At the forks of the Ohio stands an American city,
a colossus of steel,
whose mills and furnaces bring forth bone and sinew for a nation.
Not so long ago
a lonely outpost guarded this very spot.
It was called Fort Pitt.
It stood at the edge of an unknown land,
one of a line of forts
that ran from Virginia to the Great Lakes,
marking the end of the known
and the beginning of the unknown.
Civilization was east of the Allegheny Mountains.
Conquest, opportunity and death
lay to the west.
All around Fort Pitt was a vast forest,
always beautiful, always dangerous.
Men came into it seeking many things.
Some for wealth, some for refuge
some for freedom.
But to the Indian, all men came as invaders.
Wars for survival between red men and white
threatened to sweep away these little forts.
Yet men kept coming west.
Some to build their own fortunes,
even at the price of Indian wars.
Others to build a nation,
even at the price of their own lives.
These are the unconquered,
who push ever forward the frontiers of man's freedom.
But history sometimes chooses its heroes and heroines from strange places.
For one, the hope of freedom was born at Old Bailey in London,
in the year 1763.
Prisoner at the bar.
You have been found guilty of the most heinous crime, of murder.
It is my duty to pass upon you the sentence
which the law enjoins.
Abigail Martha Hale,
the sentence of this court is... My lord.
Woman, be still. My lord, hear me.
My brother was ill of fever when the press-gang broke in to take him.
I helped him fight to be free.
In that fight, an impressing officer of the Royal Navy was killed.
My brother was killed too, my lord.
The prisoner is here to receive sentence.
The sentence of this court is
that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison
and thence to a place of execution.
And that you there be hanged by the neck until you are dead.
And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Come.
One word more,
by the gracious generosity of Our Sovereign Lord, King George the Third,
it is in my power to offer you the King's mercy.
Instead of execution,
you may be transported to His Majesty's colonies in North America.
Not to die, my lord?
And to serve not less than 14 years as an indentured slave,
to be sold at auction to the highest bidder.
Slavery in the colonies or the gallows here.
Speak up, girl, which is it to be?
Slavery, my lord.
Get the blood in your cheeks.
You'll fetch a better price at Norfolk tomorrow.
Mr. Leach, you won't sell me away from my husband, will you?
You'll sell according to your indentures.
Seven year, I'll be free and get me a bit of land.
And maybe even a strong wife.
Get along, get along.
Me, I'll get me bought by a nice rich widow and marry myself free.
I ain't a rich widow, but I'm willing.
Ain't you got a wife already, Tom?
Wife. I'm serving time for all four of them.
Break your ranks and save your shanks.
Our land of opportunity.
Jeremy,
how old shall I look in 14 years?
Fourteen years older, of course.
Here, here, have a care there. Have a care.
Hold onto the slate.
Make fast to the pin rail.
Ease that on the deck.
And at ease.
Some sort of chopping instrument.
Stand by your braces.
Let go of the last one.
Jeremy, put it back before the owner sees you.
The owner has seen you.
Hand me that tomahawk. Tomahawk?
I was just remarking to this young lady...
Convicts should know the punishment for stealing.
Captain. Well, he didn't steal it.
No, well, perhaps...
Who are you? My daughter, sir.
The devoted daughter of Jeremy John Love.
Jeremy, I'm not your daughter.
No, not in fact, but in spirit.
You seem a gentleman of discernment, sir.
Tell me, can you always spot the queen?
I believe so. Excellent, I've heard...
No, no. Don't go away, my dear. Jeremy, please.
You show a taste for entertainment, sir,
entertainment with a dash of risk. Well?
Well, sir, observe your queen is now between two knaves,
thus.
But can you tell me where the queen is hiding now?
And if I do? The stake is yours to name, sir.
A pound. A pound it is.
Put it up.
Oh, well, I seldom carry large sums of money upon my...
You have other assets.
Perhaps a kiss from your daughter-in-spirit.
Jeremy, I won't be...
Keep your hair on, he can't win.
Man the mizzen top-sail sheets.
A golden sovereign. gallant risk, sir.
Now, sir.
Now, can you tell me where the queen is hiding?
Yes. Up the sleeve of a cheat who is about to get 30 lashes.
Thirty?
You wouldn't have a man of his age whipped.
His age hasn't improved his honesty or yours.
Slave driver. Wait.
I'll give you the kiss.
You're not giving it, I won it.
He's got her anchored all right.
Another cheat.
I paid you.
You can do better.
Slave driver. Yes.
Yes, Mr. Garth.
This woman for sale? Yes, Mr. Garth. They're all for sale.
Indentured servant?
No, sir. Felon.
Felon? It ain't deep in her character, Mr. Garth.
She's good manners, gentle, sweet.
Fit for all kinds of housework.
I'll buy her.
I won't be sold to this man. What's her price?
- Mr. Leach, the judge said public auction. - Hold your tongue.
She's right.
We'll have an auction right here.
Gentlemen, would any of you care to bid against me for his girl?
Not me. I don't hold much with slavery.
That red hair could change a man's mind.
I'm starting at £20.
£20 is bid for Abigail Martha Hale.
Offering 14 years of servitude.
Let them see your face, girl.
Going once, going twice.
- For the third and last time... - And sixpence.
Pardon?
Man, you've an eye like an eagle.
But I dinnae ken your way of throwing.
Did you say something, sir? Yes, I said, "And sixpence."
Lend me your bodkin, Fergus.
It's an Indian knife throw.
Captain Holden has a reputation for joking.
Make your sale.
Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir, Mr. Garth.
Going to Mr. Garth for... You heard my bid?
Yes, sir, £20 and sixpence.
Would your humor desert you, Captain Holden, at £50?
- £50, did you hear that? - What do you know!
£50 for this likely servant maid.
Strong and willing.
Do I hear another bid? And sixpence.
£50 and sixpence.
Do I hear £55? Cash on the barrel.
Try another.
£50 and sixpence, I'm bid.
£60. And sixpence.
£60 and sixpence... That's better.
He must be very rich or very interested.
He hasn't even looked at me.
£60 and sixpence for this rare gem.
Smile, you little scut.
- Do I hear another bid? - Yes.
£65.
And sixpence.
It's £65 and sixpence. Hey, Chris,
the game's getting a wee bit rough. Here's your coat.
Do I hear £70? You will not see the likes of this maid in all His Majesty's colonies.
You seem to want this girl.
The Ohio country won't be a healthy place for a white woman
when the Indians get these toys you're bringing them.
Usual trade goods. Usual?
What you've got aboard the brig Minerva and the ship Paragon?
It might pay you to mind your own business.
I found that out from one of your Senecas on the Catawba Trail.
You met one of the bad shots.
£70. £70.
That one will never learn to shoot any better.
And sixpence.
I hear £70 and another sixpence.
Have a closer look, gentlemen.
Skin soft as satin.
Cheerful as a meadowlark.
- Muskets. - That's guns in there. They're all new.
Even this ship is loaded with your usual trade goods.
Indians don't trade furs for Bibles.
They don't trade for bond slaves, either.
What are your plans for her?
Field hand on your plantation?
I apologize for Mr. Garth, ma'am.
In Virginia we use dirt to grow tobacco and bury our dead.
We don't like your kind of dirt, Mr. Garth.
Watch out. No, gentlemen, no.
Not on my ship.
You are quite right, Captain Brooks. His purse.
Perhaps someday he'll come west of the Alleghenies.
Dueling code is very different in the Ohio country.
£70 and sixpence is bid, gentlemen, for this dainty little package.
Look at her slender form,
the tilt of her head.
You, sir, would you care to put in a bid, sir?
No, thank you. I've never had to buy trouble.
Here's my bid,
£103. £103. A Turk's ransom.
Jeremy, I'm frightened.
A hundred quid would frighten the wings off an angel.
And sixpence.
I'll double that tomorrow at Norfolk.
Cash on the barrel, Mr. Garth.
Is that yours? No, mine's in the Captain's strongbox.
He's right. Cash is the law.
Make the sale.
£103 and sixpence, once, twice.
Sold to Captain Holden for £103...
And sixpence.
Sorry, Mr. Garth.
Quite a price for a rose of Old Bailey.
Here's your bonnet.
Have the bill of sale ready in the morning.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
My dear Captain, allow me to present my ward.
I hope you had a very pleasant voyage, ma'am.
Well...
Chris...
Chris, a loony man would seem wise alongside of you.
Why did ye do it?
Garth is bad medicine, Fergus.
She'll be safer with him than with your promised bride tomorrow
when she sees yon red-headed purchase you just made.
Aye. Diana.
Land ho!
