A BAPTISM IN JAMESTOWN
Very unhappy was Pocahontas the rest of the voyage to Jamestown.
Claw-of-the-Eagle had been dear to her as a brother, and she sorrowed
for him greatly. It was forlorn to be away thus from her own people and
among those whose ways and tongue were strange to her; and she longed
for Nautauquas, whom she had not seen for several moons.
News of their coming had outrun them, and all of Jamestown was at the
wharf to greet them. Captain Argall stepped ashore and explained that he
had brought generous stores and what was of far greater value, the
daughter of Powhatan. Sir Thomas Dale, in all the bravery of his best
purple doublet and new bright Cordova leather boots, came forward and
doffing his plumed hat, said:
"Welcome, Princess, and be not angry with us if we in all courtesy
constrain thee to abide with us awhile. Let it not irk thee to visit us
again, to stay for a few days with those who have been thy debtors since
the time thou didst save the life of Captain Smith."
Pocahontas, whose anger had been rising at the treachery practised on
her by Japezaws and Argall, had intended to show in her manner how she
resented it; but the name of Captain Smith disarmed her. She recalled
her white Brother's parting words to her.
She would befriend his colony, as she had ever done. So she smiled at
Sir Thomas and spoke to those about whom she knew and let them show her
the way to the house that they chose for her use, a few paces from the
Governor's. Mistress Lettice, the wife of one of the gentlemen, who was
to occupy it with her, laid out some of her own garments in case the
Indian maiden should care to change; and Pocahontas, forgetting the
dangers and sadness of the past days, laughed with amusement as she
tried on farthingale and wide skirt.
"They are sending messengers to thy father. King Powhatan," the
Englishwoman said as she showed Pocahontas how to adjust a starched ruff
that scratched her neck so that she made a grimace. "They will tell him
that thou art here, and then surely in his anxiety to see thee again, he
will grant what Sir Thomas desires: that he deliver up our men and the
arms he hath taken and give us three hundred quarters of corn. Perchance
thou wouldst like to send some word of thine own to thy father. If so
be, there is an Indian boy who hath brought fish to trade, and he can
bear it for thee."
"Bring him to me, I pray thee," said Pocahontas, speaking slowly the
unaccustomed English words.
She was looking at herself in the ebony-framed mirror that hung opposite
the door, much interested in her strange appearance, when the Indian boy
entered, following Mistress Lettice. She saw his face in the glass and
recognized him as the son of a Powhatan chief. She turned and faced him,
but knew that he did not recognize her. He looked no further than her
clothes and so believed her an Englishwoman. It was a rare amusement,
she thought, and she watched him eagerly to see his surprise when he
should find out his mistake. She was well rewarded by his puzzled and
astonished expression when she called out to him:
"Little Squirrel!" When she herself had stopped laughing, she added:
"Take this sad message to old Wansutis. Tell her that her son,
Claw-of-the-Eagle, hath met his death bravely and that Pocahontas mourns
him with her."
Then she dismissed the boy. As he walked away she remembered that she
desired him to bear also a special word to Nautauquas, so she started to
run and call him back. But the unaccustomed weight of her clothes and
shoes prevented her and she began to pull them off her even before she
reached the house, crying out:
"Nay, I will not prison myself thus; give me back mine own garments,"
and she breathed deep breaths of satisfaction when she had resumed them.
Had the manner of her coming to Jamestown been otherwise, with no
treachery and no compulsion which hurt her pride, Pocahontas would have
much enjoyed her stay and a closer view of the ways of the English. As
it was, she was restlessly awaiting the message her father would return
to the demands of the colonists. The next day the messengers came back,
bringing with them the Englishmen who had been held captive by Powhatan
and some of the arms. The werowance promised, they reported, that when
his daughter was restored to him he would give the corn which the white
men asked for.
