The Atlantic world of the early 1600s was a network of commercial ventures rather than a regular passenger system.

Ships sailed according to fishing seasons, trade opportunities, colonizing plans, and private investment.

Tisquantum’s route eventually connected him with voyages operating through Newfoundland and with Captain Thomas Dermer, an English explorer working for interests associated with Sir Ferdinando Gorges.

By 1619, after roughly five years away, Tisquantum was finally able to return to the coast of New England.

It should have been the end of his ordeal.

Instead, it became the moment that defined the rest of his life.

Patuxet was empty.

The Epidemic He Had Missed

While Tisquantum was across the Atlantic, devastating disease swept through Native communities in southern New England.

The epidemics of roughly 1616 to 1619 caused catastrophic mortality among Wampanoag communities and neighboring peoples.