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The Princess Pocahontas

by Virginia Watson · English · Gutenberg #16458 · 375,710 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Princess Pocahontas

Author: Virginia Watson

Illustrator: George Wharton Edwards


        
Release date: August 6, 2005 [eBook #16458]
                Most recently updated: December 12, 2020

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS POCAHONTAS ***




Produced by Mark C. Orton, Taavi Kalju and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net





[Illustration: THE WHITE FIGURE MOVED RAPIDLY]

THE PRINCESS
POCAHONTAS

BY

VIRGINIA WATSON

Author of "WITH CORTES THE CONQUEROR"


WITH DRAWINGS AND DECORATIONS BY
GEORGE WHARTON EDWARDS



THE HAMPTON PUBLISHING COMPANY
NEW YORK





[Illustration: Decorative]

INTRODUCTION


To most of us who have read of the early history of Virginia only in our
school histories, Pocahontas is merely a figure in one dramatic
scene--her rescue of John Smith. We see her in one mental picture only,
kneeling beside the prostrate Englishman, her uplifted hands warding off
the descending tomahawk.

By chance I began to read more about the settlement of the English at
Jamestown and Pocahontas' connection with it, and the more I read the
more interesting and real she grew to me. The old chronicles gave me the
facts, and guided by these, my imagination began to follow the Indian
maiden as she went about the forests or through the villages of the
Powhatans.

We are growing up in this new country of ours. And just as when children
get older they begin to feel curious about the childhood of their own
parents, so we have gained a new curiosity about the early history of
our country. The earlier histories and stories dealing with the Indians
and the wars between them and the colonists made the red man a devil
incarnate, with no redeeming virtue but that of courage. Now, however,
there is a new spirit of understanding. We are finding out how often it
was the Indian who was wronged and the white man who wronged him. Many
records there are of treaties faithfully kept by the Indians and
faithlessly broken by the colonists. Virginia was the first permanent
English settlement on this continent, and if not the _most_ important,
at least equally as important to our future development as that of New
England. From how small a seed, sown on that island of Jamestown in
1607, has sprung the mighty State, that herself has scattered seeds of
other states and famous men and women to multiply and enrich America.
And amid what dangers did this seed take root! But for one girl's
aid--as far as man may judge--it would have been uprooted and destroyed.

In truth, when I look over the whole world history, I can find no other
child of thirteen, boy or girl, who wielded such a far-reaching
influence over the future of a nation. But for the protection and aid
which Pocahontas coaxed from Powhatan for her English friends at
Jamestown, the Colony would have perished from starvation or by the
arrows of the hostile Indians. And the importance of this Colony to the
future United States was so great that we owe to Pocahontas somewhat the
same gratitude, though in a lesser degree, that France owes to her Joan
of Arc.

Pocahontas's greatest service to the colonists lay not in the saving of
Captain Smith's life, but in her continued succour to the starving
settlement. Indeed, there are historians who have claimed that the story
of her rescue of Smith is an invention without foundation. But in
opposition to this view let me quote from "The American Nation: A
History." Lyon Gardiner Tyler, author of the volume "England in America"
says:

     "The credibility of this story has been attacked.... Smith was
     often inaccurate and prejudiced in his statements, but that is far
     from saying that he deliberately mistook plain objects of sense or
     concocted a story having no foundation."

and from "The New International Encyclopaedia":

     "Until Charles Deane attacked it (the story of Pocahontas's rescue
     of Smith) in 1859, it was seldom questioned, but, owing largely to
     his criticisms, it soon became generally discredited. In recent
     years, however, there has been a tendency to retain it."

It is in Smith's own writings, "General Historie of Virginia" and "A
True Relation," that we find the best and fullest accounts of these
first days at Jamestown. He tells us not only what happened, but how the
new country looked; what kinds of game abounded; how the Indians lived,
and what his impressions of their customs were. Smith was ignorant of
certain facts about the Indians with which we are now familiar. The
curious ceremony which took place in the hut in the forest, just before
Powhatan freed Smith and allowed him to return to Jamestown, was one he
could not comprehend. Modern historians believe that it was probably the
ceremony of adoption by which Smith was made one of the tribe.

In many places in this story I have not only followed closely Smith's
own narrative of what occurred, but have made use of the very words in
which he recorded the conversations. For instance the incident related
on page 101 was set down by Smith himself; on pages 144, 154, 262 the
words are those of Smith as given in his history; on pages 173, 195,
260, 300 the words of Powhatan or Pocahontas as Smith relates them.

There may be readers of this story who will want to know what became of
Pocahontas. She fell ill of a fever just as she was about to sail home
for Virginia and died in Gravesend, where she was buried. Her son Thomas
Rolfe was educated in England and went to Virginia when he was grown.
His daughter Jane married John Bolling, and among their descendants
have been many famous men and women, including Edith Bolling (Mrs. Galt)
who married President Woodrow Wilson.

[Illustration: Decorative]




CONTENTS


         I THE RETURN Of THE WARRIORS

        II POCAHONTAS AND THE MEDICINE MAN

       III MIDNIGHT IN THE FOREST

        IV RUNNING THE GAUNTLET

         V THE GREAT BIRDS

        VI JOHN SMITH'S TEMPTATION

       VII A FIGHT IN THE SWAMP

      VIII POCAHONTAS DEFIES POWHATAN

        IX SMITH'S GAOLER

         X THE LODGE IN THE WOOD

        XI POCAHONTAS VISITS JAMESTOWN

       XII POWHATAN'S AMBASSADOR

      XIII POWHATAN'S CORONATION

       XIV A DANGEROUS SUPPER

        XV A FAREWELL

       XVI CAPTAIN ARGALL TAKES A PRISONER

      XVII POCAHONTAS LOSES A FRIEND

     XVIII A BAPTISM IN JAMESTOWN

       XIX JOHN ROLFE

        XX THE WEDDING

       XXI ON THE TRAIL OF A THIEF

      XXII POCAHONTAS IN ENGLAND





ILLUSTRATIONS


     The white figure moved rapidly

     "We choose to-day," he cried

     "Let us be friends and allies, oh Powhatan"

     "I will lead the princess"

     Virginia in 1606--from Captain John Smith's Map

     "Nay, nay," cried Pocahontas, "thou must not go"

     "Do not shoot, Mark!"





[Illustration: Decorative]


THE PRINCESS POCAHONTAS




CHAPTER I

THE RETURN OF THE WARRIORS


Through the white forest came Opechanchanough and his braves, treading
as silently as the flakes that fell about them. From their girdles hung
fresh scalp locks which their silent Monachan owners did not miss.

But Opechanchanough, on his way to Werowocomoco to tell The Powhatan of
the victory he had won over his enemies, did not feel quite sure that he
had slain all the war party against which he and his Pamunkey braves had
gone forth. The unexpected snow, coming late in the winter, had been
blown into their eyes by the wind so that they could not tell whether
some of the Monachans had not succeeded in escaping their vengeance.
Perhaps, even yet, so near to the wigwams of his brother's town, the
enemy might have laid an ambush. Therefore, it behooved them to be on
their guard, to look behind each tree for crouching figures and to
harken with all their ears that not even a famished squirrel might crack
a nut unless they could point out the bough on which it perched.

Opechanchanough led the long thin line that threaded its way through the
broad cutting between huge oaks, still bronze with last year's leaves.
He held his head high and to himself he framed the words of the song of
triumph he meant to sing to The Powhatan, as the chief of the Powhatans
was called. Then, suddenly before his face shot an arrow.

At a shout from their leader, the long line swung itself to the right,
and fifty arrows flew to the northward, the direction from which danger
might be expected. Still there was silence, no outcry from an ambushed
enemy, no sign of other human creatures.

Opechanchanough consulted with his braves whence had the arrow come; and
even while they talked, another arrow from the right whizzed before his
face.

"A bad archer," he grunted, "who cannot hit me with two shots." Then
pointing to a huge oak that forked half way up, he commanded:

"Bring him to me."

Two braves rushed forward to the tree, on which all eyes were now fixed.
It was difficult to distinguish anything through the falling snow and
the mass of its flakes that had gathered in the crotch. All was white
there, yet there was something white which moved, and the two braves on
reaching the tree trunk yelled in delight and disdain.

The white figure moved rapidly now. Swinging itself out on a branch and
catching hold of a higher one, it seemed determined to retreat from its
pursuers to the very summit of the tree. But the braves did not waste
time in climbing after it; they leapt up in the air like panthers,
caught the branch and swung it vigorously back and forth so that the
creature's feet slipped from under it and it fell into their
outstretched arms.

Not waiting even to investigate the white bundle of fur, the warriors,
surrounded by their curious fellows, bore it to Opechanchanough, and
laid it on the ground before him. He knelt and lifted up the cap of
rabbit skin with flapping ears that hid the face, then cried out in
angry astonishment:

"Pocahontas! What meaneth this trick?"

And the white fur bundle, rising to her feet, laughed and laughed till
the oldest and staidest warrior could not help smiling. But
Opechanchanough did not smile; he was too angry. His dignity suffered at
thus being made the sport of a child. He shook his niece, saying:

"What meaneth this, I ask? What meaneth this?"

Pocahontas then ceased laughing and answered:

"I wanted to see for myself how brave thou wert. Uncle, and to know just
how great warriors such as ye are act when an enemy is upon them. I am
not so bad an archer, Uncle; I would not shoot thee, so I aimed beyond
thee. But it was such fun to sit up there in the tree and watch all of
you halt so suddenly."

Her explanation set most of the party laughing again.

"In truth, is she well named," they cried--"Pocahontas, Little Wanton."

"I have yet another name," she said to an old brave who stood nearest
her. "Knowest thou it not?--Matoaka, Little Snow Feather. Always when
the moons of popanow (winter) bring us snow it calls me out to play.
'Come, Snow Feather,' it cries, 'come out and run with me and toss me up
into the air.'"

Her uncle had now recovered his calm and was about to start forward
again. Turning to the two who had captured Pocahontas, he commanded:

"Since we have taken a prisoner we will bear her to Powhatan for
judgment and safekeeping. Had we shot back into the tree she might have
been killed. See that she doth not escape you."

Then he stalked ahead through the forest, paying no further attention to
Pocahontas.

The young braves looked sheepishly at each other and at their captive,
not at all relishing their duty. Opechanchanough was not to be
disobeyed, yet it was no easy thing to hold a young maid against her
will, and no force or even show of force might be used against a
daughter of the mighty werowance (chieftain).

Seeing their uncertainty, Pocahontas started to run to the left and they
to pursue her. They came up with her before she had gone as far as three
bows' lengths and led her back gently to their place in the line. Then
she walked sedately along as if unconscious of their presence, until
they were off their guard, believing she had resigned herself to the
situation, when she sprang off to the right and was again captured and
led back. She knew that they dared not bind her, and she took advantage
of this to lead them in truth a dance, first to one side and then to the
other. Behind them their comrades jeered and laughed each time the
maiden ran away.

The regular order of the warpath was now no longer preserved. They had
advanced to a point where there was no longer any possibility of danger
from hostile attack. Werowocomoco lay now but a short distance away;
already the smoke from its lodges could be seen across the cleared
fields that surrounded the village of Powhatan. The older warriors were
walking in groups, talking over their deeds of valor performed that day,
and praising those of several of the young braves who had fought for the
first time. Pocahontas and her captors had now fallen further behind.

Though well satisfied with the results of her enterprise and amusement,
Pocahontas had no mind to be brought into her home as a captive, even
though it be half in jest. Her father might not consider it so amusing
and, moreover, she did not like to be outwitted. She was so busy
thinking that she forgot to continue her game and walked quietly ahead,
keeping up with the longer strides of the warriors by occasional little
runs forward. The braves, their own heads full of their first campaign,
kept fingering lovingly the scalps at their girdles, and paid little
attention to her.

She stooped as if to fasten her moccasin, then, as their impetus carried
them a few feet ahead of her before they stopped for her to come up, she
darted like a flash to the left and had slid down into a little hollow
before they thought of starting after her.

It was now almost dark and her white fur was indistinguishable against
the snow below. Before they had reached the bottom, Pocahontas, who knew
every inch of the ground that was less familiar to men from her uncle's
village, had slipped back into the forest which skirted the fields the
pursuers were now speeding across, and was lost at once in the darkness.

Opechanchanough knew nothing of this escape. He meant to explain to his
royal brother how much mischief a child might do who was not kept at
home performing squaw duties in her wigwam. And Powhatan's favorite
daughter or not, Pocahontas should be kept waiting outside her father's
lodge until he had related his important business and had recounted all
the glorious deeds done by his Pamunkeys.

Now they had come to Werowocomoco itself, and the noise of their
shoutings and of their war drums brought the inhabitants running out of
their wigwams. As the Pamunkeys were an allied tribe, their cause
against a common enemy was the same, yet the rejoicings at the victory
against the Monachans was somewhat less than it would have been had the
conquerors been Powhatans themselves. However, Opechanchanough and his
braves could not complain of their reception, and runners sped ahead to
advise Powhatan of their coming, while all the population of their
village crowded about them, the men questioning, the boys fingering the
scalps and each boasting how many he would have at his girdle when he
was grown.

The great Werowance was not in his ceremonial lodge but in the one in
which he ordinarily slept and ate when at Werowocomoco. Opechanchanough
paused at the opening of the lodge and ordered:

"When I call out then bring ye in Pocahontas, and we shall see what
Powhatan thinks of a squaw child that shoots at warriors."

The lodge was almost dark when he entered it. Before the fire in the
centre he could see his brother Powhatan seated, and on each side of him
one of his wives. Then he made out the features of his nephew Nautauquas
and Pocahontas' younger sister, Cleopatra (for so it was the English
later understood the girl's strange Indian name). They had evidently
just been eating supper and the dogs behind them were gnawing the wild
turkey bones that had been thrown to them. At Powhatan's feet crouched a
child in a dark robe, with face in the shadow.

Powhatan greeted his brother gravely and bade him be seated. The lodge
soon filled with braves packed closely together, and about the opening
crowded all who could, and these repeated to the men and squaws left
outside the words that were spoken within.

Proudly Opechanchanough began to tell how he had tracked the Monachans
to a hill above the river, and how he and his war party had fallen upon
them, driving them down the steep banks, slaying and scalping, even
swimming into the icy water to seize those who sought to escape. And The
Powhatan nodded in approval, uttering now and again a word of praise.
When Opechanchanough had finished his recital the shaman, or
medicine-man, rose and sang a song of praise about the brave Pamunkeys,
brothers of the Powhatans.

Then, one after another, Opechanchanough's braves told of their personal
exploits.

"I," sang one, "I, the Forest Wolf, have devoured mine enemy. Many suns
shall set red between the forest trees, but none so red as the blood
that flowed when my sharp knife severed his scalp lock."

And as each recited his deeds his words were received with clappings of
hands and grunts of approval.

Powhatan gave orders to open the guest lodge and to prepare a feast for
the victors. Then Opechanchanough rose again to speak. After he had
finished another song of triumph, he turned to Powhatan and asked:

"Brother, how long hath it been that thy warriors keep within their
lodges, leaving to young squaws the duty of sentinels who cannot
distinguish friends from foes?"

Powhatan gazed at the speaker in astonishment.

"What dost thou mean by such strange words?" asked the chief.

"As we returned through the forest," explained Opechanchanough, "before
we reached the boundary of thy fields, while we still believed that a
part of the Monachans might lie in ambush for us there, an arrow, shot
from the westward, flew before my face. Then came a second arrow out of
the branches of an oak tree. We took the bowman prisoner, and what
thinkest thou we found?--a squaw child!"

"A squaw child!" repeated Powhatan in astonishment. "Was it one of this
village?"

"Even so. Brother. I have her captive outside that thou mayst pronounce
judgment upon one who endangers thus the life of thy brother and who
forgetteth she is not a boy. Bring in the prisoner," he commanded.

But no one came forward. The young braves to whom Pocahontas had been
entrusted kept wisely on the outskirts of the crowd.

Then the little sombre figure at Powhatan's feet rose and stood with
the firelight shining on her face and dark hair and asked in a gentle
voice:

"Didst thou want me, mine uncle?"

"Pocahontas," exclaimed Opechanchanough, "how camest thou here ahead of
us, and in that dark robe?"

"Pocahontas can run even better than she can shoot. Uncle, and the
changing of a robe is the matter but of a moment."

"What meaneth this, Matoaka?" asked Powhatan, making use of her special
intimate name, which signified Little Snow Feather. He spoke in a low
tone, but one so stern that Cleopatra shivered and rejoiced that she was
not the culprit.

"It was but a joke, my father," answered Pocahontas. "I meant no harm."
She hung her head and waited until he should speak again.

"I will have no such jokes in my land," he said angrily, "remember
that."

With a gesture of his hand and a whispered word of command he sent the
Pamunkey braves to the guest lodge. Opechanchanough, still angry at the
ridicule that a child had brought upon him, lingered to ask;

"Wilt thou not punish her?"

"Surely I will," Powhatan answered. "Go ye all to the guest lodge and I
will follow. Away, Nautauquas, and carry my pipe thither."

They were now alone in the lodge, the great chief over thirty tribes and
his daughter, who still stood with downcast head. The Powhatan gazed at
her curiously. She waited for him to speak, then as he kept silent, she
turned and looked straight into his face and asked:

"Father, dost thou know how hard it is to be a girl? Nautauquas, my
brother, is a swift runner, yet I am fleeter than he. I can shoot as
straight as he, though not so far. I can go without food and drink as
long as he. I can dance without fatigue when he is panting. Yet
Nautauquas is to be a great brave and I--thou bidst remember to be a
squaw. Is it not hard, my father? Why then didst thou give me strong
arms and legs and a spirit that will not be still? Do not blame me.
Father, because I must laugh and run and play."

As she spoke she slipped to her knees and embraced his feet and when she
had ceased speaking, she smiled up fearless into his face.

Powhatan tried not to be moved by the child's pleading. Yet he was a
chief who always harkened to the excuses made by offenders brought
before him and judged them justly, if sometimes harshly. This child of
his was as dear to him as a running stream to summer heat. If at times
its spray dashed too high, could he be angry?

And Pocahontas, seeing that his anger had gone from him, stood up and
laid her head against his arm. She did not have to be told that the
mighty Powhatan loved no wife nor child of his as he loved her. Then his
hand stroked her soft hair and cheek, and she knew that she was
forgiven.

"Thine uncle is very angry," he said.

"If thou couldst but have seen him. Father, when the arrow whizzed," and
she laughed gaily in memory of the picture.

"I have promised to punish thee."

"Yea, as thou wilt." But she did not speak as if afraid.

"Hear what I charge thee," he said in mock solemnity. "Thou shalt
embroider for me with thine own hands--thou that carest not for squaw's
needles--a robe of raccoon skin in quills and bits of precious shells."

Pocahontas laughed.

"That is no punishment. 'Tis a strange thing, but when I do things I
like not for those I love, why, then I pleasure in doing them. I will
fashion for thee such a robe as thou hast never seen. Oh! I know how
beautiful it will be. I will make new patterns such as no squaw hath
ever dreamed of before. But thou wilt never be really angry with me.
Father, wilt thou?" she questioned pleadingly. "And if I should at any
time do what displeaseth thee, and thou wearest this robe I make thee,
then let it be a token between us and when I touch it thou wilt forgive
me and grant what I ask of thee?"

And Powhatan promised and smiled on her before he set forth for the
guest lodge.




[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER II

POCAHONTAS AND THE MEDICINE MAN


Some months later on there came a hot day such as sometimes appears in
the early spring. The sun shone with almost as much power as if the corn
were high above the ground in which it had only just been planted with
song and the observance of ancient sacred rites and dances. Little
leaves glistened like fish scales, as they gently unfurled themselves on
the walnut and persimmon trees about Werowocomoco, and in the forest the
ground was covered with flowers. The children tied them together and
tossed them as balls to and fro or wound them into chaplets for their
hair; the old squaws searched among them for certain roots and leaves
for dyes to stain the grass cloth they spun, called pemmenaw.

The boys played hunters, pretending their dogs were wild beasts, but the
bears and wolves did not always understand the parts assigned them and
frolicked and leaped up in delight upon their little masters instead of
turning upon them ferociously. The elder braves lay before their lodges,
many of them idling in the sunshine, others busied themselves making
arrows, fitting handles to stone knives or knotting crab nets. Two
slaves, brought home prisoners by a war party, were hollowing out a
dugout, which the Powhatans used instead of the birchbark canoes
preferred by other tribes. They had cut down an oak tree that, judging
from its rings, must have been an acorn when Powhatan was a papoose,
seventy years before. They had burned out a portion of the outer and
inner bark and were now hacking at the heart of the wood with sharp
obsidian axes.

