The year was 1620. The small ship was called The Mayflower. Those on board were called the Pilgrims. Their purpose was to establish self-government and freedom of religion. They set sail with 102 passengers. The voyage took 66 days.
On November 21, 1620 they reached the Cape Cod coast. As they sailed looking for appropriate land for settlement, they encountered a horrific storm causing them to anchor at Cape Cod. Before coming ashore, 41 men aboard the ship sign an agreement which would set up a new style government. The agreement was called the Mayflower Compact. It would be the first document of self government in the New World.
With sea weary legs, the men began exploring Cape Cod for suitable land to settle. The women and children stayed on board. Winter was upon them. Temperatures began to plummet at night. Urgency began to set in. The journey was becoming quite difficult, but their toughest days were still ahead!
As they began to settle, natives appeared with arrows flying. The Pilgrims fired back. Knowing they would never have peace, the Pilgrims board The Mayflower and set sail again. This time they would land at the place they called Plymouth. It would be here that they would settle; more out of desperation and urgency, then out of finding the perfect Utopia.
Several members of their group became sick. Others passed away. William Bradford’s wife would drown – either by accident or by suicide. No one knows for sure. Being ill-prepared for a harsh winter and all that came with settling a New World, the Pilgrims would begin to die at a rapid pace. In no time at all, half of the Pilgrims would pass away leaving them with only 53 individuals counting women and children.
They didn’t know where to fish. They didn’t know how to grow crops in this new type soil. They didn’t have enough housing to protect them from the bitter cold. They didn’t know if natives might attack and kill them. They didn’t have shipments of supplies on the way or a new group of people to join them. They didn’t know how to stop the death of so many. To put it mildly, the Pilgrims were in grave trouble and if they didn’t receive some help soon, they would all die only to be remembered as Christian fools looking for freedom.
Then the incredible happened! It would be something that Americans three hundred years later would forget . . . or simply not know about . . . or simply leave out of the script we call “American History.”
On March 21, 1621, as the Pilgrims were going about their daily duties, they heard a rustling in the woods nearby. The men grabbed their guns thinking this might be the dreadful attack they had so often feared.
Suddenly, an olive skinned native named Someset stepped out of the woods and greeted the Pilgrims in a broken form of their own language, explaining how he had learned English from fishermen and traders in what is now Maine. A few days later,
Someset brought a friend named Squanto to meet the Pilgrims. Squanto would be a man who was both peaceful in approach and fluent in the British language. He would turn out to be God’s answer to their persevering prayers.
Can you imagine the shock and amazement as the native dressed Squanto emerged from the wildness of the woods with an outstretched hand and an English vocabulary?
As Squanto, William Bradford, and the other Pilgrims sat to talk, Squanto began to tell them his life story. They were dumbfounded by the story of Squanto as the providential hand of God was being unveiled!
At the age of twelve, Squanto and some other natives were kidnapped by Englishman Thomas Hunt. Hunt took the natives to Malaga, Spain to sell them into slavery. Some local friars discovered Hunt’s plans and purchased Squanto. Soon after, they allowed Squanto to attempt a voyage back to his homeland. Squanto managed to get to London where he lived and worked with John Slany, a shipbuilder who assisted Squanto in learning more English. After a few years, Squanto traveled with Slany to Newfoundland and then on to his native homeland in New England in 1619 to be reunited with his family and tribe.
Sadly, upon arrival, Squanto found only skeletal remains and empty homes as the majority of New England tribes including his family had all died from an epidemic plague, possibly smallpox. He would remain in the area alone and saddened. For months, he would mourn his great loss and remember the bountiful times he shared as a boy with his family fishing and hunting.
It would be less than two years later that the Pilgrims arrived and unknowingly formed Plymouth at the same exact location where Squanto’s family once lived. And it would be the English speaking and heart-broken Squanto who would teach the Pilgrims where to fish, how to grow crops, and how to live at peace with neighboring tribes. Squanto would adopt the Pilgrims as his new family and he would become their answered prayer! Governor William Bradford described Squanto as “a special instrument sent of God for [our] good.”
That summer, the Pilgrims reaped a bountiful harvest. Pilgrim Edward Winslow exclaimed, “God be praised, we had a good increase of corn”; “by the goodness of God, we are far from want.” The grateful Pilgrims therefore declared a feast in December 1621 to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. Ninety Wampanoag Indians joined the fifty Pilgrims for three days as they feasted (which included shellfish, lobsters, turkey, corn bread, berries, deer, and other foods), played (the young Pilgrims and Wampanoags engaged in races, wrestling matches, and athletic events), and gave God thanks.
Squanto would remain with the Pilgrims for years serving as a helper and peacemaker. According to Bradford, Squanto “never left [us] til he died.” When Squanto lay dying of a fever, Bradford wrote that their Indian friend “desir[ed] the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven.”
Modern-day American leader Chuck Colson observed, “Who but God could so miraculously convert a lonely Indian and then use him to save a struggling band of Englishmen? It is reminiscent of the biblical story of Joseph, who was also sold into slavery–and whom God likewise used as a special instrument for good.”
On this day of Thanksgiving, may we look again to God for His amazing providence in our lives. May we give Him sincere thanks and may we each by faith acknowledge that God’s Word is true that “all things work together for good for those who
love the Lord and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Happy Thanksgiving!
