The Land of Bondage: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
History
The Land of Bondage: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
"He was found," said the paw-wah, "lying in the forest by Lamimi, the
young daughter of Owalee, a chief of the Powhattans, and she, because
her heart was tender, succoured him. But because Owalee hated the pale
faces with a great hatred she kept him secret from her father for many
days, hiding him in a cave she knew of and going to visit him often.
Yet she believed him to be no pale face, but rather a god sent from
another world, so wonderful were his doings. Food he refused at her
hands, making signs to her (and knowing, too, some words of her
tongue, as she knew some of his, by which they conversed) that meat
was brought to him by some unseen power. And of this he gave her
proof, showing her bones of fishes and of animals and birds which he
had devoured. Later on she learnt that he could marvellously snare all
creatures, making them captive to him even though he had no weapons,
but this she told us not until to-day. Nor told she until to-day--when
she, who had been his squaw and loved him, learned that she was to be
cast out and the white maiden here and her dark sister made to take
her place--of all his own deceptions and crafts. But, to-day, because
she hates him now as once she loved him, she has told all--all! She it
was who taught him the history of our braves and their deeds and the
deeds of their forefathers, which we thought the Sun God only could
have taught him so wonderful did his knowledge seem. She it was who
carried to him the news of what the tribes were deciding on doing,
either in war with other tribes, or in hunting, or in sacrificing, so
that, when he told us that he had learned all our future intentions,
again we believed that his father, the Sun, gave him the knowledge.
Fools! fools that we were! Yet we never thought of the girl, Lamimi,
though we knew she was his squaw. Nor would she have told him all she
did had he not ruled her by terror as much as by love. For he made her
believe that he could cause her to vanish for ever off the earth, even
as he made things to vanish from his hands and be no more seen; or as
he made stones to fly into the air and descend no more. Yet now she
knows, as we know, that all was but trickery, and that many others can
do the same, even as that one there," pointing to Buck, "who says he
is the child of no god, can do such things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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