Part 6 (1/2)

I held his eyes with mine, waiting for him to say more. I wondered if it was easier for him to write of love than to speak it.

”Hold now, I have a second verse coming on,” he said.

I wrote the rest of the lines as he uttered them, though the verses did not suit my circ.u.mstances. I would have to rewrite them or the queen would see Ralegh's style and I would be forced to confess the lines his. That could only lead to greater trouble.

I thanked Sir Walter for his efforts and took my leave with a decorum that belied the turmoil within me. I let him kiss my hand, which gave me not half the thrill of his lips near mine. But the moment for a true kiss had come and gone, because I refused it.

It wasn't until I was lying in my bed under the eaves, reviewing every moment of our meeting, that I wondered why I had not received the letters Sir Walter had referred to. Had they been intercepted? But why and by whom? Was someone trying to keep us apart? Perhaps it was a friend who wanted to protect us. Or an enemy who wanted to betray us. And why was Ralegh not more concerned about the stray letters? I considered that he had never written them, but pretended he had so I would think he had not forgotten about me. Did he, then, not love me? Oh, but he had so wanted to kiss me, and wasn't that all that mattered?

Mired in uncertainty, I did not fall asleep until the blackest part of the night, just before morning.

Chapter 11.

Manteo, Friend of the English My people live at the bright beginning of the world, the Dawnland, where the sun rises from the sea and gives life to all things. We ourselves began long ago when a giant came from the sea and with an arrow split open a tree, and the first man stepped forth. I listened to this story many times as a boy. Now I wonder if the giant came in an English s.h.i.+p like this one. A canoe would not be big enough for him.

I thought about the giant-G.o.d every morning when the sun appeared behind the s.h.i.+p and at night when it disappeared into the water in front of it, drawing us toward Ossomocomuck. Finally, where the water met the sky, the islands appeared.

To protect my land, the G.o.ds surrounded it with sharp rocks hidden just beneath the water. I tried to warn the pilot but he said he would take no direction from a savage. So his vessel struck the rocks with a sound like an angry demon tearing into the wood. The sea poured in and the pilot cursed his G.o.d. I prayed to the sea-G.o.ds, who freed the boat and permitted it to land without sinking. But as punishment for the captain's pride, all the wheat, rice, and salt in the s.h.i.+p's hold were ruined.

The English built their fort on the island of the Roanoke, near Wingina's village. Wanchese returned to his people. Gren-vill sailed back to London, leaving Ralf-lane to govern.

I led the English from one settlement to another on the mainland. John-white made drawings of the people and the dwellings and Ralf-lane gave gifts to the weroances. After leaving one of the villages, they discovered a silver cup to be missing. Ralf-lane made his men return there and he demanded the cup. The weroance denied that his people had stolen it. I knew I had to act or the fragile peace would break.

”Will you accept a gift of furs instead of the cup?” I asked the governor. He would not.

”The English are angry,” I then said to the weroance in his tongue. ”Send your women and children away for their safety.” I thought this threat would make them give up the cup. But I was wrong.

”The women and children are leaving,” said Ralf-lane. ”That proves they have the cup and are preparing to fight for it.”

I knew there were only a few warriors to defend the village. But before I could stop the English, they began to tear down the houses, looking for the cup. Finding nothing, they burned the houses. The fields also. Quicker than a hunter can flay a rabbit, the village was destroyed. Everyone had fled.

”The people will not forget this day or cease telling about it,” I said to Ralf-lane, unable to hide my distress. He laughed, thinking my words were meant to praise him, not warn him.

The cup was not found among the ashes. I do not think the weroance had it, for if he did, he would have given it up to save his village. What montoac that cup must have contained, that the English went to such lengths to avenge its loss!

I learned about the white men by watching them from day to day. They were much like children. Quick to anger and to fight. Full of wonder. When they first ate the openauk, the wild potato, and pagatour, maize, their eyes grew round. Like children they could not take care of themselves. They could not hunt without startling every creature in the forest. They did not know how to track game. I showed them how to set up weirs to catch the whiskered keetrauk, keetrauk, which they named ”catfish.” They never tired of asking me where the gleaming pearls and the s.h.i.+ning wa.s.sador were hidden. When I said I did not know, some accused me of lying. which they named ”catfish.” They never tired of asking me where the gleaming pearls and the s.h.i.+ning wa.s.sador were hidden. When I said I did not know, some accused me of lying.

Ill feelings grew between the laborers and the gentlemen, who would not build houses, dig the fort, or till the soil. Soldiers fought and Ralf-lane punished them by making them work with chains on their feet. Only John-white seemed content as he made his drawings of fish, plants, birds, and people. They were so true that my people were afraid, but I a.s.sured them that his pictures could not steal their spirit and cause them to die.

I no longer regarded the English as G.o.dlike. So they had seemed to me, gathered around their Kwin-lissa-bet. Here I saw they could be weak, foolish, and cruel, like any man. Still I was proud to be among them, for I was more esteemed than before. I translated the governor's words. He and the weroances both relied on me to conduct their business.

