a motive for the resumption of friendship, knowing that the Indians could be bought off. This was the kind of Indian policy Myles Standish used at times; in fact there is a certain resemblance between the two men. In any case Smith left for England with a cargo of beaver, and the Indians of Plymouth got back their canoes. But the next visitor to Plymouth, still in 1614, did not leave as good an impression. With Smith departed for England, Thomas Hunt appeared in Plymouth Harbor in Smith’s larger vessel. Not content with a hold full of Monhegan codfish, Hunt now kidnaped twenty or more Plymouth natives, stowed them below decks, and sailed away to Spain, where he sold them into slavery at Malaga, “for £20 to a man.” This was a typical seaman’s private venture, or side bet to the profits of the codfish cargo. John Smith wrote that “this wilde act kept him [Hunt] ever after from any more emploiment in those parts.” Samuel Purchas termed Hunt’s “Savage hunting of Savages a new and Devillish Project.” One can imagine what bitterness grew toward the English among Massachusetts Indians after this demonstration of European barbarism. The quirks of history are at times worthy of the most fantastic fiction. Thomas Hunt’s universally condemned crime happened to produce one result which proved of great advantage to the Pilgrims. Among the twenty wretched Plymouth natives whom Hunt sold at the “Straights of Gibralter” was an Indian named Squanto. Then began a five-year European education which trained Squanto for his irreplaceable services to the Pilgrims as their interpreter. Squanto was rescued by good Spanish friars, “that so they might nurture [him] in the Popish religion.” In some unknown manner he reached England and continued his education for several years in the household of one John Slany, an officer of the Newfoundland Company. His subsequent travels will appear in our discussion of Thomas Dermer’s voyage in 1619. It is sufficient at this point to note that perhaps the greatest blessing ever bestowed upon the Pilgrim Fathers was the gift of a treacherous English shipmaster, a Spanish Catholic friar, and an English merchant adventurer.