Rebecca watched Matoaka as she told the story of the defeat of the 6000. The horror of the battle showed on her face, deep lines and a frown that furrowed her entire forehead and made her look very old. Rebecca did not say a word when Mat talked about Big Bear the Phantom of the Mohawk. She saw no reason to tell Mato that he was in Paris with her daughter and the Buerer family had agreed to spend a small fortune to support the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation. Then when she talked of her son Little Wolf, her face lit up and she looked like a young girl. But that changed quickly to a sullen mood and she quit talking altogether. Rebecca assumed it was bad news and changed the subject in an attempt to allow Mato relief from her memories.

     The subject changed to King George II, and how he was as bad as his father, George I, just another German King that didn’t care about England, much less the colonies. Mato didn’t respond so eventually they back to the house and nothing else was said that day or any other for that matter. Mato returned to the mysterious woman she was before she talked about her past. She was still Rebecca’s companion but no further word about her tribe or her son.

     Rebecca told Hans that night about Matoaka and her early life as a princess-warrior, but he seemed distant. Hans was still not talking about what was bothering him and Seabreeze wasn’t going to push him to do so.  She figured when he was ready he would tell her what was going on.

     The society functions were year round and Rebecca continued to go even though Hans had quit going some time ago. It was at one of the charity balls that Benjamin Franklin came up to her and asked if she would be interested in becoming an editor for his new publication the Pennsylvania Gazette. She knew who he was from her husband’s friends. That night she told Hans of Franklin’s offer. Hans didn’t say much so she decided to take the position if she could work at home for half the time. She went back to Franklin to tell him she would take the position. From all the reading she had done, the early exploration and early settlements were of particular interest to her. She proposed to him a series on the early arrivals of Europeans in the colonies. He agreed.

     Highlights of her series started with Juan Ponce de Leon’s search for Bimini where there was gold and the magical Fountain of Youth. He failed to find either. He returned in 1521, the Calusa Indians were less welcoming as he built a small colony on the west coast of Florida. Within a few months the Indians attacked the colony, killed many Spanish including Ponce de Leon and drove the rest away. She began with Ponce de Leon because Columbus never reached the shores of North America. Next came Hernando de Soto, who traveled extensively throughout the southeast and was welcomed by the Native peoples initially but changed when he began to enslave the Indians in 1539.

     It was almost 30 years later in 1564 the French built Fort Caroline, Florida. The Spanish settled St. Augustine, Florida one year later. And in 1607 the English founded Jamestown, Virginia. The Indians welcomed the foreigners mostly for the trade that came with them like metal tools and firearms which they thought they could use to defeat their Indian enemies.

     Because the Native population had no built in immunities to diseases, in some parts of the southeast 9 out of10 Indians died from measles to chicken pox. Alcohol was also introduced and after 200 years of European influence the history and traditions of the native population was well along the road to be destroyed.

      The information in her articles was not new, nor of any real concern to people in Philadelphia. The response from the readership was minimal. Rebecca became discouraged from writing any more articles. She voiced her concerns to Franklin but he said that she should try another series before giving up. She thought long and hard about a series and decided to pick up where Ben had left off with Silence Dogood. Six years earlier Ben had used the Non de Plume of the fictional widow Silence Dogood to tell of the mistreatment of women in society and had been wildly successful in Boston for his brother James’ newspaper The New England Courant. Being the first newspaper in Boston gave James a great position to state his views, which included being against inoculations against small pox, believing they only made a person sicker. Because James made fun of the prominent Puritan preachers, the Mathers, who supported inoculations, he was thrown into jail for his views. Ben ran the paper in his absence, but was harassed and beaten by James when released from jail out of jealousy. When she asked Ben permission to revive the Silence Dogood character, Ben thought it would cause too many problems with his brother and denied the request. Then she asked if she could tell the readers his life story and he said she could, but only if she didn’t put the readers to sleep while doing so. They both laughed but she was never sure if he meant that his life was boring or if he was giving her permission to spice up the facts to entertain the readers.

     The story she told began with his birth January 17, 1706 as the tenth son of a soap maker Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger, his second wife. Josiah intended Ben to become a clergy, but since he could only afford one year of schooling when clergy required many years of schooling he decided to have him apprentice as a printer like his brother James. Ben loved to read and helped his brother compose pamphlets and set type, a grueling job. By 12 he was selling their products on the Bostonian streets.

     When he ran away from his brother at 17, after repeated beatings, he was breaking the law, since all people were expected to have a place in society. He took a boat to New York where he hoped to find work as a printer, he didn’t. He eventually reached Philadelphia wet, disheveled, and messy and met Deborah Read on October 6, 1723, the woman he would marry seven years later.

     Franklin found work as an apprentice printer and did so well the governor of Pennsylvania promised to set him up in business if he went to London to buy fonts and printing equipment. The governor reneged on his promise and Ben was forced to stay and work in London for several months. Before leaving for London, he had been staying with the Read family and when Deborah began talking of marriage he told her he wasn’t ready. While he was in London she married another man. Upon his return he got work as a printer’s helper and soon borrowed money to start his own business. He worked all the time and soon people in Philadelphia noticed the young Ben and began giving him work, including government jobs.

     At 22, Ben fathered a child named William with an unknown mother, but in 1730 married Deborah Read, whose husband had run off. In addition to the print shop, the Franklins also ran their own store, selling everything from soap to fabric. Ben also ran a book store while managing the other two businesses.

     A year earlier Ben had bought the newspaper Pennsylvania Gazette     which became the most successful in the colonies. He also found time to organize the “Junto” club which later became the American Philosophical Society. Another club he organized was the “Leathern Apron Club” a secret society (non-Masonic) and later printed an article in his paper pretending to reveal Masonic mysteries. When Ben saw the series he smiled and said she could run it over the next three issues.

     As the hours increased and the days got longer, she saw less and less of Hans. He had his own problems with the business and now that the winter was in full force the orders had come to a complete halt. The spring and summer of ‘29 had not brought much by way of new orders and Hans became more and more despondent. The new equipment sat idle much of the time and Hans struggled to think of some other use for the equipment. Unfortunately rock crushing and resurfacing machines are ill adapted to other products. The bank his family had done business with for decades was not in a apposition to refinance the loan. Hans for the first time had to consider selling the business and trying something else for a living. This might be done fairly easily by a man who had tried other lines of work as a younger man but at his age this was an impossible task. The wealth of the family would stay intact as far as accounts and city bonds of Philadelphia and New York, but the cash flow for expenses would be curtailed enough that they may have to find more suitable accommodations to fit the lower revenues. He finally told Rebecca about their financial situation. She was supportive and said he was the man in her life and it didn’t matter to her where they shared their life, then she added her concern about Matoaka as a companion in their new life. He assured her that Mato could stay no matter what happens in the future, it was more the matter of a large estate needed so many people to run effectively and a smaller place back in the city made sense. She had no objection to returning to the city since her editorial job was so demanding of her time and it did take quite a effort to get to the Gazette each day. Hans advertised in New York since he didn’t think he could get much from local businessmen who would know the business climate in Philadelphia. Two months later a man with money from the rum and slave business paid him top dollar for the business, including taking over the loan on the new equipment. Hans’ mood picked up considerably with the sale and was a most agreeable man.  

     Seabreeze kept thinking about the stories Matoaka had told her. The fact that the man that had killed Mato’s father and husband was now protecting her daughter in Paris and hopefully Mato will never find out. Rebecca feared that Mato would be honor bound to avenge her father’s death. Big Bear’s father Great Bear was brother to the Bear Clan chief Hiawatha an inherited name/title passed down through the families from the middle of the 15^th century.

     The other thing that kept coming to mind was the fact the Iroquois Nations could control such a vast area of land so effectively. She went to the Jesuit father in Philadelphia and asked how the Iroquois Confederation could do such a thing. He told her the story of Hiawatha the statesman, peacemaker, and co-founder of the Iroquois League. After hearing the story she asked Franklin if she could do a multi-part series on Hiawatha. He asked her what would be the interest from the readership in such a series. She said it would show how the regard of Englishmen for their Magna Charta and Bill of Rights seems weak in comparison with the intense gratitude and reverence of the Five Nations for the “Great Peace” which Hiawatha and his colleagues established for them. He countered with the argument that such a statement would have to be substantiated with facts not just the proposition that such is true. Rebecca said that if he allowed ample space over many issues, she would include key sections of the Iroquois “Book of Rites”, sometimes called the “Book of the Condoling Council”, that contain speeches, songs, ceremonies, and records of the proceedings. This book would show that instead of a race of rude and ferocious warriors, we find a kindly and affectionate people, full of sympathy for their friends in distress, considerate to their women, tender to their children, anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound reverence for their constitution and its authors. This shows the fact that these Indians have presented themselves to the outside world in a deceptive and factitious manner. The ferocity, craft, and cruelty, which have been deemed their leading traits, have been merely the natural accompaniments of wars of self-preservation, when war is a struggle for national existence, common to all races. Ben looked at her with a new eye to her potential as a stateswoman and spokesperson for the colonies in the inevitable upcoming conflict. Then after some time he told her she could have two columns, second page and no more than one column on the back page to finish. She was surprised with his generosity. He seldom allowed so much space for any articles, even his editorials.

     When the first Europeans arrived, the land occupied by the Five Nations was in the same condition it was in the Stone Age. Ancient Iroquois towns will have implements of flint and bone, ornaments of shells, and fragments of rude pottery.  The Iroquois confederacy dates from around 1450. The Mohawks were the original tribe, from which all the others were offshoots. Although they were occasionally at war with one another, they were constantly at war with the fierce Algonquins, Lenni Lenape, who surrounded them. They also had to withstand attacks from more distant tribes; Hurons, Cherokees, and Dakotas. Yet they were not peculiarly a warlike people.  They had large and strongly palisaded towns, well-cultivated fields, and substantial houses, sometimes a hundred feet long, in which many kindred families dwelt together. Seabreeze thought of the first time she saw Big Bear and how the sun dimmed somewhat as he appeared. She couldn’t imagine him tending the well-cultivated fields. 

     At this time, there were two great dangers, one from without, the other from within. The Mohegans, or Mohicans, a powerful Algonquin tribe, whose settlements stretched along the Hudson River, south of the Mohawks, and extending to New England, waged a desperate war against them. The Mohawks and the Oneidas were the most easterly of the five tribes and bore the brunt of the fighting. The most westerly tribes, the Senecas and the Cayugas had the middle tribe to contend with, the Onondagas with its war chief Atotarho, or Wataotahlo, or Tododaho, a remorseless tyrant. Any chief that opposed him was taken off by secret means or had to hide in another village to survive. Atoarho means “entangled” and legend soon had him with his head adorned with living snakes.

     There was another Onondagas chief at that time, Hiawatha, or Hayonwatha, or Ayongwhata, or Taoungwatha, “he who seeks the wampum belt”. He had been grieved by the evil he saw in the many wars between the tribes and after much deliberation, had elaborated in his mind the scheme of a vast confederation which would ensure universal peace. Although the idea was not new, it had unique aspects. The first was a permanent government of a federal senate and secondly that it not be limited in that all tribes of men could join. The avowed purpose was to abolish all wars.

