The governor did not present a perfectly consistent saint.

He described Tisquantum’s guidance, interpretation, and practical assistance, but he also recorded the political schemes that caused conflict with Ousamequin.

That contradiction is valuable evidence.

If Bradford had wanted only a simple propaganda hero, he could have omitted the darker episodes.

Instead, the surviving record preserves a person who helped the colony and troubled it.

Later American memory selected the first half more enthusiastically than the second.

This is how myths are often built.

They do not always invent facts from nothing.

They select.

A complicated archive is narrowed to the details that serve a later purpose.