instruction continued and at last Dr. Whitaker told Sir
Thomas Dale that he believed the Indian princess was now sufficiently
impressed with the teachings of Christianity to be baptized. So Sir
Thomas, meeting her one afternoon as she stood by the wharf watching men
unload a ship but newly arrived from England, began:

"Good even, Princess, I rejoice at the news Dr. Whitaker hath even now
imparted to me, that he hath instructed thee fully in the teachings of
our blessed faith, and that thou hast shown wisdom and comprehension.
The time hath therefore arrived for thee to bear witness before man to
the truth and to accept the blessed sacrament of baptism at his hands
and to swear publicly that thou wilt have naught more to do with the
heathen gods whom thy people ignorantly worship."

"I will not give them up," Pocahontas cried out in anger such as she had
not shown for many a day; and to Sir Thomas's amazement, she turned her
back upon his presence and sped, swift as a fawn, into the thicket which
still covered a portion of the island.

There she lay upon the ground, panting with emotion and passionately
going over her arguments: "Why should I forsake the Okee of my fathers?
Why should I hate what my brothers serve? Why should I prefer this god
of the strangers?"

She did not know that a sudden attack of homesickness was the principal
cause of this outburst. She was longing to sit at her father's knee, to
hunt with Nautauquas; and she wondered if they had ceased to care for
her that they left her to stay among the strangers.

Here, at sunset, Dr. Whitaker, set upon her track by the startled Sir
Thomas, found her and seating himself beside her, he talked to her
gently, not finding fault with her loyalty to her people and their
beliefs, but explaining how they had never had the chance to hear what
she was being taught, and how by acknowledging the Christians' God, she
might lead those she loved to do the same and to benefit by His great
gifts.

Not in one day did the clergyman convince her; but by the time April had
come Pocahontas eagerly consented to her baptism. Clothed by Mistress
Lettice in a simple white gown free from ruff and farthingale, with her
long black hair hanging down her back, Pocahontas walked to the little
church filled with all the inhabitants and a few Indians from the
mainland who wondered what it all meant; and while the bells rang softly
in the soft spring air, Pocahontas, the first of her rac