     Hiawatha started with his own tribe but Atotarho would have nothing to do with it and broke up both attempts to form a counsel to discuss the plan. Hiawatha covered himself with skins and stayed alone for some time, after which he got up and left the village leaving the smiling Atotarho to watch what appeared to be a voluntary exile. He plunged into a forest, climbed a mountain, and floated down the Mohawk River, a flight that is likened to Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina by votaries of Islam. Although small, white shells strung in necklaces was not new, their use to signify peace was. So Hiawatha is given credit for inventing “wampum”.

     Early one morning he arrived at a Mohawk town of the chief Dekanawidah, son of an Onondaga father and a Mohawk mother. He was not the leading chief. That position was held by Tekarihoken, or Tecarihoga. He sat himself down on a fallen log close to where the tribe drew their water. When told of a man with with shells all over his chest Dekanawidah sent for “the guest”. The men were kindred spirits and soon word was sent to the Oneidas who said they would think on it for one day, the Indians used one day to signify one year. The Oneidas chief Odatshehte, “the quiver-bearer”, returned a year later in agreement. The Cayugan chief Akahenyonk, “the wary spy” joined for another attempt to convince Atotarho to join and finally by assuring him of absolute veto power over all decisions, he consented. Now firmly in power Atotarho was anxious to extend the confederacy to include the Seneca tribes to the west. Overcoming the initia suspicion for the Onondagas after years of war, the two chiefs, Kanyadariyo, “beautiful lake” and Shadekaronyes, “the equal skies” joined the league.

     The first members of the counsel were selected by convention but replacements were chosen by a method that had female suffrage as the determining factor. When a chief died his successor could be any descendent of the late chief’s mother or grandmother – his brother, his cousin, or his nephew – but never his son. The new chief inherited the name of his predecessor. In this respect the resemblance of the Great Council to the English House of Peers is striking. Dekanawidah alone refused to have his name passed down since he was the founder of the league and in that sense no other man could do that again. Although Hiawatha had conceived of the league, it was Dekanawidah that made it a reality by personally driving through the structure of the Grand Council.

     The hereditary enemies of the Iroquois, the Cherokees, never joined the league, probably out of suspicion. Limited success was achieved with the western Algonquins. A strict alliance that lasted many years was formed with the far-spread Ojibways, although the Huron defeat unraveled it somewhat. The Tuscaroras, expelled by the English from North Carolina, took refuge with the Iroquois. The Tuteloes and Saponies, of Dakota stock, after many wars found comfort with the Iroquois. Many fragments of the Algonquin lineage – Delaware (Lenni Lenapes), Nanticokes, Mohicans, and Mississagas found refuge in the league.

     The legend of Hiawatha over the years became intermingled with stories of Onondagas and Ojibway deities that had wild adventures. One story was when Hiawatha descended from the heavens in a white canoe which reminds one of the labors of Hercules. He stayed on earth long enough to have a varied series of adventures then established the confederacy and bestowing many prudent counsels upon the people, then ascending into the skies the way he came. He also became an Ojibways demigod, son of the West Wind, and companion of the tricky Paupukkeewis, the boastful Iago, and the strong Kwasind. In the end he was improperly identified with the Iroquois deity Aronhiawagon and the Manabozho, the fantastic divinity of the Ojibways.

   The reception of the articles from the Gazette readers was very favorable, allowing her more freedom in the choices of material for future articles. Ben was pleased with his choice of editor, and went out of his way to encourage her to experiment with unusual topics and misunderstood concepts. Her work was turning out to be critical in the success of the paper and driving the circulation to new levels with subscriptions coming in from other colonies. Her work was all consuming as she searched records of any source she could find. Many private libraries were made available to her through her friends in Philadelphian society and the vast library of the Jesuits. Her appetite for knowledge, although always healthy in the past, became a demon in her life, ruling her every waking moment. This took its toll on her marriage, particularly since Hans had a new found freedom of time and no particular interests as of yet to consume these new hours in the day. Each time he asked her to go somewhere or do something with him, if she did hear him from the thoughts running around in her mind, she would say something at least vaguely related to the subject but non-committal in nature. Eventually he quit asking her to join him.   

TO BE CONTINUED

Supper was at eight as usual and Hans seemed far away in his thoughts. He was becoming more that way over the last few months and Rebecca thought it was the business. The summer had been busy with the construction that went on after the riots. Hans had something in July that he had to invest in more equipment to meet the demand or else the orders would go to other companies in New York and New Jersey. Hans detested debt and it weighed heavily on him. Fall was here and most of the contracts had been delivered without losing but a couple of orders to other colonies. Hans retired to his study right after supper, leaving Seabreeze to her reading in the parlor.

Mato came in the parlor with a hug for her and a smile that told Rebecca it was time for the story to continue. The two women made themselves comfortable on the divan and Mato picked up where she had left off the night before.

The birds were chirping their loudest when Matoaka woke after passing out chasing the sounds of battle in the distance. But now there were no battle cries in the distance, everything seemed strangely normal. The blood-soaked bandage around her head felt tight and was dry and stiff to the touch. Looking around she saw nothing unusual, absolutely no signs of warfare could be seen. She stood up and felt faint instantly, sitting back down quickly she steadied herself. The battle the day before replayed in her mind as tears came to her eyes. The tears were for the boy that would not see his right of passage if he had made it to 12, her husband she had waited her whole life to meet, a father who deserved a quiet old age, a brother and his wife with three children in the caves, even Two Hands Climbing deserved to live a full life. She didn’t know the others but they fought like true heroes and some of her tears were of pride for knowing each member of the group no matter how little.

After some time she got up and continued toward the village of her birth. The closer she got, the slower she walked. She dreaded what was up ahead and wished she could just turn and walk away. Then a body up ahead on the ground told her she was getting close to finding out the fate of her people. She was shaking from anticipation. Then two more bodies were staring at the sky, then several more. There was suddenly the smell of a campfire, complete with fish cooking. Mato assumed it was the Mohawk or Seneca having breakfast among the bodies of her tribe. She instantly became filled with rage and decided to join her father and husband. She charged ahead at full run with a hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other. Her battle cry was as blood curdling as any brave’s, only higher pitched.

As she ran around a clump of heavy brush, fully expecting to face many Mohawk braves, she stopped dead in her tracks. Before her were thousands of bodies steaming in the morning sun. Most were in piles taller than a man’s arm could reach. The smell of blood hung in her nose like a bad perfume. She looked around and recognized many of the men that were working the piles. There were no Mohawks in sight, or Senecas either. Mato seemed confused. There were men looking at her but only because she was a woman, not because she had just been screaming her way around the bushes.

She sat down on a log and stared at one particular pile when a young brave walked up. She recognized him as from the village. He told her what had happened. The outer groups had been very effective in disrupting the charge of the Iroquois. Instead of a mass of men hitting at once a hundred yards wide row of braves, they entered the grove in much smaller groups. Most bands of warriors were under a hundred, so the gunfire was extremely deadly and with little or no casualties they were slaughtered in piles. This went on for hours as somehow the tribe had finished off one band completely before the next entered the grove. Arrows were used as sparingly as buck shot since no one knew how long the battle would last or how many were coming. A hope arose in the women and children as band after band was disposed of. As the bodies piled up it became harder to see the enemy and those on the ground began to rely on those in the trees to point where isolated bands of enemy were hiding or forming for countercharges. Then the death of the outer groups began to allow heavier fighting in the grove. There was a point where there were thousands of enemy warriors shooting arrows and bullets at those in the trees who were reigning down death with thousands of arrows having the firearms totally spent in previous battles. For four hours it would have been impossible for a bird to fly inside the grove without getting hit by an arrow. Even when it became obvious that The Iroquois were going to die to the last man they still fought on. Their pride would not allow them to leave the battle. Death was preferable to saving their life and they knew they wound not be welcomed back in their villages after word of how many died got out. There were suicidal attacks where they were out in the open, not even attempting to hide from the shower of arrows raining down on them. Frustration from not being able to get to those in the trees further spurred their ill-advised actions.

There were no tales of slaughter at this magnitude in the history of any of the tribes as men flung their arms wide and defied death standing on the top of dozens of the dead. It took the rest of the day to grant death to each and every warrior. None wanted to live after such a defeat. All survivors would be cowards in the eyes of their elders. As darkness fell, the last arrow sunk deep into the last chest of the last Iroquois warrior. An eerie silence fell over the grove and a chant like no other called out to the spirits of the dead, consoling them in their hour of need. The grove had a slight glow as thousands of whispers of light ascended into the heavens of friend and foe alike.

No fires were lit that night as the wounded and the unscathed clung to each other in the darkness. No songs of glory were sung, no talk of bravery was heard, no cries of the wounded from the pain, no sobs of sorrow for the fallen, only the haunting silence of anguish and shock. None of the survivors thought to go get the women and children from the caves and all spent the night thinking about what had happened that day.

As he finished describing the day before, there were the first of the village getting back from a night in the caves. Those who lost father, mothers and siblings broke out crying for their loss. Still, none that were in the grove cried with them. Mato saw Koweenasee in the distance and ran to her. They embraced and began to tell their stories. Kowee said she could only find seven of the 200 braves that had come to defend the Lenape, most had died in the 10-man groups in the outer formations. She had been in the trees and told of the suicides at the end and how she had to force herself to pull back the bow string knowing he wasn’t going to move to try to evade the shot. In the end she could barely see the braves to kill them from the tears in her eyes making everything blurry.

When it was Mato’s turn she told the stand her father and husband made against the Phantom of the Mohawk and the boy that never missed a shot. She told Kowee of her pride of the group and how the Shawnee warriors kept the Mohawk off the boy for so long. How they seemed to fly through the air and stop arrows and hatchets in mid air. She had never seen that kind of skill before and that the Shawnee made the body count what it ended up by allowing the boy to do what he did best. Then there was her attempt to get back into the battle and her inability to do so.

The two women sat next to each other for comfort. The piles of warriors standing high in the morning sun. Between piles they could see still more piles and between those more still. A forest of dead men, dense and going on for what seemed like forever, lay on the ground. Not all of the Shawnee and Lenape were found in the grove or out in the outer areas but those that were found were given burial ceremonies of honor, befitting any warrior that had died to protect the tribe. Each was lifted up onto a bed ten feet in the air on poles and have their weapons placed on their chests, along with any personal necklaces or belongings that could be identified as theirs. Then when darkness fell these beds were lit and songs of the elders were sung as the warrior’s body went up in flame.

There wasn’t enough people left to afford the Iroquois the same ceremonies, but leaving the bodies for the carrions was not an option. The second night, after all the Lenape and Shawnee were sent on their way to their ancestors, the Iroquois were spent to theirs as well. All the belongings that were not weapons that could be found were gathered up and several men were assigned the task of bringing them back to the Iroquois villages that were the closest to the grove. They were instructed to tell of the valor and honor that their warriors showed in battle and the Lenape Nation extended their sorrow for their loss. An offer of peace between the two federations was offered in honor of the fallen on both sides. The height of the flames went to the tops of the trees in the grove and quiet watchers bowed their heads, honoring the warriors at the end that could have exacted a heavy price if they had chosen to fight to the death taking as many women and children as they could.

Three days later Kowee and the seven braves left the grove for home and vowed an eternal bond with the Minisinks that their children’s children’s children would honor.

The grove was set aside as a sacred place and markers were placed in a circle around it to show that here something beyond the normal happened and would never happen again. Neither grass nor weeds nor trees grew in the grove again for 8213 days, the number of men, women, and children, counting both sides, that died that horrible day in August, 1716.

