Cate of the Lost Colony - Lisa Klein [31]
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 bloody 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.
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 ships 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 ship 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.
While the ships were being unladen, a fierce storm broke. Winds roared and demons stirred up waterspouts that reached to the sky. The demons threw men from the decks into the sea. Tore down the hills near the shore and flung up new ones. Smashed ships against the shoals and sent them under the waves. Men and women with skin as black as charred wood washed onto the sand. They were slaves taken by the captain in a far land. The storm lasted three days.
Ralf-lane decided to leave the island. Everything useful was brought to the remaining ships when the angry winds rose again. John-white’s drawings flew into the waves. Also the basket of pearls for Kwin-lissa-bet. I was aboard the Francis when the spirits spewed it from the tempest onto a calm sea. There were men who never made it to the ships and were left behind.
The captain studied his maps to determine where the winds had come from. But I already knew. Wingina’s powerful conjurors had raised the storms that drove away the English. In this manner they avenged the death of their weroance. I began to wonder if the montoac of the natives was stronger than that of the English after all.
Was it a mistake for me to have befriended the English? Would I be punished for it? At least the gods had allowed me to survive. For now.
Chapter 12
From the Papers of Sir Walter Ralegh
A Letter from Lady Catherine
Sir Walter, I have made a poem for Her Majesty, which I copy here for your eyes also. (It is not the one you composed, but one that befits my humbler state.) It is crammed with fine praise, and I am pleased with the rhyme. Thus:
As that new domain, the VIRGIN