IX.
To Powhatan now every chief
Turn’d his dark eye, while slow and brief,
As monarch speaketh to a man,
The council-talk he thus began.
‘Chiefs and warriors! let your ears
‘Be open to the words we say;
‘The cloud, that rests upon our land,
‘Portends a troubled day.
‘Chiefs and brothers! come what will,
‘Keep ye the chain of friendship bright,
‘And if the hour of conflict come,
‘Then hand to hand, like brothers, fight.
‘Chiefs and brothers! ye have heard
‘The strange events of yesterday,
‘The mighty shallop, full of men,
‘That thunder’d on our ocean bay,
‘Then boldly up our river went,
‘And stopp’d at Paspahey;
‘Now listen while Pamunky’s king
‘Reveals the tidings of to-day.’