Straight Out of Hollywood

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of intense action in Russell Shorto's book, The Island at the Center of the World. I was not expecting to read about ruthless murderers, barbaric military leaders, revenge stories, mutinies and wars. I found the story of Claes Swits the most fascinating. Swits was a well-liked, old man who was known throughout Manhattan. In the summer of 1641, Swits found a young Wickquasgeck Indian at his door who was looking to trade some furs. Swits invited the man in and gave him food and drink. As Swits was bending over to reach for some goods for trade, the Indian grabbed an axe off the wall and decapitated the unsuspecting, innocent old man. This random murder was predestined to happen fifteen years earlier, when a group of Wickquasgeck Indians were robbed and murdered by Europeans. The only survivor of this attack was a twelve year old boy who would take out his revenge on Claes Swits fifteen years later. This murder set off a brutal war between the colonists and Indians that would last several years. What a story! It sounds like something a Hollywood director would make into an action movie. I thought Shorto did a great job of capturing the intensity of the dramatic stories in this book.