Rebecca could hardly see Mato even though she was sitting right next to her on the divan. Her heart was so heavy she could hardly breathe. Mato turned to her and offered a hand to hold. Mato said there were no songs of bravery, no songs of victory, nothing was ever mentioned of that day by any Lenni Lenape or Shawnee. The Aquanuschioni spoke of the loss very seldom and when they did it was called the defeat of the 6000.

Rebecca asked what happened to the Phantom of the Mohawk. Mato looked for his body most of the time between getting to village and the burning two days later. She never saw a body big enough to be his in the piles. No one in the grove had seen him and she was sure they would remember such a warrior if they saw him.

When the snows came that winter Matoaka was with child, a gift from the gods to Mato upon the loss of her beloved husband. She was grateful to have a part of Running Wolf still with her. She decided to call the child Little Wolf if it was a boy or Little Dove if a girl.

The battle had taken almost all of the men of the village. The solution was to have the remaining braves to assume responsibility of the women now without mates. Bird in Sky, who had once hoped to ask her father for permission to marry Matoaka spoke out at the counsel fire that he would look after Matoaka. The other braves laughed and Mato, who had earned the right to sit at the counsel after putting an arrow in the Phantom of the Mohawks, said she would decide which man she shared lodging with. The braves laughed again and slapped each other and pretending to be Mato fighting off Bird in Sky late at night. Bird in Sky stood up and left the fire from embarrassment which of course started the laughing up all over again. Mato then announced she accepts Bird in Sky as protector and father to her child. The laughing stopped and the counsel went on to discuss other matters.

That night when the fires were only coals, Mato made her way to Bird in Sky’s teepee and made her bed in the far side away from the children and Lonely Feather, his wife. Lonely Feather smiled when she heard Mato come in, she knew that her man could now hold his head up high in the village and it enhanced her status in the tribe as well with a princess in their lodging. Lonely Feather had been friends with Matoaka when they were little, but Mato’s training took up the whole day and they drifted apart. Now it would be good to have a friend again. The two women spent much of their day preparing food the few remaining braves brought back from hunting trips in their freshly defended territory. There were two children a nine year old boy, Hawkeye and Fawnnose a beautiful three year old. Mato began to teach Hawkeye the skills her father had taught her. Bird in Sky had already shown him many of the kinds of things he would need as a man in the village, especially hunting and trapping skills. Mato, though had different skills she wanted to teach, those of war. Hawkeye had tried to stay behind and fight from the trees but his bow skills were not enough to allow that. So he was especially interested in learning the bow. There were no legends from the battle but quietly in places where no one could hear, the story of the ten year old killing over a hundred Mohawk was told to young boys. Later the story would turn into a boy of five that killed 500 men and how he had to make arrows in the end from the small bones of the fallen when the piles of the dead reached the sky. For generations boys wanted bow skills because shooting arrows was faster than reloading guns, therefore a brave could kill many more of the enemy. Mato showed how to adjust for distance and wind and movement of the target. Hawkeye was a motivated student and spent hours by himself practicing the art of leading the target.

Spring came and went. Summer arrived and so did Little Wolf. Mato was so proud of her little man child. He had the bloodlines, since she had no brother, to be a chief when he got older.

TO BE CONTINUED

     The hatchet hung in the air as if it had a will of its own. The brave flexed his muscular chest and his arm muscles rippled down from his wrists. Running Wolf braced himself for what appeared to be his fate when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. By the time he could make out what it was, she was on top of him. A young girl in her teens had thrown herself on top of him and asked the counsel to spare his life, that she would take him as a husband and he would accepted into the tribe as their own. Running Wolf lay there breathless as the decision from the counsel hung in the air like the blade of the hatchet. Both were suspended in time as men talked around the flames of the fire.

     Finally, the chief called out to the brave and the blade came down swiftly and sliced through the leather ties that held him so tightly in place. Just a couple inches from the ends of his fingers the blade came allowing the released hands and arms to spring up and over the young girl on top of him. The emotional release of being allowed to live was matched by the tears of joy that fell from her eyes onto his face. For the first time he was able to see his soon to be bride and a beautiful one at that. She quickly cut the ties that bound his feet and then they joined the circle of the counsel. For the first time there were smiles and some laughing around the fire as Matoaka sat so close to him, he could only move his right arm as the left was mashed against his side by her body.

     Eventually, men left the fire and the chief handed him a knife with an engraved handle, pictorially recounting the story of their family for the past five generations. There was still space enough for Running Wolf name and several children’s names. He thought it was an unusual gift to give a man the chief didn’t even know before that night. The chief said his daughter would make a good woman to have at his side and reached over and embraced Running Wolf with both arms interlocked. Going from almost dead to being hugged by the chief as a son was more than Running Wolf had ever expected to happen in his life in a single hour and broke down emotionally when he returned the chief’s embrace. It was a spent and emotionally drained brave that Matoaka lead to her teepee that night. They lay awake all night talking of their future together and holding each other.

     When morning came, he lay beside her, looking at her young face as she slept. There were no lines of care on her face, as a chief’s daughter she was not expected to fulfill the drudgery work of the other women in the tribe. When she woke she got up and brought him to a place in the forest that had been where her father trained her to take over leadership of the tribe when he dies. As she landed arrows on top of arrows in the target of leather spiked into a tree she told him of her people.

     She went on to tell of the Lenni Lenape nation being divided into three main parts – the Unamis or Turtle tribes, the Unalachtgos or Turkeys, and the Monseys or Wolf tribes. The first two were on the coast and known as Delaware. The Monseys or Wolf tribes were the most active and warlike and lived in the mountainous country between the Kittatinny Mountain and the sources of the Susquehanna and the Delaware Rivers. They kindled their counsel-fire at the Minisink flats on the Delaware above the water gap.

     The tribes of the Lenape that settled Pennsylvania were Assunpink or Stony Creek Indians, the Rankokas, the Lamikas or Chichequaas, the Andastakas at Christina Creek near Wilmington, the Neshaminies in Bucks county, Shackamaxons around Kensington, the Mantas or Frogs around Burlinton, Tuteloes and the Nanticokes in Maryland and Virginia, the Mandes and Narriticongs near Raritan, the Capitanasses, Gacheos and Pomptobs in New Jersey and her tribe the Monseys or Minisinks in near the forks of the Delaware they called the Wolf tribe. She told him the great sun god had lead him to her to be her chief when her father died, she knew a woman could not lead the war tribe of wolves against the Mengue or Mingoes.

     She went on to tell him of a few scattered clans or warlike hordes of Mingoes and lived among the Lenape nation. Originally known as the Five Nations they joined later by Tuscoras and became the Six Nations in 1712. They call themselves Aquanuschioni or United People. The French call them Iroquois, and we call them Mengue or Mingoes. The original Five Nations were the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, the Senecas, and the Mohawks.  

     Seabreeze sat up at the mention of Mohawk. Mato looked at her as if to ask why after hearing hours of stories was the name Mohawk of significance. Rebecca didn’t say anything just sat there looking off into the distance the image of her sweet daughter clearly in her mind. It was getting dark and most of the food they had brought out with them was gone – certainly the wine was long gone. Seabreeze said they should go in and check that everything is going as it’s supposed to. There were the usual questions of what was to be done with various problems that had arisen while they were out.

     After dinner, they down by the fireplace to continue until Mato or Rebecca got too tired to continue. Of these scattered hordes, Mohawk were the first rank of war chief, the Onondagas were the civil chief, and the Senecas in numbers and military strength were the most powerful. The Iroquois were strong and brave, but ferocious and cruel when excited in savage warfare. By an early alliance with the Dutch the Iroquois were able to not only repel encroachments of the French, but also to exterminate or reduce to vassalage, many Indian nations which they exacted an annual tribute. This tribute was already being paid by tribes in the Ohio valley, Vermont, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. When this was told to Running Wolf he asked if Blackfoot were one of the tribes paying tribute to the Iroquois in Ontario region. No one seemed to know, but the Mohawk were the tribe that the Monseys were most likely to meet in battle when attacked. The Delaware were attacked more often along the coast by Senecas and Mohawk tribes in an attempt to gain waterway access. The Minisinks (Monseys) had formed an alliance with the Shawanos, or Shawanees, a restless and ferocious tribe that had been threatened with extermination by a more powerful tribe at their south. They had been allowed protection of the Lenni Lenapes and allowed to settle near the Forks of the Delaware.

     Mato had formed a friendship with Koweenasee, a Shawanee princess and the two tribes banded together to fight off the attacks of Seneca attempts to take the territory for their own. Although the Shawnee were of great advantage when fighting the Iroquois they were so fearsome that trouble developed between their two tribes. Koweenasee and Matoaka were able to smooth out the problems for several months before finally the Lenni Lenape nation together moved the Shawnee to the Susquehanna valley.

     The wedding was two days after his life was saved. The ceremony was quite formal with songs and dancing. The part where the groom would present the bride’s father horses or other goods of value was when Running Wolf presented the amulet of the Golden Calf of Baal he carried since he was a baby. Matoaka’s father took it in a solemn fashion and dropped the necklace over his head and embraced him as a son. “Runs faster than deer” became his tribal name that day and late into the night the celebration continued. They finally slipped into the night to begin their lives together.

     “Runs faster than deer” was a welcome addition to fight with the tribe which was constantly warding off the attacks of Mohawk braves, they were desperate to avoid being called women by the Iroquois. Other tribes of Lenape had succumbed to the Iroquois and were paying tribute. These tribes had convinced the white men that they had given up weapons of war by mutual agreement and had become the negotiators of all the Indian tribes. This function was usually performed by women in the Lenape nation. The Delaware, therefore, alleged that they were figuratively termed women on this account; but the Iroquois evidently called them women in quite another sense. The Iroquois always alleged that Delaware along the coast were conquered by force and were humiliated into this concession to avoid certain destruction. The mountain Minisinks were another matter all together. They fought to keep their region as their own for years after the coastal Lenni Lenape were subjugated to the Iroquois, thanks initially to the ferocious Shawnee alliance.

     Matoaka had great pride in her tribe and she was eager for him to join in the defense of their village. Her and one other, an older woman who had always been good at manly activities, were on the line when the Mohawk attacked. She killed seven Mohawk braves and at least wounded several others. It was hard to know if a brave died from and arrow in his chest or back. She even put an arrow into the Phantom of the Mohawk, a giant ten feet tall with a hatchet taller than any man that flew down out of the sky and killed braves that stood to fight. She heard the Phantom long before she saw him in flight. The war cry was that of the hawk only much louder and with a curdle that had a tendency to freeze one in their tracks where they stood. He was called Big Bear and tribes through out the northeast told tales of a ghost or phantom that could not die but was very capable of killing others. By the time she saw it the head of one of the tribe’s best fighters was flying through the air and landed at her feet. She took a big breath, pulled back the string to her bow all the way back which she seldom could do normally, because her father had crafted it before she was born and it was made for a powerful buck with huge arms and iron fists. The arrow ran true and sunk deep into the right side of the “beast-man”. Big Bear looked down at the arrow half buried in his chest, then looked into her eyes and held her gaze for what seemed like a day. His eyes had no light or sparkle, no sign of life whatsoever, and the trance she felt trapped inside made moving impossible. He turned to his left to deal a blow to another brave victim from the village, then he disappeared as fast as he had appeared earlier. With him gone she was able to move again and ran over to the brave on the ground. His chest opened up like a dropped watermelon all exposed and red and watery. She held him close and sang a song of his bravery to actually stand before the “beast” without cowering, while attempting to deliver a blow with his knife. The song seemed to quiet him and give some peace, knowing it would get sung to his children and their children for generations to come.

