A FAREWELL
The late summer sun was beating down pitilessly upon the lodges and open
spaces of Werowocomoco. Even the children were quiet in the shade,
covering their heads with the long green blades of the maize, plaiting
the tassels idly and humming the chant of the Green Corn Festival they
had celebrated some weeks before. The old braves smoked or dozed in
their wigwams, and the squaws left their pounding of corn and their
cooking until a cooler hour. The young braves only, too proud to appear
affected by any condition of the weather, made parade of their industry
and sat fashioning arrow-heads or ran races in the full sunshine, till a
wise old chief called out to them that they were young fools with no
more sense than blue jays.
Off in the woods, near a hollow in a little stream where the trout and
crawfish disported themselves over a bright sandy bottom, Pocahontas lay
at full length, her brown arms stretched out, the color of the pine
needles beneath them. The leafage of a gigantic red oak shaded her;
through its greenery she could see the heavy white clouds, and once an
eagle flying as it seemed straight up into the sun. Away from its direct
rays, cooled by her bath in the stream and clad in an Indian maiden's
light garb, she was rejoicing in the summer heat. She enjoyed the sleepy
feeling that dulled the woodland sights and sounds: the tapping of a
woodpecker on a distant tree, the occasional call of a catbird, the soft
scurrying of a rabbit or a squirrel, the buzzing of a laden bee--all
mingled into one melody of summer of which she did not consciously
distinguish the individual notes. Just as pleasantly confused were her
thoughts, pictures of which her drowsiness blurred the outlines, so that
she passed with no effort from the flecked stream she had just left to
the moonlit field she and her maidens had encircled a few nights before,
chanting harvest songs. She saw, too, the supple bend of
Claw-of-the-Eagle's body as he had waited for the signal to bound
forward in the race at Powhata when he outran the others; and then she
seemed again to see him run the day Wansutis saved him from being
clubbed to death.
As if the many deeds of violence done that day called up others of their
kind, she saw, and did not shrink from seeing, the fate of the Dutchmen
at Werowocomoco who had sought to betray Smith to Powhatan. Her father,
angered at them, had had them brained upon the threshold of the house
they had built for him.
Then the thoughts of Pocahontas found themselves at Jamestown, whither
they now often wandered. She smiled as she remembered her own amazement
at the sight of the two Englishwomen who had lately arrived there:
Mistress Forrest and her maid, Anne Burroughs. With what curiosity the
white women and the Indian girl had measured each other, their hair,
their eyes, their curious garments! Then she beheld in her fancy her
friend, her "brother," so earnest, so brave, who out of opposition
always captured victory. She had witnessed how he forced the colonists
to labor, had seen the punishment he meted out to those who disobeyed
his commands against swearing--that strange offence she could not
comprehend--the pouring of cold water in the sleeve of those who uttered
oaths, amid the jeers and laughter of their companions. Her lips
continued to smile while she thought of Smith, of the gentle words he
had ever ready for her, of the interest he ever manifested at all she
had to tell him. He had talked to her as she knew he talked to few, of
his hopes for this little handful of men who must live and grow, and
how, if they two, he and his "little Sister," could bring it about, the
English and the Powhatans should forget any grievances against one
another and be friends as long as the sky and earth should last.
Perhaps, he had said one day, marriages between the English and the
Indians might cement this friendship. "Perhaps thou thyself, Matoaka,"
he had begun, and then had ceased. Now she wondered again, as she had
wondered then, if he had perhaps meant himself.
Such a possibility was an exciting one, and she would have been glad to
let her mind explore it fully; but her eyes were heavy and the pine
needles soft and fragrant, and soon the beaver, who from a hollow
beneath the exposed roots of the oak over the stream had been watching
her bright eyes, seeing them closed, slipped forth to begin again his
work on the dam her feet had flattened out.
Though Nautauquas, returning an hour later from a peaceful mission to a
confederated tribe, made scarcely more noise than the beaver, Pocahontas
awoke and raised her head and loosening the needles from her hair,
sprang up.
"Greetings, Matoaka!" called out her brother. "Thou wert as snugly
hidden here as a deer."
"What news, my Brother?" she asked as he sat down and, taking off his
moccasins, let his heated feet hang into the stream.
"Evil news it is," he answered gravely, "for the friends of the great
Captain."
"What hath befallen my white Brother?" she cried out; "tell me
speedily."
"He was sleeping in his boat, I heard, far off from their island. A big
bag of the powder they put into their guns lay in the bottom of his
canoe, and when by chance a spark from his pipe fell upon it it grew
angry and began to spit and burned his flesh till it waked him, and in
his agony, he sprang into the river to quench the blaze."
Pocahontas, who had not winced at the thought of the brained Dutchmen,
shivered.
"Where is he now?" she asked. "I wish to go to him."
Nautauquas looked at her earnestly as if he would question her, but did
not. "They say he is on his way to Jamestown and should reach there on
the morrow."
As Pocahontas and Nautauquas returned at sunset to Werowocomoco, the
girl stopped at Wansutis's lodge.
"Thou comest for healing herbs for thy white man," exclaimed the old
woman before Pocahontas had spoken a word. "I have them here ready for
thee," and she thrust a bundle into the astonished maiden's hands.
"But," continued the hag, "though they would cure any of our people,
they will not have power with the white man's malady save he have faith
in them."
Then she went back into the gloom of her lodge and Pocahontas walked
away in silence.
It was not Pocahontas whom Wansutis wished to aid, but the white
Captain. The old woman had never spoken to him, or of him to others; but
she had listened eagerly to all the tales told of his powers. She was
sure that he possessed magic knowledge beyond that of her own people,
and she waited for the day when she might persuade him to impart some of
his medicine to herself. The fact that he was now injured and in danger
did not change her opinion. Some medicine was better for certain
troubles than for others. Perhaps her herbs in this case would be
stronger than his own magic.
