There was little talk while the feasting continued. Pocahontas, who did not eat, lost no motion of the stranger's.
"At least," she thought, "he lives by food as we do." And she watched to see whether he would entangle his meat in his beard.
At last every one had eaten his fill and the dogs snarled and fought over the scraps until they were driven from the lodge. Then Powhatan began to question his prisoner.
"Art thou a king?"
"Nay, lord," replied the Englishman when he had comprehended the question; "I but serve one who ruleth over many thousand braves."
"Why didst thou leave him?"
Smith was about to answer that they sought new land to increase his sovereign's dominions, but he realized that this was not a favorable moment for such a statement.
"We set forth to humble the enemies of our king, the Spaniards," he replied, and in this he was not telling an untruth, because the colonization in Virginia had for one of its aims the destruction of Spanish settlements in the New World.
"And why did ye come ashore on my land and build yourselves lodges on my island?"
"Because we were weary of much buffeting by the waves and in need of fresh food."