Serpent Never Sleeps (20 page)

Gazing at the portrait, which had been hung above Sir Thomas Dale's fireplace, I was impressed by her beauty. But in her eyes I detected a hint of sadness.

Word came that she had grown tired of the gala affairs. Her health was suffering from London's damp air. She had moved to the country, where streams of courtiers unfortunately still visited her. It was here, we learned, that she met Captain John Smith again and was so overcome with emotion she could not speak.

Good news came. Her health had improved, and Ben Jonson's Christmas masque was performed on Twelfth-night in her honor. Two months passed before a ship brought word that she was ill again and had taken to her bed. Then we heard that she and her family had gone to Gravesend, at the mouth of the Thames, ready to leave on the first ship that sailed for Virginia. What happy news!

Tom and I were in the field planting a crop of timothy hay when the last word came. The April sun was bright. There was a sweet smell in the air of forest and sea, the sweet smell of Virginia in the spring.

The Reverend Whitaker brought the news. He came slowly up the path from the river. He looked at us a moment and swallowed.

"She has gone," he said. "We will not see her ever in this life again. But she is safe with God and one day we will see her." He stopped and could speak no more.

"Come and sit," Tom said.

"She is Virginia," the Reverend Whitaker said.

"Yes," Tom said. "There would be none without her."

We walked through the new-sown field toward the cabin. As we walked, I saw her at the cabin door. She was clear as the April day, standing with her long legs thrust apart, her hands on her hips, watching us with her Indian eyes.

Serena Lynn is an imaginary character, suggested in appearance and deportment by Mary Riverdale, a lithesome member of the king's court. Through Serena's eyes we see the founding of America.

Sir Walter Raleigh's two attempts to found a colony at Roanoke Island in Virginia, in 1585 and 1587, failed. Both colonies disappeared without a trace. But in 1606 King James granted a charter to the Virginia Company of London to found a colony, and the following year more than a hundred settlers disembarked at Jamestown. This was thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

In writing the story of Jamestown and Pocahontas, I have depended upon a number of books, booklets, tracts, journals, and letters. Among the booklets are
A Voyage to Virginia in 1609,
edited by Louis B. Wright, and Terry Tucker's
Bermuda—Unintended Destination.
Books I used were Otto J. Scott's notable biography of James I, the adventurous
Three Worlds of Captain John Smith,
by Philip L. Barbour, and Francis Mossiker's
Pocahontas,
a fine picture of early
Virginia and the life of its legendary princess. Captain John Smith's original
Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles,
printed in 1624 when the letter
s
looked like the letter
f
, is hard to read but most rewarding. A streamlined edition, in which the letter
s
looks like the letter
s,
is now available.

Among the letters are ones written by Sir Thomas Gates, governor of Virginia; by Edmon Scott, a member of the Virginia Company of London; by Gabriel Archar, on board the
Blessing,
a ship in the Virginia Fleet of 1609; and by William Strachey, secretary-elect to Virginia.

Strachey's letter has an interesting history. It was written from Jamestown to a mysterious woman in London, whom he addresses as "Excellent Lady" and "Noble Lady." The letter contains a dramatic description of the storm that overtook the
Sea Venture,
one of the ships in the Virginia fleet. A description so dramatic that the Noble Lady passed the letter on to her friend, William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare, it is rumored, was so taken by Strachey's description of the storm that he had Miranda echo it in a scene from
The Tempest:

"...wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,

***

Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her."

John Rolfe's apology for marrying Pocahontas is taken word for word from one of his letters. The thoughts of King James on smoking are also reported word for word. Other details, difficult to put in the story, cropped up.

The settlers thought they were dying from some awful plague. We know now that they died from salt poisoning. Salt from the sea swept in with the tides and poisoned the river water they drank.

Admiral Sir George Somers, dear friend of Serena, sailed back to Bermuda, narrowly escaping death in a storm, only soon to die there. His body was sent to England, but his heart was buried on the island.

Henry Ravens and his crew were never heard of again.