Chapter 2

Over the next week, Hurritt continued teaching me archery, as well as how to make a bow and arrow in the Indian fashion and how to smoke tobacco, an herb the Indians grew for the purpose. I began teaching him and Abeque the rudiments of reading and writing. For lack of paper, I marked the letters out with my toe in the sand, and bade Hurritt and Abeque to follow my example. In the evenings I alternated my attentions between Hurritt and Abeque, but neither seemed jealous of the other. I was given to understand that Abeque had a number of other suitors in the village. It was their custom that an eligible maiden would reciprocate the affections of any male she chose until at last she picked one to be married to. Until such time, she could not take a man inside her, but we were perfectly free to pleasure one another with our mouths and hands.

Our little idyll was brought to a temporary end with the news that the Secotan had been sighted heading towards Croatoan. That day all activity in the village turned toward preparing for war. The other Englishmen readied their weapons, while Hurritt and I busied ourselves manufacturing arrows. After a sleepless night, a trumpet blast rang out through the town early in the morning. The Secotan were coming across the sound in canoes.

Every man fit enough to hold a weapon took their places around the inside of the village palisade. Captain Dare ordered the men with muskets to hold their fire until the Secotan landed on the shore, but I was under no such compulsion with my plentiful supply of arrows. I fired the first as soon as a canoe came within range. It was wide of the mark but succeeded in making the canoe’s pilot turn in the water, bringing him to a dead stop. I got off a second shot before he could get moving again, and this one struck him in the chest.

Hurritt let out a cheer and fired his own bow. We soon realized that an arrow coming toward them would scare the Secotan enough to slow down their boats, and developed a strategy of firing one after the other. In this manner we were able to kill three more Secotan each before their boats landed.

When enough Secotan had landed to fill the beach, Captain Dare ordered the musketmen to fire a volley into them. Several of them fell, and the remainder made a disorderly retreat under a hail of arrows. When the last boat had disappeared over the horizon, a cry of joy rang out from the village, and the rest of the day was given over to celebration. Hurritt and I stripped naked and swam out to retrieve the canoes whose pilots we had killed. We stripped their bodies, by which means I acquired a set of deerskin robes, a war-club, a bow and quiver, sundry knives, and a set of earrings, as well as the canoes themselves. After we’d stripped the bodies, Hurritt showed me how to cut off the portion of the scalp on which grew the crest of hair that our victims had worn in life, which we carried back to the village after burying them with the appropriate pagan ceremonies. I traded the bow and quiver, which were made for a much taller man than I, for a set of winter robes and trousers, and two of the canoes for fishing gear.

Once the bodies had been disposed of, the warriors bade everyone, Indian and English, to assemble in the center of the village. Queen Alsoomse gave an address, with Manteo translating for the benefit of the English. The gist of it was that having fought together, we could now consider ourselves one people. Then she bade all who had taken scalps to step forward, and Hurritt and I presented our bloody trophies to be hung on a pole, along with several other of the Indians. The others who had taken scalps divested themselves of their clothing, which I took as a signal to do likewise. Hurritt explained what was happening.

“They are going to mark our arms to show the number we have slain.”

The conjurer of the Croatoan stepped forward and decided to mark me first. It was a wise decision, as if I had known what the procedure entailed I would never have gone through with it. He dipped a bone needle in a charcoal paste and drove it into my arm what felt like hundreds of times while Hurritt and Manteo sat on me to keep me from running away. When he’d finally finished, I had two black lines forming a band around my arm, with three black stars enclosed. Hurritt had the same design marked on himself, but he made much less resistance than I had. He was already somewhat experienced in the matter, having had the mark of his people pricked out on his shoulder, and a fringe of red arrows around each leg. Manteo stood back, looking rather jealous. Although he was twice Hurritt’s age, he did not yet bear the black stars indicating that he had taken an enemy in battle.