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Brooks, Elbridge Streeter, 1846-1902

"Historic Girls"


So, when Captain Smith left Wero-woco-moco, he left one firm
friend behind him,--the pretty little Indian girl,
Ma-ta-oka,--who long remembered the white man and his presents,
and determined, after her own wilful fashion, to go into the
white man's village and see all their wonders for herself.
In less than a year she saw the captain again, For when, in the
fall of 1608, he came to her father's village to invite the old
chief to Jamestown to be crowned by the English as "king" of the
Pow-ha-tans, this bright little girl of twelve gathered together
the other little girls of the village, and, almost upon the very
spot where, many years after, Cornwallis was to surrender the
armies of England to the "rebel" republic, she with her
companions entertained the English captain with a gay Indian
dance full of noise and frolic.
Soon after this second interview, Ma-ta-oka's wish to see the
white man's village was gratified. For in that same autumn of
1608 she came with Ra-bun-ta to Jamestown. She sought out the
captain who was then "president" of the colony, and "entreated
the libertie" of certain of her tribesmen who had been
"detained,"--in other words, treacherously made prisoners by the
settlers because of some fear of an Indian plot against them.


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