This answer did not satisfy the Council, and day by day there were
parleyings in which the white men and the red men sought to constrain or
evade each other. Each side recognized the value of Pocahontas as a
hostage. She was not now unhappy. Even if the colonists had not done
their best to requite with kindness all the care she had manifested for
their welfare, policy would have led them to treat her with every
consideration. She was made welcome everywhere, and she went from the
guard house to that of the Governor, asking questions, eager to learn
all details, from the way to fire off a musket to the heating of the
sealing wax and the making of a great red seal which Master John Rolfe,
Secretary and Recorder General of the Colony, affixed to all the
documents sent to the Company in London.
He explained everything to her, taking pains to choose the simplest
words, because he found a keen pleasure in watching her dark eyes
brighten when she began to comprehend something which had puzzled her,
and because her laughter and quick coming and going in the masculine
atmosphere of the council room was a most agreeable change from its
usual dull calm. He was a widower and, though he had got over the
sadness of the loss of his wife, he still missed a woman's
companionship. So he was nothing loath to follow when Pocahontas
commanded one day:
"Come with me about the town and answer more of my questions. I have
stored away as many as a squirrel stores nuts for popanow--what keeps
the ship from floating with the tide down to the great water? Why doth
that man sit with his legs before him?"--and she pointed to a carpenter
who had been imprisoned in the stocks in punishment for theft--"And
why?"--...
And Rolfe found himself kept as busy as Mr. Squirrel himself in cracking
her questions for her.
She soon got over her awe of the white men, judging, now that she had a
closer view of them, that they were in many ways like her own people.
And seeing that her lightheartedness was pleasant to them, she teased
and joked with them.
"Wilt thou eat a persimmon?" she asked Rolfe, smiling at the trap she
was laying as she stood on tiptoe to pick one from a branch above her.
And Rolfe bit into the golden fruit, not knowing that the persimmon till
ripened by frost is for the eye only. She laughed with glee as she saw
his mouth all puckered up until he believed it would never unpucker
again.
"I'll pay thee for this some day," he threatened in mock anger as soon
as he could speak; but she only laughed the more.
One of the reasons that Pocahontas was content to remain in Jamestown
was that she hoped to get news of Captain Smith's return. Every day she
would ask, sometimes Mistress Lettice, sometimes Sir Thomas Dale, or
anyone with whom she spoke:
"When cometh back the Captain? I am longing to see my Brother."
And one told her one thing, one another, some lying because it was
easier; some from sheer ignorance said they had heard that John Smith
had gone back to fight the Turks; that he grew fat and lazy in his
English home; that he was exploring further up the coast; that he might
be expected at Jamestown with the next ship. And Pocahontas, believing
those who said the last because she wished this to be the truth, was not
unhappy to wait among strangers that she might be the first to welcome
him.
The spot in the town which most excited her curiosity was the church.
The colonists had now replaced the first rude hut by a substantial
building with a tower. The bells that called Jamestown to daily prayers
had a weird fascination for the Indian girl. They seemed to speak a
language she could not understand. Nor could she understand the ceremony
which she observed, wide-eyed, of the kneeling men and women and the
white-robed clergyman who stretched out his arms over them.
"What doth it signify?" she queried; and Rolfe, remembering that the
conversion of the heathen was one of the reasons given by Europe for
sending colonies to the New World, tried to explain the mysteries of his
faith to her. But he found it too difficult a task, and besought the
Reverend Thomas Alexander Whitaker to undertake it in his stead.
This the zealous and gentle minister of the Gospel gladly consented to
do. Here was the great opportunity he had desired since his coming to
Virginia--to make an Indian convert so notable that this conversion
might bring others in its train. Moreover the maiden herself interested
him. But it was not so easy to go about it. Pocahontas's knowledge of
English did not extend beyond the simplest expressions; and he found it
necessary to translate the long and abstruse theological dogmas into
familiar terms. He had almost despaired of making her comprehend until
he recalled how his Master had taught in parables. So he retold the
incidents of His life in stories which held the Indian maiden
spellbound. He showed her pictures in heavy leathern-bound volumes, and
tried with less success to explain the meaning of the daily religious
services he conducted in the church.
