Hope Leslie: Volume 1, Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

That night, Digby and Everell sit on the porch of the house at Bethel, overlooking the forest. They see Magawisca sneak out a window and disappear into the forest. When Digby begins to protest, Everell swears that Magawisca could not possibly be plotting with Nelema. Digby fears meeting that “treacherous race” in battle. Digby reminds Everell that he fought in the Pequot War himself and knows about American Indian “cunning.”

Digby then begins telling Everell war stories, until Digby thinks he sees an American Indian man among the trees. Everell convinces him that he is mistaken and goes to speak to Magawisca, who has reemerged from the forest. When Everell questions her, Magawisca bursts into uncharacteristic tears and can’t be consoled. Everell notices an eagle’s feather tucked in the folds of her mantle but says nothing. When Everell comments on the peaceful night, Magawisca says that it was on just such a night that the English attacked her people.

Everell encourages Magawisca to tell him about the attack, promising that her words will not threaten their friendship. Finally Magawisca agrees, telling Everell, “when the hour of vengeance comes […] remember it was provoked.”

Magawisca begins her story. She explains that her people’s fortress was on top of a hill, where no enemy had ever set foot. One night, when her father (Mononotto) and Sassacus were away at a council, and the young men were sleeping after a feast, Magawisca’s mother, Monoca, had a foreboding of evil. She went in search of her son, Samoset. While she was talking with an old man, Cushmakin, the English suddenly attacked the sleeping village. They had been guided to the village by a traitor and were aided by the Narragansetts.

Magawisca describes the horror of her people’s attempted defense. When the Pequot warriors drove the English back, the English set fire to the Pequot huts, destroying hundreds of homes. Monoca, Magawisca, and Oneco managed to hide in a ditch in a corner of their dwelling until the English had withdrawn. Everell’s eyes fill with tears as Magawisca speaks.

As Magawisca and her mother surveyed their slaughtered village at dawn, her father and Sassacus returned. Suspicion immediately fell on Mononotto for having preciously urged peace with the English, but Sassacus stopped others from striking the chief down. From that time forward, Mononotto was a different person, implacable in his hatred of the English. His hatred grew even fiercer when his son Samoset, having been taken prisoner, was beheaded by the English for refusing to betray his people.

Magawisca tells Everell that the English have often claimed the superiority of their Bible and its teachings on compassion—but if the English really believed such teachings, would they have treated Samoset in this way? Magawisca touches on “the most serious obstacle to the progress of the Christian religion”—the conflict between its principles and its followers’ actions—and Everell can give her no good response.

Magawisca explains that the remnants of her tribe joined with some other small tribes and sheltered in a swamp, Mononotto and his warriors refusing ever to surrender to the English. Eventually, the English invade the area where they are entrenched, and the remaining women and children are killed, except for Monoca and her children, who are taken to Boston. Some English, Magawisca explains, “have not put out the light of the Great Spirit,” and they treated Monoca with kindness. However, her heart was broken.

All of this took place the preceding year. Everell already knew the story, but only from the English perspective. From Magawisca’s perspective, the details “took on a new form and hue.” In the version he has heard, the Pequots are described as ferocious animals; now, however, he pictures the defenseless families mercilessly shot and burned to death.

Everell expresses his sympathy and admiration to Magawisca, and she is grateful. With morning at hand, Digby sends the two off to bed. He is frustrated with Everell for failing to extract any useful information from Magawisca about an impending raid.

Magawisca goes to bed but cannot sleep, filled with apprehension and inner conflict. The day before, Nelema had told her that Mononotto and some other warriors have been watching for an opportunity to attack Bethel. She doesn’t know if her father intends merely to rescue her and Oneco, or to destroy the Fletchers. Magawisca knows that if she warned Mrs. Fletcher, then her father’s life would be endangered. Yet she dreads anything happening to the Fletchers. She looked for her father in the woods, but she found only the eagle’s feather, which she believed to be his. Digby was right when he thought he saw a man in the woods.

In contrast to his fellow chief Sassacus, Mononotto had always been known as a humane man, more inclined to peace than to hostility. The difference in temperament between these two chiefs explains the varying treatment reported by English settlers at the hands of the Pequot people. Now, Mononotto is embittered and regrets his past kindnesses to the English. With Sassacus dead, Mononotto is determined not only to rescue his children, but to achieve some kind of vengeance, reviving his people’s spirits in the process.