CAPTAIN ARGALL TAKES A PRISONER
And in the three years that had passed since Smith's return to England
Pocahontas did not forget the trust he had given her. Many a time had
she sent or brought aid to the colonists during the terrible "starving
time," and warded off evil from them. When she was powerless to prevent
the massacre by Powhatan of Ratcliffe and thirty of his men, she
succeeded at least in saving the life of one of his men, a young boy.
Henry Spilman, whom she sent to her kindred tribe, the Patowomekes. With
them he lived for many years.
But her relations with Jamestown and its people, though most friendly,
were no longer as intimate as they had been when Smith was President,
and she went there less and less.
One who rejoiced at her home-keeping was Claw-of-the-Eagle. He had hated
the white men from the beginning and had done his share to destroy them
in the Ratcliffe massacre, though he had never told Pocahontas that he
had taken part in it. He was now a brave, tested in courage and
endurance in numerous war parties against enemies of his adopted tribe
whose honor and advancement he had made his own. The Powhatan himself
had praised his deeds in council.
One day Wansutis said to him:
"Son, it is time now that thou shouldst take a squaw into thy wigwam. My
hands grow weak and a young squaw will serve thee more swiftly than I.
Look about thee, my son, and choose."
Claw-of-the-Eagle had been thinking many moons that the time _had_ come
to bring home a squaw, but he had no need to look about and choose. He
had made his choice, and even though she were the daughter of the great
Powhatan, he did not doubt that the werowance would give her to one of
his best braves. And so, one evening in taquitock (autumn), when the red
glow of the forests was half veiled in the bluish mist that came with
the return of soft languid days after frost had painted the trees and
ripened the bristly chinquapins and luscious persimmons,
Claw-of-the-Eagle took his flute and set forth alone.
Not far from the lodge of Pocahontas he seated himself upon a stone and
began to play the plaintive notes with which the Indian lover tells of
his longing for the maiden he would make his squaw.
"Dost thou hear that, Pocahontas?" queried Cleopatra, who had peeped
out. "It is Claw-of-the-Eagle who pipes for thee. Go forth, Sister, and
make glad his heart, for there is none of our braves who can compare
with him."
"I will not be his squaw. Go thou thyself if he pleaseth thee so," and
Pocahontas would not stir from her tent that evening, though the gentle
piping continued until the moon rose.
Yet Claw-of-the-Eagle did not despair. Not only had he won fame as a
fighter but as a successful hunter as well. Never did he come back to
Wansutis's lodge empty-handed. Though the deer he pursued be never so
swift, or the quail never so wary, he always tracked down his quarry.
And he meant to succeed in his wooing.
So even when Pocahontas left Werowocomoco to visit her kinsfolk, the
Patowomekes, he bided his time and spent his days building a new lodge
nearby that of Wansutis, that it might be in readiness for the day when
he should bring his squaw to light their first fire beneath the opening
under the sky.
Meanwhile affairs in Jamestown had been going from bad to worse. Famine
had become an almost permanent visitor there. Sir Thomas Gale had not
yet arrived from England and no one was there to govern the Colony with
the firm hand of John Smith. At length, however, it was decided in the
Council that Captain Argall should set forth towards the Patowomekes
tribe and bargain with them for grain.
Japezaws, the chief, received him in a friendly manner.
"Yes, we will sell to thee corn as I sold it to thy great Captain when
he first came among us. What news hast thou of him? Will he come again
to us? He was a great brave."
Captain Argall answered:
"We have no word from him. Perchance he hath succumbed of his wound;"
and then, because he was jealous of Smith's fame among the savages, he
added, "England hath so many great braves that we waste little thought
on those that are gone. Jamestown hath all but forgot him already."
"There is one amongst us who forgets him not," Japezaws pointed to the
valley behind him, "one there is who hath him and his deeds ever on the
tongue."
"Who may that be?" asked the Englishman, wondering if the Indian village
held captive some countryman of his own long since thought dead.
"It is Pocahontas, his friend, who looks eagerly every moon for his
return. She abideth gladly amongst us, for she groweth restless as a
young brave, and Werowocomoco hems her in."
Even while Japezaws was speaking a thought flashed through Argall's
brain; and while the slaves at Japezaws's command poured forth measure
after measure of corn and dried meat, the Englishman was adding to his
first vague idea, until when the great load of yellow grain lay heaped
before him, his plan was fully laid.
"I wish, Japezaws," he began, as if the idea had just struck him, "that
Powhatan, her father, had as great a love for Jamestown as his daughter.
He will not even sell to us provisions now, though his storehouse is
full to o'erflowing. If we could but make him see that, his gains would
be greater than ours. 'Tis a matter of but a few more harvests before we
have food and to spare, but where shall he find such copper kettles,
such mirrors, such knives of bright steel as we would pay him in
exchange for that he hath no need of?"
The old chief's eyes glistened with covetousness.
"I want some shining knives; I want to see a vessel that will not break
when my squaws let it fall on a rock. I want some of the marvels ye keep
in your lodges."
Argall smiled; the fly had caught the fish for which he angled.
"As soon as a man may hurry to Jamestown and back they shall be thine
if--thou wilt do what I ask of thee."
"And what is thy will?" Suspicion had now awakened in the Indian.
