Destroying or driving them out was one possibility.

Ignoring them was another.

Alliance was another.

The political calculation was complicated by the Wampanoag population losses from epidemic disease.

An alliance with the English might help balance regional rivals, especially the Narragansett, who had not been hit as severely.

The English, meanwhile, desperately needed relationships with local Native peoples.

The conditions were therefore present for diplomacy.

But diplomacy required communication.

This is where Tisquantum’s strange path through captivity, London, fishing voyages, and return became historically decisive.

The man kidnapped by Englishmen could now speak for and about Englishmen.