The Foreigners

This was my last writing assignment for my history class at the university back in May. It came out better than I thought it would. Content might not be suitable for some audiences. Hope you enjoy it.

15, March 1768

Preface

            Two young girls, at the age of thirteen, from opposite sides of the globe encounter one another for the first time. One, a stow away from Europe, the other a native. They are cautious during their encounter, fore one was hiding under the pretense of a boy, the other was supposed to be waiting with the rest of the tribe. This story is told in two perspectives as to get the thoughts of both sides before and after the encounter.

 

***Nahti***

            The bright star in the sky is high as I walk along the shore looking for small shells to add to my collection. I find a white one with a gold rim wash up to my toes and pick it up before the next wave takes it back and continue my search. I stop when I hear a commotion in the distance. The waves are crashing on the shore, but there is something else. I look out over the water and see a boat, a large one at that. The others on it are yelling. The boat is coming toward our land. I turn and run to tell everyone what I’m seeing.

            My older brother, Bahi, is the first to see me running and asks what is wrong. I tell him what I saw when I was by the shore. His eyes widen at this and he takes my arm and takes me to our father, who in turn tells the chief. A gathering is held and the tribe chooses those who will go and meet these foreigners. There are many objections to this.

            “How do we know they won’t see us as a threat and kill us?” one cried out.

            “They may have weapons ready to kill us!” another called.

            “Will they speak or understand our own language?” someone asked.

            At that last question many of us looked at each other and nodded in agreement. The chief then spoke out, silencing everyone.

            “We will show these foreigners respect and kindness. We will accept them as if the were one of our own.”

            The tension in the crowd was felt in the air. Some, you can feel their anger. Others, you can feel the apprehensions and nervous excitement. The chief stays as the crowd begins to walk to the shore. Everyone takes a small gift of fruit with them to give to the foreigners. I pick up my small token for the foreigners after I put my small shell with the rest of my collection. As I catch up with the crowd, Bahi tells me I must stay home until he says it’s okay.

“Maybe next time, Nahti. We don’t know if they are dangerous,” he says when I try to protest. I tell him that I’ll be fine and try to pass but he stops me again.

Defeated, I turn back. When he runs and catches up to the others, I turn and take my secret route to the shore.

***Josephine***

            Hiding among men is not as simple as the thought of it was. From what they see, I’m just a cabin boy, here to run errands. But as the months went by, it became harder and harder to hide when my curse first began a few months ago. As long as they keep believing that I’m just clumsy at times and often hurt myself, I’ll be fine.

I walk along the deck and help with the clearing of debris from last night’s awful storm last night. As we unfurl the sails, I notice a large tear in the fabric and immediately point it out.

            “Good eye, Joseph!” one of the crew members says as they begin to furl it back up until we make land to fix it. Little does the crew know that my actual name is Josephine, and I hope they never will. I overheard some of the crewmembers talking in the gully that bringing a woman on board a ship is bad luck. If they were to find out my secret, they would probably blame that storm last night on me.

            I look over to starboard and see the land we are headed to and can’t wait to walk on the solid ground again.

***Nahti***

Bahi is waiting with the others by the shore with our boats ready to meet these new comers. The boat is still far away but the sound of the others has grown louder. I stay out of sight behind the big rock on the border of the forest and the shore. Time passes as we wait and I spend my time making painting-pictures in the ground with a stick that was nearby.

I hear the movement of the others as they begin to load the boats and push them into the water. I turn my attention and watch it all happen for the first time.

***Josephine***

We are closer to the shore and I can see people on the land beginning to take small boats toward us. We drop anchor and wait. They arrive beside the ship and offer us bountiful fruit. We allow them to come onboard and one of the young females, she looked to be only of seventeen years, disrobed in front of us all. Any woman back home would be jealous, as her body needed no corset to keep her waist tiny and stomach flattened as many back home do. She stood there as if waiting for something. When no one moved, she looked angry and put her coverings back on.

