Blood on the River

The chapter begins with a prophecy delivered to Chief Powhatan “sometime before the Christian year 1607” (1); it foretells three battles between the Powhatan tribe and a tribe that travels from the Chesapeake Bay. At the end of the third battle, “the Powhatan kingdom will be no more” (1). After the prophecy, the chapter goes on to introduce Samuel as he robs his mother’s locket from a pawn shop in London in October 1606. Samuel’s mother died recently, and his father had “drunk himself to death” (4) years ago, so Samuel is now alone. After he steals the locket and puts it on, he sleeps under “the severed head of a traitor” (4) that is positioned on top of London Bridge on a pole. The pawn shopkeeper and his son find Samuel, and he wakes up to a kick in the ribs; when the two men discuss Samuel’s fate, they attempt to tie his arms with rope. Samuel fights the men when he hears that he might be punished by hanging, but he loses consciousness when the shopkeeper’s son hits him on the head, “just like my father used to” (5).