Happy Thanksgiving to my ECCIE family and friends!
OK, you knew it was coming.....lol......
Of the 110 people that set sail for America on the Mayflower, less than 50 survived the first winter.
It is now March, 1621 and weather has begun to warm and the starving settlers begin to get to work. They were hungry, little to no food or crops, half of them dead and the town half finished.
An Indian brave walks in to the camp and to the villager’s delight, greeted them IN ENGLISH. He spent the night and returned later with a friend, who spoke even better English.
Tisquantum, was a Patuxet Indian. He had been kidnapped in 1614 by an Englishman, Thomas Hunt, who attempted to sell him into slavery in Spain, when some local Catholic friars intervened. He lived for a while with the friars, who taught him Spanish and Christianity. He then convinced the friars to let him try to make it back to America.
Tisquantum travelled to London, working a few years for a shipbuilder named John Slany, who taught him English and later took him to Newfoundland. From there he made it back to America, only to find himself the last member of his tribe, who had been wiped out by smallpox (brought by the europeans) during his 5 year absence.
The Plymouth colony was built on the former site of the Patuxet tribe.
Familiar with the area and living with the colony, he taught them how to tap the maple trees for sap, which plants were poisonous and which were medicine and how to plant corn and other crops.
When the harvest arrived in October, the pilgrims found that they had plenty of food for the winter – smoked meats, fish cured in salt, corn, fruit and vegetables. They also found the Indians to be peaceful.
With these blessings, it was time to turn thanks. The governor declared a day of thanksgiving to be shared by the entire colony and their neighbors. The number of Native Americans in attendance was over 90, a nearly 2 to 1 ratio, and the celebration lasted three days. Tisquantum is better known as Squanto.
Personally, I doubt the Plymouth settlement would have lasted long, given the situation, and would have likely gone the way of several other early settlements. To be sure, it would not have prospered without the assistance from Squanto.
I can only imagine the thoughts that went through Squanto’s mind. Kidnapped by an Englishman while walking home one day - transported across the Atlantic - spending the next 5 years working his way across Europe and finally back to home, only to find his family, friends and entire village dead and gone. Then two years later, Samoset coming to tell him that there was a colony of English, living in his old home site, half starved, half dead, hopeless and helpless….
I wonder what thoughts would have gone through my mind?
In the end, the colony survived and thrived due to his dedication and influence.
In the end, he gave his life trying to keep the peace between the colonists and other Indian tribes.
I am thankful today for family, friends and for those many who have made sacrifices that we may enjoy what we have today.
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