Tom Quick “The Avenger of the Delaware”

Tom Quick was born in Milford, Pennsylvania in 1734. His father, Thomas Quick, Sr., emigrated from Ulster County in 1733 and was a descendent of well to do ancestors who came from Holland in the late 17th century. Thomas Sr. built a log cabin and settled on valuable lands around Milford. Hunting and fishing were his principal pursuits, together with clearing his lands. Eventually he built a saw mill and a grist mill along a tributary of the Delaware River.

Tom Jr. was his first born and grew up to be tall and broad shouldered with high cheek bones. His youth was spent with the Indians of the Delaware Valley. He became familiar with their language, engaged in many of their sports, hunted and fished with them and became an expert marksman with a rifle. While his brothers and sisters were attending school, Tom was off hunting and trapping with the Indians.

The friendliness with the Indians did not last. While the Indians were reaping the rewards and hospitality shown by the Quick family, there were other influences at work which led the Indians to break off relations with them. This change in feeling did not go unnoticed by the Quick family and while they remained friendly, they did not mingle with the Indians as they had before. Unsuspecting of any treachery, the Quicks went about their business as usual.

On a trip along the Delaware River one winter day in 1756 Tom Jr., his brother and father were unarmed and got ambushed by the Indians. Thomas Sr. was shot by an Indian named Muswink and lay severely wounded. Tom and his brother tried to carry their father across the river. Thomas Sr. told his sons, as he lay dying, to leave him and try to escape to save the family. They ran across the Delaware, and finding they were not pursued, turned cautiously back to see what became of their father. The Indians were war-whooping and rejoicing as they scalped and then beheaded their father. It was at this moment in time that Tom resolved that he would avenge the death of his father. After the Indians left they gathered up the remains of his body and gave him a Christian burial. The day his father was buried Tom took his knife in his right hand and his rifle in his left, looked up to heaven and exclaimed:

By the point of the knife in my right hand and the deadly bullet in my left:

By Heaven and all that there is in it and by earth and all that there is on it:

By the love I bore my father; here on this grave I swear eternal vengeance against the whole Indian race……A voice from my father’s grave cries, Revenge! Eternal Revenge!

He took on the name “The Avenger of the Delaware” and lived up to his new found title. He became a wanderer throughout the valley of the Upper Delaware, remaining hermit-like in remote caves and cabins. One of his favorite hangouts was a cave at Hawk’s Nest, just north of Port Jervis. From this vantage point he could see the entire valley, scope out Indians that may walk along the riverbed, and hone his shooting skills.

Tom had a gun that was 7 feet, 4 inches long and it carried a ball one inch in diameter. He called it “Long Tom.” It was said that one time he shot 3 Indians with one bullet.

Of all the Indians Tom had killed the one that he relished most was when he met up with Muswink, the killer of his father, at Deckers Tavern on the Neversink River. Muswink was drunk and telling Tom that “the war was over.” Tom told him the war was not over for him he drug Muswink out the door and put a bullet through his head.

It is said that Tom died of smallpox in 1796. The Indians, learning of his death, dug up his body and cut it into little pieces and then distributed the remains to various tribes, then gloated over them. The contagious smallpox broke out among them and slew more Indians in his death than in his life.

Some say he killed a hundred Indians. Others say it was only a dozen, but one thing is sure – Tom was looked upon by the settlers as a protector of their homes and the guardian of their wives and children. The settlers were proud to think that one of their own had the courage to face the whole Indian Nation and send many of them to the Great Hunting Ground. Many historians have eulogized his merits, and then on August 28, 1889, his descendants unveiled a monument to his memory in the presence of over 1,000 dignitaries and townspeople in Milford.

On the monument there is an emblem of a wreath, and says that Tom Quick was the first white child born within the limits of the Borough of Milford. It also says “Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer” and “The Avenger of the Delaware.” On the side of the monument is a tomahawk, canoe paddle, scalping knife, wampum, and an inscription which states that, maddened by the death of his father, he never abated his hostility to the Indians till his death 40 years afterwards.

