But Ma-ta-oka, although she longed to possess this wonderful
"path-teller," shook her head.
"Not so, Cau-co-rouse," she said, "if it should be seen by my
tribesmen, or even by my father, the chief, I should but be as
dead to them, for they would know that I have warned you whom
they have sworn to kill, and so would they kill me also. Stay not
to parley, my father, but be gone at once."
And with that, says the record, "she ran away by herself as she
came."
So the captain hurried back to Jamestown, and Ma-ta-oka returned
to her people.
Soon after Smith left the colony, sick and worn out by the
continual worries and disputes with his fellow-colonists, and
Ma-ta-oka felt that, in the absence of her best friend and the
increasing troubles between her tribesmen and the pale-faces, it
would be unwise for her to visit Jamestown.
Her fears seem to have been well grounded, for in the spring of
1613, Ma-ta-oka, being then about sixteen, was treacherously and
"by stratagem" kidnapped by the bold and unscrupulous Captain
Argall--half pirate, half trader,--and was held by the colonists
as hostage for the "friendship" of Pow-ha-tan.
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