- Haul away on the... - Clear tire.
Clear tire.
Your longboat's making fast, sir.
Does it carry a young lady armed with a musket?
The ship's agent brought this aboard, sir. Thank you.
Oh, will you have my luggage lowered to the longboat?
Certainly, sir.
From the impatient bride?
No, from John Fraser.
Pittsburgh blacksmith. Pittsburgh?
Little village in Virginia.
Listen to this.
"Trouble's busting everywhere.
"When you get yours, if you ain't killed nobody,
"meet me at the Peakestown Fair."
John must have dipped his pen in applejack.
He can't have known you're getting married.
If you'll sign Mistress Hale's papers, sir. Whose? Oh.
Have the notary certify these, then give them to the girl.
Yes, sir. She's on deck.
If he likes sugarplums,
you look just like one.
He's probably married, with six children.
Stop babbling.
Just get him to buy me and I'll have you riding in your own carriage.
Love accomplishes all things, my dear.
For instance, for luck.
Jeremy, it's a gold piece. Uh-huh.
King Charles double guinea.
It was given to my mother by a prince of the blood.
There he is. Well, go to him. Go to him.
Keep your gold in your fist, your tongue in your cheek,
and don't be too forward,
and not too backward, either.
Pick up, you're slacking that line.
Good morning, Captain Holden. Good morning, Miss...
Well, I'm all ready.
Yes. I see you are.
Bend your bonnets.
Do we go now?
I'm sorry, Miss... Abby.
Miss Abby. But I'm not taking you. You're free.
But didn't you buy me?
- Oh, yes, I bought you... - Watch yourself.
Stand clear, you.
And now I've set you free.
- You mean really free? - Yes. Leach will give you your papers.
I'm very grateful, but I won't accept my freedom.
You won't?
I owe you £103 and sixpence and I intend to work for you until it's paid.
Oh, not for me.
You're much too pretty to pass the porridge on my honeymoon.
Your honeymoon? But...
You're married?
I will be within the week.
Goodbye, Abby.
Then why did you buy me? What?
Why did you buy me?
Oh, to see if sixpence could poison a snake.
Oh. You bought me because you don't like him.
Well, here's a lucky piece to brighten your opinion of me.
It's a King Charles double guinea.
What did I do with it?
Oh, I see.
I didn't steal it.
I see your hand was quicker than my eye.
Keep it.
More freight for the longboat.
Aye, aye, sir. Hold tight.
Take it easy, men. You've got a passenger on it.
Easy on that cargo sling.
Keep it clear of the shroud.
Chris.
No. Doesn't look like it to me.
Who's the girl with him? Don't know. Very pretty.
Flip the toddle.
- Clear that gear. - On deck.
Overhaul the cabling. Batten the hooks down.
Pull the hatch ladder. Watch your footing on the gangway.
There's Martha. There she is.
Goodbye, George.
See you in Jamestown. Land never looked better.
I'm so glad to be home, I could walk on air.
Hello, Bone.
I'll sign these later. Very good, sir.
What'd you bring from Pittsburgh?
Two wagons of this kind of stuff.
Injuns ain't hunting.
What's wrong?
Gun trading's been stopped.
Who stopped it? Indian Commissioner.
He wants you to meet him at Peakestown.
Looks like the pot's started to boil.
What's Pontiac say?
Says the Delawares will join and the Shawnees and the Chippewas.
He ain't sure about the Wyandots.
They'll come in when their powder horns are full.
Steady there, steady.
Back that tray up, 'tis powder. Hang on.
Take up the slack in the quarter line.
Get up, Leach, and let me sign these.
Yes, sir, Mr. Garth.
Wicked waste of money.
By you?
Captain Holden setting that girl free.
Yes, very wasteful.
How would you like to sell all your bond slaves to Mr. Bone, here?
Bond slaves? I got no use for...
Say, £400? £400?
Well... Why, sold.
All except... Except no one.
But that girl is free.
You're sailing next week. Who'd know?
Double-selling a bond slave is a hanging offense.
Here's a mink for you,
so the rope won't scratch your neck.
Mr. Leach, Captain Holden said you'd give me my papers.
Well...
He said that? Yes, he set me free.
Free? That's carrying a joke too far.
What is?
First he pretends to buy the girl, then he pretends to set her free.
He did buy me.
If he bought a girl as pretty as you, he'd never set her free.
Mr. Leach?
I'm sure the gentleman meant no harm.
But he'd have told me.
He didn't have the courage. It is rather a grim joke.
You bought me.
No. Bone.
Where're you going?
He'll sell the others at Peakestown Fair.
You're not for sale.
I won't go with him. You'll go all right.
I ain't bad company.
Get the furs aboard and the slaves ashore.
Start west before night.
What's the matter, Jason? You're not singing.
I guess there ain't much singing left in me, Master Chris.
Just thinking.
You're thinking, too, Diana?
Why? Haven't I been talking?
Yes, you've been talking,
but about dogs and colts and cotton.
About most everything except us.
Well, the mosquitoes are glad I'm back anyway.
Oh, I'm glad you're back, Chris.
So is your brother, Harold.
Poor Hal. Poor?
Well, we can't both have you, Diana.
Chris,
when I look into your eyes, I don't see myself there.
You must be a little blind.
I see horizons,
ranges of uncrossed mountains, the unknown.
You belong to that, Chris,
the way an eagle belongs to the sky.
But I'm different. No, you're not.
Let me tell you what I see in your eyes. No.
You won't like the view.
It doesn't go beyond the walls of Holden Hall.
What are you trying to say?
Something I've been trying to tell you in everything but words.
Hal and I are married.
You married Holden Hall and £20,000 a year.
I married the things I want, Chris.
Where are we, Jason?
Just passing Blount's Landing, Master Chris.
Put me ashore. Chris, come home and meet your brother.
I don't care to inherit the brand of Cain.
He set aside £20,000 for you.
I paid £100 for a little thief aboard ship.
I think you were overpriced.
I was never yours to sell.
I guess you're right.
Your wedding present's in those trunks.
There's a green dress with all the fluff to go with it,
designed by Forgel, Madame Pompadour's dressmaker.
Just right for you. Cost £187.
Here are the keys.
You'll find someone more worthy than I am to wear them.
Some squaw, west of the Alleghenies.
Swing those trunks ashore. Yes, sir, Master Chris.
Oh, Chris, you'll forget me in no time.
You'll forget that in no time.
Just pile that stuff right here. I'll get a wagon.
Yes, sir, Master Chris. Take me with you, Master Chris.
You're not mine to take.
I'll miss you, Jason. You taught me most of what I know.
You might have taught me a little more about women.
Goodbye, old friend.
Now, while balancing himself on one foot
with nothing between him and the ground but this knife-sharp wire,
he will cut in two a paper tube
held in the mouths of these fair young damsels.
Don't worry if he misses, he told me they were two-faced.
This gentleman...
Hi, there, John Fraser. Ain't you a long way from Pittsburgh?
Five days and 150 miles uphill both ways.
...that far-famed monster of Madagascar,
the one-horned Boukabekabus.
Two, sir. Thank you.
With the hide of a bull, the head of a unicorn, and the wisdom of a prophet,
he has astonished the crowned heads of Europe
and now can be seen for three days only right here in Peakestown.
Hey, blacksmith, think you could hammer shoes on that?
Pittsburgh, he'd be a house pet.
Cider. Cider. Fresh, sweet cider.
Hard as a rock.
Cider here.
...hazard and risk for your education and recreation.
Neptune's loveliest daughter, she has the face of a female and the body of a fish.
She has lured, my friends, many a brave sea captain to his destruction.
Now, you with the spinning wheel there, don't go away. Come on in.
Come in, folks.
You've never seen anything like it before.
You'll never see anything like it again.
Scales on her tail and... Thank you very much, sir.
Scales on her tail and seaweed in her hair.
The greatest exhibit at the Peakestown Fair.
You can't take her home to your wife, John Fraser.
Chris. Chris Holden.
I've been looking all over for you. By gollys, how are you?
Did you expect to find me in there with the mermaid?
Aw, shucks. I wasn't... Pile your loot in the back and climb aboard.
Say, ain't you traveling kind of fancy?
What did you bring back, the London Bridge?
Well, a green dress for a bride
and women's doodads, which I expect to swap for trade goods.
Well, get over.
Yep. I heard about her.
Chris, you wasn't cut out to marry no Tidewater lady and just rusticate.
I don't know what the good Lord was about
when he made a female out of a perfectly good rib.
We'll tote your doodads over to Fort Pitt.
Officers' wives will pay more for them.
That's quite a speech for you.
