CHAPTER VII.
“She had eyes of sunniest English blue;
She had tresses of golden hair;
Her cheeks were tipped with the hawthorn’s hue;
Her name, Virginia Dare.”
Manteo, true to the faith he professed, forgave and forgot, or rather he never spoke of his warning, or Ranteo’s strange visit to Roanoke; when he understood that the white tribe were in trouble, and had fled to him for protection, he solemnly held out his hand to Mrs. Dare, then handed her a long pipe, seeming to take it for granted that she filled her father’s place. She went bravely at it for a few minutes in sight of all Manteo’s warriors, who watched her with a strange awe; then he took the pipe from her and led her to a wigwam, where she was to stay while the refugees were provided for by the Indians.
The autumn days slipped by, and the winter came. It was a mild winter, even for that part of the country; and as it broke, and the first mild, balmy spring days came, the settlers began to watch for the governor’s return. Day after day they looked, but the mild spring melted into the heat of summer, and yet he did not come.
Hopeful Kent and his boat-load that left Roanoke in such a hurry that night had never been seen or even heard of; they had either been drowned, or captured by Wanchese’s men. Autumn again began to paint the trees yellow and red, yet no sign of a sail; the men were growing discontented, and gave up watching for the ships they would never see, and went more ardently at their grumbling.
One night, nearly fifteen months after Governor White and his fleet had left the shore of Virginia, the men’s discontent, which had been smouldering like a choked fire, burst into a blaze of defiant rebellion, and on that same night they slipped away in the darkness. Sixty of the men whom Manteo had sheltered and cared for more than a year went to Wanchese. Barnes was the leader in this, as in the former troubles; but he did not tell the men all he meant to do; he knew them too well to expect them to agree to anything so base as this plan. In truth, he meant to betray Manteo. Wanchese listened to his proposal with disdain and distrust, then he cried, “Such a dog shall not live!” and with a blow of his tomahawk Barnes fell dead. Many of the men were killed, others were branded and kept as slaves.