Florence's maternal great-grandfather married an Englishwoman and they settled in Maryland, not too far from Chesapeake Bay. In this particular area, there was an ongoing war with the Native Americans, this was not uncommon. As a result of one of their many conflicts, some settlers were taken as prisoners, including Florence's great-grandfather.
In this particular tribe, if any of the tribe died in the conflict, their next of kin were able to choose one of the prisoners to replace the lost tribe member. In this instance, one elderly woman had lost her only son, and so she chose Florence's great-grandfather to replace him. At the time, he had a wife and two young children. He aided her with the physical tasks such as carrying her loads and chopping wood for her. He treated her as he would have treated white women. Many of the Native Americans found it amusing that he was doing women's work and laughed at him when his "civilised" stomach could not cope with the native food. But because he treated his Native mother well, she prepared him his own food that he could eat. When he was rescued over a year later, Florence notes that his "Indian mother wept bitterly when parted from him," emphasising the bond they shared.
Florence goes on to refer to that experience as an "Indian adventure" as if it was a meaningless event and that the natives posed no threat to him. If he hadn't been chosen then he would have been put to death with the rest of the prisoners. It was not an adventure, more a period of time when he was forced into slavery. Not unlike how westerners treated people they came across when settling.
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