A Native American man who helped Mayflower pilgrims settling in America was secretly sold into slavery, a stunning new discovery has suggested.
Crumbling documents discovered in a Spanish archive have revealed that Squanto, a Native American figure credited with helping the Pilgrim Fathers survive their first years in America, was secretly sold into slavery in the port of Malaga.
The documents reveal that the Native American was sold as a slave in 1614, seven years before he met the colonists who would go on to found the Plymouth Colony.
The documents, unearthed in the Provincial Historical Archive in Malaga, appear to record the sale of 25 indigenous Americans by an English merchant to a Spanish monk, the Times reports.
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The transaction took place despite slavery of Native Americans being prohibited under Spanish law at the time.
Described as one of the most significant historical discoveries relating to the story of the Mayflower and the founding of America, this finding is the first primary evidence of Squanto's presence in Europe.
The documents were first discovered around 15 years ago by Purificación Ruiz Garcia, a retired archivist from Velez-Malaga, who came across them whilst researching Spain's 17th-century expulsion of Muslim converts to Christianity.
She described the handwriting as extremely difficult to decipher, with the documents themselves being completely ruined.
Tisquantum, more commonly known as Squanto, was a member of the Patuxet tribe of Wampanoags
|GETTY
The discovery may have remained largely unknown had it not been for two American tour guides, Tom Ruby and Alan Cornett, who came across a brief study by Ruiz Garcia in an obscure local journal during a visit to Malaga last week.
The pair turned up at the archive unannounced, speaking little Spanish, initially struggling to persuade staff to help.
However, archive investigator, Carmen Jurado, stepped in and located the correct volume for them.
Mr Ruby said: "There was a moment when we were told it wasn't possible. And then Carmen appeared - our hero."
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