The adventures of a young sailor on a trading mission in 1616 illuminate the experience of trans-Atlantic sailing at that time as well as early contact between Europeans and Indigenous people of America. Follow a crow's nest view on an ocean-going ship 400 years ago. Here, a youthful Johannes van der Zee -- leaving his home in Holland and heading for the "New World" -- is filled with joyful excitement. Share with him the alternating boredom and terror along the way. Johannes witnesses gruesome punishments and natural disaster. Then, spend a winter in an upriver trading cabin with quarrelsome shipmates, and in the spring, get to know his new friend, Tail Feather (the central character of Book 1 of The River Quintet). While the boys make their way to Tail Feather's Mohawk village in the Adirondacks, they discover the vastly different social customs and technologies of one another's worlds. Johannes, despite misadventures and misunderstandings, finally realizes that his home-grown prejudices about native people in "the colonies" are wrong. Part II: NOTES ABOUT THE STORY, provides information about a variety of topics, including nautical terminology, Iroquois customs and beliefs, inventions such as the telescope and the compass, maladies such as scurvy and poison ivy, and geographic features of the "Hudson River" Valley. Also included in the book is a map showing the Dutch Republic and the route of The Unicorn as it leaves the city of Hoorn and heads to New Netherland.
