The Star Woman by H. Bedford-Jones
Harry Crawford, an Englishman-turned-Jacobite-turned-freebooter, sits alone at Baron de Saint-Castin's abandoned post of Pentagoet on Penobscot Bay in the winter of 1697. A Micmac servant is knifed at the door, and Crawford is taken by pirates under Captain Vanderberg and his lieutenant Frontin, who have raided the post hoping to plunder Saint-Castin. Crawford talks his way into their company, refusing to swear piracy but agreeing to fight only for his own freedom, symbolized when he trades his Order of St. Louis jewel for an emerald relic called the Star of Dreams from Saint-Castin's chapel. He warns the raiders that Saint-Castin is returning, covers their escape with a false Mohawk war cry, and sails north with them on the ketch Irondelle. Frontin reveals he and Saint-Castin once found a wrecked Spanish galleon on the Newfoundland coast; the crew heads there to loot it, with Crawford quelling a mutiny by killing a man with his tomahawk. Anchoring near a cove, Crawford leads a foraging party ashore and stumbles into Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville's raid on the English Newfoundland settlements. Crawford rescues an old comrade, Sir Phelim Burke, among enslaved Irishmen, fights off an Abnaki war chief who recognizes Saint-Castin's stolen calumet, and bluffs young Bienville and then Iberville himself into ceding a captured English ship in exchange for the lives of Bienville and the chief. Iberville, impressed, mentions a legendary "Star Woman" reputed to live somewhere over the western horizon. Reunited with the galleon's treasure, Crawford claims the new ship over Vanderberg's objections; violence erupts, Vanderberg is killed in the melee, and Frontin — who has secretly grown devoted to Crawford and the Star's "destiny" — helps him escape, abandoning the gold-laden wreck. Crawford, Frontin, Burke, and a mixed crew of English and Irish sail the bark Northstar into Hudson Bay in search of the Northwest Passage, becoming icebound in the straits. There they find a dying man killed by a polar bear and encounter the fur-pirate Moses Deakin, a superstitious giant who believes in "witch-ink" visions and in a real Star Woman he has summoned via Indian intermediaries. Deakin treacherously captures Crawford, refuses to harm him or the Star for fear of "wizardry," and sets him adrift alone in a small boat rather than kill him. Crawford is picked up by Iberville's flagship Pelican, which is soon engaged in a brutal, historically framed naval battle against three English Hudson's Bay Company ships near Fort Nelson; Iberville sinks the Hampshire and captures the Hudson's Bay, with Crawford commanding the prize crew, but a violent storm wrecks both French and English ships. Crawford is swept overboard and rescued, ironically, by Moses Deakin, who repays his earlier mercy. Together they trek toward Deakin's secret trading post at the Danish (Churchill) River, seeking word from the Star Woman. There a rival English captain, Moon, ambushes them; the Cree deliver the Star Woman's answer to Deakin's summons — a red war arrow, a fatal omen — and in the ensuing fight both Deakin and most of the English are killed, though Crawford is saved when Frontin and Burke arrive by boat, having gotten a vessel from Iberville's brother Serigny. Now committed to finding the Star Woman, Crawford abandons the sea and leads Frontin, Burke, and a band of English and Irish followers overland through the winter wilderness northwest of Hudson Bay, guided by fearful Cree who regard the Star of Dreams as powerful medicine. Crossing into a desolate, disputed borderland between Cree and Assiniboine territory during a famine year, the starving party loses its guides to superstitious dread until, as they make camp in despair, an unknown man's voice calls out to Crawford by name from the trees ahead.
By H. Bedford-Jones · First published 1924 · Genre: Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, Pirate Fiction · 18 chapters · 90,894 words
First lines
Crawford snuffed the candle on the table beside him, turned the page of his book, and went on reading; he felt the loneliness of Pentagoet. In the wide hearth crackled a new-laid fire. Outside, the trees groaned frostily, snapping in the night wind.
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Genres
- Adventure Fiction — The entire narrative is driven by continuous adventure: maritime journeys, perilous encounters, raids, and quests across hostile terrain. Crawford's trajectory from solitary reading to commanding pirates across ice-bound waters exemplifies core adventure fiction structure.
- Historical Fiction — Set explicitly in 1697 Acadia during French-English colonial conflicts, featuring historical figures Pierre d'Iberville and references to specific historical events like settlement raids and the war context of the period.
- Pirate Fiction — Significant narrative portion involves Vanderberg and Frontin as established pirates, Crawford's recruitment into piracy, ship operations, plunder schemes, and the lifestyle and morality of buccaneer culture.
- Action Adventure — Relentless action sequences dominate: combat with tomahawks and knives, the Abnaki chief fight, mutiny suppression aboard ship, raids on settlements, and violent encounters that drive plot progression.
Tags
pirate adventure · historical fiction · 1690s · colonial America · French-English conflict · Newfoundland · Hudson Bay · Arctic · treasure hunting · quest · Spanish galleon · shipwreck
What this Textopian page supports
The Star Woman is listed on Textopian as a novel by H. Bedford-Jones, dated 1924 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: H. Bedford-Jones
- Date: 1924 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Adventure Fiction, Historical Fiction, Pirate Fiction, Action Adventure, Colonial Fiction
- Length: 90,894 words
- Structure: 18 chapters, 1,767 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Star Woman by H. Bedford-Jones
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Contents
- The Man and the Star
- He who Accepts an Omen, Accepts Responsibility
- The Importance of Forgotten Things
- One Gains Gold, Another a Friend
- Even in a Wilderness, One Cannot Escape the Devil
- When Fog Lifts, the Road Clears
- Confirming a Belief in Miracles
- Predictions and Events are Sometimes Reconciled
- It is only by Crooked Lanes that One Gains the Highway
- It does not Pay to be Merciful
- A Knife does Different Things in Different Hands
- Two Trails May have the same End
- He who Denies the Incredible Denies God
- Vengeance Runs a Red Road
- Some Problems are Best Left Unsolved
- "an Archer Drew Bow at a Venture"
- Sometimes Sunrise can Come too Late
- When a Star Falls, a Soul has Passed