     Back at the tribal fire, that night, the talk was of Matoaka and how she buried an arrow into Big Bear in the heat of battle. No one from the tribe had managed to do anything up to that point except die at Bear’s hands. There was hope and much excitement. Her father “Mountain Buck” was so proud he could hardly sit down around the circle and kept standing up and singing praise to the gods for their small victory. She was given a permanent place at the fire that night and the hope of her leading the tribe almost seemed possible. Word spread of the Minisink princess and her courage against the most feared warrior that ever lived. In the next two weeks dozens of braves and their families began moving in the area from the Unamis and Unalachtgos coastal Delaware seeking to regain their manhood. They also wanted to die and have songs sung to their descendants about how they stood against the mighty Mohawk and killed many before finally being overrun by dozens of raging Mohawks with the Phantom at their lead. These dreams of glory stirred a weary tribe from years of defeats into a robust, bustling community of proud warriors. “Runs faster than deer” felt proud of his new wife and other braves accorded him honor for having gained her favor.

     Several months went by with no attacks from either Senecas or Mohawks. There was a sense that everything will be good for the huge thriving village. “Mountain Buck” reigned over the community with the wisdom of the Elders in true Lenape fashion and all followed his lead. The only exception was “Two Hands Climbing” a brave that had by far the most scalps on his teepee and was stronger than any brave, including the newest  ones from the other tribes. He thought it was time for a new chief to be selected that could lead in the battles in ensure the success of the tribe for many years to come. He didn’t bring it up while sitting in the fire circle, because tradition forbade such a thing. But in small groups out of ear shot with the wilder braves or on hunting parties he would say these things. When Matoaka’s name came up, he would curse and say he would be willing to fight to the death to decide the matter.

     Springtime came, and with the promise of new life in the world, also came the Mohawk. The Iroquois had started to run out of tribes to conquer throughout their territory of thousands of square miles and finally felt it was time to bury the Minisinks, who by that time were considered equals to the Mohawks. The Iroquois counsel decided that Minisinks would be exterminated to prove they were not equals to the mighty Iroquois nation and that their women and children were to be taken and made to be part of the Mohawk tribe in particular since they had lost the most braves to the Monseys.

      In 1916, after only a year of marriage, Running Wolf stood with his new found brothers and fought a war party of 6000 braves, the largest war party in history made up of all six nations, including the Tuscoras. Runners from various tribes of other nations came to “Mountain Buck” and told of a force so large it took half a day for them to run by a point in the forest. With only 600 braves the Minisinks would die for sure. Over two thousand old men, women, and children were lead off into the Kittatinny range to hide in the caves that only a few knew of, where water and food was quickly stored. Already songs were being sung of the last 600 men of honor that faced 10 times their number in the last stand of the last brave men. Women cried and children clung to their fathers, desperately holding on to the men till the last possible moment before being drug to the caves by the old men that couldn’t survive even the slightest knife attack.

     The long file of women and children wound up into the hills from the village. But there were women that broke away from the column and the old men couldn’t hold them back. Boys as young as 10, were pulling out of the line. And some girls as young as 12, were also going back to the village. Braves from the other tribes of the Lenape as well as some women started showing up in the village, as the word about the execution of an entire tribe spread. There was a sense that it would be better to be dead than be turned into breeding mares and child slaves of the Mohawk. The men were emboldened by the bravery of their families and each knew he would fight harder to extend the lives of his loved ones even an hour longer. The emotion in the village was overwhelming as all gathered for the final preparations for the coming battle were given.

     The trees in the center of a giant grove of sycamore trees were used as the center of the defense. Young boys and girls were given high perches and numerous spears and pistols for the very end if it came to that. Lower in the trees were the women with bows and arrows by the dozens and fully loaded rifles with several rounds of ammunition. All these positions were reinforced with hewn boards and woven into dense mats for protection. Extra water and food were stored out of rifle shot if a stand off became a siege. At the foot of the trees were rock walls to hide behind for the braves and women combatants with them. Again, plenty of rifles and bows and arrows to go around were stashed in among the rocks. Out from the outer perimeter, just beyond rifle range were pockets of fighters that would attempt to stop the Iroquois from getting anywhere near the grove of trees. Then a quarter of a mile out were the warriors whose job it was to kill as many of the enemy as possible before death catches up to them, they knew they needed to take at least 20-40 warriors down since there were only 500 of them. A total of 1200 men, 600 women, and 300 boys and girls readied themselves for battle.

     The outer warriors were 50 groups of ten so they could move swiftly if cornered and could come to the aid of other groups if needed to maximize the effect of their attacks. Matoaka’s group included her husband, her father, her brother, his wife, two Shawnee, a turtle, “Two Hands Climbing, and a boy that has never missed a shot with his bow in years. She was happy with the group and thought they would inflict as much death as any when the Iroquois arrived.

     A runner flew by and said they’re here up on the top of the ridge. She strained to see the ridge top but couldn’t see a single warrior. Then the cries of thousands of warriors filled the air. She kept going over in her mind –as many as possible – as many as possible. Every dead warrior meant one less for the children in the trees to have to contend with. She never felt so alive or so vulnerable. Running Wolf leaned over and gave her a kiss to last a lifetime of battles. Birds flew into the air deer and rabbits ran past the group, even porcupines and badgers waddled past in attempt to escape the war cries now almost deafening, even the insects seemed to moving away from the ridge as they streamed over the ground. She ran over to hug her father and stand next to him and her brother when the first wave hits. Running Wolf stood right behind her next to his sister-in-law.

     Suddenly, they were there, a wall of big, barrel-chested braves running at them at full speed with hatchets raised in the air. She watched as the boy let fly with arrow after arrow so quickly it seemed as if a whole band of archers were behind her. As the arrows sunk into the foreheads of the charging braves, they would stumble and fall on their faces and trip the ones right behind causing a disruption of the charge. In the center of the charge several braves were sprawled flat on the ground, this was the point where “Mountain Buck” led the initial charge of the group. Because close combat is when it is easy to wound or kill your own in battle. Firearms were seldom used in close combat. Next to charge the gap was “Two Hands Climbing”, followed by the Turtle. All three were crouching so as to allow the boy to continue to drop men in their wake. The Shawnee dropped back to help the boy hold the ten quivers of arrows that had three dozen arrows each when this started. They were flying back and forth stopping any attempt to kill the boy and at the same time making sure when one quiver was empty the next one was right there for him. Matoaka formed the second line with her husband, her brother and his wife. Second liners job was to finish off the wounded so the boy could keep up the pace with dropping the point of attack. The ferocity of the attackers became so overwhelming at one point the group was forced to pull back several feet and tighten into a smaller wedge. It was difficult to stand on the bloody slope from the pools of blood that had collected during the battle and stepping on dead men caused them to trip repeatedly. The Unimus went down with an arrow in his throat and Mato rushed to his side and sang a song of legend where he had killed a hundred braves before an arrow stopped his war cry. The Turtle smiled and choked from the blood in his throat and died, the smile still on his lips. Running Wolf stepped up and took his place. She was so proud of her choice of husbands. The front was a place of chaos and screams from both sides. There was pushing from behind as Seneca in front were forced forward by others behind them. A pile of men had formed when the group’s progress had halted. “Two Hands Climbing” jumped on top of the pile and leaped into the line of pushers. They were Mohawks the most vicious warriors in the Americas. “Mountain Buck” followed over the pile and as he stood on top of the pile steadying himself for the Mohawk line, an arrow sunk into his thigh, which he broke off and pulled out the shaft from the backside. Running Wolf jumped up beside him and fought three or four Mohawk at once while her father removed the arrow. Just then she slipped and fell and lost sight of both of them.

     When she opened her eyes, she was face to face with a Seneca brave, his eyes staring straight ahead. While she struggled to get to her feet, she heard a terrible sound of an eagle or hawk so loud it caused ringing in her ears. When she looked up she saw the Phantom of the Mohawk in the air above her father with that giant hatchet coming down with terrible force. The other Mohawk braves pulled back several feet so as not to get injured by the raging giant obviously out of his mind in full battle. Running Wolf and Mountain Buck together tried to block the giant hatchet’s fall with a spear and hatchet crossed and braced. When the hatchet made contact both men fell backwards with the blow that was diverted some but not enough to avoid her father losing his forearm at the elbow. He looked down and saw his arm missing and went into a rage countering with a hatchet blow to the Phantom that landed in the fleshy part of the shoulder. The sight of her father’s hatchet in the shoulder of Phantom gave her the energy to leap up beside him and sink her knife into Big Bear’s chest. This felt exhilarating as she war cried out in victory. The backswing of Bear’s hatchet caught her behind the head and everything went black.

     When she woke up she was laying among a pile of dead men. No sounds except the distant screams and cries of men in battle, so distant she could barely hear them. Her body was covered in blood that was sticky by this point, much of it dried altogether. She got up on her knees and looked around her father, brother, husband, sister-in-law, all of the group were dead. She checked each person to make sure. By the time she checked the boy she couldn’t see from the tears in her eyes. She couldn’t find anything to wipe her eyes with that wasn’t soaked in blood. Her head throbbed from the blow she received but it must have been what saved her from death. All the men in her group were scalped but her sister-in-law and her were left alone. The Mohawk would not consider a woman’s scalp worth carrying on their belts. She crawled around to get account of the enemy her group had killed. This would be important in songs that would be sung around fires for many years to come. In the twenty by eighty foot swath the group had cut in the enemy before dying she counted after finishing off several wounded braves two of which almost killed her while she was mopping up the moaning survivors. She used a bow and arrow to finish off the wounded so she wouldn’t have to get close to them and risk a brave sitting up and plunging a knife in her. She waited a hour for another to moan or move, her eyes straining to see the slightest move a finger might make or the eyelash of another. When she was satisfied they were all dead she counted 12 Onondagas, 23 Oneidas, 144 Seneca, and 33 Mohawk. But no Phantom in the piles, those wounds had not stopped the giant at least she and her father had both sunk a weapon in him on his way through the area. She was proud of the count, half or more had arrows in their faces or throats making “Little Waterfall” one of the most famous Minisinks in history with over 110 dead before being killed in battle at the age of 10. 

     She felt the back of her head. A large flap if tissue flopped back and forth. She unwound a belt she found on a Mohawk that wasn’t too dirty and wrapped it around her head tightly. 100 feet away was another group dead with their enemy lying all around them. She stopped for a few minutes to see if any of the group moved or called out. When none did, she estimated how many of the enemy were dead, somewhere between 80-90. She kept going towards the battle cries in the distance. She decided that she was not going to risk death to finish off any more wounded when battle was still being waged in the distance. The sounds seemed to keep moving further away with each step. The ringing in her ears got louder and louder and darkness came as she fell and everything went black.

      Mato quit talking and just sat with tears in her eyes. Seabreeze moved closer to her and put her arm around her. The two women stayed that way for some time before quietly getting up and going to bed without a word spoken between them.     