"Why do ye put always flowers on that table?" she asked, pointing to the
vases on the altar which the Governor bade keep always filled with fresh
blossoms as long as the forests and river bank could supply them. "What
good hath thy god of them?"
"Dost thou not take delight in the sunshine. Princess?" replied the
priest as they sat in the cool shade of the darkened church looking out
through the open door at waving green branches and the river beyond. "I
have beheld thee lift up thine arms on a fair day when the swift white
clouds moved across the blue heavens as if thou wouldst embrace the
whole wide earth. Why dost thou take pleasure in such things?"
"Because," hesitated the maiden, seeking for a reason, "because they
make me happy."
"Because," he added, "they are beautiful. And God who created all this
beauty rejoiceth too in it--in green fields and noble trees, in lovely
maidens, strong men and happy children. Therefore, in token thereof, we
place beautiful flowers upon His table."
"And delighteth he not in incantations of shamans and jossakeed
(inspired prophets) and in self-torture?" she queried.
"Nay," he answered; "such things are of the Devil; our God is love.
Ponder upon the difference."
And Pocahontas did think much of what he told her. Her spirit was
maturing in this new atmosphere like a quick-growing vine climbing
higher each day. Dr. Whitaker's own fatherly kindness to her and to all
the colony became for her the symbol of the tenderness of the God of
whom he taught her. Then, too, this strange new deity was the god of her
Brother, John Smith; and whatever in any way was dear to him she wanted
to make her own.
For weeks the instruction continued and at last Dr. Whitaker told Sir
Thomas Dale that he believed the Indian princess was now sufficiently
impressed with the teachings of Christianity to be baptized. So Sir
Thomas, meeting her one afternoon as she stood by the wharf watching men
unload a ship but newly arrived from England, began:
"Good even, Princess, I rejoice at the news Dr. Whitaker hath even now
imparted to me, that he hath instructed thee fully in the teachings of
our blessed faith, and that thou hast shown wisdom and comprehension.
The time hath therefore arrived for thee to bear witness before man to
the truth and to accept the blessed sacrament of baptism at his hands
and to swear publicly that thou wilt have naught more to do with the
heathen gods whom thy people ignorantly worship."
"I will not give them up," Pocahontas cried out in anger such as she had
not shown for many a day; and to Sir Thomas's amazement, she turned her
back upon his presence and sped, swift as a fawn, into the thicket which
still covered a portion of the island.
There she lay upon the ground, panting with emotion and passionately
going over her arguments: "Why should I forsake the Okee of my fathers?
Why should I hate what my brothers serve? Why should I prefer this god
of the strangers?"
She did not know that a sudden attack of homesickness was the principal
cause of this outburst. She was longing to sit at her father's knee, to
hunt with Nautauquas; and she wondered if they had ceased to care for
her that they left her to stay among the strangers.
Here, at sunset, Dr. Whitaker, set upon her track by the startled Sir
Thomas, found her and seating himself beside her, he talked to her
gently, not finding fault with her loyalty to her people and their
beliefs, but explaining how they had never had the chance to hear what
she was being taught, and how by acknowledging the Christians' God, she
might lead those she loved to do the same and to benefit by His great
gifts.
Not in one day did the clergyman convince her; but by the time April had
come Pocahontas eagerly consented to her baptism. Clothed by Mistress
Lettice in a simple white gown free from ruff and farthingale, with her
long black hair hanging down her back, Pocahontas walked to the little
church filled with all the inhabitants and a few Indians from the
mainland who wondered what it all meant; and while the bells rang softly
in the soft spring air, Pocahontas, the first of her race, was baptized
into the Christian faith, with the new name of Rebecca.
[Illustration: Decorative]