Pocahontas

by Joseph Bruchac

  "Now," my father continues, "your revenge will be my revenge. You have died as Tassantassuk. You have been reborn as a member of my own family."

  He points with his lips toward the place where my brother and I stand in the shadows. Until now, Little Red-Haired Warrior has not seen us. My brother walks out slowly, with the dignity befitting a son of the Mamanatowic. But we have been waiting a long time, and I cannot help myself. I leave my brother behind and run right up to Little Red-Haired Warrior. His eyes widen as he sees me. I am sure he is impressed with how fine I look adorned with my paint and the glitter of matchqueon ad over my head and shoulders and bare chest and my best apron, with its embroidery of rawrenock. I kneel and throw my arms around his neck.

  "You are my older brother," I say to him. "I will always be your child."

  The men who held him close to the stones of justice raise Little Red-Haired Warrior to his feet. I take hold of his arm, noticing that my brother—who has not been as quick as I was to claim our new uncle—has done the same on the other side. My brother looks over at me and shakes his head. I stick out my tongue at him. I have gotten to our new uncle first, and so I will always be the first of his relatives among our people.

  My father clears his throat, and we turn to look at him.

  "Now it is done," my father says. "Now you will always be our friend and our relative. You will leave Paspahegh and come to live close to us. You will now be werowance of Capahowsick I will give you venison and corn and whatever you need to eat. You will send me two great thunder weapons and a grindstone."

  My father pauses as he looks first at my brother and then at me. "Cabden Jonsammit, Little Red-Haired Warrior. You shad be as dear to me as my son Naukaquawis. You shad make beds and beads and copper for my daughter Pocahontas. It shad be that way."

  He reaches out his hand and Rawhunt holds forth a tobacco pouch. My father takes out a great handful of tobacco. He holds it up to the sky, to the four winds, to the earth, and then tosses it into the fire. His promises are sacred now. As long as Little Red-Haired Warrior and his people live by those words, they will be our friends.

  I am happy this day, as I stand there and I squeeze the hand of my new brother. Little Red-Haired Warrior looks down at me and then, gently, squeezes my hand back. His grim face changes as, for the first time, he smiles. My heart becomes so full that it feels like the river when it overflows as the tide rises.

  We shall live together in peace, I think. We shall live together in peace.

  Afterword

  In some ways, things turned out as Pocahontas had hoped. A period of relative peace followed the incident at Werowocomoco. Pocahontas became a regular visitor to Jamestown and a favorite of many of the first colonists, especially John Smith.

  It is likely that Powhatan believed that John Smith had become, like one of his subject werowances, a true ally who would be loyal to the Mamanatowic. However, that was not so. Smith's agenda was more ambitious. Even if he was a white man with a better understanding of the Indians than most, it seems clear he never really saw things through Indian eyes. During the remaining twenty-one months of Smith's stay in Virginia, relations between Jamestown and the Powhatan nations were sometimes good and sometimes at the brink of war. Through it all Pocahontas appears to have remained an influential voice for peace.

  Ironically, Smith's fellow colonists were as much a danger to him as the Indians were. On his return to Jamestown, after being taken captive and released by Powhatan, Captain Smith was arrested and charged with causing the deaths of the men who were killed on that ill-fated expedition up the river. Once again, he managed to win acquittal and escape execution, but the infighting of the Jamestown colonists was far from over, even though Smith eventually became president of the quarreling, often lazy settlers.

  What might have happened had Captain John Smith remained in Virginia will never be known. In September 1609, in what may have been an accident or a deliberate act on the part of someone who wished to harm him, Smith was terribly injured. While returning to Jamestown in a canoe, he fed asleep and the bag of gunpowder on his waist was somehow ignited. Then, as Smith records in The Proceedings of the English Colony in Virginia, while he lay in bed recuperating from serious burns, an assassin made an overt attempt to kid him with a "mercilesse Pistoll." Even when wounded, Smith was formidable enough to frighten off the would-be killer, whose "hart did fad him." On October 4, 1609, realizing that the odds were against him, Captain John Smith set sad for England, never to return to Virginia.