When Wingina heard me speak the stranger's tongue, his astonishment pleased me. I had montoac that even he, the great weroance, lacked.

Wingina said to me, ”Wanchese will not speak their language. He does not trust them. Why do you?”

I said Ralf-lane and his men wanted to learn our ways. To trade with us, that we might both grow rich.

Wingina looked doubtful. ”I have permitted them to settle on my island so I may watch them.”

”You will see they desire peace,” I said.

Wingina did not reply at first. He knew they were building a fort. He had heard about the silver cup and the destroyed village. This news had traveled throughout Ossomocomuck.

”The white man's weapons are powerful and deadly. And we have many enemies,” he said finally. Wingina was known to be wise, and he would find a way to benefit from the English presence.

But by a mysterious fate, the English brought death to the Roanoke, though not with their feared weapons. After Ralf-lane's first visit to Wingina, ten villagers fell ill and died. Wingina sent for me. Wanchese was with him, and they were both afraid.

”It is proved the English can kill without weapons,” said Wanchese. ”As they tried to kill me in London.”

”It was your own evil thoughts about the English that made you ill. I have no such thoughts, and I am well,” I said to him, then turned to Wingina. ”They will not harm their friends.”

Wingina glanced at Wanchese then settled his gaze on me. He gave the Englishmen forty baskets of openauk and a large field planted with pagatour. Then he moved his villagers to the mainland, to a place called Dasemunkepeuc.

Wingina was wise but also crafty. In the spring he paddled to the island to inform Ralf-lane that an alliance of Chowanoc planned to attack Fort Raw-lee. Ralf-lane decided to act first. With thirty men he rowed upriver and surprised the Chowanoc village, seizing their weroance, Menantonon. This time I was able to prevent the English from destroying the village. Menantonon denied that he planned to attack the fort, saying it was a trick of Wingina to get the English to destroy the Chowanoc village. After a long parley with Ralf-lane, Menantonon saw what the English desired. He described a people who possessed wa.s.sador in such abundance they decorated their homes with it. Ralf-lane's eyes shone. He decided to go to this village, a seven-days' journey.

I suspected Menantonon, too, was lying. Even setting a trap. But I could not persuade Ralf-lane to turn back if there was a possibility of treasure. I had no choice but to guide them. Every village we pa.s.sed was deserted. No food to be had. To keep from starving, the English killed and ate their dogs. Still Ralf-lane would not give up. When we came at last to the village, it was also abandoned.

”Where are the silver and copper Menantonon promised we would see?” Ralf-lane demanded.

”They are hidden within the hills themselves,” I said. ”No one knows where.”

Without tools or food, there was nothing more Ralf-lane could do. By the time we returned to the fort, our stomachs were as hollow as dried gourds. Several men were near death. And Ralf-lane was full of rage at the deceit of the weroances.

”Wingina delivered us to his own enemies, hoping they would kill us. Then he and his allies could strike at the fort!” About Menantonon he said, ”He sent us on a fool's errand, and told the people to leave their villages so we would starve.”

I tried to soften his rage with reason. ”The villagers may have been away hunting, according to their custom,” I said. ”What food they had, they took with them. There is hunger everywhere. For five years, the rains have been scarce.”

I counseled peace and goodwill, for that was my duty to Raw-lee and his governor. But Ralf-lane's duty did not call for him to heed me.

Before they attack, the English do not prepare as we do. They do not paint or beat drums or dance to summon the spirits. Their leaders make plans in secret and the soldiers obey in silence. So I did not know Ralf-lane's intent. Had he told me his plans, could I have changed his mind? Would I have warned Wingina? Would the weroance have heeded me?

I was not with the governor and his men when they crossed the bay in their wherries. But I could hear, before dawn, the firing of muskets. Faint and distant. The day was long. The night even longer. The next morning the first boat returned from Dasemunkepeuc, and I heard Wingina had been shot twice. Despite his wounds he escaped into the woods. The soldiers could not keep up with him and left the chase. But one pursued him through woods and swamps for hours before Wingina's strength finally failed.

Ralf-lane came back to the fort in the second wherry, holding aloft the b.l.o.o.d.y head of Wingina. ”Let them remember this deed, too, Manteo!” he said. He stuck the head on a pole outside the fort.

This did not call for a reply. But I thought, They will remember. And you, in turn, will remember the terrible revenge that must come. They will remember. And you, in turn, will remember the terrible revenge that must come.

As it happened, the English did not remain long enough for the Roanoke to take their revenge. A week after Wingina was killed, a fleet of English s.h.i.+ps came to the outer islands. Their captain, called Francis-drake, was brought to the fort. He was tawny skinned from being so long at sea and under the sun. He spoke of such strife between the weroances of England and Spain that Ralf-lane feared no supply s.h.i.+p would be able to reach the island.

I could see the governor desired to return to England but was ashamed, for he had failed to find riches for his kwin. He and Francis-drake decided the captain would take away the weak and troublesome men and leave supplies to sustain the rest.