Pocahontas
Authors: Joseph Bruchac
Joseph Bruchac
Table of Contents
THE POWHATAN CONFEDERACY AND ENGLISH SETTLEMENT, 1607
1. POCAHONTAS: The Swan Canoes
3. POCAHONTAS: Dressing Myself
5. POCAHONTAS: Enemies or Friends
7. POCAHONTAS: Backwards People
11. POCAHONTAS: The Touch of a Woman's Hands
12. JOHN SMITH: The Hundred Left Behind
13. POCAHONTAS: The Strange Camp of the Coatmen
14. JOHN SMITH: The Sickness Time
22. JOHN SMITH: The River of Chickahominy
26. JOHN SMITH: The Great King
Early Seventeenth-Century English
A Note on the Stories of Pocahontas
A Note on Sources, Hearing More than One Side...
H
ARCOURT
, I
NC
.
Orlando ⢠Austin ⢠New York ⢠San Diego ⢠Toronto ⢠London
T
HE
P
OWHATAN
C
ONFEDERACY AND
E
NGLISH
S
ETTLEMENT
, 1607
Copyright © 2003 by Joseph Bruchac
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work
should be mailed to the following address:
Permissions Department, Harcourt, Inc.,
6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777.
First Harcourt paperback edition 2005
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Bruchac, Joseph, 1942â
Pocahontas/foseph Bruchac.
p. cm.
Summary: Told from the viewpoints of Pocahontas and John Smith,
describes their lives in the context of the encounter between the Powhatan
Indians and the English colonists of 17th century Jamestown, Virginia.
1. Pocahontas, d. 1617âJuvenile literature. 2. Powhatan Indiansâ
Juvenile literature. 3. Smith, John, 1580â1531âJuvenile literature.
4. VirginiaâHistoryâColonial period, ca. 1600â1775âJuvenile literature.
5. Jamestown (Va.)âHistoryâJuvenile literature. [1. Pocahontas, d. 1617.
2. Powhatan Indians. 3. Smith, John, 1580â1531.
4. Jamestown (Va.)âHistory.] I. Title.
E99.P85B78 2003
975.5'01'092âdc21 2002007214
ISBN-13: 978-0152-16737-0 ISBN-10: 0-15-216737-4
ISBN-13: 978-0152-05465-6 pb ISBN-10: 0-15-205465-0 pb
Text set in Adobe Caslon
Designed by Ivan Holmes
C E G H F D B
Printed in the United States of America
To Paula Wiseman, friend and editor, without whose
encouragement this book never would have been written
ContentsYou brave, heroic minds,
Worthy your country's name.
That honor still pursue,
Go and subdue,
Whilst loit'ring hinds
Lurk here at home with shame.Britons, you stay too long;
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale
Swell your stretch'd sail,
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you.Your course securely steer,
West and by south forth keep;
Rocks, lee shores, nor shoals,
When Aeolus scowls,
You need not fear,
So absolute the deep.And cheerfully at sea,
Success you still entice
To get the pearl and gold
And, ours to hold,
Virginia,
Earth's only paradise!M
ICHAEL
D
RAYTON
FROM
"O
DE TO THE
V
IRGINIAN
V
OYAGE" CIRCA
1608
Preface
[>]
1
POCAHONTAS:
The Swan Canoes
[>]
2
JOHN SMITH:
Aboard
[>]
3
POCAHONTAS:
Dressing Myself
[>]
4
JOHN SMITH:
Ashore
[>]
5
POCAHONTAS:
Enemies or Friends
[>]
6
JOHN SMITH:
The Boxes
[>]
7
POCAHONTAS:
Backwards People
[>]
8
JOHN SMITH:
The River
[>]
9
POCAHONTAS:
Many Questions
[>]
10
JOHN SMITH:
The Fort
[>]
11
POCAHONTAS:
The Touch of a Woman's Hands
[>]
12
JOHN SMITH:
The Hundred Left Behind
[>]
13
POCAHONTAS:
The Strange Camp of the Coatmen
[>]
14
JOHN SMITH:
The Sickness Time
[>]
15
POCAHONTAS:
Corn
[>]
16
JOHN SMITH:
Deposed
[>]
17
POCAHONTAS:
Punishment
[>]
18
JOHN SMITH:
Trial
[>]
19
POCAHONTAS:
Trade
[>]
20
JOHN SMITH:
Treason
[>]
21
POCAHONTAS:
The Hunt
[>]
22
JOHN SMITH:
The River of Chickahominy
[>]
23
POCAHONTAS:
Trouble
[>]
24
JOHN SMITH:
Captured
[>]
25
POCAHONTAS:
Waiting
[>]
26
JOHN SMITH:
The Great King
[>]
27
POCAHONTAS:
The Promise
[>]
Afterword
[>]
Early Seventeenth-Century English
[>]
Powhatan Language
[>]
A Note on the Stories of Pocahontas
[>]
A Note on Sources
[>]
Selected Bibliography
[>]
In December of 1607, a meeting took place between two very different people. Their cultures and languages, their views of the world, differed so greatly that understanding each other was close to impossible.