The monument has stood in Milford for more than 100 years. Then, just before Christmas of 1997, someone used a sledgehammer to smash and damage the monument. Borough officials in Milford took the monument down and took it to a secret location. In 1999, two years after the monument was smashed, 200 people with American Indian roots and their supporters descended on Milford for a rally in front of the county courthouse.

One of the Indian supporters said “We are here to ask you to stop thinking of Tom Quick as a folk hero and see him for what he really was: a murderous, hate-filled, racist killer.” The protest squelched any immediate plans Milford Borough Council may have had for restoring the monument.

Anti-monument letters from all over the country poured in and were collected by Borough Council. In 2001 the debate in Milford went national.

Chuck “Gentle Moon” Demund, sub-chief of the Lenape Nation said “This is a monument to a mass murderer and a drunken fool who bragged about killing people.” but failed to recount the countless examples of native savagery vested apon the white settlers.

Milford Borough leaders teamed up with the Pike County Historical Society to restore the monument and to add an interpretive panel. They say that the 9 foot tall obelisk is part of the region’s history and should be put back on display, and rightly so.

Flower Power with Marianne North (1830-1890)

Thanks to a tip from a reader, I present to you the botanical paintings of Marianne North. I have chosen paintings of plants that mean something to me, and not just because they are pretty blommetjies...but read about the artist first..

Marianne North was a remarkable Victorian artist who travelled the globe in order to satisfy her passion for recording the world’s flora with her paintbrush. The result of these epic journeys can be seen in the North Gallery at Kew, where tier upon tier of brightly coloured paintings of flowers, landscapes, animals and birds are arranged. There are 832 paintings, all completed in 13 years of travel round the world.

Marianne was devoted to her father Frederick North who was Liberal MP for Hastings. When he died in 1869 it had a profound effect on her for until then all life had centred on him. In 1871 at the age of 40 Marianne began her astonishing series of trips around the world.
Between 1871 and 1885 she visited America, Canada, Jamaica, Brazil, Tenerife, Japan, Singapore, Sarawak, Java, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Seychelles and Chile. Some of the plants she painted proved new to science and one genus and four species were named in her honour. She took a year off from travelling in 1881-1882 to arrange her pictures in the Gallery, which was built at her own expense and designed by James Ferguson, the architectural historian.
Marianne North retired to Gloucestershire, where she died on 30th August 1890.

I have selected my choice of botanical paintings from the South African Gallery.

View of the Mountains from the railway between Durban and Maritzburg, Natal
..I like this painting because it is the picture in my minds eye of the landscapes we travelled through on our way to spend holidays at the sea side. Even though it is of Natal, it reminds me of many places in South Africa.

Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia reginae with Sugar Birds

My Granny in East London had a row of these beauties growing near her wash line. They were always there, all my life right up until she sold her house just a few years before she passed away. That row of Stralitzia's grew into almost a hedge they were so thick and clumped together.

Aloe, Aloe latifolia

Aloe's now what would a 'rockery' be without one or two of these baby's in the back ground to create height... no a 'rockery' is not a Bobby Angel and Barbara Ray concert at Babsfontein, it is a indigenous cactus and succulent garden, usually enhanced with the addition of broken old wagon wheels, rusty old farming implements or brightly painted Gnomes.

Pendulous Sparaxis and Long-tailed Finch in Van Staaden's Kloof.

Okay, now I don't know this pretty pink bell shaped flower..but...I do know the birdie! Long tailed finch is just the lala name for it, I knew this bird as a 'Flapp'. Where I lived in Lichtenburg and Mafeking we used to see many of them flying around the farm lands and across the veld. Sometimes those tail feathers were so long and heavy the bird sukkeled to fly. Many years later, after I was married, I used to work as a display artist for Edgars and I travelled to all the small little Edgars stores in the West Transvaal, my area was from Potch, Stilfontein, Klerksdorp, Lichtenburg, Mafeking, Wollies and Schweitzer Reineke...in all my travels in the years I was with Edgars, I never saw one Flapp flying in the veld...I don't know why...they just became scarce. So sad, because they were really beautiful!

Proteus, Protea mellifera . Well what can one say about the Protea, it is only our national flower. This one in this painting is the small pink one, but my fav is the very big one, but Marianne North didn't do it justice in her painting of it, so I will put a good photo of one up in the side bar where it deserves a permanent display!