Not fully knowing what they would like, we let them choose between some of our small items that we have on board to give. They took various things, but mostly preferred nails. They went back to their boats after pointing to us then to the shore, for we could not understand their language, we read that as an invitation to go on land. We begin to load the small boats, leaving a few members of the crew who didn’t want to go on shore.

We make land and I look around at the surroundings. It is so beautiful here and the weather is nice. I step onto the land but my body still feels as though it is on the ocean still. It makes me queasy and I painfully ask if I go into the forest to relieve myself of this queasiness.

***Nahti***

They are coming back and the others are following in their own boats. As they make land I notice one the others is a little strange, and doesn’t seem to be at comfort as they step onto the land. They begin conversations and the Strange-one speaks with one of their own, who nods in return. The Strange-one then turns and begins to head my way.

I slink into the shadows as the Strange-one runs past and I secretly follow. The Strange-one turns quickly when I accidentally step on a small stick and rustle a few leaves, and speaks in a language that I do not understand. It sounds like the language I secretly learned by overhearing others but never really got to practice it. The Strange-one sounds frightened and is probably questioning if someone is here.

I come into the open so the Strange-one sees me. I look at the coverings the Strange-one wears. For some reason it doesn’t look right. I try my hand at speaking the foreigners’ language.

***Josephine***

After relieving myself from my illness, I hear a twig snap and some leaves rustle. I quickly turn in all directions.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

A young native, about my age, steps out from the shadows. She has beautiful long black hair that stops at the middle of her back. She lifts a finger to point at me.

“Y-you a-are n-no m-man. You are fe-female?” It didn’t sound as if she was frightened, but rather struggling to pronounce our language. I must say she is doing a very good job.

Not knowing how far her knowledge goes of our language, I nod my head in agreement but put my finger to my lips as a gesture that it is a secret. She speaks to herself in her native tongue then looks at me and points to herself.

“Nahti.” I try it out.

“Nah-ti.”

She nods in agreement. I point to myself.

“Josephine.” I then begin pointing from me back to the direction of the crew, then stop and point to me.

“Joseph.”

***Nahti***

            She nods to me, confirming that she is a female and not male like the other foreigners. But when she put her finger to her lips, I do not understand her meaning. I tell her my name and she tells me hers, I think. I think it was Josifeen. Then she gestures from herself to the direction of the shore and stops when she points back to herself and says, “Josif.”

            She has two names? I do not understand. I pronounce the first name.

            “Jo-se-feen?” She nods and we stare at each other a little longer. What do these foreigners want from us? I try her language again.

***Josephine***

            We stare at each other for what seemed like ages when she begins to speak again. I begin to think that she won’t understand anything I’ll say.

            “Wh-at y-ou w-ant?”

            “Our ship needs its sail fixed and we might need to restock supplies.” She seems to understand a bit of what I said, but there is no time to break it down for her because the crew is probably looking for me.

            “I have to go now. They are probably beginning to look for me.” My gestures are probably not that good as I try to explain what I am saying. Though, right on cue, the crew has begun calling my name.

            “Joseph…Joseph.”

I turned in the direction they were calling and when I looked back, the Nahti was gone. The crew came through the bushes and gave me a stern look as William, I believe his name was, told me that I was away too long and it was dangerous. I apologized and promised to never let it happen again. He then informed me that the natives were letting us stay a few days to repair our sails and restock our supplies and that I needed to do my job and help.

***Nahti***

            The foreigners were coming closer to where we were and I didn’t want to be caught alone with that many around me. I believe the foreigners call her Josif because they think she is male, but I know the truth. She is female and her name is Josifeen. But she didn’t seem insulted by this confusion. Maybe the action of when she placed her finger in front of her lips meant for me not to tell them that she is a female.

 

Epilogue

            In the days that the crew stayed on the shore, they slowly learned some of the native’s language. None knew of the girls’ first encounter in the forest and Nahti didn’t tell anyone of Josephine’s pretense, but they never got another encounter due to Bahi, Nahti’s older brother and sole guardian, being overly protective and wouldn’t let any of the Europeans near her fore she was still too young and not of womanhood yet.