Tumen was a Mayan who grew up with his family in a village on the Yucatán Peninsula. He later became a sailor and made friends with Jean and Constance Magliore. After being marooned with Jean after a storm produced by Captain Torrents, the two encounterd a young Jack Sparrow and his crewmates, Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III, a runaway English aristocrat's son, and Arabella Smith, a former barmaid at the Faithful Bride on Tortuga. Tumen then joined Jack as part of the crew of the Barnacle, where he served for a long time.