Hope Leslie: Volume 2, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

After Hope’s conversation with Everell earlier that day, she saw an American Indian woman standing in the Winthrops’ hall, wanting to sell moccasins to the women of the house. The stranger’s voice is sweet and dignified, and Hope agrees to try the moccasins. The woman asks Hope her name and then reveals that she is Magawisca. When Hope immediately bolts in Everell’s direction, Magawisca stops her.

To prove her identity, Magawisca shows Hope a necklace made of entwined hair and gold. Hope recognizes the hair as that of her sister Faith. Magawisca tells Hope to come to the burial ground tonight to hear more about her sister. As a scolding Jennet and an eager Aunt Grafton appear, Magawisca is unable to flee and does her best to conceal her face while the women examine her wares. Neither woman recognizes Magawisca, however, and Hope manages to divert them both. Seeing Everell through a doorway, Magawisca gives a cry and leaves.

Afterward, Hope leaves Mrs. Grafton and Jennet to their puzzled conjectures and begins to weep over her sister, overcome by confusion and hope. She composes herself and does her best to endure that night’s lecture. Afterward, as previously told, Hope goes to the cemetery and finds Magawisca at the agreed rendezvous spot. Hope is disappointed to see that her sister is not there; she is also touched by Magawisca’s reverent chant as she kneels before a grave.

After that, Magawisca tells Hope that she trusts her because of her past kindness to Nelema, who did survive to reach her. On the verge of death, Nelema had cursed the white race, blessed Hope, and made Magawisca swear to reunite Faith and Hope. But Magawisca tells Hope she cannot do this—she cannot “send […] the stream that has mingled with other waters [back] to its fountain.”

Hope is impatient at these “dark sayings” and asks where Faith is. Magawisca promises that Faith is safe and nearby, and that the sisters will see each other again. However, “the lily of the Maqua’s valley, will never again make the English garden sweet.” Hope begins to understand, but cannot utter what she is thinking. Magawisca says that “yes […] thy sister is married to Oneco.”

Hope shudders with horror at this news—“my sister married to an Indian!” Magawisca looks at Hope contemptuously—Oneco is one “in whose veins runs the blood of the strongest,” those who have never betrayed their friends. “Think ye that your blood will be corrupted by mingling with this stream?” she asks. Hope simply bursts into tears, weeping for her sister and mother.

Softening, Magawisca tells Hope that Faith is safe and loved among her people; Mononotto loves her, and Oneco worships her. Hope does not seem to hear. She looks at her mother’s grave and despairs that Alice Fletcher died to bring her daughters to a Christian colony, only to lose one of them to the wilderness.

Magawisca points to her own mother’s grave. The Great Spirit, she says, looks down on both “with an equal eye”; both Monoca and Alice Fletcher are his children, no matter where they worshipped. Then she tells Hope that Faith is still a Christian, but she “bows to the crucifix.” Hope is profoundly relieved.

Magawisca promises Hope that she will see Faith, but she makes Hope swear on the emblem of her tribe, an eagle, that she will remain quiet about what’s happened tonight. Hope promises. Magawisca promises to return in five days with Faith. Hope wonders why Magawisca is afraid of revealing her presence to the Fletchers and their friends—they would be kind to her, and Everell might even love her. She tells Magawisca that Everell had rejoiced to learn that Magawisca was still alive. Emotional, Magawisca begs Hope to stop speaking of him.

Hope begs Magawisca, for Everell’s sake, to let Everell accompany her to their next meeting, but Magawisca says she cannot trust herself in Everell’s presence. They agree to meet again in secret, but it will have to be outside of Boston, or else Faith will have to be disguised. Hope recalls that Digby oversees Governor Winthrop’s island estate in the harbor, and suggests that she arrange to spend a night there, allowing for a secret rendezvous with her sister and Magawisca. They agree, but Magawisca warns Hope that Faith will probably not wish to remain with Hope. She is too closely bound to Oneco, and she remembers little of English or, indeed, anything of her early life. Magawisca leaves.

The storm breaks, and Hope hurries toward home. She hears someone rustling in the bushes, and a moment later, Sir Philip Gardiner is at her side. He insists on wrapping Hope in his cloak and wonders what business would have her abroad on a Saturday night, but Hope refuses to say; in fact, she discourages his fond words, to Sir Philip’s vexation. As they reach the Winthrops’ house, they see Roslin leaning against the gate, heedless of the storm.

After the massacre at Bethel, Mononotto’s desire for revenge lingered. In fact, after the disastrous attempted sacrifice of Everell, Mononotto seems to have lost his reason for a while, but this only gave him greater authority among his people, who regarded him as a sort of prophet. Magawisca became his constant companion; even though she remembered Everell and Mrs. Fletcher with love, her duty to her people was higher.

Mononotto hoped to unite all New England tribes against the English, getting Miantunnomoh on his side (hence the Mohegan chief’s presence in Boston, to be questioned by Governor Winthrop). During all this, Magawisca remained by her father’s side, and Oneco and Faith accompanied them as well.

The unity Mononotto seeks proves elusive because of geographical distance and longstanding rivalries among different tribes. However, he allows Magawisca to pursue the reunion of Faith and Hope, believing that (given Nelema’s urgency about it) it will somehow promote his political purposes.