Pocahontas

by Joseph Bruchac

  So weak had that worthy and religious gentleman become that he could only squeeze my hand. I turned aside that I might not show the tears in my eyes.

  On the two and twentieth of August, there died Captain Bartholomew Gosnoll, the best of those on our council. He was honorably buried, having ad the ordnance in the fort shot off with many volleys of small shot.

  From that day on things happened fast and furious. Both night and day the air was filled with the groans, the pitiful murmurings, and outcries of sick men in every corner of the fort. The names of the dead now grew too many for my weary memory to list. Many times three and four a night would perish and their bodies would be dragged out of their cabins like dogs. We buried them in graves dug as deep as we might go in the soggy earth within the wads of our fort so that the naturals might not view the lessening of our numbers. We now had no more than five able men at any time strong enough to stand and man the bulwarks.

  There is no doubt that we all would have perished had it not been for the grace of God, who sent those people who were our mortal enemies to bring us corn, bread, fish, and flesh. Those gifts of God, delivered by the hands of the naturals, set up our feeble men.

  Even in our weakness, there were still some with strength to plot and plan.

  "We shall die here," Kendall whispered to those he thought would heed him. "We can overthrow the council, seize the Discovery, and sad away from this cursed land of Virginia."

  Those words of revolt reached the ears of myself and the others of the council. We were quick to act. Kendall was removed from the council. Since he so wished to go on the Discovery, I saw that he was placed there upon the ship, in irons and under guard.

  15. POCAHONTAS: Corn

  Although the corn, like all good things, was made by Ahone, it is said that corn was not owned by all the people at first. Those who lived in the direction of the Summer Land owned the corn and did not share it. Kahgah, the Great Crow, saw this and decided that it was not right. So Kahgah stole the corn from the South people. Great Crow flew from village to village, dropping kernels of corn for all the people to plant.

  Because Kahgah, the Great Crow, brought the corn, all the crows think that they have a right to eat as much corn as they want. So when the corn first begins to ripen, many crows come flying in to take their share of the harvest. That is why our children have to keep watch on the fields to protect the corn. They make noise and wave their arms and throw sticks to drive those hungry crows away. If they did not do so, the great-grandchildren of Kahgah would take all the corn.

  But because we remember who first brought corn to the people, we always leave some in thefields after the harvest so that Kahgah's great-grandchildren may have a share.

  TAQUITOCK

  TIME OF HARVEST

  LATE AUGUST 1607

  THE WOMEN AND children have been busy all day with the harvest of my father's gardens. To plant and care for the fields of the Great Chief is one of the duties our people owe to him as Mamanatowic. All are glad to do this, just as they do not mind bringing all of the skins of the deer to my father so that he may take the share he is owed. They know how hard their fives might be if it were not for the power of Powhatan.

  Our villages are surrounded by enemies in three directions. If my father had not brought us together, we might have been destroyed. Even with his power, there is still danger from those enemy people who do not speak our language. They want to take women and children as captives and drive us from our fields and hunting and fishing places. But it is well known that the men of our villages are strong warriors. They are unafraid and are seldom defeated in battle. Even when they are taken as prisoners, they sing their death songs and refuse to show the enemy any sign of weakness. They will answer my fathers call whenever it is necessary to go to war against the enemies.

  Now and then the Monacanuk and Mannahoacuk, who live in the direction of the sunset, test our strength with raids. The Massawomeckuk and the Pocoughtaonackuk watch us from the direction of the Winter Land like hungry wolves. Then there is the newer danger of those Tassantassuk, who come upon us from the direction of the water with their powerful thunder weapons. However, those new ones huddled in their little stockade do not seem that dangerous to me, especially since their big swan canoe left.

  ***

  Because of my father's strength, our villages can harvest the fields without the constant fear of war. It is not hard work, because ad work together. As my oldest mother, Green Reed, says, what one hand finds hard to lift is lighter than a feather when many lift together. People love the time of the late summer harvest with its songs and joking.

  True, everyone also looks forward to the time when the berries are ripe. Cattapeuk, the season when the leaves form, is a hungry one. Our winter stores have been used up, and everyone has grown thin. When the berry time comes, there is enough food in the forest for people to start to again grow fat. But it seems that everyone agrees that the season of harvest is the very best of all. I know that there is no time I love better than this. Even though, as the favorite daughter of the Mamanatowic, I do not have to work hard with my hands like the other children of my age, I go into the fields and take part in the harvest. People smile when they see me helping. Sometimes they tease me.

  "Look," they say. "The One Who Makes Mischief has come among us to help. Give her the heaviest basket to carry."

  Of course they do not do that. But they let me help as much as I want to. Sometimes, though, I like to just stand there in the field. The wind moves the long leaves of the corn plants and they caress my face. I say a quiet thank-you to the spirit of the corn for returning another harvest to us. As everyone knows, it is always important to express your thanks to the food plants, or they may fad to bring forth a good harvest the next time. Then I reach out and pick an ear of corn. The smell and feel of new ears of corn are so good. I like to pull back the husk and eat the green corn right from the ear, feeling its juice run down my cheeks.

