Book details

Author: Barry Cole

Based on the lives of real people and actual historical events during a defining period in the birth of the United States of America, Shingas charts the unfolding events which will ultimately decide the fate of a people and the destiny of a nation. An intimate yet sweeping narrative detailing how these turbulent times impacted on the lives of those who unwittingly participated in them. Set against a panoramic backdrop of towering mountain peaks and majestic forests the story culminates in the Battle of Bushy Run, a little-known historical encounter but one which would prove to be just as influential as the Battle of Yorktown eighteen years later.

After six years of bloody conflict, the war between France and England was over and Canada had a new ruler, King George the Third. But for Shingas the fight against the English was not finished and after witnessing the brutal murder of his warriors by a company of redcoats at Fort Detroit, his desire for revenge becomes all-consuming. Meanwhile, two hundred miles to the east on an isolated farmstead, despite engaging in an illicit relationship with another of his sons, Esther an indentured servant, wooed by the prospect of being released from the shackles of servitude, agrees to marry the farmer`s eldest son, a simpleton, in exchange for her freedom. Following the murder of his pregnant wife by English traders, in an act of retribution while Samuel and his eldest son are away, Shingas attacks the Endicote’s farm and after killing the remainder of the settler`s family, he abducts Esther and takes her back to his village. Befriended by an old squaw and a young French girl, a captive like herself, accepting her plight Esther quickly adapts to her new way of life. This all changes however when Shingas forces himself on her while she is bathing. Horrified by this violation, when presented with a chance to escape, Esther seizes it and together with the young French girl, she makes her bid for freedom. But her hopes are quickly dashed when pursued by Shingas she is caught and brought back to the village. Nine months later she gives birth to his child, a boy. Meanwhile, with discontent growing amongst the tribes as the English settlements encroach ever further onto their lands, seizing upon the mood of unrest, Shingas instigates an attack on an English fort and after killing all those inside his warriors burn it to the ground. Roused into action by this barbarous act, determined to punish those responsible, an army of five hundred men under the command of Colonel Bouquet are ordered to bring the perpetrators to justice. After a wearying march, deep in the forest wilderness at a place called Bushy Run, a combined force of Iroquois and Shawnee warriors and Bouquet’s redcoats are joined in battle. Finally, after two days of bloody fighting, Shingas and his warriors are eventually defeated. With the uprising quelled summoning the chiefs of the warring tribes to a council, Bouquet demands that all captives held by them are to be released into his care. Having survived the battle, helpless to intervene Shingas can only watch as Esther and her child are given up by her captors. Unaware that the man whose simpleton son she was to marry has been killed by one of Shingas’s warriors, resigned to the fact that she is returning to a life of servitude, together with the other freed captives Esther begins the long journey by wagon back to the English settlements. En route, while camped for the night, bent on reclaiming his son, Shingas steals into the encampment. Finding the pair sleeping by a fire, after retrieving the child rather than disappearing into the night, he waits for Esther to wake. Accepting the fact that without her his family is incomplete Shingas hands her the baby and leaves. Touched by this selfless act, and realising that despite everything she has feelings for him Esther decides to return to a life among the Seneca.