The Kaffir Plum, painted in the Perie Bush, South Africa .. I don't know this plant either, but I love it's name...it looks like a cuzzin of a num num..but I wouldn't take a chance to eat it..it might give you jippo guts..I know if you eat the 'fruit' of a cycad you can die of tummy ache and spuitpoep that lasts for days.

Amantungula in Flower and Fruit and Blue Ipomoea, South Africa ..now this red fruit with the little white star flower is a num num..! ...oh boy...I know num num's from when I was very little, and I could swear the artist sat up at the Hob Nob by Bonza Bay and looked out across the lagoon toward the beach when she painted this...it looks so much like that spot. I used to go with my grand father, he was actually a step grand pappie, and I always called him John, and he used to take me with fishing down at Bonza Bay and the num nums used to grow in the thick bush near the beach. You can eat them, they have like a spongy texture, and a funny taste that I haven't tasted for so long I can hardly remember it. A person was always very lucky if you could find a ripe one, because there were lots of num num hunters around. Black num num hunters who would eat the fruit green instead of leaving it to ripen because they were scared someone else would get to it before them...I bet a person can't take the doggies for walkies at 5:00 in the morning on the beach at Bonza Bay anymore..! The pretty blue trumpets are Morning Glory's..it's a creeper, I actually have them growing on the stoep here where I am, they are great.. who can say no to a beautiful Morning Glory..?

Clivia miniata and Moths ..Ahhh..a Clivia...oh what a queen she is..!...my Ouma was mad about a them, but they grew better at the coast than up country. Now I had a Clivia, and when it made seed I gave the seed to my uncle Chris, he was my Ouma's younger brother, and he had a very green thumb. He grew Clivias from seed, which is quite something let me tell you...actually he could grow anything. Him and I shared a 'thing' for Lithops..I think they are very naughty little plantjies..but I never mentioned to uncle Chris what I thought they looked like..*wink wink*

I actually have a whole lot of photos i took at the nursery here near me of the Lithops, little porno plantjies, imported to Germany from South Africa... They also remind me of Professor Christo Pienaar...remember him on Veld Focus...siestog, he is also dead long ago..*sigh*

nou ja..

Mooi bly julle

Groete

Jou Antie Rave

WARNING - White Eunuchs of our modern day and age

So my teenage son would like to go hiking across France on his own, filled with enthusiasm and a spirit of adventure. Well, I really hate to be a killjoy, but after reading this story below, which was posted on a Russian news web site, he will stay put and go on holiday with Mom and Pops!

Now it could be a bullshit story, urban legend or such, but I would not take a chance. One would have thought a story like this would have made world news headlines, like the case of Maddie and Natasha Kampusch. But then again, I do know the world media is very selective about what it chooses to report, and it wouldn't come as a surprise if this tale of woe has been purposely neglected by the main stream media. I mean, lets face it, no self respecting news editor would want to offend black and Muslim sensibilities now would they, especially since the victim in this case was a white boy.

That said, it is a fact that many young eastern Europeans are eager to find work in western Europe, where even menial jobs pay better than in their home countries. It is a sad fact that many of these young folk are exploited in some way or another, be it under paid or crap working conditions, but never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that they tricked, kidnapped and literally sold into real dinkum slavery!

Be warned young white people heading for greener pastures in foreign lands...there is great demand for real white European slaves in this modern day and age!

KIDNAPPED AND CASTRATED
A serious scandal arose for several days in the capital of the Arabian country Yemen. During a raid of the police against drug dealers in a basement in one of the buildings near the marketplace, a semi-naked youngster was found chained to the wall with manacles, European in appearance. He was frightened to answer the questions of the police officers, but was only trembling and weeping. In the police station after a cup of coffee, the young man came to himself and gave evidence in clumsy Arabian. The name of the 22 year old lad turned out to be Irzhi Shlemek. He was a Slovak citizen and stayed illegally in Yemen for about two years. According to his words he was tricked to enter the country where he was kidnapped and castrated.

