Pocahontas

by Joseph Bruchac

  With great relief, our men sat down with the Coatmen and smoked the pipe together. Our men admired the bright knives and glittering tomahaks of the Coatmen. They liked the way those weapons shone like the sun striking water. It would be good to trade for such fine tools. Our men gave the newcomers food and tried to teach them more of our words, of which they already seemed to know a few, though they spoke them poorly.

  "Wingapo," the English leader said, tapping himself on the chest to indicate that his heart was good, that he was indeed a "good man" as he had said.

  However—and this made me sad when I heard it—just when the people of Paspahegh thought they knew the hearts of these newcomers, the Coatmen again behaved badly. They made their camp without asking the permission of Wowinchopunck or the people of Paspahegh. They began to guard it in a way that did not seem friendly. The people of Paspahegh became worried. Were the Coatmen enemies or friends? Wowinchopunck urged his people to be patient. He decided to go see them and learn if they knew how to treat a guest in the right way. He sent two messengers, painted and dressed in a very fine way, to let the Coatmen know that he would make a visit.

  Then, having given the newcomers time to prepare for the visit of a chief, Wowinchopunck went to their camp. He took with him a hundred men and the gift of a fine, big deer. But the Coatmen did not lay down their weapons as had the warriors of Paspahegh. They seemed suspicious and angry. They stared at our men and muttered things to one another. The Paspahegh men held out their hands in friendship, but the Coatmen did not take their hands. Then one of Wowinchopunck's men picked up a Coatman's glittering tomahak.

  "Wingapo," Wowinchopunck's man said. "Good man."

  But the Coatman who kept that tomahak did not behave in a friendly way. He grabbed the tomahak by its handle and twisted it out of the man's grasp. Then he struck the surprised Paspahegh man hard on the arm with the flat side of the tomahak, bruising him badly. It was a great insult. Some of our people became quite upset.

  However, even though they were the ones who had behaved so badly, the Tassantassuk now began to act angry. They shouted loud words to one another. They raised their thunder sticks and pointed them at our people.

  Wowinchopunck was deeply offended.

  "Pick up the deer," he said. "These rude people do not know how to treat a guest properly."

  Then he and all his men turned and walked back across the narrow neck of land. They did not run, but as they left they worried that they would hear the thunder of the unpredictable Coatmen's weapons at their backs.

  8. JOHN SMITH: The River

  The river which we have discovered is one of the famousest that was ever found by any Christian. It ebbs and flows a hundred and threescore miles where ships of great burthen may harbor in safety.

  Wheresoever we landed upon this river we saw the goodliest woods, as beech, oak, cedar, cypress, walnuts, sassafrass, and vines in great abundance which hang in great clusters on many trees, and other trees unknown, and all the grounds bespread with many sweet and delicate flowers, mulberries, raspberries, and fruits unknown.

  There are many branches of this river which run flowing through the woods with great plenty of fish of all kinds; as for sturgeon, all the world cannot be compared to it. In this country I have seen many great and large meadows having excellent good pasture for any cattle. There is also great store of deer, both red and fallow, there are bears, foxes, otters, beavers, musk cats and wild beasts unknown.

  The four and twentieth day, we set up a cross at the head of this river, naming it "Kings River," where we proclaimed James, King of England, to have the most right unto it.

  —FROM OBSERVATIONS GATHERED OUT OF

  A DISCOURSE OF THE PLANTATION OF THE SOUTHERN COLONY

  IN VIRGINIA BY THE ENGLISH, 1606.

  WRITTEN BY THAT HONORABLE GENTLEMAN,

  MASTER GEORGE PERCY.

  MAY 18TH–27TH, 1607

  OUR FIRST ENCOUNTERS with the naturals were such that a wiser man than our president would have had much doubt. The gentleman still refused to impale our small plantation. It remained contrived without wall or strong defense. I urged often that our men be armed and exercised, but my words and myself were scorned. It was still the plan of the wise Wingfield to have Captain Smith referred to the council in England to receive a check for his supposed mutiny. Though restrained, I cautioned the more careful amongst us to keep watchful eyes.