The squaws were also all busy out of doors, though they chatted in
groups as eagerly as if their energy were being expended by their
tongues only. Many were at work scraping deerskin to soften it before
they cut it into robes for themselves or into moccasins for the men.
Here and there little puffs of smoke that seemed to come from beneath
the earth testified to the dinners that were being cooked under heated
stones.

Pocahontas was seated upon a small hill overlooking the village. As the
chief's daughter, it was only on special occasions and as an honored
guest, that she joined the knots of squaws or maidens chatting before
the wigwams. But she was not alone now in solitary grandeur. She was
accustomed to surround herself, when she desired company, with a number
of younger girls of the tribe who obeyed her, less because she was the
daughter of the feared werowance, than because she had a way with her
that made it pleasant to do as she willed and difficult to oppose her.
Cleopatra, her youngest sister, sat beside her, trying to coax a
squirrel on the branch above them to come down and eat some parched corn
from her hands.

Over Pocahontas's knees was spread a robe of raccoon skin, smooth,
painted in a wide border. Along the edge of this she was embroidering a
deep pattern of white beads made from sea shells. A basket of reeds
beside her was full of other beads, large and small, white, red, yellow
and blue.

"What doth thy pattern mean, Pocahontas?" asked the girl nearest her.
"As it is not one any of our mothers hath ever wrought before, thou must
have a meaning for it in thy mind." "Yes," assented the worker, "it
differeth from all other patterns because my father differeth from all
other werowances. It meaneth this that I sing:

    "Powhatan is a mighty chief,
    As long as the river floweth,
    As long as the sky upholdeth,
    As long as the oak tree groweth,
    So long shall his name be known.

"See, this line is for the river, this one that goeth up straight is the
oak tree and this long line all wavy is the heavens. I make this for my
father because I am so proud of him."

"But why, Pocahontas," asked another of her companions, "dost thou not
use more of these red beads? They are so like fire, like the blood of an
enemy; why dost thou refer the white?"

Pocahontas held her bone needle still for a moment and her face wore a
puzzled expression.

"I cannot answer thee exactly, Deer-Eye, since I do not know myself. I
love the white beads as I love best to wear a white robe myself, or a
white rabbit hood in winter. In the woods I always pick the white
flowers, and I love the white wild pigeon best of all the birds except
the white seagull. And the white soft clouds high in the heavens I love
better than the red and yellow ones when the sun goeth down to sleep in
the west. Yet I cannot say why it is so."

As noon approached the day grew hotter, and the fingers wearied of the
work. Down in the village the men had ceased their activities and lay
stretched out on the shady side of the lodges; only the squaws preparing
dinner were still busy.

"Let us go to the waterfall," cried Pocahontas, jumping up suddenly.
"Each of you go and beg some food from her mother and hurry back here. I
will put my work away and await ye here."

The maidens flew down the hill while Pocahontas and Cleopatra carried
the robe and the basket to their lodge. Then, a few minutes later, they
were rejoined by their companions and all started off laughing as they
ran through the woods.

The stream that flowed into the great river below was now still wide
with its spring fulness. A mile away from Werowocomoco it fell over high
rocks, then rushing down a gentle incline bubbled over smooth rocky
slabs, and made a deep pool below them.

The maidens tossed off their skirts and stood for a moment hesitatingly
on the shore. Mocking-birds sang in the oaks above them, startled by
their shrill young voices, and on the bare branches of a sycamore tree
that had been killed by a lightning bolt a score of raccoons lay curled
up in the sunshine.

Pocahontas was the first to spring into the stream, but her comrades
quickly followed her, laughing, pushing, crying out the first chill of
the water. Only Cleopatra remained standing on the shore.

"Come," called Pocahontas to her; "why dost thou tarry, lazy one?"

"I will not come. The water is too cold."

Cleopatra was about to slip on her skirt again when her sister splashed
through the stream to her and half pushed, half pulled her into the pool
and then to the rocks partly submerged in the water. There was much
screaming and calling, slipping from the rocks into the pool and
clambering from the pool back on to the rocks. The water was now
pleasantly warm and the dinner awaiting them was forgotten in the
pleasure of the first bath of the season.

Deer-Eye, in trying to pull herself back on the rock, caught hold of
Cleopatra's foot, who slipped on the mossy surface and fell backwards
into the water, hitting her head against a sharp edge. She lost
consciousness and sank down into the pool.

Almost before she had disappeared beneath the water Pocahontas had
sprung after her, and groping about on the fine smooth sand of the
bottom, she caught hold of her sister and brought her to the surface.

Then, with the aid of the terrified maidens, she lifted her up on the
bank, the blood flowing freely from a cut on her head. After vainly
trying to staunch the wound with damp moss, Pocahontas commanded:

"Hasten as though the Iroquois were coming, and cut me some strong
branches."

They obeyed her, hurriedly throwing their skirts about them, and then
with their stone knives severed branches and tied them together with
deer thongs which they tore from the fringe of their girdles. On top of
these they placed leafy branches and lifted the unconscious Cleopatra on
to this improvised stretcher. In spite of their remonstrances,
Pocahontas insisted upon taking one end of it, while the strongest two
of her playmates bore the other.

Through the woods they walked, as silent now as they had been noisy
before, but Pocahontas thought her heart-beats sounded as loud as the
war drums of the Pamunkeys.

They were still distant many minutes' walk to the village when they
caught sight of Pochins, a medicine man famous among many tribes for his
powerful manitou, his guardian spirit, which enabled him to communicate
with the manitous of the spirit world.

"Pochins, oh Pochins," cried out Pocahontas, "come and help us. I fear
my sister is dying, and that I have killed her. She did not wish to go
into the water, Pochins, and I pulled her in and now she hath cut her
head and the blood floweth from it so that I can not stop it."

The shaman made no answer, but bent down from his great height and
looked carefully at the wound, then he took the end of the stretcher
from Pocahontas, saying:

"I will bear her to my prayer lodge here nearby."

Even then through the trees they caught sight of the bark covering of
the lodge, which few persons had ever entered. The maidens shuddered at
the sight of it, for none of them knew what mysterious terrors might lie
in wait for them there. Nevertheless they followed Pochins as he bore
Cleopatra inside and laid her on the ground. From an earthen bowl he
took certain herbs and bound the leaves, after he had moistened them,
over the wound. Soon Pocahontas, crouching at her sister's side, could
see that the blood had ceased to flow. But no sign of life could be
detected in the little body lying there. The hands and feet were clammy
and though Pocahontas rubbed them vigorously, she could feel no warmth
stirring in them.

The shaman paid, however, no further heed to her. From another bowl he
took out a rattle of gourd, and from a peg on one of the rounded
supports of the roof he lifted down a horrible mask painted in scarlet,
and this he fastened over his face. Then, waving the children out of the
way, he began to dance about the two sisters and to chant in a loud
voice, shaking the rattle till it seemed as if the din must waken a dead
person.

"My medicine is a mighty medicine," he exclaimed in his natural voice to
Pocahontas. "Wait a little and thou shalt see what wonders it can do."

And indeed in a few moments Pocahontas felt the pulse start in her
sister's arm, saw her eyelids quiver and her feet grow warm. And when
the shouting and the shaking of the rattle grew even louder and more
hideous, Cleopatra opened her eyes and looked about her in astonishment.

"Mighty indeed is the medicine (the magic) of Pochins," cried the shaman
proudly as he laid aside mask and rattle; "it hath brought this maiden
back from the dead."

Pocahontas now had to soothe the child, terrified by the sights she had
seen and the sounds she had heard. She patted her arms and spoke to her
as if she were a papoose on her back:

"Fear not, little one, no evil shall come to thee. Pocahontas watcheth
over thee. She will not close her eyes while danger prowleth about. Fear
naught, little one."

And Cleopatra clung to her, feeling a sense of security in her sister's
fearlessness.

By this time the news of the accident had spread through the village and
several squaws, led by Cleopatra's mother, came running to Pochins's
lodge. Finding Cleopatra was able to rise, they carried her back with
them. The other maidens, now the excitement was over, remembered their
empty stomachs and hurried off to recover the dinner they had left
behind at the waterfall.

Pocahontas did not go with them. She still sat on the ground beside the
medicine man while he busied himself painting the mask where the color
had worn off.

"Shaman," she asked, "tell me where went the manitou of my sister while
she lay there dead?"

"On a distant journey," he answered; "therefore I had to call so loudly
to make it hear me and return."

"Who taught thee thy medicine?" she questioned again.

"The Beaver, my manitou, daughter of Powhatan," he answered.

"And who then will teach me; how shall I learn?"

"Thou needest not such knowledge, since thou art neither a medicine man
nor a brave. I, Pochins, will call to Okee, the Great Spirit, for thee
when thou hast need of anything, food or raiment or a chief to take thee
to his lodge."

"But I should like to do that myself, Pochins," she remonstrated. "Thou
dost not know how many things I long to do myself. Let me put on thy
mask and take thy rattle, just to see how they feel."

"Nay, nay, touch them not," he cried, stretching out his hand. "The
Beaver would be angry with us and would work evil medicine on us."

Pochins was not fond of children. His dignity was so great that he never
even noticed them as he strode through the village. But the eager look
in Pocahontas's eyes seemed to draw words out of him. He began to talk
to her of the many days and nights he had spent alone, fasting, in the
prayer lodge until some message came to him from Okee, some message
about the harvest or the success of a hunting party. Pocahontas was so
interested that she asked him many questions.

"Tell me of Michabo, Michabo, the Great Hare," she coaxed, as she moved
over on a mat Pochins had spread for her.

"Hearken, then, daughter of The Powhatan," he began, his voice changing
its natural tone to one of chanting, "to the story of Michabo as it is
told in the lodges of the Powhatans, the Delawares and of those tribes
who dwell far away beyond our forests, away where abideth the West Wind
and where the Sun strideth towards the darkness.

"Michabo dived down into the water when there was no land and no beast
and no man or woman and he was lonely. From the bottom took he a grain
of fine white sand and bore it safely in his hand in his journey upward
through the dark waters. This he cast upon the waves and it sank not but
floated like a tiny leaf. Then it spread out, circling round and round,
wider and wider as the rings widen when thou casteth a stone into a
still lake, till it had grown so large that a swift young wolf, though
he ran till he dropped of old age, could not come to its ending. This
earth rose all covered with trees and hills and beasts and men and
women, and Michabo, the Great Hare, the Spirit of Light, the Great White
One, hunted through earth's forests and he fashioned strong nets for
fishing and he taught the stupid men, who knew naught, how to hunt also
and to catch fish that they might not die of hunger.

"But Michabo had mightier deeds to do than the slaying of the fat deer
or the netting of the salmon. His father was the mighty West Wind,
Ningabiun, and he had slain his wife, the mother of Michabo. So when
Michabo's grandmother had told him of the misdeeds of his father,
Michabo rose up and called out to the four corners of the world: 'Now go
I forth to slay the West Wind to avenge the death of my mother.'

"At last he found Ningabiun on the top of a high mountain, his cheeks
puffed out and his headdress waving back and forth. At first they talked
peacefully together and the West Wind told Michabo that only one thing
in all the world could bring harm to him, and that was the black rock.

"'Wert thou the cause of my mother's death?' questioned Michabo, his
eyes flashing, and Ningabiun calmly answered 'Yes.'

"So Michabo in his fury picked up a piece of black rock and struck at
Ningabiun with all his might. A terrible conflict was this, such as hath
never been seen since; the earth shook and the lightnings flashed down
the sides of the mountain. So great was Michabo's strength that the West
Wind was driven backwards. Over mountains and lakes Michabo drove him
and across wide rivers, till they two came to the very brink of the
world. Ningabiun feared that his son was going to push him off and cried
out:

"Hold, my son, thou knowest not my power and that it is impossible to
kill me. Desist and I will portion out to thee as much power as I have
given to thy brothers. The four quarters of the globe are theirs, but
thou canst do more than they, if thou wilt help the people of the earth.
Go and do good, and thy fame will last forever.'

"So Michabo ceased from the battle and went down to help our fathers in
the hunt and in the council and in the prayer-lodge; but to this day
great cliffs of black rock show where Michabo strove with his father,
the West Wind."




[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER III

MIDNIGHT IN THE FOREST


Nautauquas, son of Powhatan, was returning at night through the forest
towards his lodge at Werowocomoco. Over his shoulder hung the deer he
had gone forth to slay. His mother had said to him:

"Thy leggings are old and worn, and thou knowest that good luck cometh
to the hunter wearing moccasins and leggings made from skins of his own
slaying. Go thou forth and kill a deer that I may soften its hide and
make a covering of it for thy feet."

So Nautauquas had taken his bow and a quiver of arrows, and while
Pocahontas and Cleopatra were sporting at the waterfall he had sought a
pond whose surface was all but covered with fragrant water lilies, and
he had hidden behind a sumac, bush, waiting patiently till a buck came
down alone to drink. Only one arrow did he spend, which found its place
between the wide branched antlers; then the hunter had waded into the
pond, pushing aside the lily pads, and with one cut of his knife he had
put an end to the struggling deer. Now he was bearing it home and he
thought with eagerness of the savory meat it would yield him on the
morrow. There was no doubt that he would have appetite ready for it, as
all day long he had eaten nothing. It had been easy enough for him to
have killed a squirrel and roasted it, but Nautauquas, knowing it was
part of a brave's training to accustom himself to hunger, often fasted a
long time voluntarily.

The night was a dark one, but now that the moon had risen, long vistas
of light shone down the forest avenues, generally at that time so free
from underbrush. Nautauquas, looking up through the branches at the
moon, thought how it was the squaw of the sun and remembered the queer
tales the old women were fond of relating about it.

Suddenly before him he saw a creature dancing down the moon-path,
whirling and springing about while a pair of rabbits, that were startled
in crossing the path, scurried off into a clump of sassafras bushes
nearby. Then, as if reassured, they sat there calmly, even when the
dancing figure came closer to them. And Nautauquas heard singing, though
the words of the song did not come to his ears. He slipped behind an oak
tree and watched the dancer advance. Now that it was nearer he
discovered that it was a young girl; her only garment, a skirt of white
buckskin, napped against her firm bare brown legs and a necklace of
white shells clicked as she spun about. In the branches above some
squirrels, awakened from their slumber, straightened their furry tails
and began to chatter and a screech-owl tuwitted and tuwhoed. There was
something familiar in the outlines, and Nautauquas was therefore not
completely astonished when, turning about, she showed the face of
Pocahontas.

"Matoaka," he cried, stepping from the shadow; "what dost thou here
alone at night?"

His sister did not scream nor jump at this sudden interruption. She
seized her brother's hand and pressed it gently.

"It was such a beautiful night, Nautauquas," she replied, "that I could
not lie sleeping in the lodge. I come often here."

"And hast thou no fear, little sister?" he asked affectionately; "no
fear of wild animals or of our enemies?"

"Wild animals will not hurt me. I patted a mother bear with cubs one
night, and she did not even growl."

Nautauquas did not doubt her word. He knew that there were certain human
beings whom beasts will not hurt.

"And enemies," she continued, "would not venture so near the village of
the mighty Powhatan."

"I heard thee singing, little White Feather; what was thy song?"

"I made it many moons ago," she answered, "and I sing it always when I
dance here at night. Listen then, thou shalt hear the song Matoaka,
daughter of Powhatan, made to sing in the woods by Werowocomoco."

And she danced slowly, imitating with head and hands, body and feet, the
words of her song.

    I am the sister of the Morning Wind,
    And he and I awake the lazy Sun.
    We ruffle up the down of sleeping birds,
    And blow our laughter in the rabbits' ears,
    And bend the saplings till they kiss my feet,
    And the long grass till it obeisance makes.

    I am the sister of the wan Moonbeam
    Who calls to me when I have fallen asleep:
    Come, see how I have witched the world in white.--
    So faint his voice no other ear can hear.
    And I steal forth from out my father's lodge,
    And of the world there only waketh I
    And bears and wildcats and the sly raccoon
    And deer from out whose eyes there look the souls
    Of maidens who have died ere they knew love.
    And then the world we shorten with our feet
    That wake no echoes, but the hornèd owl
    Sigheth to think that thus our wingless speed
    All but outdoes that of the tree-dwellers.

When she had finished she threw herself down at his feet, asking:

"Dost thou like my song, my brother?"

"Yes, it is a new song, Matoaka, and some day thou must sing it for our
father. But it seemeth to me that thou art different from other maids.
They do not care to rise from their sleeping mats and go forth alone
into the forest."

"Perhaps they have not an arrow inside of them as have I."

Nautauquas had seated himself in the crotch of a dogwood-tree and looked
with interest at his sister below him.

"An arrow?" he queried; "what dost thou mean?"

"I think," she answered, speaking slowly, "that within me is an
arrow--not of wood and stone, but one of manitou--how shall I explain it
to thee? I must go forth to distances, to deeds. I am shot forward by
some bow and I may not hang idle in a quiver. I know," she continued,
fingering the quiver on his back, "how thine own arrow feels after thou
hast fashioned it carefully of strong wood and bound its head upon it
with thongs. It says to itself; 'I am happy here, hanging in my warm bed
on Nautauquas's back.' And then when thou takest it in thy hand and
fittest its notch to the bowstring, it crieth out: 'Now I shall speed
forth; now shall I cut the wind; now shall I journey where no arrow ever
journeyed before; now shall I achieve what I was fashioned for!'"

"Strange thoughts are these, little sister, for a maid to think," and
Nautauquas stroked the long braid against his knee.

"I am so happy, Nautauquas," she went on. "I love the warm lodge, the
fire embers in the centre, the smoke curling up towards the stars I can
see through the opening above me. I love to feel little Cleopatra's feet
touching my head as we lie there together. But then I feel the arrow
within me and I rise to my feet silently and creep out, and if the dogs
hear me I whisper to them and they lie down quietly again. I love
Werowocomoco, yet I long too to go beyond the village to where the sky
touches the earth. I love the tales of the beasts the old squaws tell,
but I want to hear the braves when they speak of war and ambushes.
Springtime and the sowing of the corn are full of delight, yet I look
forward eagerly to the earing of the corn and the fall of the leaf."

The maiden spoke passionately. So had she never spoken to anyone. She
ceased for a moment and there was no sound save the call of the owl.
Then she turned around and knelt, her elbows on her brother's knees, and
asked:

"Tell me, Nautauquas, tell me the truth, since thou canst speak naught
else; what manitou is in me that I am like to rushing water, to a stream
that hurries forward? What shall I become?"

"Something great, Matoaka," he answered; "I know not whether a
warrior--such there have been--a princess who shall hold many tribes in
her hand, or a prophetess; but I am certain that the arrow of thy
manitou shall bring down some fair game."

"Ah!" she breathed deeply. "I thank thee for thy words, Nautauquas, my
brother, and that thou hast not made sport of me."

"Why should anyone make sport of thee? It is not strange that the aspen
should quiver when the wind blows, nor that thou shouldst be swayed by
the spirit that is within thee, Matoaka. Some day--"

He was interrupted by a piercing scream from the depth of the forest. He
sprang to his feet; all the dreaminess of his attitude and mood had
vanished; he pulled an arrow from his quiver fitted it to the string in
readiness to shoot. Was it possible, he wondered, for any war party of
their enemies to have ventured so near Powhatan's stronghold without
having been halted at other villages belonging to his people? Pocahontas
too was on her feet, her head on one side, listening intently.

Again came the scream, then Nautauquas loosened his bow, saying:

"That is no human cry. It is a wildcat in agony. Let us go and see what
aileth it."

They ran swiftly towards the point from which the sound had come. Again
came the cry to guide them, and then there was silence as they ran
through the moonlight checkered by the shadows of the trees.

Nautauquas stood still suddenly, so suddenly that Pocahontas behind him
could not stop quickly enough and fell against him and almost down into
a ravine that lay beneath, but Nautauquas caught her on the very brink.

"It is down there," he pointed; "there must be a trap, I think. Let us
descend very carefully."

They clambered down through the darkness made by the overhanging bushes
and rocks. At the bottom the light was not obscured, and they beheld the
striped body of a large wildcat caught in a trap.

"Look," cried Pocahontas excitedly, "there is another beast just there
in those bushes. Our coming must have frightened it. He has been trying
to kill the one in the trap, that cannot defend himself."

"That is so," assented Nautauquas, making ready to shoot the beast that
was at liberty in case it should spring towards them. But the animal
evidently had no taste that night for an encounter with human beings,
and slouched off and up the side of the ravine. The imprisoned animal,
they could see, was bleeding from a large wound on its back, and in the
moonlight its eyes shone like fire.