But you didn't bring me out here just to tell me that.
What's going on? Trouble, Chris.
You can smell it as far as a flea can smell a dog.
Keep this covered.
Where did you get this?
Off an Injun that aimed a mite too high.
The Indian Commissioner seen it? Sir William?
No, not yet. I kept it for you.
Going twice. Sold to the gent in the butternut vest for £14.
Pay the notary, mister. He'll give you your papers.
Put your hat on, lad. It's your sweat I'm buying, not your spirit.
You don't have to bow and scrape to me.
Take this one for £1. He'll keep the crows off your field.
All right, come along. Let's see.
Say, you. Yeah.
I'm looking to buy a wife for my son.
Oh, wife.
Here, young lady. A buxom lass from Lancashire.
She can outwork a horse.
Kind and loving as a dove.
Made a little mistake, that's all.
She'll make your son a fine, affectionable wife.
What do you say, Son?
Joshua, what's the matter with you?
Ma, buy me that one.
She ain't for sale.
Get back on the wagon.
Why did you tell me to stand here and smile?
For bait. Get going.
Now, lady, what's your bid?
Let me talk to this girl private.
Look, Abby,
there's Captain Holden going into the tavern.
Here you are, folks, this young fella's as strong as a goat and smart as a fox.
I'd rather look at the devil himself.
Takes to work like a duck to water. What do you say?
Colonel Washington is here too, Chris.
I thought maybe you and him might get the Indian Commissioner to...
What's biting you? You ain't going to buy a bond slave, are you?
That girl looks like one I've already bought.
It is, Captain.
The moment you left, she came to me.
I use her for drawing crowds.
And I thought she was only a thief.
Hello, Chris, Mr. Garth. Mr. Lee.
Colonel Washington. You said to fetch him, George.
You know the Indian Commissioner, Sir William Johnson.
How are you, Captain? Sir William.
I haven't seen you since the Indians chased us off Braddock's Field.
What's the matter? You look as though they'd just caught up with you.
Mr. Garth was just enlightening me on the manners and morals of bond slaves.
My wife was a bond slave, you know, Captain Holden.
One of my teachers was an indentured convict, Chris.
Fine man. Never could teach me to spell.
Coming? Yes, sir.
I'll join you inside, Sir William.
Fourteen.
Only £14 for as handy a couple as you'll find this side of Cape Henry.
I don't want both. I bid £14 for the man.
The woman is yours, mister, for £6 more.
A woman's no good in my fields.
Oh, Ben, hold me close. I'm frightened.
Who'll say £20 for them both? You?
Not me. You?
Then it's £14 for the man. Sold to this gentleman here.
Now, what am I bid for the woman?
Don't sell us apart, Mr. Bone.
You'd be apart if you was serving your terms in prison.
Now, what am I bid for this? Who'll say six for the woman?
It's not human to sell a man away from his wife, Mr. Bone.
Shut your yap. Don't buy him alone, sir. Please.
I don't buy women. But she's his wife.
Keep quiet.
You never said they're man and wife, fella.
They're slaves, ain't they?
I'm not breaking up a family.
The girl's right. Get down there.
Don't whip her because of me, Mr. Bone.
Keep out of this. Don't worry about me, Maggie.
Get on down there. Take over, Art.
Don't go away, gentlemen. Don't go away.
Come on, we can see over the top.
Here's a good, strong field hand for your plantation.
Strong of back.
Strong of arm.
What am I bid. Do I hear £10? You'll get it now.
Please don't.
Hold your tongue. You've been asking for this.
It's time to learn who's your master.
Maybe it is, Bone.
She spiked a sale.
- Loose her. - Ain't they gonna tan her?
They're taking her down.
Fix your dress in the tent, Abby.
Are you out of your mind? You said to gentle her.
Flogging collects a crowd. Chris Holden's here.
Has he seen her? Yes.
Sell what you can and get going for Pittsburgh.
He hurt you.
I'm all right.
I'm sorry about this.
Why did you stop him?
I hoped you would forgive and forget.
Slavery hasn't taught me forgiveness.
Or gratitude.
I'm grateful for what you've done.
I can do more.
Would you help me get away?
Where?
There isn't a town in these colonies big enough to hide that red hair of yours.
Some try for the west. The west?
You've never seen a doe dragged down by a wolf pack
or a white woman when an Indian war party had done with her.
You don't know what freedom's worth until you lose it.
Isn't worth much against a Shawnee torture stake.
Hanging in England is quick, Abby.
Is it worse than 14 years of bondage with Bone?
It doesn't have to be bondage
or Bone.
Hannah.
Mamaultee bring word from my father.
Well?
Guyasuta say to Garth,
Pontiac at Wolf Creek.
Hannah, look after this girl.
White one. Pretty.
Who are you? A bond slave.
He no look at you like bond slave.
His.
Who are you? His wife.
For years, gentlemen, I've had the Indians' friendship.
I sometimes think that only an Irishman can really understand the red man.
Now, maybe I'm getting old, but I still know the signs.
There's a cloud of trouble coming down over the Ohio
with the sound of war drums in it.
I've heard them before.
And I know that closing your ears to them can cost you your scalp.
What's behind it, Sir William? Mr. Carroll,
when old enemies like the Ottawas, the Shawnees, and the Senecas
meet together in council, the thread's off the bobbin.
Perhaps just a meeting to bury the hatchet.
In somebody's skull.
Do you think there's war in this, Colonel Washington?
The whole frontier's a powder keg.
And those two gentlemen were almost the fuse.
Mr. Mason and Mr. Dixon, the London astronomers,
have been running a survey to settle Pennsylvania's boundary line
and her claim to Pittsburgh and the Ohio country.
Pittsburgh, gentlemen, is in Virginia.
You can see for yourselves.
But, Brother Lee,
Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania
and the whole Ohio Territory is... Mine.
Yours, Mr. Garth? Yes.
I'm no surveyor, gentlemen,
but the Allegheny runs here and the Monongahela.
Here's Pittsburgh.
Colonel Washington wants this territory for Virginia.
Mr. Andrews thinks it's in Pennsylvania.
But I hold deeds to it from the Indians.
The Indians cannot deed lands, Mr. Garth.
Not by law. Whose law? Pennsylvania's? Virginia's?
The King's law.
The King's law moves with the King's muskets.
And there are very few King's muskets west of the Alleghenies.
There's only bear, beaver and muskrat,
and they don't need boundary lines.
Mr. Garth.
The very heavens need boundary lines.
Mr. Mason and I have measured the distance from Earth to Mars.
There are no savages between Earth and Mars, Mr. Dixon.
There are 10,000 red hot ones between here and the Ohio.
And it's no place for surveyors or settlers.
You're there.
I rule it.
You can't rule part of Pennsylvania. Nor Virginia.
Nobody rules it until this survey is completed.
And I regret to inform you
that the Mason and Dixon Line has been stopped.
Stopped? When?
- How could it be stopped? - Mr. Mason.
Stopped rather thoroughly at Dunkard's Creek
by a band of painted aborigines.
It must have been a hunting party.
Why should Indians stop a survey? Why?
To hide the movement of war parties across the Ohio trail.
War parties?
The Senecas, the Ottawas,
Delawares, Shawnees... You mean a general uprising?
Have they powder and lead? War parties?
Is that possible, Sir William?
So possible that we have forbidden the sale of firearms to the Indians.
But, Sir William, no one could bring those tribes together.
I think there is someone, Mr. Garth.
Who? Pontiac.
Pontiac? The Ottawa chief?
Pontiac's a friend of the white man.
Which white man?
Those who stay east of the Alleghenies.
Mr. Garth has just been in England
trying to get a law passed prohibiting settlement west of the Allegheny.
He wants the whole fur empire to himself.
Settlers will never be safe west of the mountains.
Why, their homes are there.
Their graves will be there, unless you call them back.
Mr. Garth.
Those people will never abandon a settlement like Pittsburgh.
I'm sorry, Colonel Washington.
I know you selected that site yourself,
but after all, a fort at the end of the earth,
guarding nothing, on a couple of useless rivers.
That triangle of land, sir, may be the most vital spot in this country.
Oh, my dear Colonel.
I visited John Fraser's forge there once.
And saw... Coal and iron, that's what he saw.
Pittsburgh's like a hen sitting on more coal than she can hatch in a thousand years.
Cook the iron with that coal and what've you got? Steel.
Why, that town'll sprout into a city of maybe four or five thousand folks.
Don't laugh, gentlemen. John's a good gunsmith
and we may need more guns than words to build a future.
I've given my opinion.
If you ignore it, I'll wash my hands clean of the whole matter.
