1623-1628
Incorrigible Adam proves himself useful to his master,
decoying ducks and geese in the marshes and tramping up-country with other
hunters. He loses his fear of the wilderness, becoming friends with a bunch of
young Indian warriors, and even more friendly with their sisters. Several are
happy to make love with “Hopokan” – “Strong Pipe.”
One girl shows no interest in Adam. She is
Chickataubut’s nineteen-year-old niece, Wapilanee, with finely cut features,
long hair and black eyes. Wapilanee’s family perished in the Great Sickness, and
she shares the wigwam of Chitanawoo with the little terror, Jacques Petit.
When Blaxton visits Massachusetts Fields, Wapilanee is
attentive to the gentle Englishman, her dark eyes filled with affection.
William cherishes Wapilanee’s tenderness toward him, but his bookish head is
filled with divine images of a muse and his forest nymph.
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| Nymphs and Fauns - Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot |
He writes poetry for
the girl and crafts laurel wreaths for her sweet head, his deepest longing to
see Wapilanee crowned as the first convert in New England. Blaxton considers
the Separatists’ failure to Christianize a single native since their arrival a
grave neglect of a sacred duty.
Wapilanee takes William on an expedition from Blue
Hills across the narrow neck of land to Shawmut. – The early English settlers
adopt the French name for the peninsula, Trimontaine. – William
discovers the copious spring on the slope of the highest hill and delights in
the spot with its cool western breezes, blueberry and blackberry bushes and
champion meadow just beyond.
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| Blueberries - Photo: Gordana Adamovic Mladenovic - Wikipedia |
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