With a sickle upon the balls.
The poor Slovak guy did not have a permanent residence in his native country. He sold his apartment and traveled across Europe - spending nights at the railway stations, hitchhiking, even begging sometimes. In France he met an Arabian named Hakim who offered him work on a construction for a monthly salary of 1000 USD. Irzhi agreed and illegally entered Yemen via Ethiopia. There Hakim led him to two stalwart guys. In the evening the youngster was taken to an unknown place, where more than 20 men with sullen faces were sitting. They explained to him that this is a marketplace where the rich Arabs hire workers for the construction of their palaces. An old man with a beard and in rich garments (a sheik) came to him. He started a long dispute with the two guys that brought Shlemek. After half an hour of bargaining, Irzhi was asked to undress and his tall strong body impressed the customer. Finally the old man gave the two "partners" a bunch of banknotes and waved to the young man to follow him. Later it turned out that the Slovak was taken to one of the illegal slave markets in the countryside.

At first Irzhi was settled in a good room in the house for servants. What was prepared for him, he came to know after two days when a guard with a Kalshnikov came accompanied by a silent man with a cup of hot boiling water and knives - the local barber who usually made the castrations. Irzhi started to cry and to struggle, but the guard shot him in the arm. The young man realized that if he did not obey the orders he might be killed.

"I could rely on nobody in the situation, explained the Slovak later in the police station. All what happened later was a nightmare. I was tied down naked on a table. The guard laughed at me that I am going to loose my manhood, but shall benefit from the situation as I am young and strong and shall survive the surgery. After it I shall not be put to hard work like most of the slaves, but shall enter places, where he cannot go to. They tied my testicles tightly with a cord and cut them with a red-hot small knife in the form of a sickle. They called it "The source of chastity". It was so painful! I was crying for so long time, that I lost my voice and could only weep. The guard was only laughing at me, discussing my big balls that were gone and my future career as a white eunuch slave."

They are kidnapping tramps and wanderers
It turned out that the sheik bought Irzhi for 5000 USD especially to use him as a eunuch in his harem of 68 women. This high price was due not only to the fact that the slave was tall young and physically very strong, but also because he was a white European and blondish. To have such a slave and particularly a white eunuch is nowadays very fashionable and a question of prestige in the harems of Arabia and North Africa.

"Most of the young white men that are "working" in the harems are kidnapped and forcefully emasculated like me, explained Shlemek. To hire a white eunuch is practically impossible. The emissaries are silently travelling across Europe trying to recruit young men, promising them much money. Highly prized are the blond men, but the most important is that they are young, tall, strong and in good physical shape. The emissaries are more active in the unstable countries of Central and East Europe, but they work also in Western Europe and in North America. Usually they try to recruit tramps and wanderers - no one will miss them and there will be no risk of trouble.

In the harem, where I was sold, there were also other young white men. One of them was a guy from Moscow - Pavel. He was Ukrainian and had moved in 1991 to Moscow immediately after his military service in the paratroops with two of his friends. As they were strong and handsome, they at once received an offer to work in Nigeria. Thus they were taken illegally in the Yemen and were castrated the same day. All the three of them fetched the highest prices - about 10 000 USD as were castrated before appearing on the auction block. Pavel had information, that this Russian company, recruiting young Russians "to build houses" in Africa is still operating in Moscow. You see, what are they actually doing? They say that some of the captive Russian soldiers in Chechnya were also brought to Arabia by the slavedealers to be castrated and serve as eunuchs. I have heard about many of them, but I saw no one."

It is also fashionable for the rich Muslims to have white girls from France and Sweden, but usually they have legal marriage contacts - the rich do not want to have alcoholics and whores. After several years they get divorced and come back home with a good sum of money. The situation of the male slaves is far harder. Even if they are used for physical labour, they are usually castrated, but if they have to work in the household, and practically all of the white male slaves work there, castration is considered a necessity. On the secret slave markets every month there appeared up to 5000 slaves - male and female. The price of an adult male is between 500 and 10 000 USD. The white male slaves are usually several tens per month. There is no road back for any of them.

Enslaved through a Tour Operator
Irzhi lived monotonously in the harem. His work was not a heavy one and he was well fed. Together with the other eunuchs he bathed the women, combed their hair, cleaned the harem rooms, and even made small repairs of broken things. The uncastrated slaves were not allowed to cross the doors of the harem. For such things they might be punished with castration or even with death. The women of the sheik were used to the services of the eunuchs and were not at all bothered by the presence of the new white eunuch. He himself was so shocked by his brutal emasculation that did not experience any sexual desires towards them. At the beginning he had been crying for the whole night.