I hope they stay clean. Captain Holden.
Mr. Garth knows the Indians. He ought to.
He's married to Guyasuta's daughter and is a blood brother of the Senecas.
Watch your words, man.
Didn't you exchange blood with Guyasuta?
Yes.
That's why the Senecas trade with me rather than with Crawford or Croghan.
My trading posts would be the first to go up in the smoke of an Indian war.
Then why did you send hundreds of muskets from England?
Thousands of flints, tons of bar lead and powder to...
Captain Holden, what are you suggesting?
Captain Holden is somewhat bitter toward me
because of a pretty bond slave aboard ship.
Seems he's lost his famous luck with the ladies.
You still haven't explained the shipments of arms, Mr. Garth.
Explain them? I deny them.
Any other information you'd like? Yes.
In case of an Indian war, which side would you be on?
I've killed men for less than that.
For much less.
Captain Holden, I suggest that you control yourself
and leave Mr. Garth to control the Indians.
Control?
No one can contro the Indians, once they've sent around the red belt of war.
But if you close the Ohio to settlement,
the war belt will never be passed. It has been passed.
What? When?
That's hard to believe.
How do you know?
John Fraser took this off an Ottawa near Venango.
Crossed tomahawks.
The war belt. A war belt!
That otter there is Pontiac's sign.
On its way to Guyasuta. Mr. Garth's blood brother.
Colonel Bouquet, that belt makes it a matter for the army.
I have no army. What? Why?
The Black Watch is just in from the Caribbean, fever among the men.
Do you expect miracles?
We cannot be ready for four months.
Four months?
There won't be a live settler west of the mountains.
Then pull your settlers back.
Or stop the war before it breaks. How?
By sending peace belts to all the chiefs.
Peace belts? Yes.
Why not, Sir William?
Calling a council. It's worked before.
Pontiac'd make buzzard bait out of the man hat carried them.
No.
No, I believe the peace belts could get through
if they were carried by an expert woodsman such as Captain Holden.
Holden? It'd be murder, Chris.
Why?
He knows the Indians, he knows the trails, and he's a dead shot.
What do you say, Captain Holden?
I'll take them, Sir William.
That was a brave thing you just said, Captain.
I'll provide the scouts, Captain.
I guess I'll provide my own scouts, Mr. Garth.
Where'll you be?
Wolf Creek with Guyasuta
and Pontiac.
Get back in the wagon.
How soon can you start?
Tonight, if John Fraser gets me buckskins and a rifle.
The peace belts will not be ready for three days.
How will you go? By Nemacolin's Path.
I'll take charge of the pathfinding.
You're not going, John.
Now, Chris, there's no reason... Your wife would skin me alive.
You're going to drive my gear to Pittsburgh.
Captain, your mission is confidential.
If you run into trouble, you cannot tell the military
or we'll have this war on our hands before we can fight it.
Colonel Bouquet is right.
Action by the military is the one thing
that would instantly unite all the tribes behind Pontiac.
You'll be playing a lone hand, Chris.
You might have use for this compass.
It's not Boston Common you'll be crossing.
Indeed, it's not.
Headstones are the only milestones on Nemacolin's Path.
I haven't seen a bird or a wild critter in an hour.
Me, neither.
It don't smell right.
Joe.
Clean through the heart. He's dead.
I've got the belts.
Come on. Save your scalp.
Dan, grab that branch.
This dang tree needs pruning.
My powder horn.
My powder horn, he's seen it.
Well, that's one good Injun.
Ottawa. What's Ottawas doing in Seneca country?
Ask Garth.
No time for souvenirs, come on.
I reckon we shook them off.
You can't ever shake off an Indian.
I left my wind about six miles back.
I ought to have my brain dusted.
With that skull ax?
A few days ago, this tomahawk was on a ship with Garth.
He didn't waste much time passing them around.
Garth knew these belts were going through and he knew we were carrying them.
That's why Joe Lavat's back there with an arrow through him.
You still delivering peace belts?
We've got another job to do first, Dan.
Killing Garth, I guess.
I guess.
That's my job, Dan.
We'll split up
and if I don't get through to Pittsburgh, the job is yours.
Let's get going.
I'm traveling over Chestnut Ridge.
I'll cross Turkey Foot to the Old Braddock Road.
Nothing ever travels that but ghosts.
Be sure you ain't one of them. Thanks.
I'll meet you on Coal Hill above Fort Pitt before noon.
Before noon.
You want this compass? No.
I'd get lost.
Well, so long, Captain.
So long, Fur-face.
Dan McCoy with a compass.
Hang onto your powder horn this time.
What're you drinking? Rum.
So am I. Hey.
Well, don't swallow the cup. I won't.
Five fingers of rum to drink to the King's birthday.
Go on and be nice to them.
None of that that trade slop you feed the savages.
Hey, get that jug of rum over here.
Ale.
Hey, you're pretty.
Ain't been here long, have you? You've been here too long.
What's your name, dearie? Corn whiskey.
Come here, Corn Whiskey. Oh, don't. No, please.
I ain't gonna hurt you. I just want...
Better you spilled blood.
Scrub it up before Bone beats the daylights out of you.
Come on. Come on or Bone'll charge you for a bath.
- Hey, what about my liquor? - Lap it up off the floor, Jim.
Jake, you owe me one for this.
There's plenty more at the bar.
Why you no run away?
Run away, Hannah? Where?
Where he no find you. Garth?
He come here tonight
for you.
Spilling that grog will add a year onto your time.
But I didn't... Get out there.
Here's your bottle. Keep out of sight.
Them Indians won't trade for nothing but gunpowder.
Give it to them. It's breaking the law.
Give it to them.
And so, gentlemen, you see a mink skin. But observe.
The mink skin is no longer a mink skin.
It has become a silver button.
What's the ruckus?
Well, this aborigine here claims there were five little minks.
See for yourself there are only four. One, two, three, four.
Why, you worthless, lard-bellied, thieving... Trying to start a massacre?
We've got enough trouble.
Some more just came in the door.
Keep scrubbing.
Get along.
Looking for somebody?
Garth trade here?
Some. Where is he?
How do I know? This Ottawa knows.
No, he just come in from up north.
Northeast, maybe from Chestnut Ridge.
What of it? He's a friendly Indian.
He is? Then, why is he wearing a dead man's powder horn?
He ain't. Powder horns are easy to get. Not this one.
Get Mr. Bone a drink. From over there.
This Indian killed Dan McCoy to get a leather pouch.
Where is it?
I don't know.
But if you came here looking for trouble, you've found it.
Keep both hands on that drink, Mr. Bone.
Where's the pouch?
Is this what you're looking for?
Shut your... Bone.
Yes, that's it. You've certainly come down in the world.
So has my opinion of you.
Is this Mr. Garth's hospitality?
You're not going anywhere. Keep your hands flat on the bar.
I figured you'd do better with your freedom.
What freedom? Freedom to be beaten with a whip,
to serve and to scrub and milk, from sunup to midnight?
Then crawl into a cornhusk bed too tired to sleep or even cry?
Why don't you quit? A slave can't quit.
Slave?
But I set you free.
You never set her free.
No. He bought me and tonight he's selling me to Garth.
Shut up, you. Keep both hands on that drink, Mr. Bone.
Tonight, huh?
Get your things, Abby.
I haven't any things.
You have two feet, get up on them and bring the pouch.
I'll break your arms if... No, you won't.
I bought her and if she's not free, she's mine. Get behind me, Abby.
Now start for the door.
Art. Jake.
- Coming, boss. - I'll get him.
I'll put a hole through the first thing in this room that moves.
Slave stealing means hanging.
You've got the right neck for it, Mr. Bone. Get your hand back on that drink.
Garth will be looking for you. That's the idea.
That one was for Dan McCoy.
There's another one here for Joe Lavat if anybody wants it.
Get that rifle and get him at gunpoint.
We'll get him, boss.
Where to?
Fraser's forge, and don't pick my pocket on the way.
Hello, John.
Chris, what are you doing here?
You must have been traveling on a broomstick.
Sit down and let your breath catch up with you.
I thought you was on a job for Colonel Washington.
I am. Well, what happened?
An Ottawa.
What's that? A lady.
Thank you.
Did you bring her here to get shod?
Well, she cast a shoe.
John Fraser.
Yeah.
Where's that pressing iron you were heating for me?
Scalping's too good for you.
Standing there lollygagging with every Tom...
Land o'mighty, Chris! Well, Half-Pint. Let me look at you.
Pretty.
Oh, Chris. Right in front of my own husband.
What'd you come here for? King's birthday ball?
