Squanto (or Tisquantum) and his Native American friends saved the Pilgrims from starvation during their first winter in the New World

Early in his life was captured and sold as a slave in Malaga, Spain. There, he was bought by a Spanish monk, who treated him well, freed him from , and taught him the Christian faith.

He eventually made his way to England where he probably learned English. He worked in the stables for a man named John Slaney.

Mr. Slaney sympathized with his desire to return home, and promised to put him on the first ship bound for America.

Ten years after he was first kidnapped, a ship was found and he returned home. When he arrived in New England in 1619, as pilot for an English sea captain, he escaped. But he soon discovered that his people had been destroyed by a plague.

His importance to the Pilgrims was enormous. They would not have survived without his help.

It was he who taught the Pilgrims to tap the maple trees for sap. He taught them He taught them to fish.

He taught them how to plant by heaping the earth into low mounds with several seeds and fish in each mound. The decaying fish fertilized the corn. He also taught them to plant other crops with the corn.

He developed a friendship with the Massachusetts settlers and acted as interpreter at the Treaty of Plymouth, signed in 1621 between the Native American chief Massasoit and Governor William Bradford.

While guiding an exploration party for Governor Bradford around Cape Cod the following year, he became ill and died.