"Poor beast!" exclaimed Nautauquas compassionately. "I would free him if
he would let me touch him. As it is he will have to starve to death
unless his enemy comes back to finish him."

"No," said Pocahontas, "that need not be. I will loose him and bind up
his wound if thou wilt cut a strip off thy leggings."

"Silly child," he laughed. "A wild beast needs no balsam nor cloths for
his wounds. If he were free to drag himself to safety he would lick his
hurt till it healed. But he would bite thy hand off shouldst thou
attempt to touch him."

"Nay, Nautauquas, he would not harm me. See how quiet he will grow."

She knelt down just beyond the reach of the wildcat and began to whisper
to it. Nautauquas could not make out what she said, but to his amazement
he beheld how the beast ceased to lash its tail and how its muscles
seemed to relax. Nevertheless the young brave caught Pocahontas by the
arm and tried to pull her away.

"There is no danger, my brother," she remonstrated. "Fear not. Hast thou
not seen old Father Noughmass when the bees swarm over his neck and
hands? They never sting him. He cannot tell thee why, nor do I know why
wild beasts will not harm me."

So Nautauquas, knife in hand and breathing deeply, looked on while
Pocahontas, speaking words in a low voice, moved nearer and nearer the
wildcat. Taking her knife from her girdle, she began to cut through the
thongs that held him. One paw was now loose and yet the beast did not
move to touch his rescuer. Then when the other thongs were loose and it
was free, it moved off slowly and painfully into the woods as if no
human beings were there.

Nautauquas breathed a sigh of relief.

"It is wonderful, Matoaka, yet I pray thee test thy strange power not
too far. I am glad though the poor beast got away. I like not to see
them suffer. I shoot and kill for food and for skins, but I kill at
once."

They now climbed up the ravine again and started off in the direction of
Werowocomoco.

The night was already far advanced and Pocahontas was growing drowsier
and drowsier. Nautauquas, seeing that she was almost asleep, took hold
of her arm and made her lean on him. As they approached the spot where
he had first come across her dancing, they noticed a human figure
crouched on the ground. Even in the moonlight, grown dimmer as dawn
approached, he could see that it was an old squaw. Pocahontas recognized
old Wansutis, a gatherer of herbs and roots.

"What dost thou here, Wansutis?" she questioned.

"He! the little princess," cried the old woman, scowling up at them,
"and the young brave Nautauquas. I seek roots and leaves by the light of
the Sun's squaw. So is it meet for me and so will the drinks be stronger
when brewed by old Wansutis. I have found many rare plants this night;
it hath been a lucky one, perchance because the young princess was also
abroad in the forest."

All the children of the tribe were afraid of the old woman. They told
each other tales of how she could turn those she disliked into dogs,
bats or turtles. And now even Nautauquas remembered how he had run from
her when he was a little fellow. Her expression was so ugly and so
malign that Pocahontas, though she did not fear her exactly, had no
desire to stay longer, and so started forward.

"And what doth Pocahontas in the woods at night?" asked Wansutis.
"Knoweth The Powhatan that she hath left his lodge?"

Pocahontas, though she often willingly allowed those about her to forget
her rank, could yet be very conscious of it when she desired. Now it did
not please her to be questioned in this manner by the old squaw and she
did not answer.

"Oh hey," cried Wansutis, "thou wilt not answer me. Thou art proud of
thy rank and thy youth. Yet one day thou wilt be an old squaw like me,
without teeth, with weak legs, and life a burden to thee. Then thou wilt
not be so proud."

Pocahontas stopped and turned around again.

"Nay, I will not grow old. I will not let the day come when life shall
be a burden. Thou canst not read the future, Wansutis. I shall always be
as fleet as now."

"Thinketh thou to ward off old age by some of my potions made from these
roots I carry here, a bundle too heavy for an ancient crone like me to
bear on her back? Thou shalt have none of them."

At these words Pocahontas's manner changed. Stooping, she picked up the
bundle and pressed it into the net that lay on the ground and swung it
on to her strong shoulders.

"Come, Wansutis," she cried. "Seek not to anger me with words and I will
bear thy bundle to thy wigwam. It is in truth too heavy for thy old
bones."

The old woman grunted ungraciously as she rose to her feet, then the
three, one following the other, moved forward. They were obliged to go
slowly, as Wansutis could only hobble along, and Nautauquas was sorry to
see that dawn was approaching. He feared now that Pocahontas would not
be able to steal unobserved back to her place beside Cleopatra and that
she would be scolded. They went with Wansutis to her wigwam and
Pocahontas let fall her bundle. Nautauquas took out his knife and cut
off a hind quarter of the deer and laid it on the squaw's hearth.

"She hath no son to hunt for her," he said in explanation as he and
Pocahontas went off unthanked.

Wansutis's wigwam was on the edge of the village. As they came nearer to
the lodges they heard yelling and shouting from every side, and they saw
small boys and young braves rush forth, glancing eagerly about them.

"Let us hasten," cried Pocahontas. "I wonder what hath befallen,
Nautauquas."





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER IV

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET


"What hath happened?" Nautauquas called out to Parahunt, his brother,
when he caught up with him hastening to the river.

"Word hath come by a runner that one of the tribes from the Chickahominy
villages hath fallen upon a party of Massawomekes and hath vanquished
them. Even now they are approaching with the prisoners."

In passing the front of his wigwam Nautauquas threw down the carcass of
the deer, then ran on to join the ever increasing crowd of braves and
children on the river bank.

Pocahontas too had mingled in the throng, and so Cleopatra and the
squaws in the lodge had not noticed her absence, thinking when they saw
her that she had been roused from sleep in the early dawn as they had
been.

It was now almost light. Far down the river six large dugouts were
approaching. But even that sight was not sufficient to make the
onlookers forget the fact that the sun was rising and must be greeted
with the customary ceremony. Two chiefs, whose duty it was, took from
their pouches handfuls of dried uppowoc (tobacco), and each turning away
from the other, walked in a large half-circle, scattering the uppowoc
upon the ground, until when they met a brown ring had been formed.
Within this braves and squaws hurried to seat themselves. With uplifted
eyes and outstretched hands they greeted the Sun who had come back to
them to warm their fields and to draw their young corn upright.

By the time this morning ceremony was over the dugouts were almost at
the beach. There was now a great shouting and yelling from shore to
boats and from boats to shore, and Pocahontas slipped into a thicket of
bushes on to a higher point of the bank where she could be alone to
watch the landing. She clapped her hands as their friends, the stalwart
Chickahominies, leaped ashore, twenty to each huge dugout; and though
her dignity would not permit her to call out derisively, as did the
crowd, to the three prisoners each boat contained, she looked eagerly to
see what kind of monsters these enemies of her tribe might be.

The eighteen Massawomekes were not bound; they stepped from the dugouts
as firmly as if they were going to a feast instead of to torture. They
were of the Iroquois nation; and Pocahontas, who had heard many stories
of this race, always at enmity with her own, noticed certain differences
in the way they were tattooed and in the shape of their headdresses.

Victors and prisoners, followed by the crowd, marched forward to the
ceremonial lodge where The Powhatan was awaiting them. Pocahontas
slipped into the already crowded space, though one of Powhatan's squaws
tried to stay her. She made her way without further opposition between
Chickahominies and Massawomekes, up to the dais where her father sat,
and crouched down on a mat spread on raised hurdles at his feet, where
she could observe all that went on.

One of the Chickahominy chiefs, whose face she remembered to have seen
at the great autumn festivals, was the first to speak:

"Powhatan, ruler of two hundred villages and lord of thirty tribes, who
rulest from the salt water to the western forests, we come to tell thee
how we have pursued thine enemies, the Massawomekes, who two months ago
did slay in ambush a party of our young men out hunting deer. By the
Great Swamp (the Dismal Swamp of Virginia) we came upon them, and though
they sought like bears to hide themselves in its secret places, lo! I,
Water Snake, did track them and I and my braves fell upon them, and now
they are no more."

Murmurs of assent and of approval were heard throughout the lodge. The
prisoners alone were apparently as unconscious of Water Snake's recital
as if they were still hidden in the fastnesses of the Great Swamp.

"There where we fought," continued the orator, waving his hand towards
the southwest, "the white blossoms of the creeping plants turned
crimson, and the hungry buzzards circled overhead. Many a Massawomeke
squaw sits to-night in a lonely wigwam; many a man child among them hath
lost the father to teach him how to bend a bow. We slew them all, Great
Werowance, all but these captives we have brought before thee."

This time louder shouts of approval rewarded Water Snake's speech,
which did not cease until it was seen that Powhatan meant to acknowledge
it. He did not rise nor change his position in any way, and his voice
was low and measured.

"A tree hath many branches, but one trunk only. Deep into the earth
stretch its roots to suck up nourishment for every twig and leaf. I,
Wahunsunakuk, Chief of the Powhatans and many tribes, am the trunk, and
one of my many branches is that of the Chickahominies and one that is
very close to my heart. My children have done well and the Powhatan
thanks them for their brave deeds. Now can your young braves go forth
upon the hunt unharmed and bring back meat for feastings and hides for
their squaws to fashion."

He paused and all the eyes of his people in the lodge were bent on him
with the same question.

"My children ask of me 'What shall we do with these captives?' and I
make answer, feast them first, that they may not say that the Powhatans
are greedy and give not to strangers. Then when they have feasted let
them run the gauntlet."

He waved his hand in token that he had finished speaking, and the glad
news was shouted from the lodge to the eager crowd without. Pocahontas
knew as well as if she could see them that the squaws were hurrying
about to prepare the food, and from her low seat she could see between
the legs of the braves before her how a number of boys were lying on
their stomachs, trying to wriggle into the lodge that they might hear
for themselves the interesting things going on and observe for
themselves whether the captives showed any sign of fear.

Now Powhatan gave an order and all seated themselves on the ground or on
mats in lines facing him. Then in came the squaws bearing large wooden
and grass-woven dishes of food. There were hot cakes of maize and wild
turkeys and fat raccoons. The captives were served first and none of
them refused. They would not let their enemies believe that fear of
their coming fate could spoil their appetites. So, after throwing the
first piece of meat into the fire as an offering to Okee, they ate
eagerly.

One of them who sat nearest the front, Pocahontas noticed, was but
little older than herself. He was too young to be a brave; perhaps, she
thought, he had run off from home and had followed the war party, as she
had heard of boys in her own tribe doing. She wondered if now he was
regretting that his eagerness for adventure had made his first warpath
his last one.

When they had feasted the squaws passed around bunches of turkey
feathers for them to wipe their greasy fingers on, and in every way the
captives were treated with that exaggerated courtesy that was customary
towards those about to be tortured.

Then Powhatan rose, and, preceded and followed by several of his fifty
armed guards chosen from the tallest men of his thirty tribes, he strode
down the centre of the lodge and out into the sunshine. Pocahontas
walked next behind him, and once outside, ran to tell the curious
Cleopatra all she had witnessed.

"Why shouldst thou have seen it all?" asked her jealous sister of
Pocahontas, "while I had naught of it all but the shouting?"

"Because," laughed Pocahontas, pulling her sister's long hair, "because
my two feet took me in. Thine are too fearful, little mouse."

An open space stretched before the ceremonial lodge, used for games and
feats of running and shooting at a mark. Now Powhatan and his guard and
his sons seated themselves upon the firm red ground that rose in a
little hillock to a height of several feet at one side of the lodge.
Then other chieftains took up their places behind them, standing or
sitting; the squaws crowded in among them and the boys sought the
branches of a single walnut-tree, the only tree within the limits of
Werowocomoco. They looked with longing eyes at the slanting roof of the
great lodge. That was undoubtedly the point of vantage, but The Powhatan
was a much dreaded werowance and they dared not risk his ire.

Pocahontas, who had been wondering where to bestow herself, noticed the
envying glances they cast in its direction. She was not withheld by
their restraining fear, so running to the opposite side of the lodge,
she climbed its sides, finding foothold in its bark covering, and soon
was curled up comfortably, her hands about her knees, where she would
miss nothing of the spectacle.

Now she beheld two long rows of young braves, one of them composed of
Powhatans, the other of Chickahominies, stride down the open space below
her and form a lane of naked, painted human walls. In their hands they
held bunches of fresh green reeds, sharp as knives, or heavy bludgeons
of oak, or stone tomahawks. For a moment they stood there motionless as
if they were merely spectators of some drama to be enacted by others.

Pocahontas recognized most of them: Black Arrow, whose ear had been
clawed off by a bear; Leaping Sturgeon, who had hung two scalps at his
girdle before the chiefs had pronounced him old enough to be a brave;
her own cousin, White Owl, the most wonderfully tattooed of them all;
and the Nansamond young chieftain who wore a live snake as an earring in
the slit of his ear.

Then Powhatan gave the signal and the captives were led forward. They
knew what awaited them; probably each of them, except the young boy, had
himself meted out the same fate to others that was now to befall them.
They did not repine; it was the fortune of war. Singing songs of
triumph, of derision of all their enemies, they started to run down the
awful lane of death. Blows rained upon them, on neck, on head, on arms,
even on their legs from stooping adversaries. So swift came the blows
from both sides that sometimes two fell upon the same spot almost at
once.

Pocahontas marked with interest that the boy was last of the line, and
that he bore himself as bravely as the others.

When they reached the end of the row there was no escape--no escape
anywhere more for them. Back they darted, so swiftly that it seemed as
if each escaped the blow aimed at himself, only to receive the one meant
for his comrade ahead.

Pocahontas had a queer feeling as she looked down on them and saw the
blood spurting from a hundred wounds. She thought perhaps it was the hot
sun that made her feel a little sick. Her eyes followed the boy and as
he came nearer she noticed that he was almost at the end of his
strength. A few more blows would finish him. Already some of his elders
had fallen to the ground, and if, when beaten unmercifully, they were
still unable to rise, the tomahawk dashed out their brains.

To her astonishment, Pocahontas found herself wishing the boy might not
fall, might escape in some miraculous manner. What a wrong thought! she
said to herself: was he not an enemy of her tribe? Yet she could not
help closing her eyes when she saw Black Arrow aiming a terrible blow at
his head. She did not know what to make of herself. She suddenly began
to think of the hurt wild-cat she and Nautauquas had pitied during the
night. But no one ought ever to pity an enemy. What was she made of?

As she opened her eyes again she heard a woman's outcry and beheld a
squaw rushing towards the end of the line where Black Arrow's blow had
felled the boy. It was old Wansutis.

"I claim the boy," she panted; "I claim him by our ancient right. Cease,
braves, and let me have him."

The astounded braves let their arms drop at their sides, and the
panting, bleeding captives who had not already fallen, breathed for a
moment long breaths.

"I claim the boy," the old woman cried again in a loud voice, turning
towards Powhatan, "to adopt as a son. Many popanows (winters) and seed
times have passed since my sons were slain. Now is Wansutis old and
feeble and hath need of a young son to hunt for her. By our ancient
custom this captive is mine."

There was an outcry of opposition from the younger braves at being
robbed of one of their victims, but the older chiefs on the hill debated
for a few moments, and then gave their decision: there was no doubt of
the old woman's right to claim the boy. So Powhatan sent two of his
guards to fetch him and to carry him to Wansutis's lodge.

Pocahontas suddenly felt at ease again. Yes, she couldn't help it, she
said to herself, but she was glad the boy had not been beaten to pieces.
As soon as he was carried off the running of the gauntlet began again.
But Pocahontas had now had enough of it. It would continue, she knew,
until all of the captives were dead. She slid down from the back of the
lodge and led by curiosity, set off for Wansutis's wigwam. It was at the
edge of the village, and before the slow procession of the two guards,
the old woman and the boy had arrived, Pocahontas had hidden herself
behind a mossy rock, from which hiding place she had a view right into
the opening of the wigwam.

She watched the guards lay the unconscious boy gently down and Wansutis
as she knelt and blew upon the embers under the smoke hole till they
blazed up. Then she saw the old woman take a pot of water and heat it
and throw herbs into it. With this infusion she bathed the wounds,
anointing them afterwards with oil made from acorns. And while she
worked she prayed, invoking Okee to heal her son, to make him strong
that he might care for her old age.

Pocahontas was so eager to know whether the boy were alive that she
crept closer to the wigwam, and when at last he opened his eyes they
looked beyond the hearth and the crouching Wansutis, straight into those
of Pocahontas. She saw that he had regained his senses, so she put her
fingers to her lips. She did not want Wansutis to know that she had been
watched. Already the touch of the wrinkled fingers was as tender as
that of a mother, and Pocahontas felt sure that she would resent any
intrusion. Now that she had seen all there was to see, she stole away.

After wandering through the woods to gather honeysuckle to make a
wreath, she returned to the village. There was no longer a crowd in the
open space; the captives were all dead and the spectators had gone to
their various lodges. Only a number of boys were playing run the
gauntlet, some with willow twigs beating those chosen by lot to run
between them. A girl, imitating old Wansutis, rushed forward and claimed
one of the runners for a son.

A few days later when the young Massawomeke lad had recovered there were
ceremonies to celebrate his adoption as a member of the Powhatan tribe,
of the great nation of the Algonquins. The other boys of his age looked
up to him with envy. Had he not proved his valor on the warpath and
under torture while they were only gaming with plumpits? They followed
him about, eager to do his bidding, each trying to outdo his comrades in
sports when his eye was on them. And all the elders had good words to
say about Claw-of-the-Eagle, and Wansutis was so proud that she now
often forgot to speak evil medicine.

Pocahontas wondered how Claw-of-the-Eagle liked his new life, and one
day when she was running through the forest she came upon him. He had
knelt to look through a thicket at a flock of turkeys he meant to shoot
into, but his bow lay idle beside his feet, and she saw that his eyes
seemed to be looking at something in the distance.

"What dost thou behold, son of Wansutis?" she asked.

He started but did not reply.

"Speak, Claw-of-the-Eagle," she said impatiently. "Powhatan's daughter
is not wont to wait for a reply."

He saw that it was the same face he had beheld peering into the lodge at
the moment he regained consciousness.

"I see the sinking sun. Princess of many tribes, the sun that journeys
towards the mountains to the village whence I came."

"But thou art of us now," she rejoined.

"Yes, I am son of old Wansutis and I am loyal to my new mother and to my
new people. And yet. Princess, I send each day a message by the sun to
the lodge where they mourn Claw-of-the-Eagle. Perhaps it will reach
them."

"Tell me of the mountains and of the ways of thy father's people. I long
to learn of strange folk and different customs."

"Nay, Princess, I will not speak of them. Thou hast never bidden
farewell to thy kindred forever. I would forget, not remember."

And Pocahontas, although it was almost the first time that any one had
refused to obey her, was not angry. She was too occupied as she walked
homeward wondering how it would seem if she were never to see
Werowocomoco and her own people again.





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER V

THE GREAT BIRDS


Opechanchanough, brother of Wahunsunakuk, The Powhatan, had sent to
Werowocomoco a boat full of the finest deep sea oysters and crabs. The
great werowance had returned his thanks to his brother and the bearers
of his gifts were just leaving when Pocahontas rushed in to her father's
lodge half breathless with eagerness.

"Father," she cried, "I pray thee grant me this pleasure. It hath grown
warm, and I and my maidens long for the cool air that abideth by the
salty water. Therefore, I beseech thee, let us go to mine uncle for a
few days' visit."

Powhatan did not answer at once. He did not like to have his favorite
child leave him. But she, seeing that he was undecided, began to plead,
to whisper in his ears words of affection and to stroke his hair till he
gave his consent. Then Pocahontas ran off to get her long mantle and her
finest string of beads and to summon the maidens who were to accompany
her. They embarked in the dugout with her uncle's people and were rowed
swiftly down the river.

At Kecoughtan they were received with much ceremony, for Pocahontas knew
what was due her and how, when it was necessary, to put aside her
childish manner for one more dignified. Opechanchanough greeted her
kindly.

"Hast thou forgiven me, my uncle?" she asked as they sat down to a feast
of the delicious little fish she always begged for when she visited him,
and to steaks of bear meat; "hast thou forgiven the arrow I shot at thee
last popanow?"

"I will remember naught unpleasant against thee, little kinswoman," he
replied as he drank his cup of walnut milk.

"Indeed I am ashamed of my foolishness," continued his niece. "I was but
a child then."

"And now?--it is but a few moons ago."

"But see how I grow, as the maize after a rain storm. Soon they will say
I am ready for suitors."

"And whom wilt thou choose, Pocahontas?"

"I do not know. I have no thoughts for that yet."

"What then are thy thoughts of?"

"Of everything, of flowers and beasts, dancing and playing, of wars and
ceremonies, of the new son of old Wansutis, of Nautauquas's new bow, of
necklaces and earrings, of old stories and new songs--and of to-morrow's
bathing."