I didn't know he was having one, but I came to dance it with you.
You're the biggest liar ever crossed the Alleghenies, except my John.
Chris, you're making me dizzy. Stop prancing and tell me the truth.
Well, I tell you I came to trap a skunk.
Appears to me you trapped a chipmunk.
I beg your pardon, Mistress Abigail,
I want you to meet the love of my life, Mrs. John Fraser.
Your servant, ma'am. Well, she's nice-mannered.
She's the wench from the tavern.
Garth'll nail your hide to the barn door for this.
He owns everything in that tavern. What'd you bring her here for?
To give her a bath.
Save us, what next?
What for you want to give her a bath? Because she's dirty.
Look at her hair, look at her clothes,
look at her... Well, look at her.
She's stolen goods, Chris.
Ain't your place to wash other people's belongings.
Scrub her clean enough and even Garth won't know her.
You're just plumb crazy.
Where's that luggage of mine you brought from Peakestown?
She can't go to the ball looking like that.
The King's birthday ball? Me?
He is crazy. I believe you're right.
You're gonna be scrubbed so clean that you're gonna look like new.
Not by you, I'm not.
Now your back.
Oh, stop wiggling, child. I have soap in my mouth.
Well, keep it shut.
Skin's real pink when you get down to it. More water.
This ought to fit. She's about Diana's size.
I won't go to the ball.
You can't drag me around in your wife's old clothes.
Washing a slave girl ain't gonna stop no Injun bust-out.
Washing this one might. Hey, what's this?
I don't know.
It's nothing for a bachelor. Where's that water?
Bachelor? He's not a bachelor. Oh, yes, he is, and he's gonna stay one.
You didn't get married? No.
My uniform's in the other trunk. Where is it, John?
In here.
He didn't get married. Lucky escape for some woman. Stand up.
Chris, the whole frontier's just ready to bust wide open
and here you are traipsing around with a little...
John, did you ever catch a bear with honey?
Mr. and Mrs. George Carter.
I'll be right back, Carl. All right, Sara.
Name, please. Not me. Everybody knows me.
All right, sir.
Howdy, Carl.
I'm ready. I'm hankering for a dance.
Oh, hello, Sally. Having a good time?
Oh, Captain Ecuyer.
Every lady in Pittsburgh is simply perishing for a dance with you.
My dancing was ended by an old wound. In the heart, Captain Ecuyer?
Unfortunately, a trifle lower.
I left my dancing days in Switzerland. Captain Steele dances for me here.
I'll hold you to that, sir. Look.
That's a vulgar noise, Captain, but I agree with it.
Captain Christopher Holden, Mistress Abigail Hale.
Abigail Hale?
Why are they staring so?
You look like Venus emerging from an emerald sea.
What a heavenly gown. What an angel in it.
How would I look in a dress like that, Jim? You'll never know, Ma.
How do you do? I know you by reputation, Captain Holden.
What brings you to Pittsburgh? A lady from London, sir.
Mistress Abigail Hale, Captain Ecuyer, Commandant of Fort Pitt.
A charming breath of England to sweeten our wilderness.
My second in command, Captain Steele. Captain.
Your servant, ma'am.
I'm sure we've met before.
I think not, Captain, I've been very closely guarded.
We crossed the Atlantic on the same ship. She was allowed very little freedom.
You're still a riddle to me, Miss Hale. Perhaps this dance will help solve it.
I'll solve this one, Captain.
Outmaneuvered, Captain, huh?
John Fraser, I believe you're going to faint.
Get me to the punch bowl, Mother.
Fine feathers certainly make a difference.
In this case, the bird improves the feathers.
You're quite a burst of plumage yourself, Captain Holden.
You mean birds of a feather? No, you think I'm a thief.
And you thought I was a liar.
I've seen that girl somewhere.
Must have been heaven.
Post number two. 11 o'clock and all's well.
Post number three. 11 o'clock and all's well.
Post number four. 11 o'clock and all's well.
Post number five. 11 o'clock and all's well.
All's well, isn't it?
Too quiet.
You seem to be watching for something.
Watchfulness isn't a bad thing, Abby,
when you are at the edge of the end of the world.
Why? What's there?
Forests and savages.
The end of the present, the beginning of the future.
The beginning of the future, Captain Holden?
Chris.
Why did you really come to Pittsburgh, Chris?
The moonlight is turning your dress into green fire.
It wasn't to set me free, as it?
And the stars are dancing in your eyes.
Did you come through 500 miles of wilderness
to tell me the stars are dancing in my eyes?
Can you think of any better reason?
A woman only thinks what she wants to.
And you want to think I came to set you free?
Maybe no one has the right to own anyone else.
Men and women weren't made to be bought like yards of cloth.
At the tavern, you said you owned me.
I do.
But you want to be free, don't you?
I wonder... Hey, you're ruining the ordnance.
I'm not sure I want to be free of you, Chris. Why do you say that?
Because you've taken me out of a horrible nightmare.
Because you've given me kindness and happiness and understanding.
Abby, listen to me.
It wasn't kindness and understanding that made me bring you here.
No? Why did you bring me?
Because I know Garth will follow. Garth?
When he sees you here like this, he'll try to take you back,
and then I can do what I came to Pittsburgh to do.
Kill him? Is that it? Yes, that's it.
And I'm the bait, staked out like a deer to draw a tiger. That's true, isn't it?
Yes. And you said the stars were in my eyes.
They were there. Because I thought...
Oh, it doesn't matter.
Everything that you've done for me is because you wanted to challenge Garth.
You're not a man.
You're a walking loaded rifle with one bloodthirsty purpose, to kill Garth.
You haven't blood in your veins, you've gunpowder.
Abby, maybe you're right.
But this is more important than you or me, or both of us.
If Garth doesn't die within the next few hours,
a lot of men and women on this frontier will.
You're either the world's greatest liar or the world's greatest fool.
You're probably both. I'm going.
You'll stay and see it through. Why should I?
Because I own you.
A few minutes ago you said nobody should be owned.
Do you ever mean anything you say, Captain Holden?
Here's your good-luck piece.
You'll need it when you meet Mr. Garth.
Miss Hale, I couldn't find you for our dance. Yes, I know.
No, this one's mine, isn't it, Miss Hale?
No, I'm sorry. Perhaps the next one, Miss Hale.
Mistress Hale, you promised this dance to me.
What's happened to Chris? Gentlemen, I'm not dancing.
Mrs. Fraser, may I have this dance? I'd love to.
Love? With me?
Mistress Hale. You promised.
There'll be no living with Baillie after this. Yeah.
She's madder than a bucketful of hornets, Chris.
You needn't signal, Mr. Fraser. He'll know I'm here.
The bear has come for the honey. He's come for your hide.
Then stand away from me, Half-Pint.
Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.
Mistress Hale, will you come forward?
They're going to crown you queen of the ball.
I think not. May I have your arm, please?
Yes, Captain Ecuyer?
Is this the young lady, Mr. Garth?
Yes, sir. My runaway bond slave.
Bond slave? I knew I'd seen her before.
Mistress Hale from England.
Mistress Hale... Quiet, quiet, please.
Thank you, Lieutenant. I'll take this girl.
Lieutenant, you may finish this dance with Miss Hale.
Well, sir, that's mighty good of you, but... This girl is mine.
Captain Ecuyer, Mr. Garth has three indisputable talents.
He is a liar, a cheat and a coward. Captain Holden.
Captain, I bought this girl, which makes him a liar,
he stole her from me, which makes him a cheat,
and he won't fight, which makes him a coward.
By your leave, sir.
Captain Steele, will you arrange the time and the place?
Who speaks for you, sir? John Fraser, and the sooner the better.
The King's birthday ball is no place to arrange a duel.
Mr. Garth and I can step outside and settle this in a few minutes.
Sunup tomorrow. The light will be better.
In the meantime, I'll take my property. Not by law.
I am the law here.
The question of who owns this girl will be settled in my office.
Sergeant, music. Yes, sir.
Ladles and gentlemen, continue dancing, please.
Captain Steele, bring Miss Hale to my office. Gentlemen.
...well, it might be, so come away.
She scrubs the floors at Bone's tavern.
She can scrub the floor at my house any time she wants.
- I wonder where she got that dress. - Stolen, I reckon.
Did you know this, Jane Fraser?
Of course I did. She's a mighty fine girl.
I still say that dress came from Paris.
Don't you go boiling over in there, now.
You ain't supposed to let on to the military why you're here.
Keep your scalp on, John. Mine's on tighter than yours.
Captain Holden, you haven't one scrap of reason
or evidence to support your claim to this girl.
The law requires a bill of sale. I have it.
