Ten American Girls From History | Page 3

loveliness, and he turned back to his
meal with a better appetite.
The feast at an end, Powhatan called his councilors to his side, and
while they were in earnest debate Captain Smith knew only too well
that his fate was hanging in the balance. At last a stalwart brave arose
and spoke to the assemblage. The captive, so he said, was known to be
the leading spirit among the white settlers whose colony was too near
the Indians' homes to please them, also in his expedition in search of
corn he had killed four Indian warriors with "mysterious weapons
which spoke with the voice of thunder and breathed the lightning," and
he had been spying on their land, trying to find some secret means by
which to betray them. With him out of the way their country would be
freed from a dangerous menace, therefore he was condemned to death.
Doomed to die! Although he did not understand their words, there was
no misunderstanding their intention. Immediately two great stones were
rolled into the hall, to the feet of Powhatan, and the Captain was seized
roughly, dragged forward and forced to lie down in such a position that
his head lay across the stones. Life looked sweet to him as he reviewed
it in a moment of quick survey while waiting for the warriors' clubs to

dash out his brains. He closed his eyes. Powhatan gave the fatal
signal--the clubs quivered in the hands of the executioners. A piercing
shriek rang out, as Pocahontas darted from her father's side, sprang
between the uplifted clubs of the savages and the prostrate Captain,
twining her arms around his neck and laying her own bright head in
such a position that to kill the captive would be to kill the Werowance's
dearest daughter.
[Illustration: POCAHONTAS SAVES CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH]
With horror at this staying of his royal purpose, and at the sight of his
child with her arms around the white man's neck, Powhatan stared as if
at a hideous vision, and closed his ears to the sound of her voice as her
defiant Indian words rang out:
"No! He shall not die!"
The savages stood with upraised weapons; Powhatan sat rigid in the
intensity of his emotion. Watching him closely for some sign of
relenting, Pocahontas, without moving from her position, began to
plead with the stern old Chief,--begged, entreated, prayed--until she
had her desire.
"Let the prisoner go free!"
Through the long Council-room echoed Powhatan's order, and a
perfunctory shout rose from the savage throng, who were always quick
to echo their Chief's commands. Captain Smith, bewildered by the
sudden turn of affairs, was helped to rise, led to the beaming girl, and
told that the condition of his release from death was that he might
"make hatchets and trinkets" for Pocahontas, the Werowance's dearest
daughter. So his deliverer was the daughter of the great Chief! With the
courtly manner which he had brought from his life in other lands he
bent over the warm little hand of the Indian maiden with such sincere
appreciation of her brave deed that she flushed with happiness, and she
ran away with her playmates, singing as merrily as a forest bird,
leaving the pale-faced Caucarouse with her royal father, that they
might become better acquainted. Although she ran off so gaily with her

comrades after having rescued Captain Smith, yet she was far from
heedless of his presence in the village, and soon deserted her young
friends to steal shyly back to the side of the wonderful white man
whose life had been saved that he might serve her.
During the first days of his captivity--for it was that--the Captain and
Powhatan became very friendly, and had many long talks by the
camp-fire, by means of a sign language and such words of the
Algonquin dialect as Captain Smith had learned since coming to
Virginia. And often Pocahontas squatted by her father's side, her eager
eyes intent on the Captain's face as he matched the old ruler's
marvelous tales of hoarded gold possessed by tribes living to the west
of Werewocomoco, with stories of the cities of Europe he had visited,
and the strange peoples he had met in his wanderings. Sometimes as he
told his thrilling tales he would hear the little Indian maid catch her
breath from interest in his narrative, and he would smile responsively
into her upturned face, feeling a real affection for the young girl who
had saved his life.
From his talks with Powhatan the Englishman found out that the great
desire of the savage ruler was to own some of the cannon and
grindstones used by the colonists, and with quick diplomacy he
promised to satisfy this wish if Powhatan would but let him go back to
Jamestown