 Growing up in a polyglot world, he displayed his mother’s gift for languages, speaking French, English, Lenape, Shawnee and the Iroquoian languages.Comfortable with both Native Americans and Europeans, he made a good living as an interpreter for local tribes and settlers.In 1742 when Count Zinzendorf met Montour, he described him as looking "decidedly European, and had his face not been encircled with a broad band of paint we would have thought he was one."