Before the night was over Pocahontas had started on her way to
Jamestown. She went alone, since somehow she did not wish to chatter
with a companion. The thunder storms had cooled the air and softened the
earth. It was still early in the morning when she reached the town, now
grown to be a settlement of fifty houses. On the wharf she saw men
hurrying back and forth to the ship, fastened by stout hawsers to the
posts, bearing bundles of bear and fox skins, such as she had seen them
purchase from her people, and boxes and trunks up to the deck. One of
the latter looked to her strangely like one she had seen in Smith's
house, of Cordova leather with a richly wrought iron lock. "Doubtless,"
she thought, "he is sending it back filled with gifts for the king he
speaks so much of."
She hastened towards his house and before she reached it she saw that
his bed had been carried outside the door and that he lay upon it,
propped up by pillows. She recognized, too, the doctor in the man who
was just leaving him. Now in her eagerness she ran the rest of the way
and Smith, catching sight of her, waved his hand feebly.
"Alas! my Brother," she cried as she took his hand in hers, and saw how
thin it had grown, "alas! how hast thou harmed thyself?"
"Thou hast heard, Matoaka?" he answered, smiling bravely in spite of the
pain, "and art come, as thou hast ever come to Jamestown, to bring aid
and comfort."
"I have herbs here for thy wound," she replied, taking them out of her
pouch. "They will heal it speedily. They are great medicine."
How could he help believe in their power, she had asked herself on her
way that morning. What had Wansutis meant?
"I thank thee, little Sister," he answered gently, "for thy loving
thought and for the journey thou hast taken. Before thou earnest my
heart was low, for I said to myself: how can I go without bidding
farewell to Matoaka; yet how can I send a message that will bring her
here in time?"
"Go!" she exclaimed. "Where wilt thou go?"
"Home to England. The chirurgeon who hath just left me hath decided only
this morn that his skill is not great enough to save my wound, that I
must return to the wise men in London to heal me."
"Nay, nay," cried Pocahontas; "thou must not go. Our wise women and our
shamans have secrets and wonders thou knowest not of. I will send to
them and thy wound shall soon be as clean as the palm of my hand."
[Illustration: "NAY, NAY," CRIED POCAHONTAS, "THOU MUST NOT GO"]
"Would that it might be so, little Sister. I have seen in truth strange
cures among thy people; and were my ill a fever such as might come to
them or the result of an arrow's bite, I would gladly let thy shamans
have their will with me. But gunpowder is to them a thing unknown, nor
would their remedies avail me aught."
"Then thou wilt go?" she asked in a voice low with despair.
"Aye, Matoaka, I must or else take up my abode speedily yonder," and he
pointed to the graveyard. "It is a bitter thing to go now and leave my
work unfinished, to know that mine enemies will rejoice--"
"I shall die when thou art gone," she interrupted, kneeling down beside
him; "thou hast become like a god to Matoaka, a god strong and
wonderful."
"Little Sister! Little Sister!" he repeated as he stroked her hair. Once
again there came to him the thought he had harbored before--that perhaps
when this child was grown he might claim her as a wife. Now this would
never come to pass.
She knelt there still in silence, then she asked, hope and eagerness in
her voice: "Thou wilt come back to us?"
"If I may, Matoaka; if I live we shall see each other again."
He did not tell her what was in his mind, that no English Dorothy or
Cicely, golden-haired and rosy-cheeked, would ever be as dear to him as
he now realized this child of the forest had grown to be.
And then with perfect faith that her "Brother" would bring to pass what
he had promised, Pocahontas's spirits rose. She did not try to calculate
the weeks and months that should go by before she was to see him again.
She seated herself beside him on the ground and listened while he
talked to her of all that he was leaving behind and his love and concern
for the Colony.
"See, Matoaka," he said, his voice growing stronger in his eagerness,
"this town is like unto a child of mine own, so dear is it to me. I have
spent sleepless nights and weary days, I have suffered cold and hunger
and the contumely of jealous men in its behalf; nay perchance, even
death itself. And thou, too, hast shown it great favors till in truth it
hath become partly thine own and dear to thee. Now that I must depart, I
leave Jamestown to thy care. Wilt thou continue to watch over it, to do
all within thy power for its welfare?"
"That will I gladly, my Brother, when thou leavest it like a squaw
without her brave. Not a day shall pass that I will not peer through the
forests hitherward to see that all be well; mine ears shall harken each
night lest harm approach it. 'Jamestown is Pocahontas's friend,' I shall
whisper to the north wind, and it will not blow too hard. 'Pocahontas is
the friend of Jamestown,' I shall call to the sun that it beat not too
fiercely upon it. 'Pocahontas loves Jamestown,' I shall whisper to the
river that it eat not too deep into the island's banks, and"--here the
half-playful tone changed into one of real earnestness--"I who sit close
to Powhatan's heart shall whisper every day in his ear: 'Harm not
Jamestown, if thou lovest Matoaka.'"
A look of great relief passed over the wounded man's face. Truly it was
a wondrous thing that the expression of a girl's friendship was able to
soothe thus his anxieties.
"I thank thee again, little Sister," he said. "And now bid me farewell,
for yon come the sailors to bear me to the ship."
Pocahontas sprang up and bending over him, poured forth words of tender
Indian farewells. Then, as the bearers approached, she fled towards the
gates and into the forest.
John Smith, lying at the prow of the ship, placed there to be nearer the
sea as he desired, thought as the ship sailed slowly past the next bend
in the river, that he caught sight of a white buckskin skirt between the
trees.
[Illustration: Decorative]