Seas of Fortune(23)
* * *
At dawn, David transferred to the Eikhoorn, and had it sail close to the fort, into waters a fathom or two deep. He had Vogel urge the Indians to come to him. “Tell them we have a fine present for one who comes to us.”
One fidgeted, and then walked slowly toward them, hands open. He stood on the strand for a moment, watching them. Then he swam out, coming alongside. “I am Temakwei—the Beaver. Because I am a good swimmer. What do you have for me?”
The crew threw down a rope to him, and he climbed up. David handed him a blouse and breeches. Temakwei held each up, and compared it to what David and his shipmates were wearing. At last he laughed, and pulled them on.
David held up a bottle. “Perhaps you’d care for some schnapps?”
* * *
“So Temakwei, why did your people slay mine?”
“Your sakima Hosset put a metal shield on the gate of your village. It was small, but very beautiful. It showed a great golden panther with the sky behind it. It walked on two feet like a man, and carried a white knife in one paw, and seven white arrows in another.”
“He means a lion, not a panther. And a sword, not a knife,” said Heyndrick. David shushed him.
“One of our chiefs, Taminy, thought that it was a great waste that this pretty thing sit on a gate. So he borrowed it to make a tobacco pipe, so we could smoke it together and honor the peace between our people.”
Heyndrick reinterpreted this statement. “Stole it, he means.”
David sighed. “The Indians don’t have much of a property concept. Stealing isn’t a crime, so far as they’re concerned. It is a chance to demonstrate that they are cleverer than you. If you don’t like it, steal it back.”
“Your Hosset said many bad words to us. He told us we had taken a . . . I don’t know the words.”
“Coat of arms?”
“That sounds right. A ‘Koh-Tah-Ahms’ of the Dutch people. He told us that this was a terrible insult to your chief of chiefs, and to your Manitou, your great spirit. That the thief must be punished.
“That was when we realized that we had committed a great wrong. Clearly, the ‘Koh-Tah-Ahms’ was strong medicine. To take it away was to hurt the Dutch people, our friends.
“So, the next day, we brought the head of Taminy to your Hosset.”
Heyndrick’s eyes widened. He started to speak, but David raised a finger in admonition, and Heyndrick subsided.
“Your chief told us that he didn’t mean for us to kill Taminy, only to make him bring back the spirit-shield and apologize. Still, he was pleased that we had punished Taminy, and he sent us home with pleasant words. But the brothers and sons of Taminy were angry that Taminy was dead. And the sister-sons of Taminy were angry, too. They waited and waited, but Hosset did not send them any wampum to atone for the death of Taminy.
“It was an insult not only to Taminy’s kin, but to his entire clan.”
“And then what?”
Temakwei fidgeted. “They did what they must. They wiped out the dishonor in blood.”
* * *
David and Heyndrick watched Temakwei jump off the Eikhoorn, and swim back to shore. They couldn’t see any other Indians, but they knew there had to be some there.
“So much blood spilled, over a stupid piece of tin,” David said. “I hesitate to waste more.”
Heyndrick protested. “But surely you can’t let the Indians think that they can get away with pillaging our colonies.”
“That’s true. But we could go on playing tit-for-tat indefinitely. Like Italian families with a vendetta. And we aren’t going to make a profit that way.
“So we need to be conciliatory, but at the same time, show we are strong. Temakwei is carrying our message to the chiefs. When they come, we will give them a demonstration of the power of our cannon, it will seem pretty strong magic to them, I think. Then we will offer them presents, propose a peace pact, and pass around the pipe.”
Heyndrick looked skeptical. “You think that will solve everything?”
“No. We must forgive, but not forget. We must be friendly, but always on guard. They will trade with the strong, but prey upon the weak.
“In which regard, to be blunt, they aren’t very different from us.”
Grantville, Winter Break, 1632
Maria had actually welcomed the coming of winter. It gave her the chance to catch up on her pleasure reading. In particular, she was finally able to tackle Elva’s book on woman artists.
Her friend Prudentia’s mother, Artemisia, was in it, of course. And Maria was pleased to see that the book mentioned the work of Clara Peeters, a Flemish still-life specialist, and Judith Leyster, the portraitist and genre painter from Haarlem.