Norfolk notary. Sold to Bone. Bone to me.
These papers are in order.
You come brawling into Mr. Garth's tavern,
killing Indians, stealing bond slaves
and now you answer his rightful claim
by hurling challenges like a bully in a schoolyard.
Captain Holden's been trying to pick a quarrel with me ever since we left England.
Why?
I ask permission not to answer that.
He's a bad loser, that's all.
His vanity was hurt over this girl and he's followed me here to repair it with a bullet.
Is that true?
Did you come here because of this girl? Yes, sir.
This woman is yours, Mr. Garth. You can take her.
Do you realize what you have done to this woman?
Mr. Garth has the legal right to give her the whipping post, the pillory,
or the branding iron if he chooses to use it.
Mr. Garth won't live to use It.
Good evening, Captain Ecuyer. Come, Abby.
You'd better take her out this way.
Captain Holden, you are under my orders. If you harm...
I'll send the dress back to you, Captain Holden.
I'm going after that girl. No, you are not.
If you try, you'll spend the next five years in the fort's dungeon.
And don't look as though you'd like to cut my heart out.
It's against regulations.
Shall we join the ladies?
Bone leave for Venango? Yes, two hours ago.
You know what to do.
Abby. You. Get out.
A little sherry, perhaps. No.
I once penned an ode to the wines of Spain.
"Italian wines are rich..." Abby. Wait.
"The wines of France are light as air but the wines of Spain..."
Are you going? "The wines of Spain..."
Why did you go with Holden? To be free.
He can't set you free.
He may, when he meets you at sunup tomorrow.
Tomorrow never comes.
Aren't you going to fight him? I don't have to fight for you.
You're mine, just as my horse or my dogs or my boots are mine.
I'll serve my time, 14 years, I'll work faithfully...
Faithfully? Running away with Holden?
I'm not going to punish you.
But you'll never forget again who you belong to.
Drums of war sound.
All fort die by white flag that is red.
Why do the Indians come to you?
Guyasuta wait for Garth.
You're with them.
Bring the girl.
Take your hands off me.
Stop it. Hannah, please make them stop. Make them let me go.
Jeremy.
You savages.
And you fighting a duel in the morning.
Why, this might be your last dance.
Excuse me, ma'am, I'll go and make my will.
Sorry, sir, you're not to pass.
Captain Ecuyer. Where's the Captain?
What's happened?
Don't let those people in here. This is the King's birthday ball.
I'm sorry, sir, this woman's in distress...
Save your children.
Go. Go get your children.
That's Joe Pruitt's missus from Clapham's.
Clapham's? That's more than 20 miles.
- Poor soul. - Let me help.
Stand back. Give her room. Clapham's ain't no more. They're all dead.
What happened? Injuns, they killed my Joe.
No. That child is badly hurt.
Get Dr. Boyd. Yes, sir.
Some brandy for this woman. Yes, sir.
They crept up in the night. How many?
More than 100 of them.
They massacred Colonel Clapham and all his womenfolk
and Jim Mealy and the Garvice boys.
- The murdering devils. Holden. - My babies. I've got to get my babies.
Tom, come on.
My kids. I left them with a Seneca squaw.
Well, I was just visiting here. May be a long visit.
Attention, everyone.
You will bring your families into the fort, your livestock and foodstuffs.
Major Trent, as the settlers come in, form them into militia companies.
Yes, sir.
Captain Steele, put the entire garrison under arms at their posts of alarm.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Hutchins. Yes, sir.
Run up the signal torch on the gate staff. Yes, sir.
Mr. Baillie. Yes, sir.
One squad to stand by the drawbridge.
It remains down till all the settlers are in.
Yes, sir. Sir, order to load the powder magazine.
Captain Holden. Yes, sir.
Since you are anxious to leave, take 20 men and level the town.
Dismantle what you can and burn the rest. Yes, sir.
And leave nothing standing to give cove to the savages. Take Fraser.
Yes, sir.
Captain Holden.
Be sure you come back.
Yes, sir.
You can't burn my place, Holden. It took me two years to build that store.
It'll take you all eternity to grow a new scalp.
Where to first, Chris? Bone's tavern.
Watch your torches. Move that log out of the way!
- Search this place, men. - Stroud, stand watch by the door.
Go to Black Watch's until ordered.
Abby. Abby. Search back there.
Keep you eyes peeled, now.
Abby. Everywhere.
Sergeant, pile up everything in this room that will burn.
Yes, sir. Not in the middle, against the counter...
Captain Holden. Captain Holden.
Hey, Chris, come here.
Yes, sir. Bring those chairs over here
and throw them on. Yes, sir.
Throw those bundles over.
Where's Abby?
They've taken her, Hannah and the Indians, to Guyasuta's camp.
Hurry up, before those redsticks get here.
Guyasuta? Yes.
Get me some dried meat and a powder horn.
Lend me your rifle and powder horn, John.
Chris, you can't go after her. You wouldn't stand a chance.
You've seen what they do to white women.
Where are your bullets?
Ecuyer ordered you to burn this town. They'll burn her.
And you spitted right alongside her.
Chris, you're the goldarndest, contrariest fool I ever did see. I'm going with you.
You're staying here and carrying out Ecuyer's orders.
Here you are, Captain. The dried meat and powder horn.
What am I going to tell Ecuyer about you?
You tell him I'll report to him in heaven, if we both get there.
Good luck, sir.
All clear upstairs. All right, put the torch to it.
Let her go.
Let it all come down. Fire in the stable. Yes, sir.
Throw a torch under the stairwell.
Here, strike the Ottawas under Pontiac.
Fort Detroit.
Here, the Mingos of Chief Skarat.
Fort Niagara.
Here, the Wyandots of Chief Takee.
Fort Sandusky.
Here, the Senecas under you, Genowah.
Fort Venango.
And here you, Guyasuta, with Delawares, Shawnees and Senecas.
Fort Pitt.
Ecuyer is a shrewd, strong warrior.
Sioto has made medicine.
Fort Pitt will die. All these forts must die.
By white flag
that is red.
We know, all chief know.
Is the white girl safe?
Hannah, you will stay here with her. I go to Fort Pitt.
My daughter your woman. She go with you.
As my brother wishes.
But the white girl stays here. Protect her.
What are they going to do?
Before white one come, Garth see only this one.
I've tried to tell you that he...
This one love Garth, very big love.
He doesn't mean anything to me.
He mean much to me.
Soon white one, no more.
This one go with husband.
Hannah.
I've heard what they do to white women.
I'm not very brave. Will you ask them please to let it be quick?
Never quick.
Chris.
Chris, go back! Go back!
Maybe I've come to the wrong village.
I was looking for great warriors, the Seneca.
Chris, you can't save me.
We are Seneca. These?
These are not the Senecas I know. I was there when they stopped Braddock.
These...
These are just squaws painted like men, only fit to torture women.
Chris, they'll kill you.
Keep your tongue between your teeth.
Who calls himself Chief among these woman fighters?
I am Guyasuta.
You think we are women?
I am unarmed.
You forget your own laws. Tell these squaws I come in peace.
You come in peace,
go in peace. That's better.
Untie her.
Why you come?
I bring belts of peace from Sir William. Red belt of war has passed.
White man's forts will burn. All die.
White woman burn.
Some may die, but more will come, always more.
White man's medicine is strong, nothing can stop them.
Sioto medicine stop them.
Can Sioto match his medicine against mine?
Sioto can make rains come, winds blow.
Sioto can speak to the dead.
With my medicine I can take this woman, even this worthless squaw
and vanish as I came, and Sioto and all your braves can never find us.
You speak big words.
Stand back.
This magic is strong.
It obeys only me.
Watch this little arrow. It is magic.
Little arrow point to that tree and nowhere else.
Now, you feathered vulture, you make it point somewhere else.
Here, take it.
If it obeys you, the girl dies and I die with her.
But if it does not obey Sioto,
I will take the girl and you cannot follow until the arrow turns.
Is it a bargain?
It is bargain.
Make arrow point.
Looks like the little arrow only hears the white man's tongue.
Point at fire.
Little arrow, do not listen to Sioto's medicine.
Point at fire.
Looks like you're not doing so well.
Oh, Chris.
Sioto say not magic. Arrow point all time at tree.
It points where I tell it to.
It will point at you.
Chris, you can't. You know it won't. Squaw talk.
Arm yourself, Guyasuta. This is the medicine of death.
Give him a knife, the tomahawk.
Not this one, one of the new steel ones of Garth's, a gun.
Now,
little arrow,
point to the chief of the Seneca.
Take it.
