Hobbamock

Hobbamock was a Pokanoket pniese who came to live with the Plymouth Colony settlers during the first year of their settlement in North America in 1620. His name was variously spelled in 17th century documents and today is generally simplified as Hobomok. He is known for his rivalry with Squanto, who lived with the settlers before him. He was greatly trusted by Myles Standish, the colony's military commander, and he joined with Standish in a military raid against the Massachuset. Hobomock was also greatly devoted to Massasoit, the sachem of the Pokanoket, who befriended the English settlers. Hobomok is often claimed to have been converted to Christianity, but what that meant to him is unclear.

Almost nothing is known about Hobomok before he began living with the English settlers who arrived aboard the Mayflower and settled at the location they called Plymouth in December 1620. That information is contained in the writings of Governor William Bradford and Edward Winslow (who would later become governor of the colony).

Hobomok was a member of the Pokanoket whose sachem Massasoit presided over a confederation of numerous smaller bands, villages and associations, which was named by the English the Wampanoag Confederation. The Pokanoket were a group of Algonquian peoples who lived in Southern New England with their principal village, Pokanoket, later called Sowams, located near what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. Like the other Algonquins from the area from south of the Saco river in Maine to around what is now the border between Connecticut and Rhode Island, the Pokanoket were organized under the leadership of a sachem, selected by the leading men from among a group within prescribed degrees of kinship to the previous sachem. At the time the Mayflower arrived the sachem was Massasoit. Beneath the sachem was a class of "principal men" (called ahtaskoaog in Algonquinian) which consisted of shamans (called pau waus or "pow-wows" or "powahs" by the English), who mediated between the people and the god of healing (Abbomocho, called "Hobbomock" or "Hobbamoqui" by the English) and the pniesesock, who were both advisors and administrative delegates of the sachem, who collected the annual tribute to the sachem, led warriors into battle and advised on the distribution or sale of land. Hobomok was a Pokanoket pniese.

On Friday, March 16, 1620/21 o.s. Samoset, an Abenaki sachem from the coast region of Maine near the mouth of the Pemaquid River "bodly came" into the Plymouth settlement and greeted the startled men in English. He explained he was acting on behalf the Pokanoket, who were their neighbors to the west. Through his and later Squanto's mediation, Massasoit with his brother Quadrquina and a train of 60 men arrive outside the settlement on Thursday, March 22 o.s. It was during this encounter that the English settlers and the Pokanoket entered into a peace and mutual defense treaty. Hobomok is not noted to be among the 60 men accompanying Massasoit, but as a pniese it is more than likely that he was.

It was not until four or five months later that Hobomok's activities are recorded by the settlers, although Bradford makes clear that he had been living with them for a while, but how long he does not say. Bradford described him as "a proper lustie man, and a man of accounte for his vallour and parts amongst thed Indeans." Squanto had been living among the English settlers since the establishment of amity between the English and the Pokanoket, and during that time had shown the settlers how to plant maize and other native crops, had acted as their guide and pilot to surrounding areas, facilitated understandings between the colony and its native neighbors and established trade relations with a number of villages. Both Bradford and Winslow first record Hobomock's actions in connection with a crisis in which Squanto was thought to have been kidnapped and possibly murdered. Bradford's and Winlow's accounts differ in important details, however.

As Winslow told the story, word reached Plymouth that the Narragansett had driven Massasoit "from his country" and that a sub-sachem, tributary to Massasoit named Corbitant (written Coubatant by Winslow) (possibly conspiring with them) was at the nearby village of Nemasket attempting to disaffect the people their from their loyalty to Masassoit and attempting to foment hostility against the English and because of the recent peace treaty they made with the natives of Cape Cod, Squanto also because he effected the treaty. Another Pokanet living among them, Tokamaham, set off to see Massasoit (or perhaps Corbitant, Winslow's account is not clear) but Squanto and Hobomok were afraid. Instead, they went to Nemasket to learn what they could about Corbitant's activities. When there Squanto was captured by Corbitant of whom Corbitant said "if he were dead, the English had lost their tongue." Hobomok saw Corbitant holding a knife to Squanto's chest, broke free of his restraints and ran to Plymouth, fearing that Squanto had been killed. Bradford's account makes no mention of any threat to Massasoit> He only writes that Hobomok and Squanto returning from "bussines amonge the Indeans" met Corbitant at Nemasket where they began quarreling and Corbitant threatened to stab Hobomok, broke free and came running to Plymouth where he told Bradford that he feared Squanto had been killed, all on account of their friendship to the English. The Governor convened a council at which it was decided that this outrage could not go unavenged. They determined to send a group of armed men to Nemasket and if it turned out that Squanto had been kill, they would cut off Corbitant's head.

Bradford commissioned a group of armed men (Bradford says 14) under Captain Standish on a mission to raid Nemasket at night to round up Corbitant and any accomplices. The men set out on August 14, and Hobomok agreed to show them the route. The day proved very wet, but they marched within two or three miles of Nemasket and hoped to rest before their midnight attack. Hobomok, however, lost his way in the night, which, together with the rain and fatigue, greatly discouraged the men. Fortunately, Winslow and Stephen Hopkins had been to Nemasket recently on their way to an embassy to Massasoit in Pokanoket. Though discouraged and wet, they arrived in time to eat what they brought, then fell on the town around midnight.

Hobomok led them to the house where he suspected Corbitant would be found. The men burst into the house demanding to know where Corbitant was, but the occupants were too terrified to speak. They tried to explain that they were only looking for Corbitant and women and children would not be hurt, but several tried to escape and were wounded in the process. The settlers discharged their muskets at least twice "at random" which excited the entire village. Eventually, those in the house explained (to Hobomok) that Crobitant and his train had left. The settlers demanded a fire be built to search the corners of the house and commandeered it to stay the night. Hobomok mounted the roof and called for Squanto, who came together with Tokamahamon and others, who were disarmed by the settlers. The next morning the settlers gathered the village and warned them not to harbor Corbitant and threatened that if Massasoit did not return in safety or if Corbitant threatened or harmed him or his subjects (including Squanto and Hobomok), they would enact vengeance. They also apologized for the injuries they committed the previous night and offered to have those wounded be treated by the surgeon at Plymouth. Winslow said that a man and a woman returned with them to be treated, as well as Squanto and Nemasket villagers "offering all helpe that might be by carriage of anything wee had to ease us."