“[At] Ritanoc, the Weroance Eyanoco preserved 7 of the English alive, four men, two boys and one young maid (who escaped and fled up the River of Chaonoke) to beat his copper, of which he hath certain mines at the said Ritanoc.”
-William Strachey, 1611, Jamestown
[It appears that the first impulse of both the Europeans and North American Algonquin tribesmen were to enslave those of the other that came under their power.]
This narrative, O reader! may seem dry and tedious to you: my miseries and misfortunes, great as they have been, may be considered only as what others have daily met with for years past; yet, on reflection, you cannot help indulging me in the recital of them; for to the unfortunate and distressed, recounting our miseries is, in some sort, an alleviation of them.
Permit me therefore to proceed; not by recounting to you the deplorable condition I was then in, for that is more than can be described to you, by one who thought of nothing less than being immediately put to death in the most excruciating manner these devils could invent. The fire being thus made, they for some time danced round me after their manner, with various odd motions and antic gestures, whooping, holloeing, and crying in a frightful manner, as it is their custom.
Having satisfied themselves in this sort of their mirth, they proceeded in a more tragical manner, taking the burning coals and sticks, flaming with fire at the ends, holding them near my face, head, hands, and feet, with a deal of monstrous pleasure and satisfaction, and at the same time threatening to burn me entirely, if I made the least noise or cried out. Thus tortured as I was, almost to death, I suffered their brutal pleasure without being allowed to vent my inexpressible anguish otherwise than by shedding tears; even which, when these inhuman tormentors observed, with a shocking pleasure and alacrity, they would take fresh coals, and apply near my eyes, telling me my face was wet, and that they would yewitness of being inflicted on others of my unhappy fellow creatures.
