We made camp there under the loblolly pines and some scattered hardwoods, and one of the Catawbas killed a deer that had come down to the river to drink in the late dusk.
At daybreak we went up the river until it became so shallow we had to walk in the water and pull the canoe behind us. The river flowed from a swamp called the Pocomoke, and we crossed the swamp moving west and south, then up another stream, a long portage, and gradually we worked our way westward. We saw much game but few signs of Indians. Coming at last to a wide bay, we followed it down until we entered the mouth of another river.
Diana and I talked but little, and the Indians spoke only a word here and there, alert for all the sounds of the forest or swamp. From time to time I took my turn at the paddle, for I had long been familiar with canoe travel.
From the Abigail I had come well armed, with a musket, two pistols, powder, and ball. We had also brought a good stock of food from the ship so that little time would be lost in hunting.
Our first destination was the trading station of the man named Claiborne in the upper part of the bay, or so I had heard. This was the place where I had suggested Captain Tilly might sell or trade a part of his cargo, but I doubted that he had made such a decision, being eager to get on to the north and hence to Newfoundland.
At the Claiborne station I was sure I could obtain knowledge of what was happening in the country about and what supplies we might further require. The Catawbas knew of the station but had not been there.
Those first days, despite the swamp and its mosquitoes, had been idyllic. The weather was fair, the water smooth, and our progress steady. All about us the land gave evidence of fertility, but it was largely uninhabited. Several times we saw distant smoke, as from campfires or perhaps a village, and once, far off, we saw a canoe with three Indians. As we were the larger number, they shied off and vanished into an inlet on the eastern shore.
To deny such country to the impoverished of England was criminal, and when I thought of the crowded, sweaty, ragged people of the European cities of whom my father, Jeremy, and Kane had told me, I knew this must indeed be their promised land.
Surely the two peoples had much to learn from each other, yet even as I thought of this, I shrank from it, for I could see no common ground of meeting. The exchange of ideas and methods offered much, but I had dealt with Indians enough to know that our ways and theirs were poles apart. It would be no easy thing to bring them together.
We moved along at a goodly speed, slowing our pace as we neared the southern tip of Kent Island, wishing not to surprise them into hostilities, for they knew not who we were. On the shore we saw several men armed with muskets and with them a few Indians. I lifted a hand, waving to them, and we came on in, moving slowly so they might see who we were.
The fort, if such it might be called, sat back from the shore on a slight rise of ground. The great gate was closed; only a smaller door that would admit the passage of but one man at a time stood open.
A thickset man with a wide, florid face came down to the small-boat landing they had built into the water. He stared at us curiously, obviously surprised to see a white girl amongst us.
“Claiborne?” I asked.
“I am Deal Webster,” the man said, “a trader here. William Claiborne is not here at the moment.”
“We would trade,” I said, “and buy supplies. I am Kin Ring Sackett, of Carolina, and this be my wife. She is newly from Cape Ann.”
“Come ashore! Come ashore!” he said cheerfully. “You be welcome here, and seldom it is we have visitors.” He glanced at the Catawbas. “I do not know your Indians.”
“They be Catawbas, from Carolina, and friends to all white men.”
“Ah? Yes, I have heard them spoken of. Fighting men, I hear.”
“If need be,” I replied cautiously, “but they come now in peace, escorting me to my home in the mountains.”
I stepped ashore and offered my hand to Diana, who followed me, stepping easily to the small landing. The Catawbas drew their canoe up on the shore near the small pier, disdaining to even glance at the Indians who stood about. Those Indians needed no introduction to the Catawba, I knew, for their fame was wide.
Webster took us to a cabin built against the outer palisade and utilizing its logs for a back wall. It was a pleasant room, with a fire blazing on the wide hearth and a general air of comfort and well-being. Seated at a table, a servant brought us food, well-cooked venison and some pieces of fish of a kind I knew not. The bread was fresh and warm, and there was butter, real butter.
“We have two cows,” he explained proudly, “and the only ones anywhere about. William Claiborne brought them in, and they do well upon the grass near the fort, yet we must keep them close, for there are Indians out there who would kill them for meat.” He seated himself opposite us with a tankard of ale. “You wish to trade? I saw some furs—?”
“They belong to the Indians. I shall have to pay in gold,” I said.
“Ah, well!” he smiled. “You will have no trouble in that respect! Gold is a rare thing.” He looked at me carefully. “Know you Lord Baltimore?”
“I do not.”
“We have trouble,” Webster said. “William Claiborne recognizes only the government of Virginia, and Baltimore insists we sit upon his land and will have us out of here.”
“I know nothing of such things,” I said. “We live far from government and have our own, such as we need.”
We talked long and ate well, and in the end bought what we needed of powder and shot as well as what food we would need for our travels.
“Inland there,” Webster asked, “where you live. What do you there for powder and shot?”
“We make our own. There are lead mines in the mountains, and we have heard of others farther to the west. Our powder, too, we make. We have skilled men amongst us, and we have found deposits of iron ore as well.”
“No gold?”
I shrugged. “Such a little it is scarcely worth the time, yet we hear of great mines of copper far to the north, and I suspect there is much wealth of which no man knows.”
At daybreak we again were afloat; our canoe not proving sufficient for us, we had purchased another from Deal Webster, leaving four persons and what supplies we had purchased from Webster to each canoe.
Down the bay we went to the mouth of the Rappahannock. But on the first day we but crossed from Kent Point to the mainland shore and down to a wide bay where Webster had assured us there was much herring to be taken. We camped there near the mouth of a creek and gave up a day to fishing and smoking the fish.
Once, as we paddled offshore, nearing the mouth of a great river, we beheld a sail off to the east of us, some small craft sailing up the bay toward Kent Island. Yet it was far off, and we lay low in the water and against the shore, so they saw us not. Yet the sight of that sail left me uneasy, for there were all manner of men about, pirates and such, and many who walked a borderline between piracy and trading, ready to loot and kill where it could be done with safety to themselves.
It was with relief that we came to the mouth of the Rappahannock. Once upon the river, our days became idyllic. We had smoked fish and venison, we traded with some Indians for additional corn, and we had what supplies we brought from Kent and the Abigail.
We had only to be wary, for no man or woman traveled in safety where war parties roamed as they did upon these rivers. Yet we met none. Our days were spent moving up the river and to the mouth of the Rapidan and thence westward along that river.
From Wa-ga-su I had learned much of the Catawba tongue, and traveling with the six warriors, I soon learned more. Diana learned quickly. She had a quick, active intelligence and an interest in all things. Here and there she collected herbs that might be of use, and the Indians showed her others that they themselves used.