  ***

  People are already boiling some of the green ears of corn. When they have boiled enough, the corn will be stirred in with beans and cooked together to make pausarowmena. From now on, through the winter, there will always be a pot of pausarowmena in every home. Everyone has their own wooden spoon that they carry with them, usually hung from their belt on a rawhide cord with a toggle on it. You are welcome to enter any lodge whose door is open and dip in your spoon to help yourself to food from that pot. No one goes hungry among us as long as there is food in our homes. The visitor is just as welcome to share that food as is the dearest member of the family.

  I wonder if the Tassantassuk share food as we do. Now that we have so much from our harvest, corn and squash and beans, we will be able to trade it with them. I am sure that they would like to have some of our harvest. I have heard that the Tassantassuk now look thin and hungry and that they move like sick men. Maybe, if they are polite to us, we will just give them food.

  16. JOHN SMITH: Deposed

  Thus we lived for the space of five months in this misrable distress, not having five able men to man our bulwarks upon any occasion. If it had not pleased God to put a terror in the savages' hearts, we had all perished by those wild and cruel pagans, being in that weak estate we were, our men night and day groaning in every corner of the fort, most pitiful to hear....

  It pleased God after a while to send those people who were our mortal enemies to relieve us with victuals, as bread, corn, fish, and flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of our feeble men, otherwise we had all perished. Also we were frequented by divers kings in the country bringing us a store of provisions to our great comfort.

  The eleventh day, there was certain articles laid against Master Wingfield....

  —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.

  SEP
TEMBER 6TH–10TH, 1607

  DESPITE THE GIFTS of food brought by the naturals, all still suffered greatly from hunger. It made it not easier when our president, in his wisdom, ordered that for every meal of fish or flesh we enjoyed, we would be denied our allowance of porridge. This was as true for the sick as it was for the whole. In despair, despite their fears of how the naturals might treat them, some of our men went runagate into the wilderness.

  On the sixth of September, the werowance of Paspihae sent back to us Richard Mutton, one of our boys who had run off. Our brave president, on seeing the boy missing four days before, had assured us that he would never be seen again.

  "It is known," said Wingfield, "that the salvages are cannibals. Mutton he was and mutton he now is most certainly."

  Instead, the naturals had fed the boy and treated him so kindly that he had begged to remain with them. But Paspihae brought him back as an assurance of his peace with us.

  Though they often touched him and stroked his hair, no salvage had treated him cruelly. But our president did not spare him four strokes of the rod across his shoulders, one for each day of his desertion.

  As young Richard sat nursing his stripes and huddled with the other boys, I overheard him telling them of his experiences.

  "The men and women," Mutton whispered, "do not seem to hardly work at all, but they have aplenty of vittles to eat. They spend most of the night in singing or howling. Every morning they carry all the little children to the river's sides, but what they do there I do not know."

  The other werowances did, like Paspihae, send back our men who had run off to them. Each of them was used well during their being with the naturals. But each man was so well rewarded with the rod—as had been young Richard—upon his return home, that it was assured each would take little joy to travel abroad without passport.

  Now, their second harvest having come in, the naturals began to bring corn and flesh to us daily. In three weeks, more than twenty men had reared up able to work. Strength to work also brought us strength to make protest against the despotical practices of our president.

  Those of us in the council went to the president to beg for better allowances, especially for the sick.

  "I will not be partial," Wingfield replied, closing the trunk which had been open as we entered his tent. He then wiped something which looked much like a bit of conserve from his mouth and continued his righteous discourse. "If one had anything of me, every man shall have his portion according to his place. I shall grant no larger allowance to you or your privates. Were I to enlarge the proportion according to your requests, in a short time I would starve the whole company."

  Then the gentle Wingfield looked down his long nose upon us. A look came over his face like that of a pig that thinks itself a fox. He raised his hands to the sky and then placed them upon his ample bosom.

  "I would gladly give up my office. Indeed, I would earnestly urge you to bestow the presidency upon some other, for I would prefer to be a private man. Yet I cannot do so, for I am pledged to do His Majesty good service."

  That night, Ratliffe and Martin and I resolved that action must be taken. If we did not act, others would surely do so. Gabriell Archer had brought to us a paper-book loaded full of articles against the president. No man or boy, it seemed, was without his just complaint. Even my friend Percy, who is honest yet also thick like unto a post, voiced his agreement. Therefore we drew up certain articles in writing and took our oaths upon the Evangelists to observe them.

  On the tenth of September, we went to the president's tent.

  "We have here a warrant to depose the president," we told him. "He has proven himself unworthy to be either president or of the council. Therefore we discharge him of both and appoint John Ratliffe the new president."

  Again that look of low cunning came over the face of Wingfield as he stood before us. It seemed he had expected this, for he held the charter in his hands.

  "You would ease me," he said, "of a great deal of care and trouble. Yet the president may not be removed, as appeareth in Our Majesty's instructions for our government, except by the greater number of the voices of twelve councilors. You are but three. Thus I may not give up my office."

