Some captains traded with Native peoples.

Others kidnapped them.

The practice had several motives.

Captives could be sold into slavery.

They could be taken to Europe as curiosities.

They could be forced to provide geographic and linguistic information that would help future expeditions.

Native people who learned English could later be used as interpreters.

In 1614, Thomas Hunt carried out one of the most notorious kidnappings in the region.

According to the National Museum of the American Indian, Hunt tricked twenty young men from Patuxet, including Tisquantum, into coming aboard his ship and kidnapped them.

He also seized men from Nauset.