1623 - 1628
As
the Katharine struggles to make land, one passenger braves the storm to
be on deck unable to take his eyes off a shore he believed he would never see
again. He is Wapikicho, son of Tasawin, kidnapped with his father in 1614.
Separated at the Malaga slave market, Tasawin was sold to a knight of Malta;
Wapikicho went to a monastery in Seville. A month later, word came that the
Maltese ship foundered at sea with no survivors.
Wapikicho’s
life as a slave began gently enough with the Franciscans. Then he passed into
the hands of Dom Duarte Oviedo, an Oporto wine merchant, who owned “pieces” from
Africa and Brazil and wanted to add a pure American "savage" to his collection.
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| Port barrels - Wikipedia |
Wapikicho, jester of his family, did little that pleased Dom Duarte and was
frequently beaten for his pains to amuse the Portuguese. One night he slipped
aboard a vessel laden with casks of port and when it cleared the Duoro, happily
believed himself bound for Massachusetts Bay. Instead, he landed in the heart
of London, half-naked and drunk from wine that was his only sustenance.
Wapikicho
stumbled into the arms of Master Thomas Tucker, a bibulous devotee of street
theater alert enough to spot an opportunity that came tumbling his way.
Wapikicho was barely sober when he found himself decked out in paint and
feathers and doing a war dance for the crowds of London.
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| London 1616 - Visscher/Wikipedia |
Master Tucker brought
two American princesses to the show, in reality wild Irish girls with bronzed
faces, who cavorted with Wapikicho. White Crane’s dancing partners, though
first terrified by him, found much to admire in the lost savage. They took
turns to make him feel at home in the city, letting him roger them night after
night.
A
year ago, the London agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges spotted Master Tucker’s
star performer and made the showman an offer he couldn’t refuse. Sad as it was
to kiss his Irish sweethearts goodbye, Wapikicho was filled with tremendous
hope. “We’re not taking you as a slave,” Sir Ferdinando’s agent said. “You
speak our language. When we go to the lands of the Massachusett, you will talk
for us.”
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| Sir Ferdinando Gorges |
Aboard
the Katharine, Wapikicho’s hopes are tempered by apprehension. In the
house of Ferdinando Gorges, he heard reports of a Great Sickness among his
people.
“Such a mortal stroke, the savages died like rotten sheep,” said a man
who’d been to New England. “There are but a small number living, so that the
place is made so much more fit for the English nation to inhabit.”
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