"Hearken!" continued Argall. "Thou knowest that Powhatan hath stolen
from us sundry arms and keeps in captivity some of our men. If he will
make peace with us we need not take our war party through the forests to
Werowocomoco, and the lives of many Indians will be spared."
Here Japezaws grunted, but Argall did not appear to notice it.
"If we held a hostage of Powhatan, someone who was dear to him, we could
force him to do as we would."
He paused and glanced at the Indian who, whatever he may have thought,
betrayed nothing.
"If thou wilt entrust the Princess Pocahontas to us," continued Argall,
"she shall be taken to Jamestown and there detained in all gentleness,
in the house of a worthy lady, until Powhatan agreeth to our terms and
she will be conveyed in safety to her father. And for thee, for thy help
in this matter, such presents shall be sent thee as thou hast never
seen, such as no one, not even Powhatan, hath yet received."
Japezaws was silent a little. The maiden was his guest, and his people
had always upheld the sacred duties of hospitality. But he knew that no
harm would befall her. The friendship of the English for her was known
to all his tribe and the great affection of her father to this, his
favorite daughter. In a day or two she would be ransomed by Powhatan,
and for his part in the matter, he, Japezaws, would gain what he so
greatly longed to possess. He wasted neither time nor words:
"Meet me here at sunset, and I will bring her to thee."
Claw-of-the-Eagle had not thought to stir away from Wansutis's lodge for
many days to come. Food in plenty was stored there and he had need to
busy himself with the making of a new bow and arrows. But Wansutis,
letting fall the stone with which she was grinding maize, looked up
suddenly as if she heard distant voices. The youth, however, heard
nothing. Then she said:
"Son, if in truth thy mind is set upon a certain maiden for thy squaw,
go seek her at once in the village of the Patowomekes. She hath been
there over long."
Claw-of-the-Eagle did not ask for any explanation of his mother's words.
He had learned that she seemed to possess some strange knowledge he
could not fathom, but which he respected. Therefore, without any
discussion, with only a word of farewell, he took his bow and quiver and
his wooing pipe and set forth.
As he approached the village of Japezaws at the end of several days'
journey, he said to himself:
"Before three days are past I shall return this way with my squaw. No
longer will I wait for her to feign deafness to my piping. She shall
listen to it and follow me to my lodge."
Knowing that he was among a friendly allied tribe, Claw-of-the-Eagle
strode along as openly and as carelessly as he would have done at
Werowocomoco or Powhata. Yet suddenly, like a deer that scents a bear,
he stood still, his nostrils quivering; then, slipping behind a tree,
he notched an arrow to his bow.
"A white man," he thought, long before his eyes caught sight of him.
Concealed by the tree, he waited and watched pass the man he knew was
the new English captain, and to his astonishment found that the women
who accompanied him were Pocahontas and a squaw of the Patowomekes. It
was the squaw of Japezaws; and it was at his bidding that she was now
acting.
"Because thou hast seen as often as thou wilt the lodges of the
palefaces," Claw-of-the-Eagle heard her say to Pocahontas, "is it right
for thee to marvel that I am eager to witness with mine own eyes such
strange ways as are theirs and the marvels the white chief hath stored
in the canoe?"
"I do not wonder," laughed Pocahontas; "and in truth I rejoice to go
with thee, and with the few words of their tongue that I have not
forgotten to ask for thee the questions thou wouldst put to him. I, too,
have questions to ask him."
When they had passed the young brave followed them, far off enough that
Pocahontas's quick ear might not hear his step that would have been
noiseless to the Englishman.
At the bank to which the pinnace was moored he sought cover back of a
large boulder, his eyes never moving from the women before him. He
watched them go on board, saw the English sailors rise to receive them,
and heard the eager outcries of the squaw as she felt of their garments
and went about the deck of the little craft, while Pocahontas explained
as far as her own knowledge went, the meaning of anchor and sail, of
cooking utensils and muskets. He saw Captain Argall open a small chest
and hand out presents to the two women, Japezaws's squaw uttering loud
cries of delight as beads and gaudy handkerchiefs were placed in her
hands.
Claw-of-the-Eagle waited to see what would happen next. After an hour's
watching he beheld the two women approach the side of the pinnace
nearest the shore, the squaw in front. She sprang to the bank and ran
lightly into the forest. Pocahontas had her foot on the gunwale to
follow her when Captain Argall took hold of her arm.
"Come with us to Jamestown, Princess," he said; "we will welcome you for
a visit."
Pocahontas's anger flared up. Never in her life had she been restrained
by force. She wasted no time nor strength in entreaty, but sought to
wrench herself away from him. But the Englishman held her firmly but
gently, and while she struggled the sailors shoved the boat out into the
stream.
Claw-of-the-Eagle rose that he might take better aim and shot an arrow
at the Englishman. It hit the astounded captain on his leathern doublet,
but did no more than knock the wind out of him.
"Shoot into the trees there," he commanded, still holding on to
Pocahontas.
One of the sailors started to aim into the thicket at an unseen enemy,
when Claw-of-the-Eagle, realizing that the boat was rapidly swinging out
of his range, ran out on to an exposed bluff and notched a second arrow.
Before it left the string, however, the bullet from the soldier's musket
had hit him in the shoulder. As he fell Pocahontas uttered a cry of
horror, for she had seen who her stricken defender was.
[Illustration: Decorative]