His English skills might have made him useful, but they would not necessarily have made him dependent on Plymouth.

Instead, the social foundation of his life had been destroyed.

He returned with unusual skills but without the community that had given him his original place in the world.

That combination made him both powerful and vulnerable.

He knew more about English society than almost any other Native person in the region.

But knowledge could not restore the dead.

He could interpret between nations.

But he could not return to the exact Patuxet he remembered.

He could help newcomers plant fields.

But those fields were already filled with memories the newcomers did not share.