The Sagamore of Saco

About this issue

The Sagamore of Saco This novel by Mrs. E. Oakes Smith concerns early colonial Maine settlers in the 1600s. The story centers on young John Bonyton, an irreligious, headstrong colonist whom his father, Captain Richard Bonyton, considers a "wild renegade," and Hope Vines, the equally wild and independent daughter of Sir Richard Vines, the colony's founder and a Royalist Episcopalian. When John publicly pursues Hope—who swims fearlessly, defies Native Americans, and rejects social conventions—their fathers encounter them soaking wet after she's nearly drowned. John impulsively proposes marriage, but Sir Richard reveals Hope is mentally incomplete, unable to be a wife. He persuades John to go to England instead to serve the king against Cromwell's Parliament, suggesting John may prove himself worthy of Hope through heroic action. The narrative establishes the colonial setting of early Maine (founded 1616) near the Saco River, contrasting the Royalist Vines family against Puritan colonists.