[Deplorable American1776]

I wonder if Squanto someone captured him or if he went voluntarily?

[Sparky1776]

Squanto was captured in 1614 and brought to Spain as a slave, then moved to England and finally returned to New England in 1619, after helping the Pilgrims he died in 1622.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The record is a little convoluted and historians uncertain, but it appears Squanto was kidnapped twice by English shipmasters George Weymouth and Thomas Hunt (from the record quite a treacherous man) and abducted to England, and kidnapped a third time by shipmaster Sir Ferdinando Gorges who took him to Malaga (Spain), where he was to be sold into slavery.

Interesting that when he was rescued by friars (Franciscans) in Spain, they must have freed him by force of law? Because they neither bought him nor physically overpowered Gorges' men, so I am thinking they may have used Spanish law to free him. I'd like to look that up.

A free man, Squanto was then instructed by the Franciscan brothers in the Catholic Faith and Baptized in Spain. From there he somehow got passage first back to England, and then back to the former Patuxet territory in what is now Massachusetts.

He subsequently showed a lifesaving dedication to the well-being and survival of the European settlers on lands formerly cleared, settled and farmed by the Patuxet. He seems to have been motivated not only by an understandable desire to have some English as his allies in a shifting and slippery political situation, but also by a genuine personal magnanimity and Christian faith.