“Hath thy manitou spoken?” questioned Nautauquas again.

“The God of the Christians is my god now,” she answered.

“So should it be,” said Nautauquas, although Catanaugh scowled; “a woman must worship the spirits to which her brave prayeth.  Then all is well with thee?”

“All if my father will but make peace.  I would I might go to see him.  Doth he love me still?” she asked wistfully.

“He saith,” answered Nautauquas, “that he loveth thee as his life and, though he hath many children, that he delighteth in none so much as in thee.”

Pocahontas sighed half sadly, half happily.  “Bear to him my loving greetings.  Brother,” she said, “and say to him that Matoaka’s thoughts go to him each day, even as the tide cometh up the river from the sea.”

“He hath agreed,” said Catanaugh, “to a truce until taquitock (fall of the leaf) if the English will send important hostages to him, whom he may hold as they hold thee.”

“And Cleopatra and our other sisters and old Wansutis, how is it with them all, and....” and Pocahontas strung the names of most of the inhabitants of Werowocomoco together in her enquiries.  She listened to all the news they had to tell her of the great deeds accomplished by the young braves and the wise speeches made by the old chiefs in council, of the harvest dances, of the losses on the warpath, and of old Wansutis, who had grown more strange and more silent since Claw-of-the-Eagle’s death.  Then Pocahontas told them of the manner of his going; and Catanaugh’s eyes flashed as he heard of the three palefaces his friend had slain.

They had not noticed how long they had sat there chatting until they saw Sir Thomas himself coming down from the ship, accompanied by Rolfe and Master Sparkes.

“These two, Princess,” he said, “will be the hostages we send to thy father; and thy brothers will remain with us.”

The two Indians looked at the white men keenly.  From the glance their sister gave Rolfe they knew he must be her affianced husband.  And Rolfe looked with the same curiosity at his future brothers-in-law.  They were tall like their father, strong and well-built, men such as other men liked to look at, no matter what their color might be.  But it was Nautauquas in particular that pleased him.  He recalled that John Smith had said of him that he was “the most manliest, comliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a savage.”

After they had conversed for a little, Rolfe and Sparkes, accompanied by certain Indians to whom Nautauquas confided them, set out on their way to Werowocomoco.  They did not fear that harm would come to them, but they begrudged the time they must spend away from the colony.  On their arrival Powhatan, who was still angry with the English, refused to see them, so Opechanchanough entertained them and promised to intercede with his brother for them.  Nautauquas’s messenger had brought him the news of Rolfe’s relation to his niece.