Tell Sioto to make it turn from you if he can.
Turn, arrow. Point at white man.
The little arrow points only at you, Guyasuta.
Release the squaw.
Take her. Take her.
Guyasuta is once again a great chief.
No. No. Help.
Let her go. Let go. Get out of here. Go on, go on. Get away. Get away.
Get away. Go on. Get away. Get out of here.
Don't fall. Keep your nerve. I haven't much left.
Don't let them know it, we're not out of here yet.
Guyasuta, if your men follow before that arrow moves
it will go right through your heart.
Keep going. Keep going.
Now get.
It's dawn. They'll be hunting us by daylight. What can we do?
Die more comfortably.
Follow me.
Push those two adrift and get in the other one.
Where to? Kingdom come.
Look, Chris, they're coming.
Save your breath for paddling.
We're gaining. Current's faster.
There are rapids ahead.
There's worse behind.
Hand me your paddle and move back here.
Chris, the waterfall.
Untie my sash.
Put the sash around my neck and tie it under your arms.
We're going over. Hang onto me and pray.
Hold tight. Here we go.
Oh, Chris.
Wolves.
There, my little nimrod, is your wolf.
Well, he had wolves for ancestors.
Hello, boy. Hello, boy, hello, boy.
You all alone?
Where's your family?
They had to get out in a hurry. Look here.
"Injuns Riz. Me and missus gone to Venango.
"You better get there too if you can read this. Ben Salter."
We'd better get inside for the night.
What is it?
Clothes.
I wonder if Mrs. Salter would mind.
Well, I'm borrowing Mr. Salter's shirt whether he minds or not.
Hey. What's the matter?
Food. Beans.
Just like coming home.
Chris? Yes.
What happened to the little dog?
Out chasing varmints, I guess.
We'll take him along with us to Ben Salter and his wife at Venango.
I wonder why they didn't take him.
"Benjamin Salter, his Bible."
I was thinking the Salters must have been very happy here.
Why?
It feels like it, doesn't it?
I guess so.
Back in London, I used to want to be a grand lady with carriages and mansions.
Maybe you will someday. No.
Now I just want what the Salters have. This.
Was she very pretty?
Hmm?
Who?
The girl you bought the green dress for.
Oh, Diana.
I guess so.
Why didn't you marry her?
She liked someone else better.
Better than you?
She must have been crazy.
Good night, Chris.
Good night, Abby.
Hey, aren't you a little bit old to be playing with dolls, young fellow?
Hey, what's the matter? What's troubling you, huh?
What do you got? What do you got out there, a bear?
Well, all right, let's go get him.
Come on.
Say, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning.
Hey, what's the matter? What...
Chris? Chris?
Go back in the house, Abby. Why? What are you doing?
Digging.
Look, good fit. Nice color.
What's this?
A doll.
The Salters won't be coming back, Abby.
They never left.
What do you mean?
Why is the dog... Don't look.
No one has a chance in this wilderness.
Nobody can fight it.
It'll always be wilderness.
The savages will burn and torture and kill
until they get it back.
Abby, get a couple of those sticks and tie them together for a cross.
People like the Salters can never be stopped, Abby.
The Indians can kill them and run them off,
but more will keep coming.
The Salters are the New World, unconquered.
Unconquerable
because they're strong and free,
because they have faith in themselves,
and in God.
Here, tie it together with this.
Chris. I need shoeing again.
Venango is just around the bend.
It is? Let's look.
Let's patch the moccasin first.
You mean Venango's goodbye.
Maybe.
You know, they can make a lot of trouble for runaway slaves.
Maybe we'd better call you Mrs. Holden.
Mrs. Holden?
Just for Venango, of course. Of course. Just for Venango.
But then you may get to like the sound of it.
Might even want it for keeps.
Here.
Are you asking me to marry you? Yes.
Try it on.
Because you're sorry for me.
I'm only sorry that it took to long to find you.
Hey, what are you crying about?
It's just that I'm so full of happiness it's... It's overflowing.
What is it? What are you looking at?
Vultures.
They had surrendered.
It's horrible.
What's that?
Pop, you're alive.
No, I ain't.
For three days, I been a-dying here,
and you don't come along until I'm dead.
You've got lots of life, Pop.
Abby, get that canteen of water.
Don't get me no water.
I ain't that dead.
Prop me up.
I'm busted clean through.
How'd the Indians get in? They walked in.
Chief Genowah, that mangy polecat.
Three times he comes to the fort with his white flag and his promises.
"Surrender," says he, "and you'll all go free."
When the grub run out,
everybody started yelping to run up the white flag.
I warned them, but nobody'd listen.
So they run up that danged white rag.
And all the folks went out,
and them redsticks come a-hooting and a-shooting
and massacred every last one of them
under that white flag.
For three days, I've been trying not to die
till some dang fool like you comes along, to warn Fort Pitt.
Fort Pitt.
You got long legs,
get them a-going.
You can get down the river at night
in a canoe.
Chris?
We're going east.
No, we're not.
That was just a dream we dreamed together for a little while.
We're going east.
There are 600 lives at Fort Pitt.
And Garth is one of them.
You're his, Abby.
If we go back, you go back to him.
We have no choice.
Of course, you ain't.
Get back to Fort Pitt.
Show them this flag.
Tell them what the redsticks is up to.
"Go free," they says.
"Take your people and your cattle.
"All we want is our hunting ground."
That's what he says,
"Take your people and your cattle.
"All we want is our hunting..."
"Go free.
"Take your people and your cattle.
"All we want is our hunting ground."
It's signed with Guyasuta's totem.
We're in a bad way, sir.
We've had no word yet from Colonel Bouquet's relief column.
Are you suggesting we surrender? Put your weight on that.
I don't think much of our chances. Then stop thinking.
Heat an iron, Dr. Boyd. This arrow may have been poisoned.
Tell Guyasuta this is our home
and we will defend this ground till the last warrior lies under it.
I'll send my wife with your message, Captain Ecuyer,
but after two months of siege, you've only a few days' provisions.
I just told you... Get out, get out, both of you.
You'll kill this man.
Captain Steele, you are in command.
Yes, sir.
What's going on here? At ease.
What are you doing with that rope? We're raising a ghost.
I hope it's a scout from Bouquet.
Oh, Chris, where in blazes did you come from?
I'm sure glad to see you breathing.
Go down and give Abby a boost. Sure.
We didn't expect you'd come this way again, Captain Holden.
I have a report for Captain Ecuyer, sir.
Captain Ecuyer is wounded. I am in command.
There's been treachery at Fort Venango, sir. Treachery?
That's a strange word from you.
You were under orders to burn the town of Pittsburgh
and report back to Captain Ecuyer, were you not?
Yes, sir.
John, let her stand on your shoulders.
You're under arrest for desertion in the face of the enemy.
But, sir... Mr. Hutchins, disarm him.
That elusive little bond slave
will be held as a material witness until the court martial.
I don't believe this cock-and-bull story that Venango surrendered.
Bone here got through. He says the fort still stands.
Captain Holden is obviously trying to protect himself and this girl.
The Mohawk Trail to Albany and Boston is what they were headed for,
and the Indians drove them back.
That's probably Indian blood on this flag.
No, gentlemen,
you need more proof than the word of a deserter.
We came back to save your fool necks.
Because there's a Judas here
who won't stop until this flag flies over this fort
and you're all dead beneath it.
Captain Holden is out of order.
Attacking Mr. Garth will not alter the record.
Return to your seat.
Proceed.
Was the accused headed for he Mohawk Trail and Boston?
What difference does it make?
You're all going to pay a terrible price for not believing us.
Confine yourself to the question.
Was he trying to escape with you to Boston?
I won't answer that. You must answer.
She needn't.
We were heading for the Mohawk Trail to Albany and Boston.
I submit to the court the prisoner has admitted desertion.
Upon consideration of the matter before it,
this court finds the accused guilty of desertion in the face of the enemy.
In accordance with the articles of war,
prisoner will be stripped of his military rank and held in confinement
until the firing party will execute the sentence of death.
Remove the prisoner.
The runaway bond slave will be returned to her lawful master, Mr. Garth.
Go back to the women's quarters.
You bring white one.
You tried to burn her at the stake.
Your tongue is forked. I'm through with you.
The firelight's very becoming to that red hair, Abby.
I really should thank Holden for saving you for me,
if the firing squad gives me time.
No.
For me, or for you?
For me.
I don't want you to die. I want you to live.
You can't force me to live any more than you can force me to love.
You belong to me.
You don't want me as a slave.
No, I want you to come to me of your own free will.
I'll come to you of my own free will.