"Fear not that thou hast yet left thy childhood behind thee," said her
uncle.

Then when the fire died down and the storyteller's voice had grown
drowsy, Pocahontas fell asleep, her arm resting on a baby bear that had
been taken away from its dead mother and that would cuddle close to the
person who lay nearest the fire.

Opechanchanough had not the same deep affection for children as that
which Powhatan showed to his sons and daughters. He was as brave a
fighter but not as great a leader in peace as Wahunsunakuk. It irked
him that he had to give way to his brother and that he must obey his
commands; yet he knew that only by unity between the different tribes of
the seacoast could they be safe from their common enemies, the Iroquois.
His vanity was very great and he had felt hurt at the ridicule which
Pocahontas had caused to fall upon him. Had she come on her visit sooner
he had surely not received her so kindly. But now there were other
strange happenings and more important matters to consider, and he was
too wise a chief to worry long over a child's pranks. Besides, he had
learned, from his own observance and from the tongues of others, how his
brother cherished her more than any of his squaws or children. So policy
as well as his native hospitality dictated a kindly reception.

In the morning after they had eaten, Opechanchanough offered to send
Pocahontas and her maidens in a canoe down to where a cape jutted out
into the ocean that they might see the breakers at their highest, but
Pocahontas declined.

"Nay, Uncle," she said, "but my maidens have never seen the sea. They be
stay-at-homes and I would not affright them too sorely by the sight of
mountains of water. Have no care for us save to bid some one supply us
with food to take along. I know the way down to a smooth beach where we
can disport ourselves."

So Opechanchanough, relieved to have them off his hands, let her have
her will.

The town was within a mile of open water, and the maidens started off
with a large supply of dried flesh slung in osier baskets on their
backs. Some of the young braves looked after them as they went and
disputed as to which of them they would like to choose as squaw when
they were older.

Pocahontas led the way through wild rose bushes and sumac, with here and
there an occasional tall pine tree, its lowest branches high above their
heads. They were all of them in the gayest humor: it was a day made for
pleasure, and they had not a care in the world. They sang as they walked
and joked each other, Pocahontas herself not escaping.

"Did the bear, thy bedfellow, scratch thee?" asked one, "and didst thou
outdo him, for this morning he was not to be found near the lodge."

"Perhaps," suggested another, "it was not a real bear cub but some evil
manitou."

The maidens shuddered deliciously at this possibility.

"Nonsense," called back Pocahontas, "he was real enough; here is the
mark of one claw on my foot. Besides, I do not believe the evil manitou
can have such power on such a beautiful day as this. Okee must have bid
them fly away."

Now suddenly the path turned and before them shone the silver mirror of
the sea.

"Behold!" cried Pocahontas, and then Red Wing, her nearest companion,
fell flat upon the ground, burying her face in the sand. The others
stood and stared at the new watery world in front of them, hushed in an
awed silence. Gradually their curiosity got the better of their fear and
they began to question:

"How many leagues does it stretch, Pocahontas?"--"Can war canoes find
their way on it?"--"Come the good oysters from its depths?" asked
Deer-Eye, whose appetite was always made fun of.

Pocahontas answered as well as she was able, but to her who had seen
several times before the great water, it was almost as much of a mystery
as to her comrades. But to-day she greeted it as an old friend. She
could scarcely wait to throw herself into the little rippling waves at
her feet.

"Come on," she cried, "let us hasten. How wonderful to our heated bodies
will its freshness be." And as she ran towards it she threw off her
skirt, her moccasins and her necklace and dashed into the sea.

Though her companions were used to swimming from the day their mothers
had thrown them as babies into the river to harden them, they had never
been where there were not protecting banks on each side of them, and
they were afraid to follow Pocahontas into this unknown. But gradually
her evident safety and delight were too much for their caution, and they
were soon at home in the gentle waves.

For nearly an hour they played their water games, chasing and ducking
each other, racing and swimming underneath the surface. Then they grew
hungry and bethought themselves of their food waiting to be cooked. But
when they were on the shore again and about to start a fire to heat
their meat, Pocahontas bade them wait.

"Here," she said, "is fresher food. See what the tide has left for us."

To their great astonishment the maidens, who did not know the sea
retreated, saw how while they were bathing the water had bared the sand,
leaving it full of little pools. Standing in one of them, Pocahontas
stooped down and ran her hand through the mud, bringing up a
soft-shelled crab.

"See," she cried, "there are hundreds of them for our dinner, but be
careful to hold them just so, that they may not nip you."

And her maidens, laughing and shrieking, soon had a larger supply of
crabs than they could eat. They found bits of wood on the beach and
dried sea weed which they set on fire by twirling a pointed stick in a
wooden groove they had brought along with their food. After they had
eaten, they stretched out lazily on the sand and talked until they began
to doze off, one by one.

Pocahontas had strolled a little further down the beach, picking up the
fine thin shells of transparent gold and silver which she liked to make
into necklaces. She had found a number of them and as they were more
than she could hold in her hands, she sat down to string them on a piece
of eel grass until she could transfer them to a thread of sinew. When
she had finished she lay back against a ridge of sand and watched the
gulls as they flew above her, dipping down into the waves every now and
then to bring up a fish. Far away a school of porpoises was circling the
waves, their black fins sinking out of sight and reappearing as
regularly as if they moved to some marine music. Pocahontas wondered
whence they came and whither they and the gulls were bound. How
delightful it was to move so rapidly and so easily through water or air.
But she did not think of envying them. Was she not as fleet as they in
her element? She pressed her hand against the warm sand how she loved
the feel of it; she stretched her naked foot to where the little waves
could wet it. How she loved the lapping of the water! Within her was a
welling up of feeling, a love for all things living.

It was a very quiet world just now; the sun was only a little over the
zenith. Only the cries of the sea gulls and the soft swish of the waves
broke the silence. It would be pleasant to sleep here as her comrades
were sleeping, but if she slept then she would miss the consciousness of
her enjoyment.

Yet, though she intended to keep awake, when she looked seaward, she
felt sure that she must have fallen asleep and was dreaming the
strangest of dreams. For nowhere save in dreamland had anyone ever
beheld such a sight as seemed to stand out against the horizon. Three
great birds, that some shaman had doubtless created with powerful
medicine, so large that they almost touched the heavens, were skimming
the waves, their white wings blown forward. One, much larger than the
others, moved more swiftly than they.

Yet never, in a dream or in life, were such birds, and little
Pocahontas, who had sprung to her feet, stood gaping in terrified
wonder.

"Then must I be bewitched!" she cried aloud; "some evil medicine hath
befallen me."

She called out, and there was a tone in her voice that roused the
sleeping maidens as a war drum roused their fathers.

"What see ye?" she asked anxiously.

"Oh! Pocahontas, we know not," they answered in terror, huddling about
her; "answer _thou_ us. What are those strange things that speed over
the waves? Whence come they--from the rim of the world?"

Pocahontas, the fearless, was frightened. She gave one more glance
seaward, and then turning, took to her heels in terror. Her maidens, who
had never seen her thus, added her fright to they own, and none stopped
until they had reached the lodge at Kecoughtan.

The squaws rushed out when they caught sight of the frightened children
and tried to soothe them, but they could get no explanation of what had
startled them. Finally Opechanchanough strode out, and when Pocahontas
had tried to tell him what she had seen his face grew stern.

"It is as I feared," he said to another chief. "And so the word which
came from the upper cape was true. It is a marvel that bodeth no good."

He began to give orders hurriedly; the dugout was brought up to the
landing, and he waved Pocahontas and her maidens in with scant ceremony.

"I will send a runner to Werowocomoco with news to my brother," he
called out to her as the boat was swung out into the river; "he will
reach the village by land more quickly than by river. Farewell,
Matoaka."

And Pocahontas, though she longed to have questioned him in regard to
what he had heard and feared, yet rejoiced that she was on her way to
her people, to her home where such strange sights as she had just beheld
never came.





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER VI

JOHN SMITH'S TEMPTATION


The _Discovery_, the _Godspeed_ and the _Susan Constant_, after nearly
five months of tossing about upon the seas, were now swinging at anchor
in the broad mouth of the River James, which the loyal English
adventurers had named after their king. The white sails that had so
terrified the Indian maidens now flapped against the masts, having fully
earned their idleness. On board the discussion still continued as to the
best situation for the town they designed to be the first permanent
English settlement in America--in Wingandacoa, as the land was called
before the name Virginia was given to it in honour of Queen Elizabeth,
"The Virgin Queen."

The expedition had set out from England in December of the year before
(1606). Among those who filled the three ships were men already veteran
explorers and others who had never been a day's voyage away from their
island home.

Among the former were Bartholomew Gosnold, who had first sailed for the
strange new world some five years before. He had landed far to the north
of the river where the ships now rested--on a colder, sterner shore.
There he had discovered and named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.
Christopher Newport too had sailed before in Western waters, but
further to the southward. He was an enemy of the Spaniard wherever he
found him, and had left a name of terror through the Spanish Main, for
had he not sacked four of their towns in the Indies and sunk twenty
Spanish galleons? And there was John Smith, who had fought so many
battles in his twenty-seven years that many a graybeard soldier could
not cap his tales of sieges, sword-play, imprisonment and marvelous
escapes. And many other men were there whom hope of gain or love of
adventure had brought across the Atlantic. They had listened to the
strange story of the lost colony on Roanoke Island, English men and
women killed doubtless by the Indians, though no sure word of their fate
was ever to be known, but fear of a like destiny had not deterred them
from coming.

There were many points to be considered: The settlement must be near the
coast, so that the ships from home would be able to reach it with as
little delay as possible, yet away from the coast in case of raids by
the Spaniards.

Again, the location must be healthful, and quite easily defended, for
the attack by the natives upon the colonists when they first landed at
the cape they called Henry after the young Prince of Wales, had given
them a taste of what they might have to expect. It was the rumor of this
fight which had reached Opechanchanough at Kecoughtan.

At the prow of the _Discovery_ stood a man who paid no attention to the
disputes going on behind him. He was not tall, but was powerfully built,
and even the sight of his back would have been sufficient to prove him a
man accustomed to a life of action. It was not so easy, however, to
guess at his age. His long beard and mustache hid his mouth, and there
were deep lines from his nose downward that might have been marked by
years. Yet his brow was high and wide and unfurrowed, and his hair was
abundant and his eyebrows dark and high. An intelligent, eager
countenance it was, of a man who had seen more of the world in his short
twenty-eight years than any white-haired octogenarian of his native
Lincolnshire. He held a spy glass and, standing by the rail, moved it
slowly until he had pointed it in every direction. He had swept the
river and both shores as far as his eye could reach and now it rested on
an island some little distance above, near the right-hand bank of the
newly named river.

A sailor, pushing through the crowd about the cabin door, approached the
man at the prow.

"Captain Smith," he said, "Captain Newport bids me say that the Council
is about to be sworn in in the cabin and that he desires thy presence
there."

John Smith turned and walked slowly aft, wondering what would be decided
in the next hour. Was he, who felt within himself an unusual power to
organize and to command men, to be given this wonderful chance, such as
never yet had come to an Englishman, to plant firmly in a new land the
seed of a great colony? From his early youth his days had been devoted
to adventure. He was of that race of Englishmen who first discovered how
small were the confines of their little island and who sallied gaily
forth to seek new worlds for their ambition and energy. Raleigh, Drake,
Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Humphry Gilbert, Sir Richard Grenville and
John Smith were the scouts sent out by England's genius to discover the
pathways along which she was to send her sons. Bold, fearless,
untiring, cruel often, at other times kind and firm, they went into new
seas and lands, seeking a Northwest Passage, or to "singe the beard of
the King of Spain," or to find the legendary treasures of the New
Indies--yet all of them were serving unconsciously the genius of their
race in laying the foundations of new worlds. Perhaps of them all Smith
saw most clearly the value of the settlement in Virginia, and just as
clearly was he aware that the jealousies and avarice of many of his
fellow colonists would threaten seriously its growth and indeed its very
existence.

Though not one among the curious eyes turned on him, as he walked slowly
towards the stem, beheld any trace of emotion on his grave face, he was
consumed with the hope that he might be chosen to lead the great work.
Yet he feared, knowing that all the long voyage, almost from the time
they had sailed from England, his enemies, jealous of his fame and of
his power over men, had sought to undermine it and to slander his good
name. What lies they had spread through the three ships of a mutiny he
was said to be instigating, until orders were passed which made him
virtually a prisoner for the rest of the journey. But he would soon find
out if they intended to disregard and pass him by.

[Illustration: "WE CHOOSE TODAY," HE CRIED]

When he entered the little cabin he saw seated along the transom and in
the wide-armed chairs Captain Christopher Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold,
Edward Wingfield, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. They
greeted Smith as he entered, as did the other gentlemen leaning against
the bulkheads, but with no cordiality, and he knew well that they had
been talking of him before he entered. He took his seat in silence.

These men composed the Council which had been designated in the secret
instructions given them when they sailed and opened after they had
passed between Capes Charles and Henry. And this Council now it was
which, according to its right, was to elect their president for the year
to come. Smith now felt certain that owing to their hostility to him
they had already determined among themselves what their votes should be
while he was without the cabin. The form, however, was gone through with
and the result solemnly announced: Wingfield was to be the first
president of the Colony, and Smith found himself not even mentioned for
the smallest office. The others for the most part smiled with pleasure
as they looked to see his disappointment, but he showed none. Instead he
rose to his feet and said:

"Captain Newport and gentlemen of the Council, will ye let me suggest
for the name of this new colony that of our gracious sovereign, King
James."

Here at last they must follow his lead, and all sprang to their feet and
shouted "Jamestown let it be!"

Then began again the discussion of the spot to be chosen for their
settlement. There were those who desired a site nearer the bay; one
advocated exploring the other rivers in the vicinity, the Apamatuc, the
Nansamond, the Chickahominy, the Pamunkey, as the Indians called them,
before deciding; but Newport, eager to return to England, would not
consent.

"We choose to-day," he cried, bringing his fist down on the table with a
bang.

The island that Smith had been examining with his glass was considered.
It was large and level and not too far from the sea, said one in its
favor. The majority were for it and the others were at last brought
round to their point of view. Smith had not put forward any suggestions.
He knew whatever he advocated would have been voted down. When asked
what he thought of the island his answer, "It hath much to commend it,"
left his hearers still in doubt as to his real choice.

"Now that we have christened the babe before it is born," said Captain
Newport, rising, "let us ashore and get to work to mark out the site of
our Jamestown."

All left the ship with the exception of a few sailors who remained on
guard. After more discussion the Council picked out the spots for the
government house, for the church, for the storehouse, while the artisans
busied themselves with no loss of time in cutting down trees and
clearing spaces for the temporary tents. The matter of a fort had not
been broached, yet Smith, whose military knowledge showed him how
vulnerable the island was, made no suggestion for its fortification.

He had strolled alone through the tangle of undergrowth, of flowering
vines in which frightened mocking-birds and catbirds were darting, to
the side of the island nearest the bank of the mainland.

"Here," he said, speaking aloud as he had learned to do when he was a
captive among the Tartars that he might not forget the sound of his own
tongue, "here, on this side should be a bastioned wall with some strong
culverins. A lookout tower at this corner and, extending around north
and south, a strong palisade--that with vigilant sentries would ensure
against attack except by water. If I--"

Then he stopped, his brow knitting. His disappointment had been a keen
one, his pride was smitten to the quick. Never had he left England,
never thrown in his lot with the new colony, had he known how he was to
be made to suffer from jealousy, intrigue and neglect. As he stood
gazing across into the deeper tangle on the opposite shore his thoughts
were occupied with decisions for his future.

"Why should I remain here," he cried aloud, "to be disregarded, when
there is many an English ship that would be fain to have me stand on her
poop, many a company of yeomen that would be main glad to have me
command them? I am not of those men who are wont always to follow
orders. I am made to _give_ them. The world's wide and this island need
not be my prison. I will sail back on the _Discovery_ and e'en be on the
lookout for some new adventures."

A rustling in the bushes behind him made him turn quickly. There stood
Dickon and Hugh and Hob, three of the men who had come from his own part
of the country, with whom during the long voyage he had often been glad
to chat of their homes and the folk they all knew.

"Captain," spake Dickon, "we have followed to have a word wi' thee in
secret. 'Tis said they have not given thee a place in the Council. Is't
true?"

"Aye," answered Smith calmly.

"'Tis a dirty trick," cried Hugh, and his comrades echoed him. "A dirty
trick, but what wilt thou do now?"

"What would ye have me do, men?" asked Smith curiously.

Dickon was again spokesman, the others nodding approval of his words.

"We be thy friends, Captain, and thy wellwishers. We came to this
strange land to make our fortunes because of thy coming. We felt safe
with one who had already travelled far and knew all about the outlandish
ways of queer folks, blackamoors and these red men here. Now if so be
thou art not to have a voice in the managing we be cheated and know not
what may befall us. There be many of the others who think as we do, not
only laborers such as we, but many of the gentlemen who have little
faith in them as have been set in the high places. Now I say to thee,
let us three go amongst them we knows as are friendly to thee and we
will speak in secret with them and we will draw together to-morrow at
one end of this island, and there we will all stay until they agree to
make thee President. And if fightin' comes o' it why all the better.
What sayst thou, Captain?"

Smith did not answer at once. The friendliness of these men touched him
deeply just at the moment when he was smarting under the treatment
accorded him. He knew they spoke truth; there were a number of the
colonists who had shown themselves friendly to him and who would be
willing to stand by him. Moreover, he felt within himself the power to
use them, to make them follow his bidding as Wingfield could never
succeed in doing. It was less for personal gratification he was tempted
to consent than for the knowledge that his leadership would benefit the
colony as would that of none of his fellow adventurers. He was not a
vain man, but one conscious of unusual powers.

"If we were strong enough to gain and hold part of the stores and one of
the vessels, would ye let me lead ye away to some other island of our
own, men?" he asked, and immediately saw in his imagination the
possibilities of such a step.

"Aye, aye. Captain," cried all three, "and we'd be strong enough too,
never fear," added Hugh.

The temptation to John Smith was a strong one, and he walked up and down
weighing the matter. What consideration after all did he owe to those
who had not considered him? He had no fear of failure; he had come
safely through too many dangers not to be confident. It was only the
first step that he doubted. The men, he could see, were growing
impatient, yet he did not speak. Suddenly an arrow whizzed close to his
ear and fell at his feet.

"The savages!" cried Dickon.

Smith peered towards the woods beyond the water and imagined he could
see half hidden behind a birch tree a naked figure.

"Let us go back and warn the Council," he said, turning towards the way
he had come. "I scarcely think that they will attack us, particularly if
we stay together."

He stood still a moment lost in thought. Then he said:

"That's the word, Dickon, _if we stay together_! Nay, frown not, Hugh.
Put out of thy mind all that we have spoken of this last half-hour, as I
shall put it out of mine. We must stand together, men, here in this new
world. Ye three stand by me because we're all neighbors and
Lincolnshire-born; but here in this wilderness we're all neighbors,
English-born, just like a bigger shire. It's no time now when savages
are about us all, to be thinking of our own little troubles. We must
e'en forget them and stick together for the good of us all. Will ye
promise, men?"

"Since 'tis so thou hast decided, Captain," answered Dickon.

"I'm for or against, as thou wilt," said Hugh, "but I'd been glad hadst
thou chosen to fight instead o' to kiss."

And Hob, who had not spoken a word of his own invention up to now, spake
solemnly:

"I'll not blab. Captain, how near thou wast to the fightin'."

When they got back to the site of the future Jamestown Smith, who had
made up his mind to do what seemed to him right no matter what reception
his advice received, told President Wingfield of the hidden bowman and
warned him of the danger to those who might straggle away from their
companions. But the members of the Council, whether they would be
beholden to Smith not even for advice, or whether the friendly attitude
of the Indians at first which was now just beginning to change,
influenced them, refused to believe that the savages intended to molest
them and refused to admit the necessity of putting up a palisade or
taking other precautions against them.

Each day the work of clearing the ground and of setting up the tents
proceeded apparently more rapidly than the day before, as the results
were more visible. Every one was so wearied with the cramped life aboard
ship for so many weeks that he was glad to stretch himself on the earth
or on improvised beds. Smith, to give an example to some of the
gentlemen who stood with folded arms looking on while the mechanics
worked, swung axe and wielded hammer lustily. Yet he was very unhappy at
the manner in which he was still treated and he eagerly seized an
opportunity to leave the island.

With Captain Newport and twenty others, he set out in one of the ships'
boats to explore the upper part of the river. They were absent a number
of days, after having ascended the James as far as the great falls near
the Powhata, a Powhatan village near the site of the present city of
Richmond. Then they returned to Jamestown.