TO BE CONTINUED

     Rebecca watched Matoaka’s face as she finished telling the story of her people.  Mato looked over at Seabreeze and asked if working for her was the continuation of Ham’s curse that his descendants will serve the descendants of Japheth. Rebecca was surprised by the question. She had never thought of Matoaka as a servant, more like a companion and had insisted on her companionship when leaving the house in Philadelphia. She had had no idea that Mato was a Lenapi princess, but she could tell that there was something unusual about her. Mato always carried herself with poise and serenity no matter what the occasion.

     Seabreeze quietly asked Mato if there had been any men in her life before coming to live with the family. Mato glanced back with tears in her eyes and said there was one young brave from the Blackfeet tribe that she fell in love with when she was only 16 years old. The braves and young boys in her tribe of Delaware were hesitant to approach her father, since none were sons of a chief and the neighboring tribes were at war with hers most of the time, so the Six Nations braves were not in a position to offer marriage. Mato was beautiful and braves would watch her walk by but none would talk or go near her. She spent most of her time with the girls of the village or practicing fighting routines with her father, who had no sons and was concerned that she be able to lead the tribe when he died. This was not the tradition of the Lenapi for a woman to become chief and she would have to defeat the best fighter in the village to become their leader.

     At three, her father told the stories of the Red Record and how she fit into the history of men. She listened for hours without getting tired to all the tales of war and migration and could recite all accounts without adding or leaving out a single fact. At four, he had her run till she’d fall asleep while still running and would eventually run into a tree or bush and collapse to the ground. At five, he had her handle the knife and spear until it became difficult for him to get past her defenses with either weapon. At six it was bow and arrow practice till sunset each day. Then starting at seven and continuing until she was ten her father took her with him everywhere and she was taught the history of their tribe and how to lead a tribe with fairness and honor. By twelve she was ready to lead but had no chance to defeat a warrior of the clan. At seventeen her father died in battle with the Mohawk Bear Clan and there was fighting as to who would lead the tribe. Her husband Running Wolf was not eligible since he was not born in the village. She was not allowed to fight since all three of the braves fighting for chief were over 25 years of age. She could hold her own in bows and arrows and gunfire but could not match their strength in hand to hand battle. When the victor, “Two Hands Climbing” emerged she refused to look at him and stayed to herself for weeks afterward.

     Meanwhile in Alberta, a young boy they call Running Wolf was being taught the ways of the Blackfoot. For 7000 years the Blackfoot used the hill site known as Head-Smashed In for the center of their culture. They were nomadic people who followed the buffalo. It is hard to lead a nomadic lifestyle when there is no place to go. They were hemmed in by other First Nation tribes.

     The Blackfoot Confederacy consisted of four different tribes; the Pikuni/Peigan, the North Peigan Pikuni, the Blood/Kainai and the Blackfoot/Siksika. They had all migrated from the Great Lakes Region. They were nomadic buffalo hunters. Long before they began trading for horses with the Flathead, Kutenai, and the Nez Perce, after being attacked by the Shoshoni, Running Wolf told the tribal counsel that the tribe would need horses if they were to continue following the buffalo herds. They ended up trading hides, horses, and guns with settlers as far away as the east coast. Just before the Sundance Festival, the most important event of the year, Running Wolf set off for the east with nothing more than a knife, a bow, and two dozen of the straightest arrows in the territory. It was spring and he was able to run at least 20 miles a day easily. He had always run without getting winded. As a baby he would kick his legs as if he was running and got his name for doing so.

     As he crossed the various territories of other tribes, he would run at night if there was any moonlight whenever possible. In the day he would allow extra energy for when they would chase him. He stuck to deer trails and other such passages to avoid the main paths, so a lot of branches would slap at his arms and chest and he became immune to the sting of branches. At night if there was no moonlight he would rest under bushes where being stepped on was unlikely. At 21 he was in the prime of his life and took pride in just how fast he could run, changing from paced to frantic to keep a mix going. He would take some risks when jumping, but he had to keep in mind that if he was injured he would be at the mercy of strangers. Mercy was not what many of the tribes were known for in those days. His favorite game was rabbit. He could eat the whole animal and it would not require him carrying any left over after he ate. His meals were cold as not to be seen in the dark. A fire can be seen for miles at night, even a small one. After two months on the run he had lost whatever extra fat a brave might have when living in a village.

     He was not born to a chief or elder in the village, so by the time the eligible women were chosen he was left with only girls 10 years younger and he didn’t feel like waiting till they got older. This was one of the reasons he left his family and tribe at 21 to seek his future in the east. One of the elders had a vision and said to him “Go east young man, go east.” The only extra weight he was to carry later in his adventures was tobacco, the currency of the colonies.

     Each morning he would wait till the sun was visible before setting off if the sun was not visible the night before and he could set a marker of some sort to show due east. He figured he would come out around the middle of the colonies if he kept true east. After three months he was crossing the last range of mountains, later called the Appalachian Mountains. In 90 days he had only been seen 12 times and chased 3 times. Only once did the braves involved get close enough to worry Running Wolf. It was in the Ohio Valley along a great river. Rivers were always a problem since he had no canoe. It was late in the afternoon and hot. He was trotting more than running when he came around a bluff and there swimming in the river were several young braves. They hadn’t been making any noise since they were supposed to be doing chores in the village, not swimming. Normally the sounds of yelling and splashing would have been heard way in advance and Running Wolf would have carefully gone around the group. He changed from trotting to full wind run in half a second. He saw five in the water and three on the bank, two were flat on their backs. Unfortunately one was standing and with Running Wolf going by within 20 feet of the three, The brave standing was able to reach down grab his bow and pull back on an arrow so fast that Running Wolf had to run a zig-zag pattern for fifty feet before he turned the corner of the far end of the bluff overlooking the river. The first of three arrows went over his head as he watched it land then drop into the bushes at the bottom of the bluff. The second was much closer and he heard it whiz by his head on his left just after he zagged right. The third found its mark and sunk into left triceps as he rounded the corner and was gone from sight. He heard a war cry as the brave announced to all he had hit the runner. What came next was the faint sound of war cries as several young and excited braves began the chase.

     He was now running for his life and even people out of shape can run like the wind when it means whether they live or die. Running Wolf was not out of shape in fact since he had been taking it easy all morning had plenty of energy to spare and the adrenaline of the moment gave him too much power at first. He had to mentally slow his pace and concentrate on breathing slower while maintaining a blistering pace that would have any other man winded within 2-3 minutes of the pace. The arrow was sunk deep in the back of his arm so deep he was sure it had lodged in the bone. The first reaction was to stop and deal with the arrow but he resisted the urge and maintained his pace of flying along and over anything he came across. He needed both arms pumping to maintain the flow of his stride developed over months of running so for now the arrow stayed where it was and he concentrated on running even though each stride pulled on the arrow just enough to remind that it was there. As the miles stretched on and on he got the feeling they had given up and turned back but if he guessed wrong he would die, so on he went through the night with the help of a bright moon and clear sky of stars.

     It was now a full day of running and he stopped at the top of a high hill to look back and see if pursuit was still coming after him. As he sat there looking back down the long sloping hill side he thought about his village and how very far away he was. It made him a little sad that he would never go back. Two hours went by and still no braves coming up the hill. He figured they gave up or he was in still another tribes land and they stopped at the border. He then put attention to the arrow in his arm. The wound was red and infected as well as swollen. He twisted the shaft back and forth till he was sure he had lined up the arrow head with the slot of an opening. Then he pulled on the arrow until he felt he had made it past the muscles in the arm.  The fact that he had worked it back towards the surface indicated he had cleared the bone. If it been lodged in the bone it wasn’t any longer. Then with the back corners of the head sticking out of the slightly closed slot he pulled it the rest of the way out. The pain shot through him in a wave of pain that caused a convulsive spasm of nausea and faintness. He closed his eyes and concentrated on being one with nature at that moment not a human in among nature but nature itself. When he opened his eyes he saw a wolf in the distance watching him intently. He wondered if it was real or his mind drawing strength from his name and status in the tribe as a wild animal that was merely passing through the lives of those in the village. When he looked down he saw some fungus that his people used as a poultice. That night he tossed and turned as the infection slowly was drawn up into the fungus.

     The mountains were the highest he had been in, ever, and he struggled to run up hill as he had in the Great Plains. The Eastern side of the ranges of course allowed him the freedom to coast downhill and he made good time, sometimes 40 miles a day. 

     Finally, after months on the run, Running Wolf entered a new territory according to the signs on the trees. Many of the signs seemed familiar as if a tribe of Blackfoot had gone east long before. A half mile into the new area and he felt someone was watching him. This feeling became stronger the further he went. Then he came to a stop. Six braves with bows readied stood around him in a circle and it was obvious that he couldn’t get away without risking death, no matter how fast he could run and dodge arrows. They led him back to their village to present to their chief. The village was very large with several hundred men, women, and children. He noticed right away that he understood them remarkably well and told them he was Blackfoot from the Great Plains. They all got quiet and began talking among themselves about him being a Blackfoot. A young brave about his age came over to say he would be his guide out of the territory when he was ready to leave but he could stay as long as he wanted, even join the tribe and marry if he wanted to.

     The brave’s name was Kowena, “deer man” he did much of the hunting for several families that were related. He led Running Wolf back to his tent and introduced him to his wife and kids. Then the two sat by the fire and Kowena told the history of the tribe Saponi or Tutelo. We are Siouan people and our bloodlines trace back to the Blackfoot Nation. We have traces of blood that go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, New York, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and in Canada in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. As far as anyone knows the Blackfoot nation spread to more areas than any other race of Indians. Tutelo were adopted into the Six Nations tribes of Ontario, Canada. Saponi people are also core blood lines in the forming of the “melungeon” in the entire Appalachia and the “Portugeuse” in the Southern states.

     Kowena asked if Running Wolf would like to go with a war party to South Carolina to join other tribes in destroying the colonists. The South Carolina colonists had been trading captured braves into slavery, in spite of promises not to. They had been doing so since they were established in 1670. The Tuscarora had been run out of the territory in a war 1711-1713, now two years later the colonists wanted to run out all the Indians as well. News had come that the Cherokee who were constantly at war with their neighbors were driving the Shawnee northward out of the Cumberland River region. They were also conducting an on going hereditary war with the Creeks (Muscogee) and started a long war with the Chickasaw. Kowena said the war party would not be going up against the Cherokee and would return after a few weeks. Running Wolf was tempted, but wanted to see the northern territories before he decided where to settled down and raise a family. He had wanted a family for some time but circumstances arose that prevented that from happening.

     Running Wolf, now that he was off the Great Plains, saw the political struggle between France and England. Many tribes preferred the French because the French treated them with respect. The British considered the Indians as an inferior race, for that matter they considered all non-English whites as inferior. This snobbish attitude was noticed by all and created much of the problems experienced by the British.

     Running Wolf looked down at Kowena’s chest and noticed a necklace with a symbol of the cow hanging on it by itself. He had seen the cow on the occasional necklace throughout his life but never thought much of it. This time, he was going to ask. Kowena said it went back to the 14^th century BCE among the ancient Semitic peoples, the descendants of Shem, the oldest of Noah’s sons. Baal means “lord”, “master”, or “owner”. It is commonly thought of as a Canaanite fertility deity. The cult of Baal celebrated his death and resurrection by ceremonies that included human sacrifice and temple prostitution.

