Even so, the Leiden congregants finally de- cided they were more afraid of the Spanish, with whom the 12-year Dutch truce was about to expire. This passage, usually deleted in school-
book abridgements of Bradford’s history, contradicts the idea that America was un- contested vacant land, open for superior European exploitation. It also belies the notion that the Pilgrims were benevolent missionaries, anxious to convert American Indians (an impression fostered by their advocates). The fact is that almost none of the new arrivals had any direct experience of Indians, let alone accurate knowledge of them. The Leiden congregants apparently had no access to the groups of American In- dians from Mawooshin (Maine), Virginia or even Cape Cod Bay, who had been brought to England beginning in 1605. Several Eso- pus tribesmen from the lower Hudson River had come back to Holland with Dutch sea captains, but they did not make a good im- pression, and no records indicate that the Leidenites met them. Although the Pilgrims had chosen Leiden
in part because of its prestigious Leiden Uni- versity (where their pastor John Robinson had enrolled), it’s not clear whether they received useful information from its learned debates. Even its best-informed geographers still had a lot to learn about American Native ethnology.
WHAT THE INDIANS KNEW
This disregard of the Native population stood in sharp contrast to the wide-spread practice of other colonial adventurers. A high priority of early explorers was to kidnap and bring Na- tive leaders back to Europe, where they could be debriefed and trained as interpreters and intermediaries. The George Weymouth expe- dition to Maine, or Mawooshen, in 1605 forc- ibly removed five Abenaki. (See “Alien Abduc- tions: The Real Story of the Mawooshen Five,” in American Indian magazine, Fall 2015). The renegade Thomas Hunt, captain of a ship in the Smith fleet in 1614, captured 27 Indians from Cape Cod to sell as slaves in Spain; Smith denounced him furiously for poisoning future relations with Native peoples. In the two decades before the Mayflower
voyage, a significant number of these ab- ductees were living in England and moving back and forth to America. Some of the ab- ductees were guests of principals of various colonial companies. The Mawooshen Five contingent was divided between the house- holds of John Popham, Lord Chief Justice
28 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2020
of England and Sir Fernando Gorges, com- mander of the fort at the original Plymouth in England. Two were sent back home and played a crucial role in the Popham Colo- ny at Sagadahoc in Maine. Two of Hunt’s captives, Tisquantum (Squanto) and Epe- now, were eventually redeemed to England and one way or another managed to return home. Tisquantum lived in London with Jo- seph Slaney, secretary of the Newfoundland Company, and spent time at the fishing col- ony of Cupid’s Cove in Newfoundland. Four years before the Mayflower sailed,
the Virginia Company brought over a more or less voluntary delegation of Powhatan In- dians featuring Rebecca Rolfe, who was also known as Pocahontas. Professor C. B. Rose notes that Rolfe was lodged several hundred yards from the house where Squanto was liv- ing. There are no reports stating this, but they had ample opportunity to compare notes about the English. Apparently the Pilgrims, isolated in Leiden, had no access to these In- dians or to their intelligence briefings. Most discussions of these captives dwell
on what they could tell the colonizers. But the Indians were intelligent observers who learned a lot in England and brought this knowledge back home. Their insights into English motivations were available to tribal leaders who dealt with colonial settlers, and in some cases the returning captives were the tribal leaders. Their experience and oth- er interactions with explorers shaped Native strategies, for better or worse. The diplomatic initiative at Plimoth
clearly was in the hands of the Indians. At the arrival of the Mayflower, Tisquantum was sojourning with Ousemequin, the Massasoit, or paramount chief, of the Wampanoag, and they carefully managed the first contact with the Pilgrims. Ousemequin had good reasons to support the new settlement. His confeder- acy had been severely weakened by a plague transmitted by previous European contact. But his regional rivals the Narragansetts had been much less affected, and he wanted the support of English firepower. He could draw on a number of Native precedents, not all of which at this time had ended badly. During the winter,
the Wampanoag
watched from a distance as the colony strug- gled. In mid-March, after several weeks in which the Natives showed themselves more boldly, one of them walked directly into the camp, calling out “welcome” in English. This was Samoset, a Native of Monhegan Island in Maine, who had learned some English from
PHOTO COURTESY OF PLIMOTH PATUXET
A reconstructed village of New Plimoth at the living museum of Plimoth Patuxet, 2.5 miles south of the original settlement and what is now the city of Plymouth.
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