Powhatan manifested no sign of interest in these words; but from the eager look on Pocahontas’s face Smith was aware that his Indian speech had at least been comprehended.

“Therefore,” Smith continued, “it is planned to hold thy coronation at Jamestown upon as near a day as thou shalt see fit to appoint.  Our King hath sent presents for thee which await thy coming to us.”

Then he ceased and looked to Powhatan for an answer.  The werowance thought a moment in silence, then he spoke: 

“If your king hath sent me presents, I also am a king, and this is my land; eight days I will stay to receive them.  Your Father is to come to me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort.”

He spoke with so kingly a dignity that the Englishmen did not seek to dissuade him.  They promised to do as he wished and to persuade Newport, whom he called their “father,” to go to Werowocomoco, which might be considered as Powhatan’s capital.  Then they departed for Jamestown, after having thanked Powhatan and Pocahontas for their entertainment.

Pocahontas awaited their return with eagerness.  She talked the matter over with Nautauquas.  Perhaps, she said, there was some strange medicine in this ceremony which would make their father invulnerable and perchance safe even from death itself.

“I have more faith in the white men’s guns than in their medicine,” declared Claw-of-the-Eagle.  “Ever since one of those fat housebuilders whom they call Dutchmen let me try to fire off one of them, I know now that they are not worked by magic.  If we could manage to get enough of them we should be ten times as strong as their starving company and could destroy all of them before another shipload of newcomers arrived.”

“Nay,” cried Pocahontas, “not as long as our brother, the captain, lives.  Thou couldst not even face his eyes when he is angry.”

She did not imagine that she was stating an actual fact.  Claw-of-the-Eagle had never been able to look Smith in the eye since he crawled away from the lodge where he had meant to kill the white man.  It was only Smith himself who awed him so; but he dreamed that some day he might be able to deal a blow in the dark when those terrible eyes could not stop him.  In the meantime he felt equal to meeting the other palefaces day or night.

“But,” asked Nautauquas slowly and gravely, as if weighing the matter, “why should we wish to destroy these white men?  I once had different thoughts, and I have gone alone into the forest and fasted and prayed to Okee that I might know whether to greet them as foe or friend.  In some way the white tribes that live across the great waters have found their way westward.  Many have come, the rumor is, to the south of us, men of different race and different tongue from these on the island.  These others are cruel to the Indians among whom they have settled and have destroyed many villages and made captive their braves and squaws.  Now I have talked with our father, Wahunsunakuk, of what I now speak, since we can no longer hope to hide our trail again to these wanderers from the rising sun, that it is better to make friends of these who have come and who seem well-disposed towards us, and to have them for allies rather than enemies.”