Pocahontas, who had sprung to her feet, stood gaping in terrified
wonder.

"Then must I be bewitched!" she cried aloud; "some evil medicine hath
befallen me."

She called out, and there was a tone in her voice that roused the
sleeping maidens as a war drum roused their fathers.

"What see ye?" she asked anxiously.

"Oh! Pocahontas, we know not," they answered in terror, huddling about
her; "answer _thou_ us. What are those strange things that speed over
the waves? Whence come they--from the rim of the world?"

Pocahontas, the fearless, was frightened. She gave one more glance
seaward, and then turning, took to her heels in terror. Her maidens, who
had never seen her thus, added her fright to they own, and none stopped
until they had reached the lodge at Kecoughtan.

The squaws rushed out when they caught sight of the frightened children
and tried to soothe them, but they could get no explanation of what had
startled them. Finally Opechanchanough strode out, and when Pocahontas
had tried to tell him what she had seen his face grew stern.

"It is as I feared," he said to another chief. "And so the word which
came from the upper cape was true. It is a marvel that bodeth no good."

He began to give orders hurriedly; the dugout was brought up to the
landing, and he waved Pocahontas and her maidens in with scant ceremony.

"I will send a runner to Werowocomoco with news to my brother," he
called out to her as the boat was swung out into the river; "he will
reach the village by land more quickly than by river. Farewell,
Matoaka."

And Pocahontas, though she longed to have questioned him in regard to
what he had heard and feared, yet rejoiced that she was on her way to
her people, to her home where such strange sights as she had just beheld
never came.

[Illustration: Decorative]

CHAPTER VI

JOHN SMITH'S TEMPTATION

The _Discovery_, the _Godspeed_ and the _Susan Constant_, after nearly
five months of tossing about upon the seas, were now swinging at anchor
in the broad mouth of the River James, which the loyal English
adventurers had named after their king. The white sails that had so
terrified the Indian maidens now flapped against the masts, having fully
earned their idleness. On board the discussion still continued as to the
best situation for the town they designed to be the first permanent
English settlement in America--in Wingandacoa, as the land was called
before the name Virginia was giv