His master had many guests and he always boasted with his white slaves, serving as eunuchs. They had to serve the guests and that was the worst part of their slavery, as they were often objects of sexual approaches and mocking. Many of the guests tried to buy Shlemek for their own purposes, but his master never wanted to sell him. To have a young white eunuch like Irzhi, tall, strong and most of all blondish was considered by him a question of social position.

Despite all that, one day his master simply gave the handsome eunuch as a present to one of the religious leaders in the country. But it happened that the same day his new master went on a pilgrimage in Mecca. So Irzhi was taken to the basement near the marketplace and was manacled to the wall and well guarded for the arrival of his new master who would claim his property. There the police found him.
"I shall never go back to Europe, spoke Shlemek weeping. Most probably I shall try to find a job as a harem guard in Egypt or in Libya. There I shall get good money and shall drink out all of it in an attempt to forget that nightmare."

The Russian parliament issued a statement, recommending all Russian citizens not to travel to Yemen. It stated that tourists could easily be subjected to kidnapping by the Bedouin tribes for ransom or to be sold as slaves. Despite this, some Russian tour operators still advertise "a trip to Yemen, the pearl of the East". And it is quite possible that at least some of them are a coverage for organizations of slavedealers, recruiting for many years "fresh" and young white eunuchs for the harems of Arabia.

-L. Shahanova.

www. sobesednik. ru/yellow/

A bit of background on Eunuchs...

Harem women formed only half of the harem hierarchy. Eunuchs were the integral other half of the harem. Eunuchs were considered to be less than men and thus unable to be "tempted" by the harem women and would remain solely loyal to the Sultan. Eunuchs were castrated men and hence possessed no threat to the sanctity of the harem.
According to Muslim tradition, no man could lay his eyes on another man's harem, thus someone less than a man was required for the role of watchful guardianship over the harem women.

Eunuchs tended to be male prisoners of war or slaves, castrated before puberty and condemned to a life of servitude.
White eunuchs were first provided from the conquered Christian areas of Caucasia, Georgia, and Armenia. They were also culled from Hungarian, Slovenian, and German prisoners of war. These white eunuchs were captured during the conflicts that arouse between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan countries.

Black eunuchs were captured from Egypt, Abyssinia and the Sudan. Black slaves were captured from the upper Nile and transported to markets on the Mediterranean Sea - Mecca, Medina, Beirut, Izmir and Istanbul. All eunuchs were castrated en route to the markets by Egyptian Christians or Jews, as Islam prohibited the practice of castration but not the usage of castrated slaves.
There were several different varieties of eunuchs:

-Sandali, or clean-shaven: The parts are swept off by a single cut of a razor, a tube (tin or wooden) is set in the urethra, the wound is cauterized with boiling oil, and the patient is planted in a fresh dung-hill. His diet is milk, and if under puberty he often survives.

-The eunuch whose penis is removed: He retains all the power of copulation and procreation without the wherewithal; and this, since the discovery of caoutchouc, has often been supplied.

-The eunuch, or classical thlibias and semivir, who has been rendered sexless by the removing of the testicles..., or by their being bruised..., twisted, seared or bandaged.

Black eunuchs tended to be of the first category: Sandali, while white eunuchs were of the second or third categories, thus have part or their entire penis intact. Because of their lack of parts, black eunuchs served in the harem, while white eunuchs served in the government (and away from the women). At the height of the Ottoman Empire, as many as six to eight hundred eunuchs served within the Seraglio (palace). Most eunuchs arrived as gifts from governors of different provinces. At the end of their training as young eunuch pages, eunuchs were assigned to service. White eunuchs were placed under the patronage of various government officials or even into the service of the Sultan himself (like in Topkapi Palace). If they were black eunuchs, they were placed into the service of a harem personage, such as a Kadin, or a daughter or sister of the Sultan. They could also serve under the Kizlar Agha (master of the girls), the Chief Black Eunuch.