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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.
The runner joined in the laugh against him quite as merrily as did the rest, and made a dash at the little ten-year-old tumbler, which she as nimbly evaded, "Ma-ma-no-to-wic," he said, "the feet of Ma-ta-oka are even heavier than the snake of Nun-ta-quaus, her brother. I have but escaped them both with my life. Ma-ma-no-to-wic, I have news for you.
"'Pocahontas', or 'pocahuntas', is the Algonquin word for 'tomboy'. The real name of Powhatan's daughter was Ma-ta-oka, but she was known ever after the incident Sahwah just related as 'Pocahontas." "I never heard of that incident," said Hinpoha, "but I might have guessed that Sahwah would take Pocahontas for hers." "Now you, Agony," said Migwan.
For the Indian religion was full of what is called the supernatural. 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.
But though the oft-described "rescue" did not take place, the valiant Englishman's attention was speedily drawn to the agile little Indian girl, Ma-ta-oka, whom her father called his "tomboy," or po-ca-hun-tas.
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.
Three times they attempted to entrap and destroy the "great captain" and his people, but each time the little Ma-ta-oka, full of friendship and pity for her new acquaintances, stole cautiously into the town, or found some means of misleading the conspirators, and thus warned her white friends of their danger.
Ra-bun-ta was as good a gossip and story-teller as any of his tribesmen, and as he squatted before the upper fire-pit, and ate a hearty meal of parched corn, which the little Ma-ta-oka brought him as a peace-offering, he gave the details of the celebrated capture.
And the grateful pioneer handed her his much-prized pocket compass an instrument regarded with awe by the Indians, and esteemed as one of the instruments of the white man's magic. But Ma-ta-oka, although she longed to possess this wonderful "path-teller," shook her head.
There was a light step beneath which the dry twiggs on the ground crackled slightly, and the wary captain grasped his matchlock and bade his men be on their guard. Again the twigs crackled, and now there came from the shadow of the woods not a train of Indians, but one little girl Ma-ta-oka, or Pocahontas. "Be guarded, my father," she said, as Smith drew her to his side.
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