L'homme sauvage

The story opens in 1672, when the English court dispatches the idealistic Sir Baltimore to the New World. Curious about the raw essence of humanity, he pores over travelers’ journals and philosophical treatises, seeking a clear picture of whether people are born good or corrupted by society. Yet the accounts he gathers clash, painting the indigenous peoples both as noble savages and as superstitious outsiders, leaving him increasingly doubtful of any second‑hand wisdom.

His doubts resolve when he meets Williams, an Indian who has lived a life far removed from European influence after a remarkable journey from his homeland to London and finally to Ireland. Their friendship offers Baltimore a living laboratory for his theories, allowing him to observe instinct, emotion, and simple law in a mind unshaped by civilization. As they converse, the knight must decide whether his heart’s hopeful creed of innate goodness can survive the stark realities of a world beyond books.