Colonial Cobblestones

I looked at how he was dressed, I said to myself, “That man is dressed very strange. "I noticed he had something by his side. He pulled it out and was pointing it at me shouting out again, ”GET OUT OF HERE NOW OR I WILL BLOW YOUR HEADS OFF!”

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Introduction

My name is Tasquantum otherwise called Squanto by the English. I am a member of the Patuxet band of the Wampanoag tribe. I am a very smart and spiritual man. l live in a village in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts with about 2,000 people. My people have the knowledge of how to survive through the long winter and the knowledge of how to grow corn, wheat, how to fish and how to hunt for food. This is my story...

August 23, 1614
     I was sleeping one night and woke from a noise I heard outside. Before I had time to go outside to investigate, a stranger came barging in like a boar and shouted out, ”GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” I looked at how he was dressed, I said to myself, “that man is dressed very strange. ” I noticed he had something by his side. He pulled it out and was pointing it at me shouting out again, ”GET OUT OF HERE NOW OR I WILL BLOW YOUR HEADS OFF!” I did not understand his language and just sat there with confusion, so he got angry and grabbed me in a brutal manner and dragged me out. When I came out, I was shocked to see that most of the village was held captive. They were chained with heavy chains from wrists to ankles. The strangers led us through the forest and we saw a ship ahead. Along the way I could see tears on the women and children. So scared and sad that they are leaving their home and their families. Even me, I was also scared so scared I was having a memory about my life in the past of all the great times I have had. Like the time I learned how to hunt for the first time and made my own deer skin jacket. When we arrived at the ship, they forced us to get in one of these type of wooden boxes that were stacked. We all were stuffed in. They were so tight and cramped that it felt like my body was going to be crushed. They also unlocked the chains that were on our wrists for an unknown reason.   Then I heard the captain say, ”Men out to sea!”

August 22, 1614
    We were on the ocean, I could hear the water and the ship rocking up and down. All of a sudden the doors of the hold of the ship opened with strong bright light shining in my eyes like the sun had been blocked out for an eternity and reappeared out of nowhere. One man came downstairs and unlocked the chains that were on our ankles to go on the deck of the ship. The captain ordering his men, ”Clean the dirt off these disgusting savage beasts I do not want them covered in filth on my ship!” They poured sea water all over us, some of us had really bad wounds that had to be taken care because of the whips that they used to force us to come with them. It stung like a blade slowly penetrating your skin. We all walked back down to the hold of the ship and were chained back up. It was so painful and tight that it felt like my circulation got cut off to my feet. Also some of the chains were rusty so when it cut on our skin it left scratches and open wounds on our skin that could be infected. It was feeding time now and they poured us some type of oatmeal. I said to myself, “This tastes like a fish found dead and was uncooked.”

October 31, 1614
    It has been 46 days since we left our village. I could count the days each time one of the men would feed us day and night. All of a sudden the sound of the sea’s tides have changed, like the sea was angry. The ship started to move roughly side to side. I knew it was a big storm passing overhead. I could see the water streaming down the stairs to the hold of the ship. I could hear the lightning and thunder. I could hear screaming on the deck; it was the men outside trying to maintain the ship. For one long horrifying moment I thought I was going to die. Later the storm had ended and the seas were calm again. It was luck that the storm had not tipped the ship over. I heard one of the men shout out,”Land dead ahead captain!” The ship stopped. We all woke up and the men told us to go upstairs and off the ship on to a type of transportation with wheels and horses to pull it.

November 1, 1614
    We all arrived at some place where there were a lot of people waiting for something. One at a time we all were supposed to stand on a wooden box for these English people to see what the conditions of our bodies were. I heard one man scream out the name of the captain, his name was Captain Thomas Hunt. When I heard his name I said to myself in an angry voice, “I will never forget his name, his face and all the cruel things he did to my people and me!” Before one of us stood on this wooden box, there was a commotion. These people with long robes said to free us from this place. They took us and taught us something they called Christianity. We stayed with them for three years so we could be free. I was going on a ship to some place with my monk friends because they needed to go to a meeting in a place called London, but before I got on, I got so horrified of the thought of those rusty chains again that I wore before. A time like that, I never want to remember again.