     The myth says that after defeating the sea god Yam, and taking possession of numerous cities, Baal announced that he would no longer acknowledge the authority of Mot, “death”, and restricted Mot’s visits to earth to only deserts. In response Mot invited Baal to his abode to taste his fare, mud. Being terrified and unable to avoid the summons, Baal coupled with a calf in order to strengthen himself for the ordeal. Baal’s wife, Anat, with the sun goddess, Shapash’s help brought Baal’s corpse back for burial. She begged Mot to restore Baal to life, and when he refused she ripped him to pieces, scattered him with a “winnowing fan”, burned him in fire, ground him in a mill and strewn his remains in the field. Athtar, the irrigation god, fled his throne. Mot tried again but this time all the gods fought him. Neither Baal nor Mot could gain the victory, so El, the king of gods, intervened and dismissed Mot, leaving Baal in possession of the field.

     This myth relates to the alternation of the seasons. Baal is the god of rain, thunder, and lightning. Baal was the son of El, or Dagon, an obscure deity linked by the Hebrews with the Philistine city of Ashdod. As far apart as Carthage and Palmyra were temples dedicated to Baal-Hammon. Baal, the sun god, was fervently prayed to for the protection of livestock and crops. The cults of Baal spread throughout the Mediterranean world, including the Moabities, Midinities, and the Israelities. In the Bible Baal is also called Berelzebub, or Baalzebub, one of the fallen angels of Satan.

     As Kowena finished the story of the amulet, he thought again of where he had seen the previous cow images. They were typically hanging from medicine men when the people needed rain and at weddings when children were desired. Running Wolf thought about how handy the god of rain fertility and the sun could be in the lives of men. He went back to the teepee that he was assigned and laid down to think on these things and how an ancient god of the Canaanities made it to the Americas over 3000 years later.

     Running Wolf took the time to look over the unattached women in the village, but found none to his liking. He knew he would have to come up with some other reason for his moving on after being invited to join the tribe. He lay quietly, thinking of exactly how he would announce that he would be moving north.

     The next morning he accepts a gift of Baal on its own necklace that he will keep for protection later in his adventure as a symbol of peace and not of war. He thanked the elders of the village for their hospitality and said he would always treat Blackfoot with the same kindness when he found them in his travels. With a polite goodbye, he headed north to Virginia and Maryland.

     Staying close to the Atlantic Ocean, which he found fascinating, he couldn’t see the other side even when he climbed to the top of the highest tree he could find. Once again he stayed away from the villages to help ensure he wouldn’t get caught again. He traveled at night through the Occaneechi, Nottoway,Piedmont, Monacan, and Manahoac lands. The ridges above the shorelines were the easiest to follow in the dark. The way was always visible at night because the reflection of the water was uniform and therefore gave a definite edge to the trial as a far out side border. Also the tribes would not have their villages on the crest of the ridges so far from the water so he was relatively safe to move at some pace short of running. Animal trails were on top of ridges from deer and other animals that used the tops of ridges for the same reason, maximum visibility. By this point Running Wolf was a machine when he moved. No extra effort was used in moving along. All his energy was kept in reserve because he didn’t know when he would have to spurt into a run of miles to escape capture.

     As he made his way up the Delaware coastline, he began to make his way up the west bank of the Delaware River. It was along this stretch of the east coast that Running Wolf began to ask himself where was his destination. In a matter of a month or two he would be in Ontario region back to a tribe of Blackfoot that formed the easternmost part of the Blackfoot nation. It was fall and already the nights were cold. He thought maybe he had gone too far north and maybe he should head south to find a place that had better year-round weather. So he stopped running for the first time in months and spent two days thinking about what he wanted to do. It was this pause in his journey that got him captured again by Monseys, or Minisinks, braves on a deer hunting mission. They brought him back with his hands tied behind him and secured him on two flat rocks near the tribal fire in the center of the village. The chief and the counsel met that night, all of them around the fire with Running Wolf stretched out before them. From his travels he was able to pick up enough Algonquin dialectic phrases to tell his story with sign language to help smooth out the unfamiliar words he used. The counsel listened closely to the tale of a brave running over the entire continent with little or no impedance from local tribes. When he finished his tale the counsel talked for some time, but Running Wolf only understood some of the conversation.

     Then, there was silence as the counsel stopped discussing his fate. He lay there wondering what had been decided. Hopefully his story was one worthy of allowing him to live. Then one of the younger members of the tribe stood up, walked over to a large tree just out of sight of the firelight, and returned with a big hatchet blade mounted on a long pole. Running Wolf felt a wave of nausea rush over his body as his death seemed just seconds away. He closed his eyes, then opened them again in a hurry. It was worse with his eyes closed not knowing when the blade would come down. The brave was short but muscular. His face showed no emotion as he came closer and closer. The hatchet pole held straight up in the air looked like it was twenty feet long, the blade barely perceivable in the starless night. He felt sweat pouring down his forehead and chest as he tried to think of something that would stop the ceremony in its tracks.

     He called out the name Baal, sun god of the Canaanites to save him. The amulet of a cow shined in the light of the fire. In the name of all those that crossed the ice bridge into this land, fleeing Hu the Great in his last days. The brave stopped at the words ice bridge mentioned in the Red Record, a sacred book to the Lenni Lenape nation.  

TO BE CONTINUED

     For many centuries before the Canaanites moved into Palestine (between 3000-2500 B.C.), her ancestors lived in caves outside of a walled city, later to be known as Jericho. They had been there under Babylonian rule since the great flood. After the flood the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham (Chem), and Japheth erected the Tower of Babel in Shinar, but the One God Jehovah struck down the tower and caused all the people to speak in different tongues. Of the three Ham was cursed to have descendants that work for Japheth descendents. Ham’s son Kenaan (Canaan) carried his father’s curse. Kana originally meant low or in the figurative sense, small, humble, despicable, subjected. In the days of trading with Phoenicians the land was called  Kena’ani also Kinahhi, Kinahni, and Kinahna. Egyptian Pharaos had Syrian symbols of an earlier word Kana. Canaan’s sons Sidon, the Hethite, Jebusite, Amorrhite, Gergesite, Hevite, Aracite, Sinite, Aradian, Samarite and the Hamathite and later the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad. The limits of Canaan were from Sidon down to Gaza including Sodom and Gomorrha. The original tribes of Canaan were mixed in Palestine over time through intermarriage between tribes and with Matoaka’s ancestors, eventually coming under the rule of Tothmes III and future Egyptian Pharaos and paid them tribute. The people reverted back to the worship of the pagan gods Baal and Moloch and their goddesses Astarte and Ashera who demanded the sacrifice of new born babies and practices of moral perversion. Later the Phoenician princess Queen Jezebel of Israel returned to these Goddesses. Still later, King Solomon through forced statute labor, subjugated the whole Cannanite population. Thus Canaan had become once and for all the servant of Shem. Afterwards Phoenicia with its colonies was subjugated by the Romans, sons of Japheth, and soon vanished from the roll of nations. So through intermarriages Matoaka’s people shared blood lines with peoples from Jericho, Sodom, Gaza, Syria, and Babylon.

     When Joshua invaded the “promised land,” he and the Israelites chased the Canaanites into Egypt, where they built two cities Tinge and Tanger in Numidia. Two giant columns of white stone surrounded a great fountain that said in Phoenician, “We are Canaanities, Whom Joshua the thief chased away.” They continued along the northern coast line of Africa and became known as Berbers and Moors. Later along with “hatters” from France formed groups known as Pirates of the Barbary Coast. Continued pursuit from Israelites sent them to Scandinavia and the British Isles where they were called “Beaker people”.

     In 1149 B.C., Hu Garnarn Hyscion (Isaacson) or Hu the Mighty, direct descendant from Abraham, that came from the “land of summer” near Constantinople was in Joshua in his later years. (Hu is short for Hesus in Celtic, which in Spanish is Jesus, and Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name for Joshua.)  Hu (Joshua) chased the Canaanities (Berbers, Beakers) north to the northern most lands of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of the old Soviet Union, using the name “”Liber Pater”. Besides chasing the Canaanities out of Western Europe, he settled Israel peacefully in the British Isles. Lapland is the name eventually given to the northern reaches where children were hung in trees and given a bottle that was filled with the marrow of animals rather than to be breast fed while the mothers hunted with their husbands, this feeding remains to this day totally unique to humans. The Lapps (Canaanities) later were called “Picts.” It was the Picts that defended Scots and Irish settlements from marauding hordes and were rewarded with Scot and Irish princesses and exchanged wives for years. It was said that the Picts of Ireland are the Pactyae of Thrace (Phoenician) and they called themselves Piki and Peukini.

     The Laplanders (Canaanities) migrated with the reindeer herds over the “bridge of ice” into North America from the West as well as down the St. Lawrence in ships from Scandinavia from the East. They encountered Mongoloid peoples along the Siberian River Lena that migrated to today’s Mexico and Central American Aztec tribal sites. But Matoaka’s story is not of the Asian race in the Americas, instead it is one of migration from the Euphrates and Jordan rivers on through all of the known world, a story of a cursed peoples of Noah’s son, Ham chased through the ages by descendants of Abraham, the Israelites.

     By this point in the story, they were by the fireplace on the main floor and Seabreeze was on the couch with a pillow under her head. It was near midnight and Matoaka (Rebecca- Matoaka’s Christianized name) was getting tired. She asked if they could wait until morning to continue. Seabreeze wasn’t a bit sleepy. The story that had been unfolding was awakening the school teacher in her, long buried in attending to the demands of high society in Philadelphia. She watched Mato as she slept. The ancient lines of her profile flickered in the flames from the fireplace. She had a new respect for Mato and the excitement of discovery forced her well into the night to assimilate these new facts into the world as she now knows it.

     Seabreeze woke with a start. A pot had been dropped in the kitchen and the clang echoed through the main floor. There was some hushed conversation as a cook’s helper was reprimanded for being so careless. Both her and Mato were side by side in front of the embers in the fireplace. Still warm from the fire that made sleeping possible, given the frosty air of early spring. The Rebeccas went into the kitchen for breakfast of cornmeal muffins and quail breasts with plums and apples from the orchard. Seabreeze should have been tired from a couple hours of sleep, but instead rushed her breakfast and told the staff she was not to be disturbed for any reason again today, like yesterday. Any “emergency” was to be given to Emerson the Major Domo or wait till Hans gets home. Mato hurried as well hearing the instructions being given, knowing Seabreeze would want to continue with the story immediately after eating.  They filled a basket up with some fruit, a half dozen roles and added two bottles of white Zinfandel wine from a neighboring vineyard. Then a blanket, three pillows and off to a grassy knoll under some tall oak trees to continue the story of Mato’s family tree.

     Matoaka was from the Monseys tribe of the headwater region of the Delaware River.. The Algonquian tribes had been strewn far and wide over the years and included not only Pocahontas of the Powhatan clan at Werowocomoco, but had ancestral ties to the Lenni Lenape. The Lenni Lenape were called the “grandfathers of all Indians of North America. They had the “Red Record” a book handed down for generations that began with the Biblical flood and told of marrying into the sons of Canaan and crossing the “ice bridge” and coming to settle in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas. The name Algonquian was more about language than actual tribe identification. The language was used by the Yurok tribe in California, Powhatan in Virginia, the Cheyenne in the Great Plains, the Nakapi in northern Labrador, the Shawnee on Ohio, the Chippewa and the Blackfoot in the Dakotas, as well as several dozen other distinct tribes throughout the continent. William Penn said after reading the “Red Record” (Wallam Olum) that it was similar to the Hebrew dialect.

