The River That Flows Both Ways

Matouac is a young Mohican boy growing up in a time when his own people have been sadly depleted by the diseases and wars that came with the white men. When a band of raiders led by a renegade French priest wipes out his family and takes him captive, Matouac must adapt to a series of new masters. He eventually finds a home with Harmen van den Bogaert, a physician, explorer, gun smuggler and occasional pirate who moves easily between the Iroquois and European cultures. When Harmen's love for the slave Tobias is discovered, the leaders of the Dutch colony demand their lives. Mystified by the sexual intolerance of the whites, Matouac and the slave girl Catherina set out to free Bogaert and Tobias. The River That Flows Both Ways is based on the true story of Harmen van den Bogaert, who was condemned to death for sodomy in 1647.