On their arrival they were greeted with the grave news that during their
absence the Indians had killed a boy and wounded seventeen of the
colonists. A shot fired from one of the ships had luckily so terrified
the savages that they made off for the woods. Now the Council was forced
to recognize the need of some protection and ordered every one to stop
work on everything else until a strong palisade and a rough fort had
been built.

It was now June. Suddenly, to the astonishment of all, the Indians
approached and made signs that they desired to enter into amicable
relations with the white men. They jumped out from their boats and
fingered the clothes of the colonists, their guns and their food,
showing great curiosity at everything. The next day, perhaps because the
Council had seen the folly of their suspicions or had realized the value
of Smith's military experience and knowledge, the state of his
semi-imprisonment, which had lasted since the early part of the voyage,
was put an end to. Now that all seemed peaceful, from without and
within, as a sign of gratitude and of their brotherly feelings towards
each other, all the colonists partook of the Communion together,
kneeling in the temporary shed covered with a piece of sail-cloth which
served as a church.

Then on the seventh of June they stood on the river bank, looking
gravely, with many doubts and fears in their hearts, at the _Discovery_
as she sailed for England, bearing Captain Newport away, and leaving
them alone in Virginia.





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER VII

A FIGHT IN THE SWAMP


Not a day passed without new rumors at Werowocomoco of the white
strangers and their curious habits.

Pamunkeys from the tops of swaying trees on either bank watched eagerly
the doings of the colonists, and runners bore the word of every movement
to both Opechanchanough at Kecoughtan and to The Powhatan at his
village. Curiosity and consternation were equally balanced in the minds
of the red men. What meant this coming from the rising sun of beings
whose ways no man could fathom? Were they gods enjoying a charmed life,
against whom neither bow nor shaman's medicine might avail? About the
council fires in every village this was debated. The old chiefs, wise in
the traditions of their people, spake of prophecies which foretold the
coming of heroes with faces pale as water at dawn who should teach to
the tribes good medicine and bring plentiful harvests and rich hunting.
Others recalled the vague rumors which had come from far, far away in
the Southland, from tribes whose very names were unknown, of other
palefaces (the Spanish colonists in the West Indies), who had brought
fire and fighting into peaceful, happy islands of the summer seas, who
like terrible, powerful demons, spread about them death and strange
diseases.

Then came to the councils the comforting word of the death of a white
boy slain by a Pamunkey arrow. So they were mortal after all, said the
chiefs, and they smoked their pipes more placidly as they sat around the
fire. Against gods man could not know what action was right; but since
these were but men who could hunger and thirst and be wounded, it
behooved them to plan what measures should be adopted against them.

Many of the chiefs urged immediate steps.

"It is easy," said one, "to pull up a young oak sapling, whereas who may
uproot a full-grown tree?"

Nautauquas, son of Powhatan, was among the most eager for action. He had
won for himself the name of a great brave and a mighty hunter though
still so young. Many a scalp hung to the ridgepole of his lodge and many
a bear and wildcat had he slain at great risk to his life. Now here was
a new way to distinguish himself--to go forth against dangers he could
not even foresee. What magic these pale-faced strangers used to protect
themselves was unknown; therefore if he and his band should overcome
them and wipe away all traces of their short stay, it would be a tale
for winter firesides and a song for singers of brave deeds as long as
his nation endured.

"Let me go, my father," he pleaded. "Thou, who thyself hast conquered
thirty tribes, grudge not this fame to thy son."

"Wait!" was Powhatan's only answer.

The shamans and priests had advised the werowance thus. Not yet had they
fathomed Okee's intentions in regard to these newcomers, though they had
climbed to the top of the red sandy hills at Uttamussack where stood the
three great holy lodges filled with images, and they had fasted and
prayed that Okee would reveal to them what he desired. Powhatan, in
spite of his years, felt the urge of action, and his heart leaped up
when his favorite son gave voice to his own wishes. He longed to take
the warpath, to glide through the forest, to spy upon the strangers who
had dared make a place for themselves in his dominion, and then to fall
upon them, terrifying them with his awful war-cry as he had terrified so
many of his enemies. Yet he dared not do this yet: he was not only a
great war chief, but a leader of his people in peace. Okee had not yet
spoken. Perchance the men with strange faces and strange tongues would
of their own accord acknowledge his sovereignty, and there might be no
need of sacrificing against them the lives of his young men.

All this he was thinking when he bade Nautauquas wait; but there was no
one who read his mind, yet no one who dared to disobey him.

When Nautauquas came out from his father's lodge he took his bow and
quiver and went into the forest to hunt. In his disappointment he had a
hatred of more words and a longing for deeds. He ran swiftly and had
reached a spot where he felt sure that he would find a flock of wild
turkeys, when he saw Pocahontas ahead of him. She too was hurrying, bent
evidently on some errand that absorbed her, for she did not stop to peer
up at the birds or to pull the flowers as she was wont to do.

"Matoaka," he called, "whither goest thou?"

"To see the strangers and their great white birds again which I beheld
from Kecoughtan, Brother. I cannot rest for my eagerness to know what
they are like nearby."

"Hast thou not heard our father's word that no one shall go near the
island where the strangers be?" he asked.

"My father meaneth not me," she answered proudly. "As thou knowest, he
permitteth me much that is forbidden to others."

"But not this, little Sister. Only just this moment did he forbid me to
go thither. His mind is set thereon; tempt not his anger. Even though he
loves thee well, if thou disobeyest his command in this matter he will
deal harshly with thee. Turn back with me, Matoaka, and thou shalt help
me shoot."

Pocahontas was reluctant to give up her long-planned expedition, but she
let herself be persuaded. She remembered that Powhatan that very day had
ordered one of his squaws beaten until she lay at death's door.
Moreover, it was a great joy to hunt with Nautauquas and to see which of
them would bring down the most turkeys. They were needed by the squaws
who had been complaining that the braves were growing lazy and did not
keep them supplied with meat.

While Powhatan's two children were adding to the well-filled larder of
Werowocomoco, there was real dearth of food at Jamestown. The stores,
many of them musty and almost inedible after the long voyage, were
growing daily scarcer. There was fish in the river, but the colonists
grew weary of keeping what they called "a Lenten diet," and in their
dreams munched juicy sirloins of fat English beef. At first their nearby
Indian neighbors had been glad to trade maize and venison for wonderful
objects, dazzling and strange; but now, whether owing to word sent by
Powhatan or for other reasons, they came no more with provisions to
barter. John Smith, seeing that supplies were the first necessity of
the colony, had gone forth on several expeditions up the different
rivers in search of them. By bargaining, by cajolery, by force, he had
managed each time to renew the storehouse. Yet again it was almost empty
and starvation threatened.

Something must be done at once, and the Council sat in debate upon the
serious matter. Captain John Smith waited until the others had had their
say, and nothing practical had been suggested, then he rose and began:

"Gentlemen of the Council, there is but one thing to do. Since our
larder will not fill itself, needs must someone go forth again to seek
for food. Give me two men and one of the ship's boats and I will set off
to the northward, up that river the Indians call the Chickahominy and,
God helping me, I will bring back provisions for us all and make some
permanent treaty with the savages to supply us till our crops be grown."

President Wingfield agreed to Smith's demand. The barge was got ready
with a supply of beads and other glittering articles from Cheapside
booths, and Smith set off with the good wishes of the wan-faced
colonists.

After they had reached what seemed to Smith a likely spot for trading,
he took two men, Robinson and Emery, and two friendly natives in a canoe
and set off to explore the river further, bidding the others to wait for
him where he left them and on no account to venture nearer shore.

He was glad to be away from the noise of complaining men at Jamestown,
many of whom were ill and fretful from lack of proper nourishment and
some, who because they were gentlemen, would not labor yet repined that
they could not live as gentlefolk at home. On this expedition he was
with friends, even though he knew not what enemies might be lurking on
the shore; and he realized that the natives were growing less friendly
as time went on and they began to lose their first awe of the white men.
But he had no fear for himself; he had faced too many dangers in his
adventurous life to conjure up those to come.

As they paddled up the Chickahominy the men began to talk of old days in
England before they had dreamed of trying their fortunes in a new world,
but Smith bade them be silent so that he could listen for the slightest
sound to indicate the vicinity of a human habitation.

"Make friends as soon as thou canst with the copper men, Captain,"
whispered Robinson, "for I be main hungry and can scarce wait till thou
hast bartered this rubbish 'gainst good victuals."

"Pull thy belt in a bit tighter, men," suggested the Captain grimly; "if
I understand all they tell me, the Indians can beat the most devout
Christians in fasting. 'Tis one virtue we may learn from them."

They kept in the middle of the stream to be safe from any arrows that
might be shot at them from shore; but after many hours of this caution.
Smith determined to explore a little on land. To his practiced eye a
certain little inlet seemed so suitable a landing for canoes that he
felt sure an Indian village could not be far off.

"Push out into the stream again," he commanded as he stepped ashore,
"and wait for me there."

John Smith strode into the forest, ready for friendship or war, since
he knew not the temper of the natives of that region. Suddenly, as he
came out upon an open space where a morass stretched from a hill to the
river, two hundred shrieking savages rushed upon him, shooting their
arrows wildly at all angles.

"War then!" cried Smith aloud, and as one young brave in advance of the
others stopped to take aim, he leaped forward and caught him. Ripping
off his own belt. Smith bound the astonished Indian to his left arm so
that he could use him as a living buckler. Thus protected, he fired his
pistol and the ball, entering the breast of an older chief, killed him
instantly. For a moment the strange fate which had overtaken their
leader checked the onslaught, while his companions stooped down, one
behind the other, to examine the wound made by the demon weapon. This
respite gave Smith time to whip out his sword, and whirling it about
him, he kept his enemies at a distance. He might have succeeded in
defending himself thus for some time longer, for the savages had ceased
to shoot, not certain whether their arrows would not be ineffectual upon
an invulnerable body, but all at once he became aware of a new danger.
The marshy ground on which he stood had softened with his weight and
that of his living shield and he now felt himself sinking deeper and
deeper into the morass until he was submerged up to his waist. Still the
Indians, doubtless fearing he had some other strange weapons or evil
medicines in his power, did not rush forward to attack him.

The day was bitterly cold, and the stagnant water struck a chill to his
very bones. His teeth began to chatter with cold, not fright. It was
almost with a sense of relief that he saw the Indians start towards
him. Carefully treading in their light moccasined feet, they gradually
surrounded him and two, taking hold of him, while others loosened the
bound brave, they drew him up from the slushy earth by the arms.

He was now a captive, and not for the first time in his life. There was
nothing to be gained, he knew, by struggling, and he faced them with no
sign of fear. They led him to a fire which was blazing not far off on
firmer ground where sat a chief, who, he learned, was the werowance
Opechanchanough.

At a word of command from him, the guards moved aside and the huge
warrior walked slowly around Smith, examining him from head to foot.

There was a pause which, the Englishman knew, might be broken by an
order to torture and kill him. He did not understand their hesitancy,
but he meant at any rate to take advantage of it. He must engage the
attention of the giant chief before him. Slowly he pulled from his
pocket his heavy silver watch and held it up to his own ear.

Never had Opechanchanough and his men experienced such an awe of the
unknown. For all they could tell, this small ball in the white man's
hand might contain a medicine more deadly than that of his pistol. They
stood like children in a thunderstorm, not knowing when or where the
bolt might strike.

But nothing terrible came to pass. Then Opechanchanough's curiosity was
aroused and he put out his hand for the watch. Smith, smiling, held it
towards him in his palm and then laid it against the chief's ear, saying
in the Pamunkey tongue: "Listen." Opechanchanough jumped with
astonishment and cried out:

"A spirit! A spirit! He hath a spirit imprisoned!"

Then one by one the captors crowded forward to look at the
"turtle-of-metal-that-hath-a-spirit," and many were the exclamations of
astonishment.

In order to increase this feeling of awe and to lengthen the delay,
though he did not know what he could even hope to happen. Smith felt in
his pocket again and brought out his travelling compass. It was of ivory
and the quivering needle was pronounced by Opechanchanough to be another
spirit.

But suddenly, without warning, two of the younger warriors, who had
evidently determined once for all to discover if this stranger were
vulnerable or not, seized Smith and dragging him swiftly to a tree,
threw a cord of deer thong about him, drawing it fast. Then they notched
their arrows and took aim at his heart. "In one second it will be over,"
thought Smith, "life, adventures, my ambitions and my troubles."

Then Opechanchanough called out to the braves, holding up the compass.
Frowning with disappointment, the young men loosed their captive and
Smith realized that it was again the chief's curiosity which had saved
his life. By means of such Indian words as he knew and by the further
aid of signs he endeavored to explain its usage.

"See," he said, pointing, "yon is the north whence comes popanow, the
winter; and there behind us lies cohattayough, the summer. I turn thus
and lo, the spirit in the needle loves the north and will not be kept
from it."

When all had looked at the compass, Opechanchanough took it again in his
hand, holding it gingerly as he would have held a papoose if a squaw had
given one to his care. This was something precious and he meant to keep
it, yet he did not know what it might do to him. At any rate, it would
be a good thing to take with him the man who did understand it.

"Come," he said, "since thou canst understand our words, come and eat in
the lodge of the Pamunkeys."

And Smith, ignorant of when death might fall upon him, followed. That
day they feasted him, and the half-starved Englishman ate heartily for
the first time since he set foot in the new world. At least he had
gained strength now to bear bravely whatever might await him. The next
day he was bidden accompany them, and they marched swiftly and steadily
for many hours through the forest to Orapeeko. It may be that
Opechanchanough's messengers had informed him mistakenly that Powhatan
was at that village which, after Werowocomoco, he most frequented; but
on their arrival there they found the lodges empty except the great
treasure-house full of wampum, skins and pocone, the precious red paint
used for painting the body. This was guarded by priests, and while
Opechanchanough talked with them. Smith marvelled at the images of a
dragon, a bear, a leopard and a giant in human form that ornamented the
four corners of the treasure-house.

Evidently the priests were giving the werowance some advice. Smith
wondered whether the savages offered human sacrifices to their Okee and
if such were to be his fate. But the night was passed quietly there; the
next day was spent in marching, and the following night in another
village. Everywhere he was the object of the greatest interest: braves,
squaws and children crowded about him, fingered his clothes, pulled at
his beard and asked him questions. The Englishman observed them with the
same interest. He noticed how the men wore but one garment leggings and
moccasins made in one piece, and how they were painted in bright colors,
many wearing symbols or rude representations of some animal which he
learned was their "medicine." He watched the women as they embroidered
and cooked, tanned hides and dyed skins, scolded and petted their
children. Their lodges were lightly built, he saw, yet strong and
well-suited for their occupants. Many of the young men and maidens made
him think of deer in the swiftness of their movements and in the
suppleness of their bodies.

After many days of travelling, in which Smith believed that they often
retraced their steps, they found themselves one afternoon at the
outskirts of a larger village than any they had yet entered. Dogs barked
and children shouted as they neared the palisade, and men and women came
running from every side.

"Certainly," thought Smith, "we are expected. Never in an English
village have I seen a Savoyard with a trained bear make more excitement
than doth here Captain John Smith."





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER VIII

POCAHONTAS DEFIES POWHATAN

"Princess, Pocahontas!" cried Claw-of-the-Eagle, as he pointed excitedly
to the outskirts of the village, "look, yonder come thy uncle and his
men bringing the white prisoner with them."

Pocahontas, who a few moments before had jumped down from the grapevine
swing, where she had been idling, to peep into Claw-of-the-Eagle's pouch
at the luck his hunting had brought him, now started off running after
the son of old Wansutis, who was speeding towards the gathering crowd.
Never in all her life had she desired anything as much as she now
desired to gain a sight of this stranger.

"What doth he look like?" she called out, panting, to the boy ahead; but
her own swiftness answered the question, for she was soon abreast of the
procession. There, walking behind her uncle, unbound and apparently
unconcerned, she beheld the white man. Her eyes devoured every detail of
his appearance. She was almost disappointed to find that he had only
one head and two eyes like all the rest of her world. But his
beardedness, so unknown among her people, his youth, which showed itself
more in his figure and in his step than in his weatherworn features, his
cloth jerkin and his leather boots, but above all, the strange hue of
his face and hands offered enough novelty to satisfy her.

Smith noticed the Indian maiden, already in her thirteenth year, tall
above the average. In his wanderings through the Pamunkey villages he
had seen many young girls and squaws, but none of them had seemed to him
so well built or with such clean-cut features as this damsel who gazed
at him so fixedly. When Opechanchanough, catching sight of her, made a
gesture of recognition, Smith knew that she must have some special claim
to distinction, since it was unusual, he had observed, for a chief to
notice anyone about him while occupied in what might be called official
duty. He felt sure too that he had now come to the end of his
journeyings. In the other towns through which he had travelled he had
heard men speak of Werowocomoco and of the great werowance who held sway
there, the dreaded ruler over thirty tribes. This large village he knew
must be the seat of the head of the Powhatan Confederacy and he was
about to be led before him. What would happen then, he wondered, as he
walked calmly through the crowd who eyed him curiously.

And this, too, was what Pocahontas was thinking: what would her father
do with this man? Would his strange medicine, which those who had
ventured to Jamestown had much discussed, assist him in his peril? She
had listened to much talk lately about the necessity of getting rid of
all the white faces who had dared come and build them houses on land
which had belonged to her people since the beginning of the world. Here
was the first chance her father had had to deal with the interlopers.
She determined to see and hear all that should take place, so she
hurried ahead to the ceremonial lodge, where she was sure to find her
father, and entered it unchallenged by the guards.

Once inside, she realized that the stranger's coming had been expected;
probably Opechanchanough had sent runners ahead whom she had not chanced
to see. All the chiefs were gathered there waiting and there also sat
the Queen of Appamatuck, the ruler of an allied tribe. She noticed that
her father, in the centre of a raised platform at the other end of the
lodge, had on his costliest robe of raccoon skin, the one she had
embroidered for him. All the chiefs were painted, as were the squaws,
their shoulders and faces streaked with the precious pocone red. She
regretted that she had not had time to put on her new white buckskin
skirt and her finest white bead necklace, since this was such a gala
occasion. On the other side of Powhatan sat one of his squaws, and her
brothers and her uncles Opitchapan and Catanaugh squatted directly
before him. She herself stood against the wall nearest to the mother of
her sister Cleopatra. She wished she had tried to bring in
Claw-of-the-Eagle with her. How interested he would have been; but it
was not likely that he would manage to get past the guards now, since
there were so many of his elders who must be excluded for lack of room.

While she was still looking around to see who the lucky spectators
were, the entrance to the lodge was darkened and a great shouting went
up from all the braves as Opechanchanough strode in, followed by his
prisoner.

Powhatan sat in silence until Smith stood directly before him, and then
he spoke:

"We have waited many days and nights to behold thee, wayfarer from
across the sea."

Smith, looking up at him, saw a finely built man of about sixty years,
with grizzled hair and an air of command. He smiled to himself at the
strangeness of his fancy's play, but the air of this savage chieftain,
this inborn dignity of one conscious of his power, he had seen in but
one other person--Good Queen Bess!

"I too have listened to many voices which have told of thy might, great
chief," he answered, speaking the unfamiliar words slowly and
distinctly.

Then in the pause that followed the Queen of Appamatuck came forward and
held out to Smith a bowl of water for him to wash his hands in.
Pocahontas leaned eagerly forward to see whether the water would not
wash off some paint from his hands, leaving them the color of her own,
for might it not be, she had questioned Claw-of-the-Eagle, that these
strangers were only _painted_ white? But even after Smith had wiped his
fingers upon the turkey feathers the Queen handed to him, they remained
the same tint as his face.

At the command of Nautauquas, the slaves began to bring in food for the
feast which preceded any discussion of moment. An enemy, be he the
bitterest of an individual or of the tribe, must never be denied
hospitality. Baskets and gourds there were filled with sturgeon,
turkey, venison, maize bread, berries and roots of various kinds, and
earthern cups of pawcohiccora milk made from walnuts. Powhatan had
motioned Smith to be seated on a mat beside the fire, and taking the
first piece of venison, the werowance threw it into the flames as the
customary sacrifice to Okee. Then he was served again, and after him
each dish was offered to the prisoner.

There was little talk while the feasting continued. Pocahontas, who did
not eat, lost no motion of the stranger's.

"At least," she thought, "he lives by food as we do." And she watched to
see whether he would entangle his meat in his beard.

At last every one had eaten his fill and the dogs snarled and fought
over the scraps until they were driven from the lodge. Then Powhatan
began to question his prisoner.