  It was well I did so. The eighteenth day of May, the werowance of Paspihae came himself to our quarter. Most of the naturals do go about naked, with only their privities covered by beasts' skins, but it is not so for their kings. Paspihae had dressed himself in his finest, wearing a great robe woven with long feathers and the skin about his waist beset with the teeth of beasts to make designs in the shapes of various creatures. Chains of pearls and shells were about his neck, and more strings of pearls hung from his ears. His body was painted crimson and besprinkled, it seemed, with silver ore. His face was painted watchet, as blue as the sky itself. His hair was tied in a great knot atop his head, and four tall feathers thrust up from his crown of deer's hair dyed red. With him were a hundred more salvages, armed in a most warlike manner and thinking at that time to execute their villainy. They carried bows and arrows, and the swords on their backs were beset with sharp stones and pieces of iron able to cleave a man in sunder.

  Paspihae made signs that we should lay down our arms.

  I looked to George Percy and the brave gentleman nodded back at me.

  "We will not trust him so far," Percy said, holding his piece more firmly.

  Our President, though, urged the naturals to join us. Soon they had pushed into the fort and were milling about us in a great throng. Then one bold salvage stole a hatchet from Master Eustace Clovell. Master Clovell spied him doing the deed, whereupon he took the hatchet from him with great force, and also struck him upon the arm. Seeing that, another salvage came fiercely at our man with a wooden sword, thinking to beat out his brains.

  "Hold!" Percy cried. Holding his piece at chest height, he stepped in and shoved it against the natural who bore the sword. Off balance, the man stumbled back, his attack forestalled, though a growl arose from among the ranks of the naturals. With that we all took to our arms.

  The salvages, who had surely been about to fall upon us, paused. It was well that they did. Our matches were lit, our pieces pointed at their breasts. Paspihae, himself, glared at me and I back at him.

  Seeing we could not be taken by surprise, the naturals fell back. And so Paspihae went suddenly away with his company in great anger.

  ***

  From then on, I was no longer so restrained in my movements. The presence of a man who knew the arts of war was seen at last to be of service. Captain Newport liked me well and joined me to his company that would next adventure up the Kings River. On Thursday, the first and twentieth of May, having fitted our shallop with provisions and all necessities belonging to a discovery, we set out. Our Captain proceeded with a perfect resolution not to return before finding either the head of this river, the sea again, or some issue. The names of the two and twenty discoverers are these:

  CAPTAIN CHRISTOFER NEWPORT

  GENTLEMEN

  Captain John Smith

  Captain Gabriell Archer

  George Percy, Esquire

  Master John Brookes

  Master Thomas Wotton

  MARINERS

  Francys Nelson

  John Collson

  Robert Tyndall

  Mathew Fytch

  SAILORS

  Jonas Poole

  Robert Markham

  John Crookdeck

  Olyver Browne

  Benjamyn White

  Rychard Genoway

  Thomas Turnbrydg

  Thomas Godword

  Robert Jackson

  Charles Clarke

  Stephen

  Thomas Skynner

  From James Fort we took our leave at noon. By night we were up the river eighteen
miles at a low meadow point. The naturals of this place name their kingdom Wynauk. We hailed these Wynauks with words of kindness.

  "Wingapo," Captain Newport called to them.

  "Wingapo chemuze," the Wynauks replied, greeting us with much rejoicing. There the people of the kingdom of Wynauk entertained us with dances. The King of Wynauk is at odds with the King of Paspihae and for that we anchored peacefully all night.

  By diverse small habitations we passed as we continued upriver. The king of another village, Aratahec, gave us a guide who was Aratahec's brother-in-law. This salvage, Nauiraus, proved to be a trusty friend. In six days, we arrived at a town called Powhatan, some twelve houses pleasantly seated on a hill. Before it are three fertile isles, about it many of their cornfields, a place pleasant and strong by nature. The prince of this place is called Tanxpowhatan and his people Powhatans. No further might we proceed because of the rocks and isle; there is not passage for a small boat.

