Vol. 30, No.
3 -- March 2010
CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH OF THE DEAF
9545 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910
CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH OF THE DEAF
9545 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Learning how to forgive
On March 22, 1621, a meeting took place near Cape Cod, Massachusetts, an encounter that continues to deeply touch my life today. It was the famous meeting between a Patuxet Indian named Tisquantum and a group of English immigrants. Today we know Tisquantum as "Squanto" and the immigrants as "Pilgrims."
You know the story. The winter of 1621 had taken a deadly toll on the Pilgrim settlement due to a combination of factors -- poor preparation, storm winds which carried them to New England rather than Virginia, and poor timing of their arrival. You know about Tisquantum teaching the English settlers how to survive and thrive in the New World.
What is less well known is Tisquantum's story which led to that March 22 meeting. How did he become fluent in the English language long before he met the Pilgrims? Why was he so alone that he willingly became part of the Pilgrim settlement?
Tisquantum's tribe, the Patuxets, had earned a reputation among other Indians as being hostile to outsiders. They were particularly distrustful of white men who came in tall ships -- and for good reason. In 1605 Tisquantum was captured by British seamen and sold into slavery in England, where for nine years he was exposed to the English language, dress, and culture. When he was finally able to return home to Cape Cod, it was Captain John Smith who brought him back to America.
However, Tisquantum's freedom was short. Another British Captain, Thomas Hunt, lured Tisquantum and twenty-six other Indians to his ship with an offer to trade with them. Once the Indians were on the ship, the sailors overpowered them and put them in chains. Captain Hunt took the Indians to Spain where he sold them into slavery. In Spain, Tisquantum found refuge in a Catholic monastery.
We would expect that Tisquantum would become bitter against Englishmen and their God. However, his brief association with the Spanish monks showed him kinder Europeans who introduced him to a loving God who showed His love in Jesus Christ.
The Spanish monks made arrangements for Tisquantum to return to England in the service of a kind Englishman, in hopes that Tisquantum could work for his freedom and return to his homeland. Finally in 1619 Tisquantum returned to Cape Cod, only to discover that two years earlier his entire tribe had died in a smallpox epidemic. He may have been the only surviving Patuxet in the New World.
Tisquantum went to live with the nearby Wampanoag tribe, where he served as a translator for Chief Massasoit. The Patuxet territory remained uninhabited. Neighboring Indians feared a death curse would fall on anyone who dared to settle there. So it was there that the passengers of the Mayflower "accidentally" landed a year later.
In spite of all that Tisquantum had suffered at the hands of cruel Englishmen, he had learned that not all English were so cruel. He felt concern for the Pilgrims who were so ill prepared to live in the wilderness of North America. He had learned stories of the God of the Christians. He could see his own life mirroring the life of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph's own brothers sold him into slavery. Later Joseph told his brothers, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to save many lives." Because Tisquantum learned to know the God who forgives, he also could forgive.
And all this touches me, how? Among the Pilgrim survivors whom Tisquantum helped were a couple named John and Priscilla (Mullens) Alden. One of their many descendents is my wife.
~~Pastor Ron