October 5, 1617
    When I got to a place called London in England I met an English man who looked very happy to see me. He introduced himself as John Slaney. Mr. John Slaney does explorer which is like going somewhere and looking around the area. He does this exploring with another man named Thomas Dermer. He took me and told me that I could stay with him only if I served him. In this way I could buy my way out. During my years staying with John Slaney and Thomas Dermer, they taught me English culture and the English language.

November 14, 1619
    It has been two years since I first came to England. “I am now a free man now” I said to myself with the joy of going back to my homeland and seeing my family and my people again. I got on a ship with Thomas Dermer who was bound for the New World so he could see it for himself. I went on top of the deck. I could feel the wind blowing and the smell of the blue sea shining in the sun. I felt happy that I was going back home to my friends and family again. It has been at least two and a half months on the sea when right in front of me there I saw land ahead. I could not wait to see the happy faces when they set their eyes on me. I arrived and I ran to the village. When I got there, I could not believe it I thought my eyes were deceiving me, but they were not. I saw more than half of my people gone from a plague. I saw some of the survivors. They had created a smaller tribe. I talked to one of the survivors. Then I said to myself, “Even though it’s the end of someone else’s life does not mean it is the end of mine. No matter what, I still have to keep my life going until the end.”

November 23, 1620
    A few months have passed by and a lot of bad events have occurred through those times. Mr. Thomas Dermer came to visit, but he was killed by the English soldiers and I was taken a prisoner. I do not know why they did that to Mr. Thomas Dermer. One day I saw a ship coming through the fog. It looked really weather beaten and decayed. It had a some kind of name carved on it. The name of the ship was the Mayflower. The Mayflower had anchored and the people that came out were English men, women, and children. They settled in close to the Patuxet village. It was November and winter had just started. My people were getting ready for another long harsh winter this year. What a harsh winter it was for the English settlers. I felt sorry for them that they knew little of how to hunt, keep warm or farm. Every time we tried to help, they always kept their distance from us. A lot of settlers were dying of starvation and diseases through the winter. Some had wounds that had to be taken care of, most of them died a few days later. I wondered, why do they not want us to help them? We could help them live, have food and shelter! My people and I had never contacted the settlers all through the harsh winter. Winter is now over and the number of the settlers have. I decided to go and talk to them. After we became acquainted I asked them “What are you doing here?” The leader of their colony called Plymouth Colony said, ”We came here because of the king of England. He was the leader of a church and would not let us practice another religion, so we came here to where no one can stop us.” Over the past few months Massaoit, the chief of the Wampanoag tribe, created a treaty that would pledge peace and long lasting friendships between the two cultures.

November 23, 1621
    Through the months that have passed, my people and I have been teaching the pilgrims how to hunt, fish, grow food, fertilize crops with fish and how to survive through the long winter. November has come again. It has been at least one year since the Pilgrims have come. The Pilgrims thought about a celebration for everybody in the Patuxet area so one of them came over to talk to me and said, “ Some of us here thought about having a feast to celebrate the year, since we first came here and the first time we’we have met you and your people.” Over the next few days, we held a big feast which we will remember forever. We had turkey, bread, potatoes, fruits, corn and more delicious things to eat. They called it the Thanksgiving. It was the first Thanksgiving for us.

November 14, 1622
    During that time in November, I felt ill and my head was burning hot. I laid down with some water by my side. About a week later I was still resting and had never gotten up once. I thought I was going to die. I have been thinking about my life for these past years, an adventure of both bad and good things. I have learned many new things like learning to speak English and the English culture. My life is one that will never be forgotten. Now I my time is up and I have to say goodbye to this world.

Epilogue

After Squanto’s death, things didn’t turn out so well. The Pilgrims started to do things that were against the peace treaty that the Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoag tribe agreed to follow. Then the son of Massoit of the Wampanoag tribe declared a war between the Plymouth Colonists but it was a battle that no one really won that awful day.

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