  Upon one of the little islets at the mouth of the falls, Captain Newport set up a cross. It bore the inscription Jacobus Rex. 1607 and Newport's own name below. At the erecting we prayed for our king and our own prosperous success. Then, with a great shout, we proclaimed our great James the true king of all this land.

  Nauiraus began to admire the meaning of our setting up the cross with such a shout. Our captain calmed his suspicion, telling him that the two arms of the cross signified King Tanxpowhatan and himself. The fastening of it in the middle stood for their united league, and the shout was our reverence we did to Powhatan. This cheered our gullible guide not a little.

  During our return, the people in all parts kindly entreated us till we were within twenty miles of James Town. Then our guide, Nauiraus, took some conceit.

  "I can go no further with you," he said, his voice most agitated. "I will see you again in three days."

  When we placed him upon the shore, he ran so swiftly into the forest that our captain became worried. We made all haste home, fearing some disastrous hap at the fort. It fell out as expected. God had not blessed those at the fort as well as He had blessed the discoverers.

  Seeing our absence, the salvages saw a sure opportunity to carry the fort. Upon the fifth and twentieth day of May, above two hundred of them came with their king and gave a furious assault. No sentries had been set. Our men were at work and not ready, their arms in dryfats. The spring grasses had also grown so tall all around our fort that the naturals were able to creep so close that our men were well within the range of their bows when the salvages at last burst from cover with a shout.

  "Their cry," Jehu Robinson said to me as he reported the events of that fight, "was so terrible that I near fell down in fright."

  Much of the fighting that followed then was hand-to-hand, for our company's lack of ready arms.

  "Grim work 'twas indeed," Robinson said, "made e'en worse by them cries of battle from the salvages that ne'er did cease as they thrust for'ard with fierce intent."

  The salvages, a very valiant people, came up almost into the fort, and shot through the tents in this skirmish which endured hot about an hour. Diverse of them were surely killed, but they tugged off the dead on their backs.

  Seeing what was happening, the cannoneers aboard the Susan Constant aimed their guns at the mass of salvages seeking to thrust their way into our fort. Though the ships' ordnance with their small shot daunted them, they might yet have overthrown our defenders, for each salvage that fell was replaced by two more eager to join the battle.

  At last, upon the ship, someone among the cannoneers bethought him to load bar shot, two halves of a cannon ball joined together by a long iron spike. That crossbar, fired into the trees above the heads of the naturals, struck down a great bough among them and caused them to retire.

  We found seventeen injured and a boy slain by the salvages. Four of the council that had stood in front were hurt in maintaining the fort. Our president, Master Wingfield, spoke loudly.

  "I have shown myself valiant," he said, "valiant indeed."

  Indeed, he said this so often to whomever harked that he seemed, at the least, to convince himself. Our brave president had one shot clean through his beard, yet 'scaped hurt. Perhaps this is of no surprise, for Jehu Robinson also noted to me how well Master Wingfield succeeded in always placing himself as far to the back as possible throughout the fray.

  Hereupon, I must note, the president was contented that the fort should be pallisadoed, the ordnance mounted, his men armed and exercised.

  9. POCAHONTAS: Many Questions

  Great Hare lives in his home in the sunrise. There he made the first women and men. He kept them at first in a great bag. It was well that he did so, for the Four Wind Giants smelled those first women and men and came howling to the lodge of Great Hare. The Wind Giants were then much as they are now, without shape or form, but with the power to knock down great trees and fly through the air with a sound so great that it is frightening.

  In they came, howling from each of the directions, from the Winter Land, the Sunrise Land, the Land of Summer, and the Dark Land.

  "We are hungry," the Four Wind Giants howled. "Open your bag. Give us those new ones you have made. Open your bag so we can get at them. We will eat them."