  Pocahontas, who appears to have cared for John Smith as one loves a favorite uncle, was told that Captain Smith had died. It seems certain that she grieved his death, for when she finally encountered him again in England years later, she felt so shocked (and perhaps betrayed) that at first she could not speak to him.

  Pocahontas's story did not end with Smith's departure. She eventually became the catalyst for the longest period of amity between the English and the Powhatan nations. That period, 1614 to 1622, has been called the Peace of Pocahontas. She converted to Christianity in 1614, married the English colonist John Rolfe, and gave birth to a son, Thomas, in 1615. In 1616, the little family sailed to England. Their mission was to gain support for the Virginia Colony, including a school for Powhatan children. As they were preparing to sad back to Virginia, Pocahontas, who had been id, became very sick. At Gravesend, England, within sight of the sea that divided her from her homeland, she breathed her last. Her final words to her husband, recorded in a letter written in 1617 by John Rolfe to Sir Edwin Sandys, were "All must die. 'Tis enough that the child liveth."

  Early Seventeenth-Century English

  The English spoken and written by John Smith and the other colonists was the same English used by William Shakespeare. (In fact, one of Shakespeare's plays, The Tempest, was drawn from a Virginia colonist's account of being shipwrecked in Bermuda.) The "gentleman planters" who came to Jamestown prided themselves on their knowledge of literature and their ability to write beautifully. So it is that in the midst of describing his first visit to Powhatan, John Smith includes two lines of poetry translated into English from the Latin of the ancient Roman poet Lucretius.

  All of the John Smith chapters are drawn from his writing, though I have sometimes modernized the spelling, changed the punctuation, or paraphrased. Every event that happens in these chapters can be found in his writings or in the accounts of others then in Jamestown, including Smith's adversary Master Edward Maria Wingfield.

  Smith wrote several different accounts of the first year in Jamestown, including A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Happened in Virginia (1608) and The Generall Historie of Virginia, the Somer Isles, and New England (1623). I have used all of them as sources. Although Smith wrote most of his accounts in third person, referring to himself as "Smith," or "Captain Smith," I have chosen to put all of his chapters in the first-person voice of A True Relation. I also open each chapter with a relevant quote from a writer of his time.

  As well as they wrote, some of the colonists' writing is a little difficult for us to understand today. Some of the words we use now had different meanings four hundred years ago. Planter, for example, means "colonist," while discover means "to explore." There are also some words that have totally vanished from modern English, such as watchet and woosel. Here is a selected glossary.

  adays (adv.): by day

  Admiral (n.): flagship, or the commander of the flagship

  admire (v.): wonder about

  ado (n.): excitement

  adventure (v.): to explore

  adventurer (n.): explorer or investor

  alarum (n.): warning or cry of alarm

  ambuscado (n.): ambush

  barricado (n.): fortification

  barrico (n.): keg or barrel

  bastinado (n.): cudgel

  bent (v.): aimed

  bloody flux (n.): dysentery

  bought (n.): river bend

  bravery (n.): fine attire
r />   break with (v.): tell or divulge to

  bruit (n.): loud noise or clamor

  burthen (n.): burden

  cape merchant (n.): storehouse manager

  card or cart (n.): chart or map

  cautelous (adv.): cautious

  champion (n.): open, flat country

  check (n.): a reprimand

  chicqueenes (n.): English spelling of the Italian word "zecchini," which were Venetian coins made of gold

