That night Pocahontas came to John Smith. She was afraid. "My father is angry," she said. "He wants to kill you, and all your men. You must be careful!"

Powhatan smiled, but he was angry, very angry. "Yes, we are friends," he said. "Tonight you must stay here and eat with us. Tomorrow you can have your corn."

"You can have corn," he said, "but you must build one of your big English houses for me -- with windows of glass. And you must give me some guns."

"A house -- yes," said Smith. "Tomorrow my men can bring things from Jamestown and begin to build a house for you. But guns -- no. Friends do not need guns."

John Smith took her hands. "What a good friend you are, Pocahontas!" he said. "How can I thank you?"

Pocahontas looked into his blue eyes. "You are my King," she said quietly. "My King -- now, and always."

In the winter of 1608 the English in Jamestown were hungry again. So John Smith went to Werowocomoco and asked Powhatan for corn. He took many beautiful glass beads with him, because the Indians loved these things. But Powhatan wanted more than beads.

"There is your corn," Opekankanu said. "Now, give us your guns!" He smiled. "Look behind you!"

Smith looked. And seven hundred Indians came out of the forest, with bows and arrows.

The Indians were afraid of John Smith. To them, he was a King, and it is not easy to kill a King. They put down their bows and arrows, and went away into the forest. Opekankanu, too, was afraid. His women put the corn in Smith's boat, and Smith and his men went back down the river to Jamestown.

So Smith and his men carried their guns all the time and they watched very carefully. The next morning Opekankanu and his women came with the corn.

How can ten men fight seven hundred? In a second, John Smith had his hand in Opekankanu's hair, and his gun in Opekankanu's face.

Powhatan and Opekankanu were angry. "We don't want these Englishmen in our country," Powhatan said. "We must kill them -- kill them all!"

"My gun can kill you," he said angrily, "before an arrow can get to me." He looked at Opekankanu's men. "Do you want Opekankanu to die?" he called.

"Be quiet!" Powhatan said. "John Smith is our enemy. Stay away from him! Do you understand?"

"No, father!" said Pocahontas. "We must learn to be friends with the English. John Smith says --"

Pocahontas did visit John Smith after that, but not very often. It wasn't easy for her. There was often fighting between the English and the Indians now, and dead men do not make friends.

One day, in October 1609, Pocahontas went to Jamestown, but she could not find John Smith.

"But you gave him to me, father. Do you remember? I loved his blue eyes then, and I love them now. I cannot stay away from him."

"Where is he?" she asked some Englishmen.

"Ill?" Pocahontas said. "John Smith is ill?"

"Smith? He left Jamestown a month ago," one man said. "He had a bad accident with some gunpowder. He was very ill. So he went home to England."

More ships and more men came from England -- and more guns. Jamestown was now a town of five hundred people -- five hundred hungry people. The English wanted the Indians' corn, and the Indians wanted the Englishmen's guns.

"Yes," the man said. "It was a very bad accident. And six weeks on a ship… perhaps he's dead now."

The man laughed. "A letter for you, little girl? But you can't read! Why? Is it important?"

"Did -- did he leave a letter for me?" Pocahontas asked.

"No," she said. "It's not important." But of course it was.

She went away into the forest and cried for a long time. Where was John Smith, her Englishman with blue eyes, the colour of the sky?