"Art thou a king?"

"Nay, lord," replied the Englishman when he had comprehended the
question; "I but serve one who ruleth over many thousand braves."

"Why didst thou leave him?"

Smith was about to answer that they sought new land to increase his
sovereign's dominions, but he realized that this was not a favorable
moment for such a statement.

"We set forth to humble the enemies of our king, the Spaniards," he
replied, and in this he was not telling an untruth, because the
colonization in Virginia had for one of its aims the destruction of
Spanish settlements in the New World.

"And why did ye come ashore on my land and build yourselves lodges on my
island?"

"Because we were weary of much buffeting by the waves and in need of
fresh food."

For a moment at least Powhatan seemed content with this explanation. His
curiosity in regard to the habits of these strangers was almost as keen
as that of his daughter.

"Tell me of thy ways," he commanded. "Why dost thou wear such garments?
Why hast thou hair upon thy mouth? Worship ye an Okee? How mighty are
thy medicine-men? And how canst thou build such great canoes with
wings?"

Smith endeavored to satisfy him. He dilated upon the power of King
James, though in his mind that sovereign could not be compared for regal
dignity to this savage; the bravery of the colonists, the wonder of
silken garments and jewels worn by the men and women of his land. And
remembering his duty as a Christian, he tried to explain the mysteries
of the Christian faith to this heathen, but he found his vocabulary
unequal to this demand. He could see that he was making an impression on
his listeners; the greater their awe for his powers, the more chance
that they might be afraid to injure him. Opechanchanough spoke to his
brother, telling him of the watch and compass. Powhatan seized them
eagerly, turned them over and over and held them to his ear, listening
while Smith explained their use.

"I would fain know of those strange reeds ye carry that bear death
within them," commanded the werowance again. "By what magic are ye
served? Could not one of our shamans or our braves make it obey him
also?"

[Illustration: "LET US BE FRIENDS AND ALLIES, OH POWHATAN"]

Smith was aware that the Indians' fear of the white man's guns was the
colony's greatest protection. So he answered:

"If my lord will come to Jamestown, as we call the island, since we
know not by what name ye call it, he himself shall see guns as much
greater than this one at my side," and he pointed to his pistol, "as
thou art greater than lesser werowances."

This answer moved Powhatan strangely. He spoke rapidly, in words Smith
could not understand, to some of the chiefs before him. Then turning to
Smith again, and speaking in a tone no longer curious but cold and
stern, he asked:

"How soon will ye set forth in your canoes again for your own land?"

The question Smith had dreaded must now be answered. There was danger in
what he must say, yet perchance there was also the hope of soothing the
fears of the savages. At all events, a lie were useless even if he had
been able to tell one.

"The land is wide, oh mighty king, this land of thine, and a fair land
with food enough and space aplenty for many tribes. Bethink thee of
thine enemies who dwell to the north and west of thee who envy thy corn
fields and thy hunting grounds. Will it not advantage thee when we, to
whom thou wilt present, or perchance if it please thee better, _sell_ a
little island and a few fields on the mainland, shall join with thee and
thy braves on the warpath against thy foes, and when we destroy them for
thee with our guns? Let us be friends and allies, oh Powhatan. I will
speak frankly, as it behooveth one to speak to a great chief, this land
pleaseth us and we would gladly abide in it."

The Englishman could not read in the expressionless face of the
werowance what he was thinking of this proposition--the first attempt of
the colonists to explain their presence in the Indians' domain. But the
shouting from all sides of the lodge which followed showed him that the
other chiefs were strongly roused by his words. There was a long
consultation: Powhatan spoke first, then a priest of many years who was
listened to with great consideration, then one of the older squaws
expressed her opinion, which seemed to voice that of the braves as well.
Smith, knowing that his fate was being decided, tried to catch their
meaning, but they spoke so rapidly that he comprehended only a phrase
here and there. At last, however, Powhatan waved his hand for silence
and issued a command.

It was the death sentence. Every eye was turned upon Smith. Well, they
should see how an Englishman met death. He smiled as if they had brought
him good news. If only his death could save the colony, it had been
indeed a welcome message. Not that he did not love life, but he was one
of those souls to whom an ambition, a cause, a quest, is dearer than
life. And because of its very weakness, its dependence upon him, the
colony had come to be like a child he must protect.

Pocahontas, when she listened to her father's verdict, felt within her
heart the same queer faintness she had experienced when
Claw-of-the-Eagle was running the gauntlet. And seeing the Englishman
smile, she knew him to be a brave man, and somehow felt sorry for him.
She was sorry for herself also. He could have told her many new tales of
lands and people, far more interesting that those of Michabo, the Great
Hare. How eagerly she would have listened to him! Her father was a wise
leader and he did well to fear, as she had heard him tell his chiefs,
the presence in his land of these white men with their wonderful
medicine; but why must he kill this leader of them, why not keep him
always a prisoner?

She saw that the slaves had lost no time in obeying the command given
them--they were dragging in the two great stones that had not been used
for many moons. These were set in the open space before Powhatan and she
knew exactly what was to follow.

Was there any possible way of escape? John Smith asked himself. If there
had been but one loading in his pistol he would have fired at the
werowance and trusted to the confusion to rush through the crowd and out
of the lodge. But it was empty. No use struggling, he thought; he had
seen men who met death thus discourteously and he was not minded to be
one of them. So, when at a quick word from Powhatan two young braves
seized him, he made no resistance. They threw him down on the ground,
then lifted his head up on the stones, while another savage, a stone
hatchet in his hand, strode forward and took his stand beside him.

"Well," thought John Smith, "life is over; I have travelled many a mile
to come to this end. What will befall Jamestown? At least I didn't fail
them. I'm glad of that now."

He saw Powhatan lean forward and give a sign; then the red-painted face
of his executioner leered at him and he watched the tomahawk descending
and instinctively closed his eyes.

       *       *       *       *       *

But it did _not_ descend. After what seemed an hour of suspense he
opened his eyes again to see why it delayed. The man who held it still
poised in the air was gazing impatiently towards the werowance, at
whose feet knelt the young girl Smith had noticed by the palisade. The
child was pleading for his life, he could see that. Were these savages
then acquainted with pity, and what cause had she to feel it for him?

But the werowance would not listen to her pleadings and ordered her
angrily away. His voice was terrifying and the other squaws, fearing his
rage might be vented on the child, tried to pull her up to the seat
beside them. Powhatan nodded to the executioner to obey his command.

With a bound Pocahontas flung herself down across Smith's body, got his
head in her arms and laid down her own head against his. The tomahawk
had stopped but a feather's breadth from her black hair, so close that
the Indian who held it could scarcely breathe for fear it might have
injured the daughter of The Powhatan.

For a moment it seemed to all the anxious onlookers as if the werowance,
furious at such disobedience, were about to order the blow to fall upon
both heads. There was silence, and those at the back of the lodge
crowded forward in order not to miss what was to come. Then Powhatan
spoke:

"Rise, Matoaka! and dare not to interfere with my justice!"

"Nay, father," cried Pocahontas, lifting her head while her arms still
lay protectingly about Smith's neck, "I claim this man from thee. Even
as Wansutis did adopt Claw-of-the-Eagle, so will I adopt this paleface
into our tribe."

Every one began to talk at once: "She desires a vain thing!"--"She hath
the right."--"If he live how shall we be safe?"--"Since first our
forefathers dwelt in this land hath this been permitted to our women!"

Powhatan spoke sternly:

"Dost thou claim him in earnestness, Matoaka?"

"Aye, my father. I claim him. Slay him not. Let him live amongst us and
he shall make thee hatchets, and bells and beads and copper things shall
he fashion for me. See, by this robe I wrought to remind thee of thy
love for me, I ask this of thee."

"So be it," answered The Powhatan.

Pocahontas rose to her feet and, taking Smith by the hand, raised him
up, dazed at his sudden deliverance and not understanding how it had
come about.





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER IX

SMITH'S GAOLER


The following morning Claw-of-the-Eagle, passing before the lodge
assigned to the prisoner, beheld Pocahontas seated on the ground in
front of it.

"What dost thou here?" he asked, "and where be the guards?"

"I sent them off to sleep as soon as the Sun came back to us," she
answered, looking up at the tall youth beside her. "I can take care of
him myself during the day."

"Hast thou seen him yet? Tell me what is he like. I saw him but for the
minute yesterday."

"He sleeps still. I peeped between the openings of the bark covering
here and beheld him lying there with all those queer garments. I am
eager for his awakening; there are so many questions I would ask him."

"Let me have a look, too," pleaded the boy.

Pocahontas nodded and motioned graciously to the opening of the lodge.
It pleased her to grant favors, and Powhatan sometimes smiled when he
marked how like his own manner of bestowing them was that of his
daughter.

With the same caution with which he crept after a deer in a thicket,
Claw-of-the-Eagle moved on hands and knees along the ground within the
lodge. Lying flat on his stomach, he gazed at the Englishman. He had
heard repeated about the village the night before the details of his
rescue as they had taken place within the ceremonial wigwam. Those who
told him were divided in their opinions; some looked upon Powhatan's
decision as a danger to them all, and others scouted the idea that those
palefaces were to be feared by warriors such as the Powhatans.
Claw-of-the-Eagle, however, did not waver in his belief: each of the
white strangers should be killed off as quickly as might be. His loyalty
to his adopted tribe was as great as if his forefathers had sat about
its council fires always. He was sorry that Pocahontas, much as she
pleased him, had persuaded her father to save the life of the first of
the palefaces that had fallen into his power. He believed The Powhatan
himself now regretted that he had yielded to affection and to an ancient
custom, and that he would gladly see his enemy dead, in order that the
news carried to his interloping countrymen might serve as a warning of
the fate that awaited them all.

Suppose then--the thought flashed through his brain--that he,
Claw-of-the-Eagle, should make this wish a fact! Powhatan would never
punish the doer of the deed.

He crept nearer still to the sleeping man, loosening the knife in his
girdle. There was no sound within the lodge, only the faint crooning of
Pocahontas without; yet something, some feeling of danger, aroused the
Englishman. Through his half-closed lids he scarce distinguished the
slowly advancing red body from the red earth over which it was moving.
But when the boy was close enough to touch him with the outstretched
hand. Smith opened his eyes wide. He did not move, did not cry out,
though he saw the knife in the long thin fingers; all he did was to fix
his gaze sternly upon the boy's face. Claw-of-the-Eagle tried to strike,
but with those fearless eyes upon him he could not move his arm.

Slowly, as he had come, he crawled back to the entrance, unable to turn
his head from the man who watched him. It was only when he was out in
the air again that he felt he could take a long breath.

"He is a good sleeper," was all he remarked.

"And doubtless he is as good an eater and will be hungry when he wakes.
Wilt thou not stop at our lodge, Claw-of-the-Eagle, and bid them bring
me food for him?"

He did as she asked, and shortly after the squaws arrived with earthen
dishes filled with bread and meat. They peered eagerly through the
crevices till Pocahontas commanded them to be off. Hearing a noise
within the lodge, she was about to bear the food inside when Smith
stepped to the entrance.

He was astonished to see the kind of sentinel they had set to guard him.
He had expected to find that his unexpected guest would be waiting
outside for another chance at his life, and he preferred to hasten the
moment. He realized that this maiden, however, would be as efficient a
gaoler as a score of braves. Should he dream of escaping, of finding his
way without guides or even his compass, back to Jamestown, her outcry
would bring the entire village to her aid. He recognized his saviour of
the day before and bowed low, a bow meant for the princess and for his
protector. Pocahontas, though a European salutation was as strange to
her as Indian ways were to him, felt sure his ceremonious manner was
intended to do her honor, and received it gravely and graciously.

"Here is food for thee, White Chief," she said, placing it on a mat she
had spread on the ground; "sit and eat."

"It is welcome," he answered, "yet first harken to me. I have not words
of thy tongue, little Princess, to pay thee for thy great gift, and
though my words were as plentiful as the grains of sand by the waters,
they were still too few to offer thee."

"Gifts made to chiefs," she answered with a dignity copied from her
father's, "can never pay for princely benefits."

Smith could not help smiling at the grandiloquence of the child's
language, for in spite of her height, he realized that her years were
but few.

"Yet," she continued, seating herself, "it pleaseth me to receive thy
thanks."

Now she put aside her grown-up air and her curious glances were those of
the child she was. She fingered gently the sleeve of his doublet stained
by the morass in which he had been captured and torn by the briars of
the forests through which he had been led.

"'Tis good English cloth," he remarked, "to have withstood such storm,
and I bless the sheep on whose backs it grew."

"What beasts are those?" she queried, and Smith endeavored to explain
the various uses and the looks of Southdown flocks.

"Did thy squaws make thy coat for thee when thou hadst slain that--that
new beast?"

"I have no squaw, little Princess."

"I am glad," she sighed.

"And why?"

"I do not know", her brow wrinkling as she tried to fathom her own
feelings. "Perhaps it is because now thou wilt not pine for her and to
be gone from amongst us."

"But I must leave here soon, little maid; my people at Jamestown are
waiting for me."

He said this in order to try and discern what was the intention of
Powhatan towards him. Now that his life was saved, his thought was for
his liberty.

"Thou shalt not go," she cried, springing up. "Thou belongest to me and
it is my will to keep thee that thou mayst tell me tales of the world
beyond the sunrise and make new medicine for us. Thou shalt not go."

"So be it," said Smith in a tone he tried to render as unemotional as
possible. He sighed inwardly as he thought of his fellows at Jamestown,
ill, starving, and now doubtless believing him dead. Perhaps if he bided
his time he would find some way of communicating with them. In the
meantime, policy, as well as inclination, urged his making friends with
this eager little savage maiden.

Now that he did not attempt to oppose her, Pocahontas sank down again
beside him. Already there was an audience: braves, squaws and children
were crowding about, watching the paleface eat. Smith had learned since
his captivity the value the Indians set upon an impassive manner, so he
continued cutting off bits of venison and chewing them with as little
attention to those about him as King James himself might show when he
dined in state alone at Guildhall. But for Pocahontas's presence, whose
claim to the captive every one respected, they would have come even
nearer. As it was, one boy slipped behind her and jerked at Smith's
beard. Pocahontas ordered him away and said in excuse:

"Do not be angry, he wanted only to find out if it were fast."

She shared the child's curiosity in regard to the beard. Might it not
be, she wondered, some kind of adornment put on when he set out on the
warpath, as her people decked themselves on special occasions with
painted masks?

Smith tugged at his beard with both hands, smiling, and his audience
burst out laughing. They could appreciate a joke, it seemed, and he was
glad to see that their temper to him was friendly, for the moment at
least. One of the older men pointed to the pocket in his jerkin and
asked what he had in it. Compass and watch were gone, but Smith delved
into its depths in hopes of finding something he had forgotten which
might interest them. He brought out a pencil and a small note-book. He
wrote a few words and handed them to Pocahontas, saying:

"These are medicine marks. If one should carry them to Jamestown they
would speak to my people there and they would hear what I say at
Werowocomoco."

Pocahontas shook her head as did those to whom she passed the leaf. The
stranger might do many wonderful things, but this claim passed the
bounds of even the greatest shaman's power.

Smith, however, determined to keep her thinking of the possibility of
his return to Jamestown, continued:

"It is possible for me, in truth. Princess, and if thou would'st
accompany me thither I could show thee stranger marvels still."

"Nay," she cried angrily, "thou shalt never go there. Thou art mine to
do as I will. Is it not so?" she appealed to those about her.

They all shouted affirmation, confirming Smith's belief that his fate
had been placed in a girl's hands. It was not the first time such a
thing had happened to him; once before in his life a woman had been his
gaoler, and he again made up his mind to bide his time. He answered the
numerous questions put to him as best he could, about the number of days
he had been with the Pamunkeys, his capture, and why he had separated
from his fellows. In turn he questioned them about their harvests, the
time and method of planting and the moon of the ripening of the maize;
but the Indians showed plainly that they liked better to ask than to
answer.

As the day advanced the crowd began to dwindle. The captive would not
fail to be there whenever they desired to observe him and there was
hunting to be done and cooking, and already some of the boys had
strolled off to play their ever-fascinating game of tossing plumstones
into the air. At last only Pocahontas was left with the prisoner.

Smith glanced about to see what the chances of escape might be should he
make a sudden dash, but the sight of some braves at a lodge not more
than a hundred feet away busied in sharpening arrowheads made him settle
down again.

"Tell me, White Chief," said Pocahontas as she lighted a pipe she had
filled with tobacco and gave it now to Smith, "tell me about thyself and
thy people. Are ye in truth like unto us; do ye die as we do or can
your medicine preserve you forever like Okee? Canst thou change thyself
into an animal at will? If so, I fain would know how to do it, too."

Smith looked critically at the girl who sat on a mat beside him. He had
never seen a maiden whose spirit was more eager for life. In her avidity
for the miraculous he recognized something akin to his own love of
adventure and desire to explore new lands and to sample new ways. She
could not sail across the ocean in search of them as he had done--_he_
was her great adventure, he realized, a personified book of strange
tales to fire her imagination, as his had been stirred as a boy by
stories of the kingdom of Prester John, of the El Dorado, of the Spanish
Main and of the lost Raleigh Colony. The tobacco, which he had learned
to smoke while with the Pamunkeys, soothed him; he was in no immediate
danger; the warm sun was pleasant and the bright-eyed girl beside him
was a sympathetic audience. He was always fond of talking, of living
over the picturesque happenings that had crowded his twenty-eight years,
and now he let himself run on, seeing again in his mind's eye the faces
and the scenes of many lands, none of them, however, more strange than
his present surroundings. The only difficulty was his insufficient
vocabulary; but his mind was a quick and retentive one and each new
word, once captured, came at his bidding. Also, Pocahontas was a bright
listener; she guessed at much he could not express and helped him with
gesture and phrase.

"Princess," he began, when she interrupted:

"Call me Pocahontas as do my people. Perchance some day I'll tell thee
my other name."

"Pocahontas, then," he repeated slowly, impressing the name on his
memory, "I will obey thee. We are but men, as are thy kinsfolk, subject
to cold and hunger, ills and death. Yet, as God, our Okee, is greater
than your Okee, so our power and our medicine excel those of the mighty
Powhatan and of his shamans. Thou asketh for tales of the land whence I
come. They are so many that like the leaves of the forest I cannot count
them. If we sat here until thou wert a wrinkled old crone like her
yonder," and he pointed to old Wansutis who was hobbling by, "I could
not relate half of them. Therefore, if it pleaseth thee, I will tell
thee of some matters that have affected thy captive."

Pocahontas nodded her approbation.

"Our land, fair England, set in a stormy sea, is a mighty kingdom many,
many days' journey over the waters. There all men and women are as white
or whiter than I, now so weatherworn, as indeed are those of many other
kingdoms further towards the sunrise. Our land, now ruled by a king who
wields dominion over hundreds of tribes, was a few years ago under the
sway of a mighty princess."

"Was she fair?" asked Pocahontas.

Smith hesitated. The glamour which had once hovered about "Good Queen
Bess," obscuring the eyes of her loyal subjects, had since her death
been somewhat dispelled. He thought of the pinched face, the sandy hair,
the long nose, the small eyes--but then he had a vision of her as his
boyish eyes had first beheld her, the sovereign riding her white steed
before the host assembled to encounter the forces of the Armada Spain
was sending to crush her realm.

"Not beautiful was she," he replied, "but a very king of men!"

He puffed a moment reminiscently, then continued:

"I was born some years ago in a part of our island called Lincolnshire,
where it is low and marshy in places like unto the morass where thine
uncle took me prisoner. Yet it is a land I love, though it grew too
small for me, and when I was old enough to be a brave my hands itched to
be fighting our enemies. So I went forth on the warpath against our foes
in France and in the Netherlands. Then when I had fought for many moons
and had gained fame as a warrior I felt a longing to return to mine own
home. I abode there for a time, then I set forth once more and travelled
long in a land called Italy and entered later the service of a great
werowance, the Emperor Rudolph, to fight for him against the tribes of
his foes, the Turks. I cannot explain to thee, Princess, how different
are their ways from our ways; perchance theirs were nearer to thine
understanding since they are not given to mercy and take to themselves
many squaws; but let that rest. I fought them hard and often, and one
day before the two armies, that ceased their combat to witness, I slew
three of their great fighters, for which the Emperor did allow me to
bear arms containing Three Turks' Heads--that is, as if one of thy
kinsmen should sew upon his robe three scalps of enemies he had killed.
But soon after that was I taken prisoner by these Turks and sold into
captivity as a slave."

"Ah!" breathed Pocahontas deeply. For once in her life she was getting
her fill of adventures.