  chirugeon (n.): surgeon or doctor

  conceit (v.): to think or imagine; or a plan

  conceit (n.): a plan

  contrive (v.): to design

  corn (n.): originally, wheat, or any grain used for human food

  discover (v.): to explore

  doth (v.): does

  doubt (v.): to fear

  dryfats (n.): storage

  environ (v.): surround

  exception (n.): criticism

  falchion (n.): sword

  famous (adj.): fair or beautiful, excellent

  flight shot (n.): an arrow shot

  for that: because

  garboil (n.): contention or argument

  goodly (adj.): excellent

  green wound (n.): flesh wound

  grudging (v.): complaining

  hap (n.): a happening, an occurrence

  happy (adj.): lucky

  height (n.): latitude on a map or chart

  hie (v.): to hasten or hurry

  hollow (n.): a howl

  howbeit: although

  humorist (n.): an impulsive person, ruled by his humors or moods

  impale (v.): to fence in, to stockade

  in fine: in the end, eventually

  jealous (adj.): suspicious; also jealous in modern sense

  lay by the heels: to imprison or put in irons

  lugged (v.): burdened or encumbered

  maintain (v.): to defend

  mariner (n.): an experienced seaman, above a common sailor

  marish (n.): marsh

  match (n.): the fuse of a musket

  meadow (n.): a low marsh

  methinks (v.): I think, I believe

  middest (adj.) midst, midmost, middle

  misdoubt (v.): to disbeileve

  murrey (adj.): purplish-red color

  natural (n.): native person

  offer (v.): attempt, try to

  pace (n.): a passage through woods between bogs

  pallisado (n.): a defensive wad or palisade

  patent (n.): a charter or legal document issued by the king of England granting permission to establish a settlement in the New World

  pennywhittle (n.): a small knife

  piece (n.): gun

  plant (v.): to estabdsh a settlement or colony

  planter (n.): a colonist or settler

  popham side (n.): north or north bank of a river (From the fact that "Virginia," as the English called the East Coast, was divided between two British joint-stock companies. These were the Plymouth Company to the north, the area now known as New England, headed by Lord Popham, and the London Company to the south, headed by Lord Salisbury.)

  presently (adv.): quickly

  pretend (v.): to intend

  prevent (v.): anticipate

  privates (n.): favorites or close friends

  privities (n.): one's private parts

  pumpion (n.): pumpkin

  putchamin (n.): persimmon

  relade (v.): reload

  resolution (n.): decision

  Salisbury

  side (n.): south or south bank of a river

  salvage (n.): native person, savage

  season (v.): to grow accustomed to; used to describe the "seasoning" of the colonists, the period when many died as they tried to adapt to Virginia throughout the seasons

  scape (n.): escape

  shamefast (adj.): modest

  so that: as long as

  sound (n.): swoon

  stay (v.): to delay, to defer

  still (adv.): always

  subtle (adj.): cunning, sneaky

  target (n.): a light, round shield

  taxed (v.): urged or ordered

  temporize (v.): to negotiate, "wheel and deal"

  touchwood (n.): tinder

  treat (v.): to negotiate

  trencher (n.): a platter of wood or metal

  trial (n.): investigation

  trucking (n.): trading

  Tuftaffaty (adj.): finely dressed

  tug (v.): to lug off or carry

  victual (n.): food

  want (n.): lack

  watchet (adj.): sky-blue color

  wheat (n.): Indian corn or any food grain

  woosel (n.): blackbird

  Powhatan Language

  The language spoken by Pocahontas and her people is today referred to as Powhatan. It is an Algonquin language closely related to other Indian languages of the East Coast such as Lenape, Wampanoag, Mohegan, and Abenaki. Sadly, much of the Powhatan language has been lost, and it has not been in regular use for two centuries. Word lists were made by such people as John Smith and other colonists during the seventeenth century. A number of those words have, in slightly different form, entered the English language and are not recognized by most people as derived from Powhatan words. These include arakun, which became "raccoon"; apone or ponepope, which became "corn pone"; muscascus, which became "muskrat"; and, it seems, even waugh, which became "wow."

  I have also included a list of the names of some places and actual Powhatan people of this period who appear in this book.

