaga discovered that they had been brought land, where he began living with John Slaney in Cornhill, Lon- from America, they took custody of the remaining Indians, and don, and began picking up the English language. John Slaney instructed them in the Christian faith. As Sir Ferdinando Gorges was the treasurer of the Newfoundland Company which had states, the Friars "so disappointed this unworthy fellow of the managed to place a colony at Cupper's Cove (Cupids), New- hopes of gain he conceived to make by this new and devilish foundland in 1610; he employed Tisquantum, presumably as an project." interpreter and as an expert on North American. natural re- The Nauset and Patuxet tribes were outraged by the kidnap- sources. He was sent to Newfoundland, and worked there with pings, and became extremely hostile. English and French ships Captain John Mason, governor of the Newfoundland Colony. visiting Plymouth and Cape Cod were no longer welcomed with While in Newfoundland, Tisquantum encountered a ship's cap- profitable beaver trade, as an unwitting French captain and crew tain by the name of Thomas Dermer, who had worked with would discover in 1617, when their ship was burned and almost (Continued on page 2) everyone killed (a few were enslaved) by the Nauset. (Continued from page 1) Captain John Smith, perhaps even on the 1614 mapping expedi- WELCOME ABOARD! tion in which Squanto had been originally taken. Dermer was employed by the New England Company, headed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges; they still had hopes to profit from bea- ver trade with the Indians of Massachusetts: but this would not be new members possible as long as hostilities remained. Thomas Dermer recog- nized that Tisquantum, who had now been living with English- men for a number of years, could act as an interpreter and peace- Battle Ground Myles Standish (9) maker between the English and the still-enraged Indians of Patux- et and Nauset. He sent a letter off to Sir Ferdinando Gorges ex- Clayton Melville Kirkland Redmond Henry Samson (11) pressing the good use Tisquantum could be put to, and Gorges Kathryn Jean Forrest Bell had them come back to England to discuss their plans. Camano Island George Soule (9) In 1619, Captain Dermer and Tisquantum set off for New David Shumway Bardue Seattle England, to attempt to make peace and re-establish trade with the William Brewster (13) Indians, and to map out the natural resources that could be ex- Colin Michael Garvey Covington John Howland (11) ploited by the Company. But upon arriving, they discovered Dachelle E Newton Pand Tisquantum's town, all the Patuxet, were dead from the plague. Spokane Valley Squanto did make contact with Massasoit, and his brother Quade- William Bradford (12) Sandra Kay Brommer Walen quina, the heads of the Wampanoag Confederation, and in the Harrington Myles Standish (10) absence of his own people he took up residence with them. Steven Willard Frank Vancouver Their plan to make peace was foiled by the fact Tisquantum's William Mullins (13) Mary Diane Doty McCormick tribe had been wiped out, Dermer continued on to see if he could Issaquah Edward Doty (9) make peace with the Nauset. He was attacked and taken captive. Sally Mills Montgomery Yakima Tisquantum, hearing about the incident, came to Dermer's rescue Francis Cooke (10) and negotiated his release. Dermer would continue on south with- John William Hull Mercer Island William Brewster (12) out Tisquantum, where he was attacked again at Martha's Vine- yards: he would die of the wounds after reaching Jamestown, Anna Harris Klein Yakima Thomas Rogers (13) Virginia. Russell Denny Scofield Tisquantum's return home in 1619 was just in time for the Olympia John Alden (12) Mayflower Pilgrims, who pulled into Provincetown Harbor in Geraldine Page McCoy November 1620. The Pilgrims sent out their own exploration William Brewster (13) parties, and during their third expedition they were attacked in Puyallup camp early one morning by the Nauset. Shots were fired and ar- Donna Ann DeWitt Skogman rows flew heavily, but in the end nobody was injured and the Stephen Hopkins (12) Nauset fled back into the woods. The Pilgrims continued their Reardan expedition around Cape Cod, eventually ending up in the aban- Edward Herman Brommer doned Patuxet territory, where they decided to settle (the area had been named Plymouth by John Smith on his 1614 mapping expe- dition). The Pilgrims lived out of the Mayflower, ferried back and forth to land to build their storehouses and living houses: they labored all through the winter months of December, January, February, and didn't start moving entirely to shore until March. And during that entire time, they saw almost no signs of any Indi- supplemental applications approved ans, aside from a few fires burning in the far distance. On March 16, they got a surprise: an Indian named Samoset Bothell - Richard Hutchins - Thomas Rogers (12), walked right into the Colony and welcomed them in broken Eng- Edward Fuller (13) (Continued on page 3) Bremerton - Bett Houston - John Alden (11) Marysville - Alton Rogers - Isaac Allerton (12). Puyallup - Martha McNeill - Thomas Rogers (10). EVERGREEN LOG University Place - Dorothy Hull - William Mullins (12), John Alden (11). EDITOR - Donald Wingerson 3700 32nd Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98199 [email protected] Charles Garrett Production Manager Published three times a year in February, June and October Material received by the Editor less than thirty days prior to issue month can not Junior Members welcomed be guaranteed inclusion in the current EVERGREEN LOG. The Washington State Society is pleased to announce © 2006 Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of Washington All Rights reserved - Society members may reprint if credit is given - All the following to Junior Member Status. others contact editor for permission - Authors retain rights to their work. ADDRESS & LIFE CHANGES - Notify the Corresponding Secretary Ryan Scott Mill - Myles Standish - Sponsor, Julie Steves. (3604 27th Street SE, Puyallup, WA 98374-1715) of changes to members Finnegan Bryce Harrison - John Alden - Sponsor, Ann Gibson. address, phone numbers, email and births or deaths. 2 | EVERGREEN LOG SUMMER 2006 (Continued from page 2) lish. Samoset was from an Indian group in Maine, and had picked up a few English words from the fisherman that came into the harbors there. He informed them there was an Indian, Tisquantum, who had been to England and could speak better English than he could. Tisquantum made his first appearance on book report March 22, at which time he brought Massasoit and Quadequina.