ubsistence--he by fishing
and the chase, and she by the cultivation of their little patch of
ground, where maize, melons, pompions, cushaus, and the like, rewarded
her patient labour with their abundant growth. Besides these duties, to
which the life of the Indian woman was devoted, the young girl in her
leisure moments, and in the long winter, made, with pretty skill, mats,
baskets and sandals, weaving the former curiously with the long willow
twigs which grew along the banks of the neighbouring York river, and
forming the latter with dressed deer skin, ornamented with flowers made
of beads and shells, or with the various coloured feathers of the birds.
Her little manufactures met with a ready sale at the hall, being
exchanged for sugar and coffee, and other such comforts as civilization
provides; and for the sale of the excess of these simple articles over
the home demand, she found a willing agent in the Colonel, who, in his
frequent visits to Jamestown, disposed of them to advantage.

Despite these associations, however, Manteo retained much of the
original character of his race, and the wild forest life which he led,
bringing him into communication with the less civilized members of his
tribe, helped to cherish the native-fierceness of his temper. Clinging
with tenacity to the superstitions and pursuits of his fathers, his mind
was of that sterile soil, in which the seeds of civilization take but
little root. His sister, without having herself lost all the peculiar
features of her natural character, was still formed in a different
mould, and her softer nature had already received some slight impress
from Virginia's teachings, which led her by slow but certain degrees
towards the truth. His was of that fierce, tiger nature, which Horace
has so finely painted in his nervous description of Achilles,

"Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer!"

While her's can be best understood by her name, Mamalis, which,
signifying in her own language a young fawn, at once expressed the grace
of her person and the gentleness of her nature.

Such is a brief but sufficient description of the characters and
condition of these two young Indians, who play an important part in this
narrative. The description, we may well suppose, derived additional
interest to Bernard, from its association with the recent exciting
scene, and from the interest which his heart began already to entertain
for the fair narrator.

But probably the most