"I was given as a slave to another princess--Tragabizzanda--in the City
of Constantinople; then I was sent to Tartary, where I was most cruelly
used. One day I fell upon the Bashaw of Nolbrits, who ill-treated me,
and I slew him. I clothed myself in his garments and escaped into the
desert and finally after many strange adventures I reached again a land
where I had friends. Then--"

"Tell me of the princess," interrupted Pocahontas. "Did she ill-use thee
also?"

"Nay, in truth, she was all kindness to me," replied Smith, his eye
kindling at the remembrance of the Turkish lady who had aided him. "She
was very beautiful, with lovely garments and rich jewels," he added,
thinking to interest the girl with descriptions of her finery, "and I
owe her many thanks."

"Was she more beautiful than I?" asked Pocahontas, her brows knitting
angrily.

"She was very different," the amused Englishman answered. It was
scarcely possible for him to consider these savages as being real human
creatures, to be compared even with the Turks; yet he did not wish to
hurt the feelings of one who had done so much for him. "She was a grown
woman," he added, "and therefore it boots not to compare her with the
child thou art."

"I am no child. I am a woman!" cried Pocahontas, springing up in a fury
and rushed off like a whirlwind towards the forest.

John Smith looked after her in dismay. If he had turned his only friend
against him then was he indeed in a sad plight!





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER X

THE LODGE IN THE WOODS


Neither the rest of that day nor the next had Smith any speech with
Pocahontas. True it was that she came accompanied by squaws and
children, all eager to serve as cupbearers in order to observe the
paleface closely. But she put down the food beside him and did not
linger.

By the middle of the second day Smith found himself less an object of
interest. Everyone in Werowocomoco had been to gaze at him and the older
chiefs had sat and talked with him; but the Englishman could not
discover what their opinion in regard to his coming or his future might
be. Now there seemed to be something afoot which was engaging the
attention of the braves who congregated together before the long lodge.
Had it anything to do with his own fate, the captive wondered. The
children, too, had found other things to interest them. He saw them,
their little red bodies glistening in the sun, playing with the dogs or
pretending they were a war party creeping through a hostile country.
Smith missed them peering about the opening of his lodge, half amused,
half frightened, when he attempted to make friends.

He leaned idly against the side of the wigwam, watching two squaws not
far away who were tanning a deerskin and cutting it in strips for
thread. Would the time ever come again, he wondered, when he would
behold a white woman sewing or spinning?

He saw Pocahontas leave her lodge, but instead of coming in his
direction, she ran towards the wigwams that skirted the forest and was
soon out of sight. He could not see that a young Indian boy, astounded
to catch sight of her in that unaccustomed part of the village, went to
meet her.

"Is Wansutis by her hearth?" asked Pocahontas.

"She is," Claw-of-the-Eagle replied, and walked on beside her with no
further word.

Pocahontas's heart was beating a little faster than usual. Wansutis
still excited a feeling of awe and discomfort in the courageous child;
she could not help experiencing a sort of terror when in her presence.
Nevertheless she had now come of her own accord to ask the old woman for
aid.

Claw-of-the-Eagle, though he would have bitten his tongue off rather
than acknowledge his curiosity, was most eager to learn what had brought
the daughter of Powhatan to his adopted mother's lodge. He entered it
with Pocahontas and pretended to be busying himself with stringing his
bows in order to have an excuse for staying.

"Wansutis," began Pocahontas, standing in the sunshine of the entrance,
to the old woman who sat smoking in the darkest part of the lodge, "thou
hast the knowledge of all the herbs of the fields and of the forests,
those that harm and those that help. Is it not so?"

The wrinkled squaw looked up, a drawn smile upon her lips, and said:

"And so Princess Pocahontas comes to old Wansutis for a love potion."

"Nay," cried the girl angrily, coming closer, "not so; I desire of thee
something quite different--herbs that will make a man forget."

"The same herb for both," snapped the squaw; "for whom wilt thou brew
it, for thine adopted son, thou who art no squaw and too young to have a
son? I have no such herb, maiden, and if I had, thinkest thou I had not
given it to Claw-of-the-Eagle to drink. Speak to her, son, and tell her
if a man ever forgets."

Pocahontas turned a questioning glance on him and the young brave
answered it:

"My thoughts are great and speedy travellers, Pocahontas; they take long
journeys backwards to my father's and mother's people. They wander among
old trails in the forests and they meet old friends by the side of
burned-out campfires. Yet, when like weary hunters who have been seeking
game all day, they return at night to their lodge, so mine return in
gratitude to Wansutis. For she hath not sought to hinder them from
travelling old trails, even as she hath not bound my feet to her lodge
pole to keep them from straying."

"And if she had not left thee free," queried Pocahontas, "what wouldst
thou have done?" Somehow, captivity and the thought of captives had
suddenly become of extreme interest to the girl.

"I know not, Princess," answered the boy after pondering a moment, "yet
had not my father and mother been dead I feel certain I should have
sought to escape to them, even had thy father set all his guards about
the village. But they were no more, and our wigwam afar off was empty;
and so my heart finds rest in a new home and I gladly obey a new
mother."

"Is it then so hard to forget an old lodge and other ways?" pondered the
girl. "It seems to me that each day among strangers would be the
beginning of a new life, that it would be pleasant to know I could not
foresee what would come to pass before nightfall. Why," she queried,
looking eagerly at both the old woman and the boy, "why should this
paleface desire to return to the island where they sicken and starve
while here he hath food in plenty?"

"Wait till thou thyself art among strangers away from thine own people,"
cried Wansutis sternly, and then she turned her back upon the young
people and began to mutter.

"So thou hast no drink of forgetfulness to give me?" asked Pocahontas,
hesitating at the entrance, to which she had retreated; but the old
woman did not answer; and Pocahontas walked off slowly, meditating as
she went, while Claw-of-the-Eagle, bow in hand, gazed after her.

It had grown dark and John Smith, his legs cramped with long sitting,
stretched himself out by the side of the fire in his lodge into which he
had thrown some twigs, so that the embers which had smouldered all day
now blazed up brightly. The cheerful crackling was welcome, it seemed to
him to speak in English words of home and comfort, not the heathenish
jargon he had listened to perforce for several weeks. Not only was it a
companion but a protection. While it blazed he might be seized and put
to death, but at least he should see his enemies. He missed Pocahontas
for her own sake, not only because her staying away argued ill for his
safety. Gratitude was not the only reason for his interest in her: she
seemed to him the freest, brightest creature he had ever come across, as
much a part of the wilderness nature as a squirrel or a bird. Like all
cultured Englishmen of his day, he had read many books and poems about
shepherdesses in Arcadia and princesses of enchanted realms; but never
yet had any writer, not even the great Spenser or Sir Philip Sidney,
imagined in their words so free and wild and sylvan a creature as this
interesting Indian maiden.

His thoughts were disturbed by the entrance of two Indians. "We are
come," they said, "at The Powhatan's bidding to take thee to his lodge
in the wood."

He knew not what this order might mean, yet he was glad that come what
would, the monotony of his captivity was broken. He rose quickly and
followed them through the village, each lodge of which had its ghostly
curl of smoke ascending through the centre towards the dark sky. Within
some of the wigwams he could see the fire and sitting around it families
eating before lying down to sleep. Then they left the palisades of
Werowocomoco behind them and came out into the forest, to a lodge as
large as that in which he had first been led before Powhatan.

This one, however, was differently arranged. It was divided into two
parts, separated by dark hanging mats that permitted no light to pass
through. Into the smaller apartment, to give it such a name. Smith was
ushered, and there the two Indians, after stirring up the fire and
throwing on fresh logs, left him alone.

Not long, however, did Smith imagine himself the lodge's only
inhabitant. The sound of muffled feet, even though they moved softly,
betrayed the presence of a number of persons on the other side of the
mat. His ears, his only sentinels, reported that the unseen foes had
seated themselves and then, after a short silence, he heard a voice
begin a low, weird chant. He could not understand the words, but from
the monotonous shaking of a rattle and the steps that seemed to be
moving in some dance round and round from one part of the room to the
other, Smith was certain that it was a shaman beginning the chant for
some sacred ceremony. Then one by one the different voices joined in,
uttering hideous shrieks, and the ground shook with the shuffling of
many feet. The sounds were enough to terrify the stoutest heart, and
Smith had no doubt but that their song was a rejoicing over his coming
death. Perhaps Powhatan, he thought, had only pretended to grant his
daughter's request, having planned all along to put an end to him, and
when the boy, who had doubtless been sent by him, had not succeeded, he
had probably determined to kill him here. Or perhaps Pocahontas, now in
anger with him, had withdrawn her claims to his life and left him to her
father's vengeance.

The noise grew louder and more fiendish in character and the Englishman
saw the corner of the mat begin to wave, to bulge as if a man were
butting his head against it to raise it. Then he saw it lifted and in
came a creature more hideous than Smith ever dreamed could exist.
Painted all in red pocone, with breast tattooed in black, wearing no
garment save a breech-clout and a gigantic headdress of feathers,
shells and beads, he straightened himself to his great height. A
horrible mask, distorting human lineaments, covered the face, and a
medicine-bag of otter skin hung from his back and dangling from one arm
as an ornament hung the dried hand of an enemy long since dead. On
account of his stature and in spite of the mask, Smith recognized The
Powhatan, and drew himself up proudly to meet his fate.

Behind their werowance now swarmed the other braves and chieftains, two
hundred in all, and all with masks that made them as fearful, thought
John Smith, as a troop of devils from hell.

To his astonishment, they did not fall upon him and in their shrieking
he thought he could even distinguish the word "friend." The Powhatan
alone of them all approached him, saying:

"Have no fear, my son; we are not come to harm thee. The ceremony which
thou hast heard was to call Okee to witness to the friendship we have
sworn thee. Henceforth are we and thou as of one tribe. No longer art
thou a prisoner but free to come and go as thy brothers here, aye, even
to return to thy comrades on the island if thou so desirest. When thou
hast arrived there send unto me two of those great guns that spit forth
fire and death that my name may become a still greater terror to mine
enemies, and send to me also a grindstone such as thou hast told me of,
that my squaws may use it for crushing maize. I ask not these gifts for
naught. A great chief giveth ever gifts in return. Therefore I present
to thee for thine own the land called Capahosick, where thou mayst live
and build thee a lodge and take a squaw to till thy fields for thee.
Moreover, I, The Powhatan, I, Wahunsunakuk, will esteem thee as mine own
son from this day forth."

It was difficult for Smith during this discourse not to betray his
astonishment. First came the relief at learning that he was not to be
killed immediately and then the wonderful news that he was free to go to
Jamestown. And if The Powhatan and his people had sworn friendship to
him, would that not mean that through him the colony should be saved? He
longed to know what had brought about this sudden change in his fate,
but he could not ask. In as stately a manner as that of the
werowance--so at variance with his appearance--and with the best words
at his command, he spoke his thanks.

"I thank thee, great Powhatan, for thy words of kindness and the good
news thou bringest me. In truth if thou wilt be to me a father, I will
be to thee a son, and there shall be peace between Werowocomoco and
Jamestown. If thou wilt send men with me to show me the way they shall
return with presents for thee."

Powhatan gave certain orders and twelve men stepped forward and laid
aside their sacrificial masks and announced themselves ready to
accompany the paleface. Smith had not imagined that he could leave that
night, but he was so eager to be off that he lost no time in his
farewells.

They set forth into the forest which at first was not dense, and along
its edge were clearings where the summer's maize had grown. Then the
trees grew closer together, and to Smith there appeared no path between
them, but his guides strode quickly along with no hesitation, though the
night was a dark one. Six of the Indians went in front of him and six
behind. There was no talking, only the faint sound from the Englishman's
boots and his stumbling against trunks or rocks broke the silence. There
was little chance of an enemy's coming so near to the camp of The
Powhatan, nevertheless the Indians observed the usual caution.

To John Smith there was something ghostly about this excursion by night,
through an unknown country, with unknown men. He could not help
wondering whether he had understood correctly all that Powhatan had
said, or whether he dared believe he had meant what he said, or if he
had not planned to kill him in the wilderness away from any voice to
speak in his favor. Even though the werowance himself were acting in
good faith, might not others of the chiefs have plotted to put an end to
the white man whose coming and whose staying were so beyond their
fathoming? In spite of these thoughts he went on apparently as
unconcernedly as though he were strolling along the king's highway near
his Lincolnshire home.

The call of some animal, a wildcat perhaps, brought the little company
to a hurried standstill, and a whispered consultation. The sound might
really come from some beast, Smith knew; on the other hand, it might be
either a signal made by foes of the Powhatans or the call of another
party of their tribe about to join them. In the latter case it boded ill
for him. He clasped a stone knife he had managed to secrete at
Werowocomoco. He could not overhear what the Indians were saying, but
they were evidently arguing. Then when they seemed to have come to some
decision, they started on once more.

Though the forest was so sombre. Smith's eyes had grown more accustomed
to the blackness and he began to distinguish between the various shades
of darkness. Once or twice he thought he saw to the side of them another
figure, moving or halting as they halted, but when he looked fixedly he
could distinguish nothing but the trunk of some great tree.

On and on they went, mocked at by owls and whippoorwills, crossing
streams over log bridges, wading through others when the cold water
splashed at a misstep up in his face. At last the blackness turned to
grey, in which he could make out the fingers of his hand. Dawn was near.
Why, thought the Englishman, did they delay striking so long? If they
meant to kill him, he hoped it might be done quickly. The phantom figure
which had accompanied them after the halt following the wildcat call
must soon act. Even a brave man must wish such a night as this to end.

Then the world ahead of him seemed to grow wider and lighter. The trees
had larger spaces between them and the figures of the Indians were like
a blurred drawing. Was it a star shining before them, that light that
grew brighter and brighter?

"Jamestown!" he cried out in his own tongue. "Jamestown! Yon is
Jamestown! God be praised!"

The Indians gathered about him and began to question him eagerly. Would
he give presents to them all; would they have the guns to carry back
with them?

As they stood in a little knot, each individual of which was growing
more distinct, a young man ran up behind them.

"Claw-of-the-Eagle!" they exclaimed.

The boy put into the hands of the astonished Smith a necklace of white
shells he remembered to have seen Pocahontas wear.

"Princess Pocahontas sends greetings," he said, "and bids thee farewell
for to-day now that she hath seen thee safe again among thy people." His
own scowl belied the kindliness of the message.

So John Smith knew that Pocahontas had accompanied him through the
forest and that if death had been near him that night, it was she who
had averted it from him.





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER XI

POCAHONTAS VISITS JAMESTOWN

"We have brought the white werowance safely back to his tribe again,"
said Copotone, one of the guides, as they approached the causeway
leading to Jamestown Island.

"Of a surety," remarked Smith, "since thus it was that Powhatan
commanded."

It was his policy--a policy which did credit to the head of one who, in
spite of his knowledge of the world, was still so young--never to show
any suspicion of Indian good-faith.

"Now that we have led thee thither," continued Copotone, who on his side
had no intention of betraying any secrets of the past night, "wilt thou
not fulfil thy promise and give to us the guns and grindstone?"

"Ye shall take to your master whatever ye can carry," answered Smith,
whose heart was beating fast at the sight of the huts and fort before
him, the outlines of which grew more distinct each moment with the
brightening day. He had answered the hail of the sentry who, when he had
convinced himself that his ears and eyes did not betray him, ran out and
clasped the hands of one he had never thought to behold alive again.

"Captain!" he exclaimed, "but it is indeed a happy day that bringeth
thee back to us, not but that some of them yonder," and he pointed
significantly towards the government house, "will think otherwise."

The Indians in the meantime were looking about them with eager curiosity
as they strode through the palisades into the fort. It was but a poor
affair, judged by European military standards, and absolutely worthless
if it should have to withstand a siege by artillery. But to the savages
it was an imposing fortress, the very laws of its construction unknown
to them, even the mortar between the logs, a substance of which they had
no comprehension. Over the bastion as they emerged on the other side
they beheld the English flag floating. This they took to be some kind of
an Okee, in which opinion Smith's action confirmed them, for taking off
his hat, he waved it in delight towards the symbol of all that was now
doubly dear to him.

But it was the guns which claimed the chief attention of the savage
visitors. There were four of them, all pointing towards the forest, iron
culverins with the Tudor Rose and E.R. (Elizabeth Regina) moulded above
their breeches.

"Are these the fire-tubes of which we have heard?" asked Copotone
eagerly, longing to feel them, but not daring for fear of unknown
magic.

"Aye," answered Smith, "art thou strong enough to carry one to
Werowocomoco?"

The Indians looked them over appraisingly, wondering if they could drag
them through the forest.

"Set the match to this one, Dickon," commanded Smith with a grim smile.
"It behooves us to frighten well this escort of mine, or they would be
trying to carry off one of my iron pets here to a strange kennel."

Dickon took up a tinder-box that lay on the bench beside him, and in a
moment under the fixed gaze of his audience struck a light and applied
it to the flax at the breech. There was a flash, then a loud report, and
the Indians, as if actually hit, fell to the ground, where they stayed
until they gradually convinced themselves that they were unhurt.

"If ye had been in front instead of behind ye had been killed," Smith
said solemnly, desiring to impress them with the terrors of the white
man's magic.

The Indians got to their feet and, though they said nothing, and did not
attempt to run, John Smith knew that they were more terrified than they
had ever been in their lives.

"Come," he said, leading the way from the fort to the town. "Since ye
find our guns too heavy and too noisy I will seek more suitable presents
for Powhatan and for you."

The colonists, roused by the cannon shot, had run out from their doors
to see what had happened. They could scarcely believe their eyes, and it
was not until Smith called to them by name and questioned them in regard
to the happenings at Jamestown since his departure, that they were
convinced he was himself. All were thin and gaunt, and they peered
hungrily at the baskets of food the Indians bore. Most of them greeted
Smith with genuine pleasure; others there were who frowned at the sight
of him, who barely nodded a welcome, who answered him surlily and who
got together in twos and threes to talk quickly as he passed on.

Smith led the way to the storehouse and bidding the Indians wait
outside, he went within and persuaded the man in charge to permit him to
take a number of articles. When he came out his arms were full of
colored cloths and beads, steel knives and trinkets of many sorts. The
Indians gave him their baskets to empty and he filled them with the
presents, going back for iron pots and kettles of glistening brass.
These he bade them carry to Powhatan. To each of his guides he gave
something for himself. Then speaking slowly, he said to Copotone:

"Kehaten Pokahontas patiaquagh niugh tanks manotyens neer mowmowchick
rawrenock andowgh (bid Pocahontas bring hither two little baskets and I
will give her white beads to make her a necklace)."

He would gladly have sent a message of thanks for her care of him that
night, but he thought it best not to do so, since she might not wish it
known that she had followed him.

"Pray her to come and see us soon," he added as he bade farewell to his
guides whose eagerness to show their treasures at home was even greater
than their curiosity to see further marvels.

After he had seen them safely outside of the palisades, Smith stopped to
enquire by name for such men as had not come out to greet him.

"Oh! Ralph, he's dead and buried," they answered; and of another:
"Christopher? He wore away from very weakness. And Robin went a
sen'night ago with a quartain fever. This is no land for white men."

"But thou lookest hale and hearty. Captain," remarked one of the
gentlemen, leaning against his door for support. "I'll wager the death
thou didst face was not by starvation."

Then Smith learned in full the pitiful story of what the colony had
suffered during his absence: lack of food and illness had carried off
nearly half the colonists, and those that remained were weak and
discouraged. Death had taken both of his enemies and of his friends, but
some who had been opposed to him formerly had been brought to see during
his absence how with his departure the life and courage of Jamestown had
died down. Men there are--and most of them--who must ever be led by some
one, and in Smith these adventurers had come to see a real leader of
men.

While Smith stood questioning and heartening the downhearted, President
Wingfield came out of his house on his way to the Government House.
Smith doffed his hat and made a brave bow to honour, if not the man, at
least the office he represented.

"So thou art returned. Captain Smith," said the President, coldly.
"Methinks thou hast not fared so ill, better belike than most of us.
Hast thou brought the provisions thou didst promise? We have been
awaiting them somewhat anxiously. But first tell me where thou hast left
Robinson and Emery, for the lives of our comrades, however humble, are
of more value to us than even the sorely needed victuals."

Now Smith was aware that President Wingfield knew, as every other man
in the colony knew, that Robinson and Emery were dead; the others had
already discussed their fate with him. Therefore he realized that the
President had some policy in putting such a question to him thus in
public.

"Thou must have heard, sir, that they are dead," he replied. "Poor lads!
Disobedience was the end of them. Had they but followed my commands they
had returned alive to Jamestown many days ago; but they must needs land
on the shore, instead of keeping in the stream as I bade them, and they
were slain by the savages after I was captured."