  Great Hare, though, was not frightened. "No," he said. "Go away."

  And the Four Wind Giants did just that.

  NEPINOUGH

  TIME OF DIGGING ARROW ROOTS

  EARLY JUNE 1607

  EVEN THOUGH I HAVE reason to ask more questions than usual today, I am one who always asks many questions. I have heard this said by my father, by Rawhunt, by all of my mothers at one time or another. They do not criticize me when they say this. They just make mention of it in the way one might notice that water is wet.

  For example, while other children just listened this past winter while Uttomatomakkin told the story of how we were made, as soon as the old priest stopped to take a breath, I was the one who had to say:

  "Why was it that Great Hare made us and not Ahone?"

  "It is the way it is," Uttomatomakkin said to me. His voice was patient as he stroked the hairs on his chin with his left hand. Among our people, only the priests allow hair to remain on their faces. All other men pull those hairs out with clamshell tweezers. Uttomatomakkin seems rather proud of those hairs on his chin.

  He is the head of all the priests and is so much a favorite of my father's that he is married to one of my father's sisters. Whenever my father has a serious question about the future, he turns to Uttomatomakkin, who then goes into the sacred yihacan, the god's house, and speaks to Okeus. Within the circle of cornmeal, he lays out kernels of corn in lines and counts them. Then he is able to see what things are going to happen. But even a priest, Uttomatomakkin has told me, does not always understand what he sees. Many things, he says, are beyond the understanding of humans. So I was not surprised when he answered my question the way he did. Just like a priest!

  "Ah," I said, as if I was satisfied. "But I have another question."

  "Of course. I know you will ask it." He stroked his chin hairs again as he looked down at me.

  I squinted up at him. Was he making fun of me? There was no trace of a smile on his face, which was still as smooth as a child's, even though he has seen more than eighty returnings of the leaves.

  "Who did Great Hare make first? Was it a man or a woman?"

  "Why do you ask, Amonute?" Uttomatomakkin replied.

  For a priest, answering a question with another question is a common way to respond. Then Uttomatomakkin did smile.

  I have always known that he finds me amusing. I do not mind. He is an uncle to me and even funnier than Rawhunt when he wishes to be. Others fear him because he is so close to Okeus, but I do not.

  "I ask because it seems to me that it would first have been a woman. After all, it is women who give birth to men and not the other way around."

  "Then it may have been that way," Uttomatomakkin said, raising both hands and lifting them
toward the sky.

  Again, it was a typical answer for a quiyoughsokuk to make. The priests do not like anyone to know more than they do about such things as medicine or the power of the spirits. If I were not who I am, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, Uttomatomakkin would not say that much to me. But, then again, who else would ask the sorts of questions that I ask? Like the meaning of my name, questions follow me wherever I go.

  Today it was a very sad day. As I walked around the village, I kept thinking of the story of Great Hare and how he protected the first people. I could hear women mourning for a loved one who had been killed by the thunder sticks. Nearby, in the forest, other members of the family of the man who had died were building a burial scaffold on which the body of the departing one would be placed.

  Two days ago men from five different villages decided to make an attack on the Tassantassuk. The Coatmen had been wandering around like foolish children shoving sticks at the nests of hornets. They had been going where they should not go, paddling their backward canoe up and down our river, putting up their strange crosses, and confusing people with their actions by promising friendship and then making the same pledge to the enemies of those they had sworn they befriended. They also were insulting to the leaders of our villages, treating them like fools or children.

  Opposunoquonuske is the weroansqua of the Appamattuck. Her brother is the werowance, but her voice in council is stronger than his. She is a beautiful woman, as big as a bear, strong and brave. The Coatmen were wise enough to give her gifts, but she did not like their manner. When they fired off their thunder sticks to impress her people, the Coatmen seemed disappointed that she showed no fear. Opposunoquonuske was offended by the smell of the Tassantassuk.