Book Description

In 1634 the Dutchman Cornelis Antonissen Van Slyke set out on a perilous journey to New Netherland (present day New York). He was a thirty year old carpenter and mason whose skills were desirable in the new colony. Little did he know that a lifetime of adventure and hardship awaited him. Within a few years after his arrival in the New World he would meet a French-Mohawk woman named Ots-Toch. Together they carved out a life in the wilderness, raising three children who became valued interpreters for the Dutch, British, and Iroquois. This is the story of Cornelis and Ots-Toch, and of Ots-Toch's father Jacques Hertel, interpreter in New France (present day Quebec) to Samuel de Champlain, the Father of Canada. This book also follows the descendants of Cornelis and Ots-Toch to 5 generations.