Free Pocahontas by Joseph Bruchac Page A

the one who seemed the least relaxed. She is named for the lily that hides beneath the grass, but she is more like the hummingbird, who always wants to be in motion. "They are trying to plant corn and grow
it," Atamasku said, patting her hands on her lap. "But the earth is not listening to them," she added, shaking not just her head, but her shoulders as well. "No. Nothing they have planted is growing well. Everyone knows the earth prefers the touch of a woman's hands."
    "Ah," Pemminawsqua said in her soft voice. "But they have no women among them."
    "Is it no wonder then that they are crazy?" Wighsakan said. "Who else but women can do what women do?" She smiled broadly and nodded to Pemminawsqua. "Truly, sister, the Coatmen do not even do the things that men do."
    Everyone laughed for a long time because of what Wighsakan said.
    Then, after a time of pleasant silence, the conversation turned to our own gardens. Although the women joked about the inability of the Coatmen to grow their crops, this had not been a good year for planting for our own crops. The dryness and the rains had come at the wrong times. Each year we plant four different crops of corn, two that usually ripen at the start of the summer, two more that come in the fall. This year our first harvest would be very small. If not for the many different kinds of food that we gather from the lands and waters, it could be hard for us when the crops do not grow well.
    If the Coatmen are such bad hunters,
I found myself thinking,
if they know so little about making crops grow, if they cannot find anything in the forest, if they have no women to show them the right way to live, how will they survive in the cold seasons?
    At that moment, even though I knew the Tassantassuk had been behaving very badly in many ways, I began to feel sorry for them.

12. JOHN SMITH: The Hundred Left Behind
The 22th, Captain Newport returned for England, for whose good passage and safe return we made many prayers to our Almighty God.
    June the 25th, an Indian came to us from the Great Poughwaton with the word of peace, that he desired greatly our friendship, that the wyroaunces Paspaheigh and Tapanough should be our friends, that we should sow and reap in peace or else he would make wars upon them with us. This message fell out true, for both those wyroaunces have ever since remained in peace and trade with us. We rewarded the messenger with many trifles, which were great wonders to him
    â€”FROM A D ISCOURSE OF V IRGINIA,
BY E DWARD M ARIA W INGFIELD
    JUNE 22 ND–JULY 26 TH , 1607
    U PON THE MORNING of the second and twentieth of June, Captain Newport departed in the
Susan Constant
from James Port for England. His return was promised within twenty weeks. Our store of food was only sufficient for three months. Yet as I watched the sail of our Admiral grow small and disappear, I misdoubted he would even that soon return.
    "They shall come in time," said George Percy, as the last white billow vanished like the wing of a lost bird.
    "All things come in time," I said, turning away from that doubtful sea. "But what time will that time be? I much mislike our circumstance."
    So long had been spent in our crossing that our supplies were perilous low. There were still fish in the river, among them great sturgeon of seven or eight feet or more. Sea crabs, too, could be gathered from the waters. But our hunger was such that fishing night and day would not provide enough to feed the one hundred and four of us left behind. Already fewer fish were being caught. The mulberries and cherries and other fruits that we had seen in such profusion no longer could be found upon the bushes and trees close to James Fort. We dared not venture far from the fort for fear of the arrows of our foes. Bare and scanty of victuals were we and furthermore in war and danger of the salvages.
    ***
    On the five and twentieth, some good news came when a natural appeared at the edge of the clearing, making signs of peace and