     The Lenni Lenape tribe used cradleboards for mothers to carry their babies in, still used by women today for carrying their young. Later the tribe was called Delaware Indians because they lived on the banks of the Delaware River. Before 1601, other names that Lenapi were known by included “common people”, “Original people”, “Men among men”, and “Men of our kind”.

     In 1610, Sir Samuel Argall explores the bay named Zuydt the year before by Henry Hudson and renames the river after the 12^th Lord De la Warr later to be known as Delaware. So the river, the colony, and the Lenni Lenapi all get called the Delaware. 1620-1630 the Dutch attempt to settle the Delaware Valley but fail since the Indians don’t understand the concept of private land ownership. In 1638 the Swedes settle in several localities. 1650-1660 land changes hands several times between the Dutch and the Swedes. In 1665 Quakers move into Pennsylvania. 1681 William Penn receives charter from the crown for a colony along the Delaware River and sells 40,000 acres to Welsh Quakers. The Lenni Leapi think the settlers of Philadelphia are strange for living in caves. By 1700 the Delawares move into the Ohio Valley and feel the Iroquois “Six Nations” exert influence over them.

     Mato looked sad as she talked about the few areas the Delaware and Minisinks still were allowed to live, namely, on the Brandywine, areas of Reading, Kutztown, Maxatawny, and in the Lehigh Valley also known as the Forks. Mato became quiet as she finished listing the few places left a once proud people could live.   

TO BE CONTINUED

     East of 5^th street on Erie just a couple of blocks from the Benjamin Cooper house, Hans and Rebecca found a appropriate, ample home for sale and settled in with four servants and a “companion”. The two-story house had quarters out back for servants, but Matoaka was given a bedroom upstairs close to Rebecca’s. The original 1681 Dublin families of Thomas Sharpe, Mark Newby, William Bates, Thomas Thackara, and George Goldsmith were scattered along lands between Newton Creek and Cooper’s Creek, the start of Camden County. Rebecca liked the country, away from the stench of Philadelphia and the crowded streets with the poor and hungry on all but a few streets. Many of the early settlers were Quakers of the Newton Colony, members of the Society of Friends. These people were drawn by the Concessions and Agreements, a document written in 1677, that promised land that had religious freedom, equitable taxation, and representative government.

     Seabreeze loved the new house, previously owned by the Stokes, one of the original settlers. She and Matoaka had the whole house to decorate so wall papering was the first item of business and they spent weeks deciding which paper in which room. Men were brought in to do the papering but the two of them were there to make sure it was done to the highest standards of perfection. Hans spent most of his time these days at work. The rock business was a seasonal one since most of the new construction went on in spring and fall. The summer was so hot and humid that construction ground to a halt under the noon day sun. Hans had inherited the business from his father but wasn’t interested until he got older and wanted to settle down with a family. When he was younger he had an allowance from his father that allowed him to chase women and seek adventure wherever he found it.

     Because he had worked at many different jobs as a young man, he knew a man was judged by what he does not what he thinks or knows or even is capable of doing. So, when it came time to grow up and decide, rather than striking out on his own and doing something different for a living, he came running home to take over the family business, because that business was the easiest way to wealth. And, as everybody knows, wealth is the one and only measure of a man, no matter what people say to you about “there’s more to life than money.”  That dribble is almost always talked about by people that do not have money and will never have money. With few exceptions and few is the  operative word, here, if you have heard of someone, male or female, in history it is almost certain they had money or power, usually both. This well known fact had not escaped Hans’ notice and when alone he would admit to himself that he was like most other rich men’s sons, a little too spoiled, lazy, stupid to put a fortune together. He could hold his own in a parlor setting, but mostly from being in them all his life.

     Rebecca had married Hans for love and position having come from the seaport towns of the East coast. She had worked hard to study and read as many of the classics as possible to acquaint herself with all of the human experience. Hans was tall, good-looking, and that fact that his family were at the top of the social ladder in Philadelphia didn’t hurt any. She, however, would not have married just for money. If she was honest with herself she’d admit she wouldn’t have married just for love either. He saw her as more than a beautiful woman, she was also smart, well read, and fine addition to a family that would have been very picky about his choice of a bride. And blend in she did, from the first day his sisters and mother accepted her, for one thing she was careful when she disagreed and never just threw it out there. The men in the Burer family like most men in a family are quick to accept a beautiful woman, and if she goes out of her way at all to acknowledge them she can build support for later times if things get strained at all.

     The house was huge, and Seabreeze made sure there was a room for Bill upon his return, and an extra room for Bear should he decide to stay awhile, after they get back. She figured they would have become friends with that much time together. Bill had always made friends with men easily with that manner of his of accepting everyone for who they are. And of course there’s a big outbuilding where Klondike will be housed. The ceiling is 8’ and there are beds 2’ off the ground for him to sleep on. The water bowl is bigger than the pitchers and bowls in the rooms because he has a mouth that is 8” wide and opens 2’ at full yawn. She had grown up with Klondike and thought of him as the family dog, not the kind that lies around and gets fat, more the kind that has to be given considerable respect and petted only when he wants to be. She even had the maintenance man pipe a duct out to the out building designated for Klondike. She missed Bill and would be glad when she gets her daughter and father back in a couple of years or so. She wished she had had a second daughter or son to keep her busy and if she had anticipated a “understood” European education she would have pushed Hans for another child years ago.

     Seabreeze went out to the Mohawk village of the bear clan to ask for some artifacts to have in the room so Bear would feel more at home. She came back with several scalps, a hatchet, a couple of blankets (without the small pox virus) and 3 deer skin britches with matching moccasins. She was quite proud of her trappings for his room although the scalps were still a little gamey. Bill’s room was harder. She found an old sextant in town in a shop in the old part of town. Then there were the paintings of sail ships in full sail on rough water that were so much part of Bill’s life in his younger years. She spent all one weekend looking in old shops for just the right pieces and since Bill had been all over the world, almost anything exotic from far away would be eligible for the room. Brass elephants from India, carved ivory from China, a fertility doll from the Ivory Coast, necklaces from the South Sea Islands made out of sea shells, a curved dagger from Persia, and an old whale oil lamp from London that had silver inlaid designs around the bottom.

     The grounds were extensive and required laborers year around to keep them up properly. The court yard was 200’ by 300’ feet and had rose bushes on the inside arrayed by color with darker colors on the outside ending with white ones in the center. The beds were concentric circles with the innermost circle raised 3’ off the ground. The net effect was that of a hundred foot diameter rose with dark outside and pure white inner petals, with the bushes so close together there was no way to differentiate. Two foot wide gravel walkways separated the rest of the formal gardens. Each bed was raised and had about 10-30 square feet of one type of flower with dozens of species inside. Surrounding the formal gardens were six foot high stone walls made from the field stones found throughout the 320 acre property. Close to the house on the south side was a large vegetable garden with almost every kind of produce that would grow in the region. Behind it was a large barn with horse stables. Rebecca loved her horses and even though she was just now learning to ride, she fell in love with a couple of the mares right away. The  riding trails went along the outside of the property and had places that would allow jumping, but they could be easily circumvented if jumping wasn’t in the plans. Behind the horse stables was a corral and behind that pastures for the horses.  On the north side of the property were crops, that were rotated so as not to deplete the soil. This new thinking was in the experimental stage at this point.

     In all, thirty-three people were needed to keep up the grounds and another 10 to maintain the house, counting Matoaka. Hans was a stickler for cleanliness, so the house people were kept as busy if not busier than the grounds people. Much of Rebecca’s time was spent with Matoaka and one day Rebecca asked her why her features were so middle eastern. They were good friends by now and she thought that it wouldn’t be offended if she asked.  

 TO BE CONTINUED 

     Since classes began on January third, the subject of study was the Great Chi-Rho Pyramid and the Singing Stones of Jerusalem. She learned that the human head is normally precisely one fourth of the person’s height while sitting, the nipples marking the half-way line. These proportions are repeated on a smaller scale in the head itself, where the pupils of the eyes mark the half-way line. The Great Pyramid’s physical proportions are essentially those of a headless human sitting in a lotus position.

     Aphra learned that the Great pyramid consisted of two right triangles, a square. And Tabernacle of Moses was two squares, with Solomon’s Temple three squares and Yeshua me Natsrat (Jesus of Nazareth) referred to his own physical body as four-square Temple, that of humanity no longer without a head.

     Earth, at the equator, travels precisely 144,00×540.5 catholic cubits in one revolution. Jesus stepped out of this Circle of Perfection when tempted by Satan at Temple Mount. He had given his heart to the One beyond the Void whose dwelling is in the Darkness of Light Inaccessible. The Hebrew liturgical day begins with sunset and reading the values of the three angles of the external triangle from north-west through north-east and finishing at south-east, one pronounces three letters of the Hebrew alphabet that spell “Messiah”. There are symbolic values of simple numbers as natural expressions for spiritual qualities, this almost lost knowledge lies at the heart of numerology. Life, in other words, is always here and now. This is the meaning of “one”.

     There are all kinds of symbolism in the passageways in the Great Pyramid. The distance from the outside to the center is 364.5 feet indicating that the last day of each person’s life is spent penetrating the meaning of life at its center. 144,000 yards or 432,000 feet is a critically important measurement in many ancient rings in Scandinavia, Iceland, British Isles, and Iran.

     Both Mount Nebo where Moses died, and the place where Joshuah and the other survivors crossed the Jordan into the promised land are situated precisely 3×432,000’ from Mount Sinai. This also the exact place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist.

     The “Roman foot” of 29.5 cm was used for building purposes throughout the Roman Empire, but had been employed throughout the Middle East for at least two thousand years before Rome was even founded.

     Sir Isaac Newton believed another important unit of measure was the Sacred cubit, which he defined as 1/10,000,000 of half of the Earth’s polar axis. In Catholic cubits the same axis length is 12345678.9!  The Earth’s diameter at the Equator is exactly 10,000 Catholic cubits. As previously mentioned 432,000’=144,000 yards. The platform of Temple Mount in Jerusalem is exactly 1,440 catholic cubits above sea level and the distance from its eastern wall to the end wall Jesus’s tomb is also 1,440 catholic cubits. This is additional confirmation that the radius of the Sacred Circle of Temple Mount is not by chance 1/144,000 of planet Earth’s mean circumference at the Equator. In Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation the Lamb is described as standing on Mount Zion with 144,000 people, “all with his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

     The sand in the Sahara desert is still full of sea-shells, and the largest piece of sculpture in the world, the Sphinx just outside of Cairo shows signs of water erosion from the great flood some 10,000 years ago. Yet only one of the seven wonders of the ancient world still exists. The Great Pyramid covers 13.1 acres and is made up of 6 million tons of limestone with joints never more than 1/50” wide. With hundreds of dimensions that have symbolic and statistical significance it stands alone as a treasure trove of mystery.

     There are pyramids in other countries like Moche in Peru and three others as well. One of them, Tiahuanaco, is 13,000’ above sea-level, 12 miles S.E. of the world’s highest navigable lake, Lake Titicaca. In Mexico the pyramids of the sun and moon in the sacred city of Teotihuacan date from 600 B.C. There is a big complex in Shensi province in China, with the tallest of them over 1000 feet high. There’s a white one in the Himalayas. Another complex can be found in the jungles of Cambodia. Another complex was in the Siberian uplands in Russia. All these pyramids are aligned to true North. There has even been sightings on Mars and Neptune.