  I shook my head. "If we do you wrong," I said, "then we must answer for it. You are president no longer."

  With a readiness that was itself suspicious, Wingfield spread wide his hands.

  "I am at your pleasure," he said, a serpent's smile upon his thick lips. "Dispose of me as you will without further garboil."

  17. POCAHONTAS: Punishment

  It is the job of our warriors to protect the people. We remember it at this time of the year whenever we look up into the sky. There we see in the stars the shape of Manguahaian, the Great Bear.

  Long ago, they say, Manguahaian lived and walked upon the earth. Great Bear was so large that he could swallow a lodge with one gulp. He was a great danger to the people, who feared that he would destroy us all. Among us in those days there were four warriors who were great hunters. In the season of Taquitock, when the leaves fall, they promised that they would punish Great Bear, kill or drive him away so that the people would be safe. The quiyoughsokuk made circles of cornmeal and sprinkled grains of corn to see what Okeus would tell them. They read the message that these four warriors would be successful as long as they never gave up but always continued on until they had succeeded.

  So those men sprinkled tobacco on the pawcorance, the sacred stone at the edge of their village. They washed themselves in the river as the sun rose and set out. Soon they found the giant footprints of the Great Bear. Seeing them coming, Great Bear became afraid and began to run, and the four warriors followed.

  Great Bear ran upriver to the place where the land rises and becomes rocky. The four warriors stayed close behind Great Bear reached the mountains and began to climb, hoping to lose the hunters. But they continued on.

  The day ended, but they ran on by the light of the moon. They climbed higher, where flakes of snow sparkled on the dark mountain. At last, Great Bear began to tire. The hunters came close enough to throw their spears and killed him.

  Then one of them looked around. The lights of many fires sparkled all around them. Far below them was the earth. They had chased Great Bear up into the Sky Land, among the stars.

  "Look," one of the hunters shouted, "Manguahaian is alive again."

  They turned and saw that Great Bear had risen to his feet and was running. The four hunters took up the pursuit once more. To this day, if you look up into the night sky you will see them. At Taquitock they strike Great Bear with their spears. He falls on his back, and his blood colors the leaves. But every year he rises again and runs, and faithful to their promise, the four warriors follow.

  TAQUITOCK

  TIME OF HARVEST

  EARLY SEPTEMBER

  IT IS IMPORTANT for us to keep our promises. It has always been that way among our people. One of my father's hard jobs is to punish those who do not keep their promises. Because he has the power to order someone punished—or even killed if the person has done a great wrong—my father is feared. I do not think he enjoys this job, but he has done it for many years and I have heard people saying that he is fair. (I have heard them saying this when they have not known I was listening to them.)

  I have also seen people being punished. I did not want to watch, but my father told me that I should do so and that I should show no emotion or pity. That was very hard for me to do, for I do not like to see any person suffering. I watched as a man who often mistreated his wife was told to kneel before my father. Everyone was told what the man had done and reminded that all those who behaved in this way would suffer the same punishment. Then Uttomatomakkin beat the man with a stick. The man did not flinch or cry out, even though he was struck many times. When it was done, the man who had been punished stood and swore that he would never again do such a bad thing. Although I was not happy to watch, in the end it made me proud to see him behave as a man should behave. />
  Another of the bad things that requires harsh punishment is stealing from our own people. That is such a selfish thing, as selfish as not sharing your food with those of our people who are hungry. (Although my father, as Mamanatowic, always has greater stores of grain than anyone else, whenever there is a poor harvest, he makes certain that food is given out to all who need it.) A man or woman whose heart is greedy, who steals from his own people, is as worthless as a cracked pot. Just as water spills from a cracked pot so, too, honor leaks from a person who steals.

  If someone is caught stealing three times, that person will be killed. The thief's death will not be an honorable one, of the sort that is given to enemy warriors taken in battle. During that kind of slow execution, a brave person is given the chance to prove their courage by not crying out or begging for mercy. Instead, someone who is a constant thief will be punished in just the same way one is punished for murdering one of our own people. That person will be thrown down on the great flat pawcorance and clubbed to death.

  I have never watched anyone being executed. Even if someone deserves to die, my heart does not wish to see it. I think that I would try to stop it if I were forced to be present, even if the person was guilty of so terrible a crime as having a heart so selfish and twisted that he would steal from his own.

  By stealing, I do not mean taking things from our enemies or from the Tassantassuk. When one is brave or clever enough to go into the village of an enemy nation and take something from them, that is not a bad thing. When the Coatmen first arrived, many of our people were clever enough to take many things from them. I know this because those things were always brought straight to my father. Taking things to give to the Mamanatowic is a very honorable thing, a deed that someone can brag about. Those who give them know that my father will use those items for the good of our people. So our people have obtained fine knives and beautiful jewelry to wear and even a few of the Coatmen's pots that do not break. The Tassantassuk are very careless. It almost seems as if they want to have their fine things stolen from them.