First English Contact with Native New England
The Voyages and Explorations of the English Prior to Plymouth
Apr 2, 2009
Early English attempts to colonize New England ended in failure. Sir Humphrey Gilbert made contact with the Narragansett Indians in 1580, but three years later while on his way to New England to establish a colony his ship went down at sea off Newfoundland. Sir William Cecil sponsored a voyage in the 1590s which explored the possibilities of a fishing station in the area. And in 1602, Bartholomew Goswold sailed to the area of present day Martha’s Vineyard and stayed about five weeks.
First Armed Conflict with Native Americans
The following year Martin Pring came to the area with two ships. Relations began friendly until one day when the natives had overstayed their welcome at Pring’s camp; he turned their two dogs loose on them. A few day later seven armed natives entered the camp but were turned back by the English guns and dogs. The natives responded by burning the forest around the camp which convinced Pring to leave for home.
Kidnapping Indians
Beginning in about 1605, the English began a policy under which English-native relations deteriorated further. They began to kidnap natives to bring them back to England. George Waymouth captured five Kennebec natives officially as a response to their hostility. A member of his crew wrote that the kidnapping of some Indians was “a matter of great importance for the full accomplement (sic) of our voyage.”
Failure of Policy of Kidnapping Indians
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, commander of Plymouth Fort in England, had always been interested in capturing natives, bringing them to England, converting them to Christianity and using them as diplomats and interpreters in colonizing efforts. Except perhaps for Squanto, his plan never worked. The five Waymouth captives were turned over to Gorges and in 1606 he sent two of them back to New England with Captain Henry Challows. On the way they were captured by the Spanish. One of the natives, Sassacomit, spent time in a Spanish prison but escaped and somehow made his way to England and then in 1614 back to New England on a voyage commanded by Captain Thomas Hobson. Two other Waymouth captives, Tahanedo and Skidwarres, were returned to their Pemaquid River tribe in 1606 and 1607 in separate voyages but proved to be of no help to the English in establishing friendly relations. In fact, they advised their people to be wary of the English.
Capture of Epenow and Squanto
In 1611, Gorges again attempted to establish relations with the natives by capturing leaders of their tribe. Epenow, a sachem at Martha’s Vineyard where the Goswold expedition had failed to establish a colony in 1602, was captured and spent three years in England before being returned in 1614. Epenow had convinced Gorges that Martha’s Vineyard contained large quantities of gold and that he, Epenow knew where to find it. He obviously knew what to tell Gorges in order to ensure his passage home. When the ship approached the shore Epenow jumped overboard and amid a cover of arrows escaped. The same year that Epenow returned, Squanto and twenty other Patuxet natives were captured not for colonizing purposes but to be sold into slavery in Spain. Squanto spent five years in Spain and England before returning on a Gorges expedition in 1619.
The English violence, the kidnapping, and their unwillingness to enter into reciprocal relationships created and increased Indian resentment to English colonization. For all their efforts the English made no headway among the Indians until native resistance to colonization was broken down by that most lethal of Europe’s weapons, its diseases.
Sources:
Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence Indians, Europeans and the Making of New England, 1500-1643, (New York: Oxford University Press), 85-109.
James Rosier, "A True Relation of the Most Prosperous Voyage Made This Present Year, 1605, by Captain George Waymouth,” (1605), in Levenmore, ed., Forerunners, Vol 1, 323-38, 342..
