t the fort and go back to
Werewocomoco, and never did the Captain know of her long vigil for his
sake that night.

Reaching the Indian village without her absence having been
discovered, she went about her daily routine of work and play as if
nothing had happened, but every sound in the still forest caused her
heart to beat fast, and she was always listening for an approaching
footstep bringing news of her beloved. Then a warrior brought the
tidings--Captain Smith was dead. Dead! She could not, would not
believe it! _Dead!_ He who was so full of life and vigor was not
dead--that was too absurd. And yet even as she reasoned with herself,
she accepted the fact without question with the immobility of her
race; and no one guessed the depth of her wound, even though all the
tribe had known of her devotion to the pale-faced _Caucarouse_ whose
life she had saved.

From that day she went no more to Jamestown, nor asked for news of
the settlers, and soon the gay voice and the laughing eyes of the
"little romp" were missing, too, from Werewocomoco. Pocahontas could
not bear the sights and sounds of that village whose every tree and
trail was dear to her because of its association with her Captain. She
had relatives among the Potomacks, and to them she went for a long
visit, where in different surroundings she could more easily bear the
loneliness which overpowered her, child of a savage and unemotional
race though she was. It may have been also that Powhatan was beginning
to distrust her friendship with the white men. At all events, she, who
was fast blossoming into the most perfect womanhood of her race,
remained away from home for many months. Had she dreamed that Captain
Smith was not dead, but had sailed for England that he might have
proper care for his injury, and also because of the increasing enmity
against him in the colony, she would have gone about her work and play
with a lighter heart. But she thought him dead, and in the mystic
faith of her people saw him living in every tree and cloud and
blossoming thing.

Powhatan had respected Captain Smith, but for the white men as a race
he had more enmity than liking, and now he and his neighbors, the
Chickahominies, again refused to send any provisions to Jamestown, and
again the colonists faced a famine. Captain Argall, in command of an
English ship, suggested once more going to Werewocomoco to force
Powhatan into giving them corn, and soon sailed up the Potomac toward