Unconquered Page #4

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,

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