“It is as I feared,” he said to another chief.  “And so the word which came from the upper cape was true.  It is a marvel that bodeth no good.”

He began to give orders hurriedly; the dugout was brought up to the landing, and he waved Pocahontas and her maidens in with scant ceremony.

“I will send a runner to Werowocomoco with news to my brother,” he called out to her as the boat was swung out into the river; “he will reach the village by land more quickly than by river.  Farewell, Matoaka.”

And Pocahontas, though she longed to have questioned him in regard to what he had heard and feared, yet rejoiced that she was on her way to her people, to her home where such strange sights as she had just beheld never came.

[Illustration:  Decorative]

CHAPTER VI

JOHN SMITH’S TEMPTATION

The Discovery, the Godspeed and the Susan Constant, after nearly five months of tossing about upon the seas, were now swinging at anchor in the broad mouth of the River James, which the loyal English adventurers had named after their king.  The white sails that had so terrified the Indian maidens now flapped against the masts, having fully earned their idleness.  On board the discussion still continued as to the best situation for the town they designed to be the first permanent English settlement in America—­in Wingandacoa, as the land was called before the name Virginia was given to it in honour of Queen Elizabeth, “The Virgin Queen.”

The expedition had set out from England in December of the year before (1606).  Among those who filled the three ships were men already veteran explorers and others who had never been a day’s voyage away from their island home.

Among the former were Bartholomew Gosnold, who had first sailed for the strange new world some five years before.  He had landed far to the north of the river where the ships now rested—­on a colder, sterner shore.  There he had discovered and named Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.  Christopher Newport too had sailed before in Western waters, but further to the southward.  He was an enemy of the Spaniard wherever he found him, and had left a name of terror through the Spanish Main, for had he not sacked four of their towns in the Indies and sunk twenty Spanish galleons?  And there was John Smith, who had fought so many battles in his twenty-seven years that many a graybeard soldier could not cap his tales of sieges, sword-play, imprisonment and marvelous escapes.  And many other men were there whom hope of gain or love of adventure had brought across the Atlantic.  They had listened to the strange story of the lost colony on Roanoke Island, English men and women killed doubtless by the Indians, though no sure word of their fate was ever to be known, but fear of a like destiny had not deterred them from coming.

There were many points to be considered:  The settlement must be near the coast, so that the ships from home would be able to reach it with as little delay as possible, yet away from the coast in case of raids by the Spaniards.