     No mummies have ever been found in the Great Pyramid. Some say that’s because they were temples of initiation. Pyramids can relieve migraine and rheumatic pain by simply placing one’s hand palm upwards for a few minutes beneath the apex of a small pyramid. A razor blade similarly placed in the apex will be sharpened.

     There are hundreds of connections between Christianity and the Great pyramid of Cheops. The Holy Spirit mentioned by Jesus was active long before He arrived in the flesh. The pyramid is a word spoken in wholeness, an entire message from the transitional point where indivisible Oneness expresses and presents Itself in the realm of diversity.

     Whenever she would discuss; the mathematics of the pyramid, Temple Mount, the distances between Bethlehem and the Temple Mount, pi, 123 theory, Moses, Oneness, the King’s Chamber, the Queen’s chamber, and the curvature of Greek buildings, Bill would try to keep up but finally give up and spend most of the time studying her face and how she looked exactly like Elizabeth, his beloved.

     Aphra would go over the details she heard in class with a couple of the younger priests, until they figured out some reason they had to go. She had an voracious appetite for detail and theory. Even the lecturers from time to time were glad for a chance to excuse themselves to get away from the questions she brought up, most of which neither they or any man before had pondered or answered in any text. Bill on the other hand preferred the palace for his entertainment. The comforts of the court suited his old tired bones. 

TO BE CONTINUED 

     Pierre was tall and lanky and seemed to blend in with hundreds of other men as they began the early rounds. The Blanches had always been marksmen in the French Army. Pierre had been grilled over and over about the precise drop of the shot over distance and the elevation of the barrel necessary to adjust for that drop. Pierre’s rifle had a eye scope bar six inches high that allowed correction of the angle necessary to hit an object on the horizon by lining up on the top arrow with the point on the end of the barrel.

     In the next 5 years Pierre won 1^st place twice, 1 second, and two third place finishes. At 18 he joined the army as a sharp shooter and spent the next ten years in the Louisiana Territory picking off English troops from a distance before the actual engagement began in earnest. He used his dueling set on several occasions over the years when he found himself insulted which was quite often. At 20 paces he never missed the heart muscle of the unfortunate man he called to the field of honor. Now at forty he held eight titles of National Shooter. The legend is he killed four men he lost to in the competition, in duels right after losing to them. No one had even tried to beat him in years, fearing a similar fate.

     Big Bear, Warrior Chief of the Mohawk Nation and Tribal Chief of the Bear Clan, also came from a long line of shooters, even though he preferred the hatchet in battles to get the actual feel of his opponent physically at the end of their life. It also made it easier to claim the scalp since they were right there in front of him on the ground. Bear’s father’s father’s father was a little boy when Jamestown was settled in 1608. By 1650 Bear’s grandfather, Mountain Bear was chief of the Mohawk clan of the Bear. The Dutch gave the tribe flintlocks to increase the flow of furs and the flows increased dramatically. Also increasing dramatically were the deaths of neighboring tribes like the Algonguin to the north who named the Mohawks Ganegauno, which means ferocity. The Mohawk called themselves Thayendanegea, meaning Maneater or Keepers of the Flint. Between 1650 and 1690 when Big Bear was born, the Mohawks fought until they were almost completely wiped out from the wars with every tribe in the Northeastern territories.

     When Big Bear was born, Great Bear his father was determined that the Mohawks would not die out from battle. Great Bear took several young braves and their mates to a hidden valley where they multiplied their numbers in isolation from hostilities. There was non-stop practicing of all forms of fighting; rifle, pistol, hatchet, spear, bow and arrow, throwing knives, and hand to hand methods of killing without wasted effort or time in the kill. Big Bear by 12 could kill a man in less than a second 30 different ways without hampering the timing of the death of the next man whatsoever.

Big Bear became Chief upon his father’s death in 1705 at the age of 15. He took a mate that year and now that he sold his skills to the Buerer family, his son Little Bear was Chief of the Bear clan in his absence. Little Bear was 20 years old when he took over and already has a son Little Bear Cub at 5 being trained in the art of one second killing. Little Bear is 6’ 8’ and unchallenged by any of the braves for chief.

     Unlike the National Shooter competition in Paris with hundreds of men coming to shoot, This shootout had only Bear, Bill, three Jesuit priests, four palace guards, and a retired army sergeant by the name of Blanche. Bill thought it would be good practice for him but knew he couldn’t be at the finish near the last two or three still shooting. He overheard two priests say Brother Barnard would do well, since he was a marksman before joining the priesthood. Bill asked Jaque to stay for the shoot out and he would go with him to Paris but Jaque was in a hurry to get his things and said he didn’t need any help retrieving a couple of trunks. Bill still felt uneasy having Klondike out of his sight now that he finally had him back, but knew Jaque was capable of protecting his dog in most situations.

     With two days to go Bill and the three priests spent most every afternoon behind the compound practicing for the competition. Brother Barnard was good by any standard and usually didn’t miss any of his targets at 50 paces which is all the room there was allowed with the hillside being used as a stop. Everyone knew the competition would be at 100 paces but practice was practice just the same. Bear refused to practice, he said the only shoots that count are the one that count. He went on to say that a man doesn’t practice to kill another man or practice to win. You kill, die, win or lose period. Jaque turned to Bill early the next morning and said not to worry, he would take care Klondike or die trying. As the two of them disappeared down the back street, Bill felt he should forget the shoot out and go with them instead. Klondike stopped just before they turned the corner and looked back at Bill with those big puppy eyes asking if Bill was coming but when Bill looked away Klondike turned and was gone from sight. Bill’s eyes stung from watering up at the sight of Klondike making the corner. He loved that dog and couldn’t allow himself to think about losing him.

     The day before the competition started like any other with shots being fired behind the compound beginning around 10 in the morning. Aphra came out to watch. She tried her hand at a couple targets but missed each time. As she sat there next to Bill who had taken a break in the practice she told Bill what she had heard the night before in the study from some priests that were discussing the up coming contest. One of the men coming tomorrow was a champion that held the French title for shooting and when he loses he challenges the winner and kills them in a duel. Bill assured her he wasn’t good enough to beat a champion. She asked about Bear’s ability and Bill wasn’t as confident that Bear wouldn’t last the first rounds. Bill didn’t sleep that well that night as he kept tossing and turning with rifles going off in his head all night.

     Bill woke early the next morning. He went to Bear’s room only to find it empty, maybe he was going to practice after all. But Bear was nowhere to be found. All morning Bill looked for Bear to show. Around 10 in the morning the palace guards showed up. With them came dozens of people to watch his majesty’s best military guard compete with Jesuit priests. No one thought the priests would embarrass themselves. Jesuit priests were known for their prowess with firearms. The firing range was inside the compound walls. There were stands along the back walls that ran the full length of the range. The targets were small wooden plugs suspended from iron rails by thin strips of stiff wire. Each rack contained 10 half-inch diameter plugs and could be quickly exchanged with another rack in a groove rail above the target area. 200-250 racks were hanging on wires behind the target range out of sight but close enough for quick replacements. The rules were simple. First round a man could miss three and still move to the second round. In the second round he could miss two. The third round he was allowed one miss and still move on. By the fourth round no misses were allowed and still move on unless every man missed at least one. The winner would be the man that had three perfect rounds beyond his closest competitor last round of missing a target. So when there is only two men left and one misses one of his targets the other man has to hit thirty in a row to win. The prize for winning was sword of finest silver with the winner’s name engraved in the handle and the title of Champion of Versailles. The sheath was of the finest leather and jewels were encrusted on the outer surface depicting men shooting and framed with the outline of France. Although there was no money in winning first prize, the sword was unique and quite valuable on its own. And if a man wanted to bet on himself in the competition there were several wealthy men there who would be willing to cover the bet.

     Two to one odds were being made on Blanche against the Captain of the palace guard and three to one against Brother Barnard and 10 to one on all other competitors. Bill went to three of the men and bet 5000 ducats with each of them on Bear. They were surprised that the bets were so large, but since no one had beat Blanche and lived to tell about it for over a decade, at least they would see their losses revenged the same day they paid off their bets. Still it took Bill quite a while to get them to agree to 10 to 1 odds at that kind of amount, losing 50,000 is a bad day for any man, even a noble.

     It was almost noon when Pierre Blanche walked up to the line. He was carrying two rifles that appeared to be matching in every respect. Pierre was a tall slender man with cold eyes, cruel mouth, and a way of moving about that seemed slow but wasn’t. Nine men were standing on the line now as young priests were scampering around on the target racks double-checking all were clamped on tight to the rail above. Bill was next to Pierre and against his better judgement he looked at the man. What he saw in his eyes gave him a sudden chill and his body convulsed uncontrollably for a fraction of a second. The last time he felt that feeling was looking into Bear’s eyes outside of Paris when Bear fought alone on the other side of the wagon against that small private army. One place was vacant on the end of the row next to Blanche. Still no sign of Bear and Bill started to worry that foul play was involved. The headmaster of the compound called out three more minutes before firing was to begin. Rifles were raised, sights checked, and positions readied for the start.

     The silence was total, no one said a word in the gallery, the runners at the targets were still and alert, the shooters relaxed and still, nothing moved for 30 seconds as everything came to a stop. A small dark cloud covered the sun briefly and Bear stepped up to the line from nowhere in full armor, minus the cannon and balls pack. Pierre didn’t look to his side, he could feel the size of the man next to him by how the light breeze that had been cooling him stopped completely. Bill let out a small sigh of relief, he surely didn’t want to pay 15,000 ducats without Bear even firing a shot.

     The headmaster called out for the contest to begin and instantly 10 rounds of fire were heard as one shot. With reloading at a measured pace since there was no time limit, as such, for a round of 10 shots, two minutes passed between the last shot of the first to finish and the last to finish a round. Runners called out misses starting with position one. One, three, four, one, three, five, two, one, zero, zero. Barnard, Captain of the Guard and Bill with one miss, Pierre and Bear hit all 10. A priest and a palace guard sat down, having failed to move on to the second round. Next round called out: zero, two, one, three, one, two, zero, zero. Another guard sat down. Third round. Zero, zero, zero, one, zero, zero, one. All move on, but Bear missed one for the first time, Bill started thinking about losing 15,000 ducats and wished he hadn’t tried to make a killing off this competition. Bear removed his helmet and dropped the powder bags and loosened his belt. For the next three hours somehow two of the seven men missed one saving them from elimination. Then just before 3 o’clock, a priest missed one and everyone else hit all 10 of their targets. Now six men stood on the line. At least two missed one each round for the rest of the day. At six the headmaster called an end to the first day of shooting. Bear disappeared as quickly as he had appeared at noon. Pierre followed soon after. Bill and the others congratulated each other for a fine day of shooting and the crowd dispersed slowly into the compound or left for the palace. Bill returned to his room to look for Bear but he wasn’t there. Bill was tired from the strain of missing occasionally and sweating it out hoping for someone else to miss, which thankfully happened by the 10^th shot of the round. His shoulder was sore from six hours of shooting and was asleep within the hour.

     The next morning was quite in the compound. It was as if no one wanted to talk to disturb the peace and quiet after all that gunfire the day before. Next to the stands an open kitchen had been set up and breakfast was well on its way. The smell of bacon and eggs filled the air. Laughter broke out from time to time as stories were told. Bill felt refreshed but his right shoulder was still sore