Abby. Nothing for nothing's given here.
What do you want?
A word from you can open doors.
Sentries can be missing, a guard looking the other way.
You want Chris Holden's life.
Let him go tonight. Give him his chance to live,
and I'll be here.
That stubborn fool would rather die in the morning than leave without you.
He'll go.
It'll be just you and me, alone?
I promise.
Chris. Chris.
Abby. How did you...
I've been saying goodbye to you over and over again for hours.
Seeing you doesn't make it any easier.
Here.
How did you...
You can get away through the sally port tunnel.
Did someone push the sentry in the river? Time's running out.
Where's the guard? You still have friends.
No, this way.
Isn't that door locked? It will open.
John Fraser? Find the relief column.
Tell Colonel Bouquet how desperate things are here.
No sentry at the sally port either.
Fraser must have bribed the whole garrison, or did he?
Don't question me, Chris, just go. Are you going with me?
I'm staying here.
Fraser didn't open these doors, Abby.
Get the relief here, Chris.
Don't let Fort Pitt become another Venango.
You opened them.
You and I died together back there at Venango.
There'll be a mug of rum for every hole in his carcass.
You'll need a keg, Mr. Garth. These men are possum hunters.
Watch the moat by the sally port tunnel there.
Something moving.
I'll send your keg of rum to the barracks.
Abby?
This one, wife.
You'll go back to your father.
The one you tried to kill will be my wife.
White one love Holden man.
Holden is dead.
Not dead.
He was shot crossing the moat.
No.
This one.
Hannah.
Holden man bring white chief,
many, many soldier.
Little fool, why did you do it?
This one wife.
- Fire attack on the... - Bucket brigade! Bucket brigade!
How many men?
Get that roof wet!
Come on. Come on.
Start some this way. The south barrack's on fire.
Steady there, steady.
Gotta keep moving. You gotta keep these buckets moving.
Get down.
Here you are.
Hold on to it. Water wouldn't do you no harm.
Get this fire out.
Hey, Ma, look.
Injuns coming up on that ledge.
You get in the house. Oh, Ma.
Run along when you're told.
Kill him, Jeremy. Kill him.
Load with chain shot.
Here.
Throw a bunch at them.
Throw it, Jeremy. Throw it!
They can't wait, Colonel Bouquet.
Fort Pitt can't last three days.
I won't leave my wounded here,
and I can't advance a yard till the artillery comes up.
But you can't throw away the 600 lives in Fort Pitt.
Chris.
Captain, I have lost a quarter of my men here at Bushy Run.
Do the Indians know that, sir? I pray they don't.
If we can make them think... Think what, Chris?
Send this dispatch back to Legonnier. Yes, sir.
Colonel, can you give me 100 men?
A hundred? I can spare 20.
Those men out there. What?
Give me those men, Colonel, and some wagons.
Are you mad, Chris? Those men are dead.
And your drums and pipers,
and 10 of your Black Watch.
It can't be done,
but go ahead and try it.
Whatever is left of us won't be far behind you.
You are hungry.
Steady.
No powder for gun.
Put white flag on pole.
Take your people, go back safe over mountain.
Guyasuta, you can save your breath to run from Colonel Bouquet's soldiers.
- Ain't that an army musket? - Yeah, a Brown Bess.
Ain't one of ours.
The 42nd. The Kilties.
It's their flag, the Black Watch. Where'd they get it?
It's the 42nd for sure.
Do you suppose they... Quiet.
'Tis a Highland bonnet all right.
Where do you suppose they got it?
From the Highlanders.
No mistaking that coat. I tell you it's a trick.
Bouquet soldier dead.
Chris. Don't believe the lying varmints.
I come no more.
White flag not on pole
when time stick burn there,
all die.
Mama. Hush, dear.
We'll hold our fire exactly six minutes.
That means attack.
Post what additional men you have on the higher bastion.
- This birch bark will burn fast. - Detail dismissed.
Captain Ecuyer should make this decision. He's a sick man.
You'd better decide for yourself or they'll decide for you.
Where's the relief they promised us?
I say surrender and hoist this flag.
You're yellow, Bone.
We gotta keep on fighting, and anybody that don't think so, pick up that rag.
Why, you. Mr. Fraser, give me that flag.
Captain Steele. Hey.
Don't let them hoist this flag.
Hear them war drums?
They'll stop in a minute, then hang onto your hair.
And hang on tight.
Over there, Grant and his Highlanders were massacred and scalped.
And over there, Braddock's whole command was massacred.
But we're stronger.
Now Bouquet is wiped out at Bushy Run.
- Will you make Fort Pitt the next? - He's right.
The Indians know and all these people know,
that your last chance died with the massacred relief column.
We can't fight with sticks.
What do you say, Captain Steele? I ain't aiming to surrender.
- We got no chance. - There's the kids to think of.
My wife and me aim to fight it out. With what, broom sticks?
Quiet. Quiet.
As a soldier, I'd fight.
But as a man responsible for the lives of these women and children,
I feel compelled to accept the enemy's terms.
Captain, no. Don't raise it. I saw the white flag at Venango
stained with the blood of people like these who believed the Indians.
I'll vouch for the Indians. I saw it, Captain.
Raise this flag at the gate staff.
There's plenty of us who'd rather fight, sir. And I'm one of them.
- Proceed, Mr. Hutchins. - Oh, we'll regret this.
Clark, we'll inform Captain Ecuyer in his sick room.
Yes, sir.
Give up now, what chance have we got?
We give up, all them massacred folks died for nothing.
If my Joe was alive, he'd say, "Keep fighting."
You hoist that flag and I'll shoot it down.
With what? An empty rifle? Get it up, sonny, before we lose our scalps.
I'll have no truck with surrendering.
You ain't got three kids, Jane Fraser. Get it up.
Garth vouches for the Indians.
Your last chance.
The time's up.
Do you hear? The drums have stopped.
- That's the signal. - Get that flag up, quick.
Wait, young man. Hold that flag.
It may be the wind. It may be my wishing,
but it sounds like the pipes of heaven itself.
I don't hear nothing. Get it up.
Get it up or we'll all be hearing the pipes of heaven.
No, listen, you big ox.
Listen.
It is. It is. Chris got through.
There they are. I can see them.
How many do you see?
It's them. It's the pipes of the 42nd.
That's Bouquet's column. Bouquet.
Tear up that white flag.
How many be there, Pa?
I don't know. Ain't had time to count them yet.
That's the first time I've enjoyed the sound of a bagpipe.
I want to see them. Come on, take him.
Try not to look as scared as I feel.
They cannot see the hair standing up beneath me bonnet.
Chris. They're running. They're running.
Run, you varmints, run.
So Bouquet was wiped out, was he? Look at them Indians run.
Get to the stable and saddle up three horses.
Three? I'm taking Abby.
And stock up three saddlebags. Move.
See them, Mr. Garth, ain't it grand?
If I had me a wife, I'd raise hallelujah.
I'll marry you.
Something's wrong with that column.
Looks awfully good to me, sir.
We'll head south into Cherokee country and build back from there.
We can go down the Mon side and hug the bank.
Hurry up with that bridge, soldier.
Glory be, you're a grand sight.
Chris. Chris, the stables.
Get to the stables.
Look at them. Why are they so still, Jeremy?
The gentlemen are dead.
We'll mount in here.
Hey.
They've stopped yelling. Give her a hand up.
Chris.
Get over there, Bone.
That's far enough.
Stand clear, Abby.
She's coming with me.
Where you're going, you're going alone.
Let him have it, Bone.
Bone won't shoot me.
I won't, huh? No.
Abby, stand over there.
Because I'm the only one between you and the hangman's rope
for double-selling a slave.
Fergus out there doesn't know you acted for Garth.
I do.
But you won't be talking.
Bone, turn your back and get your hands up on that ladder.
All right, Holden.
I'm not fool enough to try to beat you on the draw.
You win.
You can take my gun.
I know you wouldn't shoot a man in the back.
Look out, Chris.
You are a better man than you are a soldier, Holden.
You have earned a firing squad for deserting this fort.
And our gratitude for helping save it.
When Colonel Bouquet arrives, the frontier can start moving west again.
Move with it.
Captain Ecuyer. What?
Would you... Could you...
Oh, yes, yes, of course. Who stands for you?
Here, put it on.
Hold hands.
I pronounce you man and wife until you find a minister.
Marriage frees you from slavery, Mrs. Holden.
It won't do the same for you, sir.
You're sweet.
East or west, Abby?
Make it west.
And don't get caught by the Indians again. Yes, sir.
Or anybody else. Stay free.
Yes, sir.
And close that door.