  SELECTED WORDS

  accowpret: shears

  Ahone: creator and chief deity of the Powhatan world

  amosens: daughter

  apasoum: opossum

  apone: cornbread

  apooke: tobacco

  arakun: raccoon; literally, "the one who scratches with his hands"

  assapanick: flying squirrel

  attasskuss: reed, water weed

  attawp: bow

  attone: arrow

  aumoughhogh: shield

  case: how many?

  Cattapeuk: spring

  chammy: a close friend

  chepsin: land or earth

  Cohattayough: summer

  Cohonk: winter, probably from the sound of geese calling

  copotone: sturgeon

  crenepo: woman

  hatto: small village

  Huskanaw: rite of passage ceremony for boys

  ka: what

  kator: truly

  kekaten: to ted

  kekughes: life

  Kefgawes: sun

  kwiokosuk: minor deities

  mache: now, at present

  macokos: gourd

  Mamanatowic: paramount chief

  mangoi: large or great

  Manguahaian: Great Bear or the Big Dipper constellation

  maracocks: passion fruit

  maraowanchesso: boy

  marrapough: enemy

  maskapow: worst enemy

  matah: bad

  matchcore: skin or garment

  matchqueon: stone dust sprinkled onto body paint

  mattasin: copper; literally, "red stone"

  mattoume: large cane grass

  mawchick chammay: best of friends

  messamines: fox grape

  mockasin: shoe

  monacock: batonlike weapon, a wooden "sword"

  mowchick: I

  musquaspenne: bloodroot, dried root used as medicine or dye

  muscascus: muskrat

  musses: firewood, pieces of wood

  nechaun: child (my child)

  neheigh: to dwell

  nemarough: man

  nepawweshowgh: moon

  Nepinough: season of corn forming ears

  nettoppew: friend (my friend)

  noughmass: fish

  ocoughtanamins: chokecherry

  Okeus: stern god who governs human affairs on earth

  osies: heavens

  pamesack: knifer />
  pausarowmena: a dish made from boiled corn and beans; succotash

  pawcorance: an altar stone

  pawpecone: flute

  pemmenaw: thread made of grass fibers

  pokatawe: fire

  poketawes: corn

  ponepope: cornbread or corn pone

  Popanow: winter

  puccahiccora: drink made from hickory nuts

  puccoon: skin paint made from various plants such as bloodroot; literally "blood"

  pummahumps: star; pummahumpal: stars

  pungwough: powdered ashes of corn cobs, used as a seasoning

  putchamins: persimmon

  quintans: canoe;

  quintansuk: canoes quiyoughsokuk priest, also a term for a minor deity; literally means "upright ones" or "just ones"

  rawcomenes: gooseberry

  rawcosowgh: day

  rawrenock (roanoke): white-shed beads

  righcomoughes: death

  sacahocan: picture writing

  sawwehone: blood

  shacquohocan: a stone

  suckahanna: water

  tamehakan: tomahawk; literady, "chopper"

  Taquitock: autumn

  Tassantassa: newcomer or outsiders; Tassantassuk outsiders

  tawnor: where

  tockahack: pickax

  tockawhough: green arrow arum, tuckahoe

  tomahak: ax

  toppquough: night

  tussan: bed

  ussawassin: iron, silver, brass; literady, "yellow stone" ustatahamen: hominy

  uttapitchewayne: you he

  utteke: you go

  vetchunquoyes: bobcat

  wassacan: something that tastes spicy

  waugh: Powhatan word to express wonder, pronounced "wow!"

  weanok: sassafras

  weghshaughes: flesh or meat

  werowance: chief of a village; literally, "he is wealthy"

  werowansqua: female chief

  wighwhip: quickly

  wingapo: hello; literally, "good man"

  wisakon or wighsakun: medicine in general or a specific medicine made for "hurts and diseases" from milkweed

  yihacan: house

  yowo: this

  yowrough: far, far away

  PHRASES

  Casa cunncack, peya quagh acquintan uttasantasough?

  In how many days will there come here any more English ships?

  Ka katorawincs yowo?