At other times, issuing from
that retirement, he would stride away into the forest. Picked men
went with him, and they were gone for hours; but when they
returned they bore no trophies, brute or human. What they did we
could not guess. We might have had much comfort in Nantauquas,
but the morning after our arrival in this village the Emperor sent
him upon an embassy to the Rappahannocks, and when for the
fourth time the forest stood black against the sunset he had not
returned. If escape had been possible, we would not have awaited
the doubtful fulfillment of that promise made to us below the
Uttamussac temples. But the vigilance of the Indians never slept;
they watched us like hawks, night and day. And the dry leaves
underfoot would not hold their peace, and there were the marshes
to cross and the river.
Thus four days dragged themselves by, and in the early morning of
the fifth, when we came from our wigwam, it was to find
Nantauquas sitting by the fire, magnificent in the paint and
trappings of the ambassador, motionless as a piece of bronze, and
apparently quite unmindful of the admiring glances of the women
who knelt about the fire preparing our breakfast. When he saw us
he rose and came to meet us, and I embraced him, I was so glad to
see him. "The Rappahannocks feasted me long," he said. "I was
afraid that Captain Percy would be gone to Jamestown before I
was back upon the Pamunkey.
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