"That is easily answered, Captain Smith," Wingfield solemnly remarked,
and turning his head over his shoulder to speak as he walked off, he
added: "The Council will require their lives at thy hands this day. See
that thou art present in the Government House this afternoon at three by
the clock to answer their questions."

"So that is what their next step is," Smith remarked to his friend Guy,
a youth of much promise, as they walked off together. "They will accuse
me of murder and try to hang me or to send me back to England in chains.
But I have not been saved from death by a young princess to come to any
such end, friend."

And as they walked to his house he told the story of his captivity and
made plans for getting the better of those who sought to injure him.

The councillors, on their side, were not unanimous as to the course to
adopt. Some were for putting him in safe-keeping--they did not mention
the word imprisonment--until a ship should arrive and return with him to
England. Others, who perhaps felt a doubt of their own ability to
manage the settlement, were willing to acknowledge that they had
misjudged him and suggested that at least he had better be given a
chance to help them; and other timorous members, having witnessed the
warmth of the greeting accorded him, advised that it would be wiser not
to rush into any course of action which would displease the majority of
the colonists. Thus it came to pass that Smith found the three o'clock
meeting like a tiger that has had its claws drawn.

In the days that followed his spirit of encouragement, the willingness
with which he put his shoulder to the wheel everywhere that aid was
needed, his boldness in defying those leagued against him, completely
changed the aspect of Jamestown. The gentlemen who had refused to wield
axe or spade or bricklayer's trowel because of their gentility were
shamed by his example.

    "When Adam delved and Eve span
    Who was then the gentleman?"

he demanded and swung the axe with lusty strokes against some hoary
walnut tree.

But though he enjoyed the triumph over his enemies and the knowledge
that his return, the provisions he had brought and the inspiration of
his courage and activity were of great benefit to his fellows,
nevertheless at times he experienced a feeling of loneliness. He thought
of Pocahontas and wondered whether she would not come to Jamestown.

It was on a wintry day that Pocahontas made her first visit to the
colony. Though they might lack most of the necessities of life, there
was no scarcity of fuel. A huge bonfire was blazing at an open space
where two streets were destined to meet in the future. Over some embers
pulled away from the centre of the flame a pitch-kettle was heating and
its owners, while waiting for its contents to melt, were warming a small
piece of dried sturgeon. Around the bonfire sat John Smith and several
gentlemen. He was pointing out to them on a rough chart the direction in
which he thought the town should spread out when a new influx of
colonists would need shelter. There were carpenters working on a house a
few feet away, but their hammer blows did not ring out lustily as they
should do when men are building with hope a new habitation; there was
but little strength left in their arms.

When Smith looked up from his chart to indicate where a certain line
should run, he saw standing before him the young Indian who had brought
him Pocahontas's greeting after the night journey through the forest and
who, he now realized, was the same fierce youth who had attempted his
life at Werowocomoeo.

Claw-of-the-Eagle spoke:

"Werowance of the white men, Princess Pocahontas sends me to inform thee
that she hath come to visit thee. E'en now she and her maidens await
thee at the fort."

"She is most welcome," cried Smith, springing up. Then he called out in
English: "Come, friends, and help me receive the daughter of Powhatan,
who did save me at the risk of her own life. Give her a hearty English
welcome."

[Illustration: "I WILL LEAD THE PRINCESS"]

The colonists needed no urging. They were eager to see what an Indian
princess looked like. But Smith outran them all and at the sight of
the bright girlish face he stretched out his hands towards her as he
would have done to an English maiden he knew well.

"Ah! little friend," he said coaxingly, "thou wilt not be angry with me
longer. How much dost thou desire to make me owe thee, Pocahontas, my
life, my freedom, my return home and now this pleasure?"

Pocahontas only smiled. Smith then turned, waving his hand to the men
who had followed him.

"These, my comrades, would thank thee too could they but speak thy
tongue."

The hats of cavaliers and the caps of the workmen were all doffed, and
Pocahontas acknowledged their courtesy with great dignity.

"Let us show our guests our town," suggested Smith, "even though it lack
as yet palaces and bazaars filled with gorgeous raiment. I will lead the
princess; do ye care for her maidens and the young brave." As they
walked along the path from the fort to Jamestown's one street he asked:
"Tell me, my little jailor, how came The Powhatan to set me free? I have
wondered every day since, and I cannot understand. Thou didst prevail
with him, was it not so?"

"Aye," answered the girl. "First was I angry with thee, then my heart,
though I did not wish to hearken to it, made me pity thee away from thy
people, even as I pitied the wildcat I loosed from his trap. My father
would not list to me at first, but I plead and reasoned with him,
telling him that thy friendship for us would be even as a high tide that
covereth sharp rocks over which we could ride safely."

"But what meant the songs and dances in the hut in the woods, Matoaka?"

"That was the ceremony of adoption. Thou art now the son of Powhatan and
my brother. Thou wert taken into our tribe, and those were the ancient
rites of our people."

"And the journey through the woods, didst thou fear for my safety then
that thou didst follow all the way?"

But Pocahontas did not answer. She would not tell him that she had still
doubted her father, and that she was not sure what instructions he had
given the men ordered to guide the paleface.

"Thou art like the Sun God," said Smith with genuine feeling, "powerful
to save and to bless, little sister--since I have been made thy brother.
And as man may not repay the Sun God for all his blessings, no more may
I repay thee for all thou hast done for me."

Pocahontas was on the point of replying when she suddenly burst out
laughing at a sight before her. Two men who were rolling a barrel of
flour from the storehouse to their own home let it slip from their
weakened fingers. It rolled against one of the carpenters who was
standing with his back to it, and hitting against his shins, sent him
sprawling. It was undoubtedly a funny sight and she was not the only one
to be amused. But the man did not rise.

"Why doth he not get up?" asked Pocahontas. "He cannot be badly hurt by
such a light blow from that queer-shaped thing."

"I fear me he is too weakened by lack of food," answered Smith,
gravely.

"Hath he naught to eat?" asked the girl in wide-eyed wonder. Then as if
a strange thought had just come to her: "Is there not food for all? Must
thou, too, my Brother, stint thyself?"

"In truth, little Sister, our rations are but short ones and if the ship
cometh not soon from England with supplies, I fear me they must be
shorter still."

"No!" she cried emphatically, shaking her head till her long braids
swung to and fro, "ye shall not starve while there is plenty at
Werowocomoco. This very night will I myself send provisions to thee. It
hurts me here," and she laid her hand on her heart, "to think that thou
shouldst suffer."

Just then President Wingfield and several officers of the Council,
having heard the news of Pocahontas's visit, came toward them. They
realized that the presence among them of this child, the best-loved
daughter of the powerful Indian chieftain, was an important event. They
did not quite know what to expect. Vague ideas of some Eastern queenly
beauty, such as the Queen of Sheba or Semiramis, had led them to look
for a certain royal magnificence of bearing and of garments, and they
were taken aback to behold this slim young creature whose clothing in
the eyes of some of them was inadequate. Nevertheless, they soon
discovered that though she wore no royal purple nor jewels she bore
herself with a dignity that was both maidenly and regal. They had
hurriedly put on their own best collars and ruffs and to the eyes of the
unsophisticated Indian girl they made a brave, though strange,
appearance. She listened to their words of welcome and answered them
through Smith's interpretation. But all the while she was taking in
every detail of their costumes.

"We must give her presents," suggested one of the councillors as if
discovering an idea that had come to no one else, and he sent a servant
to fetch some of the trinkets which they had brought for the purpose of
bartering with the savages.

Pocahontas forgot her dignity at the sight of them and clapped her hands
in delight as Smith threw over her head a long chain of white and blue
beads. Her pleasure was even greater when he held up a little mirror and
she saw her face for the first time reflected in anything but a forest
pool.

"Is that too for me?" she asked eagerly and clasped it to her breast
when it was put into her hand, and then she peered into it from one side
and the other, unwearied in making acquaintance with her own features.

The other maidens and Claw-of-the-Eagle were given presents also, but
less showy ones. Smith went into his own little house and after hunting
through his sea-chest, brought out a silver bracelet which he slipped on
Pocahontas's arm, saying:

"This is to remind Matoaka always that she is my sister and that I am
her brother."

It seemed to Pocahontas that she was incapable of receiving any further
new impressions. It was as if her mind were a vessel filled to the brim
with water that could not take another drop. Like a squirrel given more
nuts than it can eat at once, who rushes to hide them away, her instinct
made her long to take her treasures off where she could look at them
alone.

"I go back to my father's lodge," she said and did not speak again till
they reached the fort. Then when Smith had seen the little party beyond
the palisades, she called back to him:

"Brother, I shall not forget. This night I will send thee food. I am
well pleased with thy strange town and I will come again."





[Illustration: Decorative]


CHAPTER XII

POWHATAN'S AMBASSADOR


Pocahontas was as good as her word. That same evening as soon as she had
exhibited her treasures to Powhatan and to his envious squaws and had
related her impressions of the town and wigwams of the palefaces, she
busied herself in getting together baskets of corn, haunches of dried
venison and bear-meat and sent them by swift runners to "her brother" at
Jamestown.

In the days following, though she played with her sisters, though she
hunted with Nautauquas in the forest, though she listened at night,
crouched against her father's knees before the fire to tales of
achievements of her tribe in war, or to strange transformation of braves
into beasts and spirits, her thoughts would wander off to the white
man's island, to the many wonders it held which she had scarcely
sampled. The pressure of her bracelet on her arm would recall its giver,
and she saw again in her mind his eyes, so kind when they smiled on her,
so stern at other times.

She thought too of the man she had seen rolled over by the barrel--of
how slowly he had risen. She knew that there was such a thing as
starvation, because sometimes allied tribes of the Powhatans, whose
harvests had not been successful or whose braves had been lazy hunters,
had come to beseech food from the great storehouse at Powhata. But she
herself had never before seen any one faint for food, and it hurt her
when she thought of the abundance at Werowocomoco, where not even the
dogs went hungry, to know that there were men not far away who must go
without. Her father made no objection when a day or two later she told
him that she wished to take another supply of provisions to the white
men.

"So be it," nodded Powhatan. "Thy captive shall be fed until the big
canoe he said was on its way shall arrive. He saith--though this be
great foolishness, since he cannot see so far--that at the end of this
moon it will come safe over the waters. But until the day of its
arrival, whenever that may be, thou canst send or carry of our surplus
to them. And hearken, Matoaka," he whispered that the squaws might not
hear, "thou hast wits beyond thy years, therefore do thou seek to learn
some of the white man's magic. There be times when the cunning of the
fox is worth more than the claws of the bear."

So every three or four days Pocahontas brought food to Smith, for his
own need and for that of his fellows. Sometimes, accompanied by her
sister or her maidens, she would go by night to Jamestown, and half
laughing, half frightened, they would set down the baskets before the
fort and run like timorous deer back to the forest before the sentinel
had opened the gate in the palisade in answer to their call. Sometimes,
with Claw-of-the-Eagle as her companion, she would walk through the
street of Jamestown, greeting, now with girlish dignity, now with
smiles, its inhabitants whose thin faces lighted up at sight of her.
She came to symbolize to them the hope in the new world they had all but
lost; they rejoiced to see her, not only for her gifts, but for herself.

They taught her to say after them a few words such as "Good-day,"
"food," and "the Captain," meaning Smith; and the possession of this new
and strange accomplishment was almost as dear to her as beads or
bracelet. The island for her was a place of enchantment. The sunset gun
from the fort awoke more thrills of marvel in her than the rages of a
thunderstorm; and the strangest medicine of all was the power the white
men had of communicating their wishes to others at a distance by means
of little marks upon scraps of paper.

One afternoon when she had come, accompanied by Cleopatra, she found the
streets and houses of Jamestown deserted. As they wandered about,
wondering what had happened to the palefaces, they heard the sound of
voices issuing from a rough shed beyond. They seemed neither to be
talking nor shrieking but chanting in a kind of rhythm such as she had
never heard. Quietly the two maidens followed the sound to the shed. It
was made of wood, open at the sides and roofed over with a piece of
sail-cloth. Crouched behind some sumac bushes still bearing aloft their
crimson torches, the girls looked on in wonderment, themselves unseen.
The sun was sinking behind them, behind the backs too of the colonists
who all faced the east. Then Pocahontas whispered to her sister:

"See, Cleopatra, they must be worshiping their Okee. Yon man all in
white before them must be a shaman."

A keen curiosity kept her there, though Cleopatra pulled in fright at
her skirt, whispering entreaties to be gone before some dire medicine
should fall upon them. She saw them all, when the chanting had ceased,
kneel down on the bare ground and heard them repeat some incantation
which she felt sure must be of great strength, to judge by the firmness
of the tone in which they all recited it. Their Okee, she thought, must
be a very powerful one; and there came to her as she crouched there, the
hidden witness of this evening service, the conviction that her father,
if he would, and even with all his tribes, could never conquer this
handful of determined men.

She was afraid that "her brother" might be angry with her for having
looked on at ceremonies that were perhaps forbidden to women or members
of other tribes; so, greatly to Cleopatra's relief, they slipped away,
leaving at the fort the provisions they had borne on their strong young
backs.

A few days later news came from Opechanchanough that the big canoe, so
eagerly expected by the strangers, had been seen at Kecoughtan and was
now on its way up the river. Powhatan was astounded, for it was the very
day the white captain had foretold its arrival. Truly a man who could
see so far across the waves of the big water was one to be feared. And
from that day the werowance had deep respect for John Smith and his
powers.

Now that the ship had brought provisions there was for a time no need of
aid from Werowocomoco. But only for a time. One day when Smith had
conducted Pocahontas over the ship to show her the wonders of this
monster canoe, he asked her to have her people bring food once more to
Jamestown.

[Illustration: VIRGINIA IN 1606--FROM CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S MAP]

"The sailors of Captain Newport," he explained, "are staying here too
long and are devouring much of the supplies designed for us. A strange
mania hath overtaken them, little Sister; they are mad for gold. They
believe that the streams about here are full of the dust they and our
men of Jamestown value more than life itself. It is more to them than
thy precious pocone, and as thou seest, they desert their ship and spend
their days sifting sand. If they are not soon gone there will be nothing
left for the mouths of any of us."

"Thou shalt not want, Brother," promised Pocahontas, and the next day
came the Indians with large stores of provisions. These Smith now bought
from them with beads and utensils and colored cloths. But the President
and the Council, jealous of the growing importance of Smith's relations
with the savages, sought to increase their own by paying four times the
amount Smith had agreed upon.

Discouragement met Smith with each morning's sun and kept him awake at
night. The colony seemed to take no root in this virgin soil; men who
would not work in the fields to raise grain toiled feverishly in search
of gold, forgetting that a full harvest would mean more for their
welfare than bags of money. Then, to add to the troubles, a fire started
one winter night at Jamestown and spread rapidly over most of the town,
burning down the warehouse in which the precious grain was stored. From
cold and starvation "more than halfe of us dyed," wrote Smith later in
his history.

Both with his own strength and by his example John Smith strove to his
utmost to rebuild Jamestown and to encourage the downhearted and to make
friends for himself among those who had listened to suspicions of his
purposes.

For a long time Powhatan had desired to secure weapons such as the white
men used, but the colonists had so far refused the Indians' request to
barter them. Now he determined to try other methods. He sent twenty fat
turkeys--each a heavy burden for the man who bore it across his
shoulders--to Captain Newport, asking that in return the Englishman
would send him twenty swords. Newport, whose orders from the authorities
in London had been not to offend the natives in any manner, had not
refused and had sent the swords in return. Then Powhatan, still eager to
secure a further store of weapons, had twenty more fine turkeys carried
to Smith, asking for twenty swords more. But Smith, who had been taught
by experience and insight many things about the relations which should
prevail between the colony and the Indians, knew how unwise it was to
give to an untried friend the means of turning against the giver. He
knew that the Indians respected his sternness with them more than they
did the evident desire of Newport and the Council to please them.
Therefore he refused. The disappointed savages showed their anger and
cried out insolent words against Smith.

Finding they could not weaken his decision, they sought to steal the
swords. They were discovered and Smith, realizing that the time had come
when a decided stand must be taken, had them whipped and imprisoned.
Some of the Council protested, declaring that this was the wrong way to
treat the Indians and urged that Powhatan was sure to resent their
action. How did Smith know, they asked, that these savages were acting
at the command of their chief? Was it not merely a sudden impulse of
anger that had led them to take what ought to have been given them?

But the prisoners, who believed in Smith's power to read the past as
well as the future, thinking it useless to try to hide the truth from
him, confessed that Powhatan had commanded them to secure the swords by
any method. Powhatan was now aware that his plan had failed and that it
was necessary for him to disavow the deed of his messengers. To convince
the palefaces of his good faith he must send some one to talk with them
whom they would trust. And so it was that Pocahontas went to Jamestown
as ambassadress.

Accompanied by slaves bearing presents of food, seed corn for the spring
planting and pelts of deer and bear and wildcat, Pocahontas was received
at Jamestown with much ceremonial.

"I bear these gifts from The Powhatan," she said to Smith, who always
acted as interpreter. "He begs thee to excuse him of the injuries done
by some rash ontoward captains his subjects, desiring their liberties
for this time with the assurance of his love forever."

The manner in which she delivered this little speech was so frank that
Smith knew she was ignorant of her father's real part in the theft. The
men had had their lesson, and Powhatan his warning, therefore clemency
might be effectively dispensed.

"Dost thou desire, Matoaka, that these men should be freed?"

"Oh, yes, my Brother," she replied eagerly. "Thou knowest thyself how
the trapped man or beast pines to escape. My heart is sad at the thought
of any creature kept in durance."

"And yet, little Sister," answered Smith gravely, while he watched her
quick change of expression, "I needs must deliver up these prisoners of
mine to another gaoler, to one who will treat them as sternly as thou
didst treat me at Werowocomoco."

Pocahontas's drawn brows indicated her endeavor to understand his
meaning.

"Wilt _thou_ be their gaoler, Matoaka?" he asked; and she, suddenly
comprehending his joke, laughed aloud.

The men were given into her custody and on her return home Powhatan was
much pleased with his daughter's embassy.

In September of that year Smith at last was made in name, what he had
long been in fact, the head of the colony. As President he could now
carry out his plans with less opposition. The building of new houses and
the church went on briskly; the training of men in military exercises,
the exploration of the shores of Chesapeake Bay--all these received his
attention. Master Hunt, the clergyman, whose library had been burned in
the fire, spent his time in encouraging the colonists, and twice each
day he held his services in the church for whose altar he melted candles
and gathered wild flowers.

In London the governors of the Colony had decided it would be a wise
thing to attach Powhatan still closer to the English settlement. Their
ideas of the position and character of an Indian potentate were very
vague indeed. They had been told that all savages were fond as children
are of bright colored dress and ornaments. So they reasoned that of
course this Indian chieftain of thirty tribes would be delighted with
the regal pomp of a coronation. They sent orders by the _Phoenix_--a
ship laden with stores which arrived that summer--that Powhatan should
be brought to Jamestown and crowned there with the crown they shipped
over for that purpose.

Smith, knowing Powhatan as none of the other colonists did, was not in
favor of this plan. It did not seem to him that a crown instead of a
feather headdress would make any difference to the werowance, whose
power among his own people needed no external decoration to strengthen
it. But he had no choice but to obey, so he and Captain Waldo and three
other gentlemen, went to Werowocomoco to bring Powhatan back with them.

On their arrival they found the werowance absent, whether by chance or
by policy. By this time Powhatan had lost some of his first awe of the
white men's wits and had concluded it was worth while to try and meet
strangers' wiles with wiles of his own.

"Where thinkest thou he can have gone?" asked Waldo. "I like it not.
Smith; mayhap he is e'en now preparing some mischief against us."

"I wish we had not harkened to thee. Captain Smith," said one of the
gentlemen, glancing nervously over his shoulder; "it was a fool's wisdom
to come thus without good yeomen with match-locks to frighten away their
arrows."

"Gentlemen," replied Smith, showing his vexation in his tone, "I tell ye
ye are in no danger if ye do not yourselves bring it about with your
looks of suspicion. Remember that all Werowocomoco is feasting its eyes
upon us, and bear yourselves as Englishmen should."

"Where was it they nearly brained thee, Captain?" queried the fourth.
"And not even thy friend, the little princess, is here to welcome thee.
Doth not her absence cause thee some anxiety?"

It did in truth set John Smith to wondering. He did not fear that any
harm was planned, but Pocahontas's absence was unexpected and he
wondered what its significance might be. He had been looking forward to
seeing his little sister again in her own home and h

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