Yet communication did take place and, for a time, bonds of peace were forged between their two nations. The dramatic meeting of those two, an energetic eleven-year-old girl of the Powhatan nation and a twenty-seven-year-old Englishman whose intellect had been deepened and whose resolve had been hardened by his experiences as a warrior, would become one of the most powerful, romantic, and frequently told stories of American history. As a result of their legendary encounter, seeds were sown that grew into a new nation. This is the story of the events throughout the year of 1607 that led to that dramatic moment, the story of Pocahontas and John Smith.
Long ago, Ahone, the Great Mysterious Spirit, created the world. Great Ahone created Moon and Stars to brighten the darkness of the night and to be companions and dwell with Great Ahone.
Sun was also made by Great Ahone to give brightness and warmth to the days. With that light of the Sun, all could be seen, and all that had been made by Ahone was good to see.
CATTAPEUK
TIME OF LEAVES RETURNING
LATE APRIL
1607
I
AM MY FATHER'S
favorite daughter. This means a great deal, for he is Mamanatowic, the Great Chief of all the Powhatan towns. My formal name is Amonute. But my everyday name is Pocahontas. That name, which almost everyone calls me, fits my personality much better. In the language of the Coatmen it might be translated as One Who Makes Mischief. My father suggests that it really means She Who Wants to Know Everything. He says that although I have only seen the leaves return eleven times, I have already asked more questions than most people do in a whole lifetime.
It is because I ask so many questions that, even though I was not there, I know what it was like in times past when the great swan canoes swam into sight on Chesepiock, our great salt bay. The man of Kecoughtan who first saw them said that for a few heartbeatsâand his heart was beating very fastâhe did not recognize what they were. Those
quintansuk
looked like birds, giant swans with huge white wings, breathing smoke and fire out of their beaks. When he realized what they were and who they must be carrying, his heartbeat became even faster. Tassantassuk. Outsiders! He quickly turned his
quintans
, made from the trunk of a cypress tree, and paddled as fast as he could to shore. He had to warn the people. The Tassantassuk had returned! They had come from the sunrise to our lands and waters before. Our memories of them were not good.
I am too young to have my own memories of the first arrival of the Outsiders. But my father's memory and the memories of our elders all look much further back along the circle of seasons than my eyes can see. It would be better if they were the ones to speak of what happened, but I will do my best to tell their memories truthfully.
The first Outsiders to come in such giant canoes called themselves Espaniuk. Some wondered if they were really men and not giant squirrels dressed in long coats. The faces of those coat-wearing men were as red and furry as squirrels. They also had long, clever fingers like those of Arakun, the masked one who scratches with his hands. Further, the Coatmen spoke in a strange language, which sounded to some of us like the growls and whines and barks of animals. Strange as they were, our people greeted and welcomed them as friends. That friendship did not last long. Those first Coatmen treated our people badly. When we protested the way they pushed us about, they attacked us.
Some of the Coatmen had what we thought to be hard shells like Terrapin, the Sea Turtle. Those shells were so hard that arrows and spears could not pierce them. The men also carried sticks that burned and then roared like thunder. Whenever the thunder sticks roared, they shot out a hail of small stones that made terrible wounds when they struck a person.
When our men finally caught one of those hard-shelled Espaniuk during a battle and skinned him, they were surprised at how easily his shell came off. They realized then that it was only a hard kind of clothing. Those first Coatmen finally saw they could not make us do as they wished. They left our land and waters.
When those Outsiders left, they stole one of our people, a man named Young Deer, whose father was werowance of Paspahegh. They took him across the wide water to a great island called Kew-ba. Then they sailed even farther, to the place where all men have faces like furry animals. Ten winters passed before those Outsiders came back. With them was Young Deer, who now dressed as the Coatmen dressed, wearing a long black robe. They called him Ton Loo-wee. He looked much like them, but our people recognized him. Hair had not grown to cover his cheeks, and he still knew how to speak as we human beings do.
The Coatmen thought Young Deer had become one of them. He had not. He threw off his long black coat and rejoined his people. Some of those black-robed Coatmen followed him to his uncle's home. They insulted Young Deer and tried to beat him. They called our people thieves because we picked up and took some of the things the Black Robes left lying about. Those black-robed Coatmen behaved so badly that all but one of them were killed. Some of our people thought that this ended the trouble. Young Deer told them otherwise.
"You do not know the Espaniuk as I do," he said. "More will come again from the sunrise in their great swan canoes. When they come, they will try to kill us."