The month of December found the colonists anxiously apprehensive of
starvation during the ensuing winter, a winter which was long remembered
in Europe as one of unprecedented severity.
Newport had been for many weeks overdue. The weather was already bitterly
cold. A great central camp-fire was kept burning, day and night, which
they fed from the limbs of the trees they had felled in building their
fortifications, church, and humble cabins. Over this fire hung the "common
kettle," lately redolent with savoury odours of venison and wild fowl, but
now relegated to its original uses,--the boiling of barley in the grain.
Of this only a small portion remained. Captain Smith had carefully laid up
some of the autumn's plenty, and "the idlers had as carelessly wasted it."
Finding upon measurement that only "fourteen daies victualls were left,"
he sallied forth to tempt the Tappahannocks[29] to trade, sending Captain
Martin to the nation of the Paspaheghs on a similar errand. They found
the Indians of those tribes sulky and reluctant, at that scarce season,
to part with their provisions, but they managed to secure from kindlier
sources seven hogsheads of corn.
The "idlers" now began to murmur because no effort had been made to
explore the country; and complained that the royal order to go in search
of the "South Sea"--that sea which was to open to them the riches of the
East--had not been obeyed. The great sea perhaps lay not far distant.
Communication with it would be found, they had heard, through some river
running from the northwest. There was the Chickahominy flowing in that
direction,--why was this river not explored?
Their number had now been so much reduced that they hesitated to send any
of their strong men far away from the fort. They remembered the fate of
the Roanoke colony. Perhaps, after all, they had better keep together,
antagonistic as was their attitude towards each other.
Plans were made and abandoned: to return to England or send thither for
supplies; to send to Newfoundland, or to the southern islands. Finally
they resolved to wait as long as possible, and hope for Newport's return.
Anxious eyes scanned the horizon from the moment the sun streamed up from
the sea in the east until he sank behind the mysterious hills in the west.
No sail appeared upon the silent waters. Perhaps they had been abandoned!
Perhaps Newport would never come!
But the frost and snow had already come. The birds had long ago sought
a warmer climate, and the fish would soon be locked in the ice-bound
streams. They durst not wander far enough away from the fort to track
the deer or capture the wild-fowl that abound in winter upon the Virginia
marshes. More than one of their number had ventured only a short distance
away, and been shot full of arrows. Wherever there was a tangle of grass,
or of thick-growing reeds, there would some savage lie in hiding with his
evil eye upon the hated white man.
Finally John Smith yielded to the complaints of the "idlers," and
taking Emry, Casson, and six others, set forth in a barge to "discover
up the Chickahominy river." They set out December 10, in a very severe
spell of cold weather, "to make the famous discovery of the great South
Sea," according to the orders of the London Council. The attempt in the
dead of winter to penetrate a country swarming with savage enemies was
extremely hazardous. In describing his perils and privations, Smith seems
constrained to apologize for the risk to which he exposed himself and his
party. "Though some men," he says,[30] "may condemn this too bould attempt
of too much indiscretion, yet if they will consider the friendship of
the Indians in conducting me" (his two guides), "the probability of some
lucke, and the malicious judges of my actions at home--as also to have
some matters of worth to incourage our adventures in england--might well
have caused any honest mind to have done the like, as well for his own
discharge as for the public good."
This voyage was destined to be an important event in the history of
the birth of our nation, and every step of it merits our attention and
interest.
Captain Smith spent about a month with the Indians and became thoroughly
acquainted with them in their own homes, observed their habits of domestic
life, their rites and ceremonies, and learned something of their strange
language. His residence was solely with the tribe of the Powhatans,
who inhabited the tide-water region of Virginia. Of the Indians in the
interior beyond the mountains he learned nothing except through vague
traditions. But for this voyage we should have lost the beautiful romance
so dear to the hearts of Virginians, and now so sternly challenged and
defended by the historians of the present day.
The barge or shallop proceeded about forty miles up the river without
interruption. At one point a great tree, which he cut in two, hindered the
passage. The land was low and swampy--"a vast and wilde wilderness." Many
years ago, before the days of steam-engines and railway cars, I traversed
this region in a high-swung old Virginia chariot; and the dark river,
coloured from juniper berries, the oozy swamps, the tangled undergrowth,
the rotting trees, with mottled trunks like great serpents, the funereal
moss hanging from the twisted vines, the slimy water-snakes, filled me
with childish fear. I saw it all as John Smith had seen it.
When at last the barge could advance no farther, he returned eight miles
and moored her in a wide bay out of danger. Leaving her in charge of all
his men except two, and taking an Indian guide with him, he went up the
river twenty miles in a canoe. He expressly ordered the men in the barge
not to land until his return. This order they disobeyed, being minded to
make some discoveries of their own. Two of the number left behind were
murdered in the most cruel manner by the savages. The others escaped,
and reached Jamestown in safety. "Having discovered," says Smith, "twenty
miles further in this desart, the river still kept his depth and breadth,
but was much more combred with trees. Here we went ashore, being some 12
miles higher than the barge had bene, to refresh ourselves during the
boyling of our victuals. One of the Indians I tooke with me to see the
nature of the soile and to cross the boughts [windings] of the river.
The other Indian I left with Maister Robinson and Thomas Emry, with their
matches lighted and order to discharge a peece for my retreat at the first
sight of an Indian."
Doubtless this Indian left behind betrayed the party. Doubtless every
step Smith took from the mouth of the Chickahominy was reported by the
spies of Powhatan. No warning shot was fired, and it afterwards appeared
that Robinson and Emry had been slain. Within a short time he heard the
savage war-whoop. His guide, a submissive, peaceful fellow, stood by
him; but Smith thought it unwise to trust in the fidelity of a savage,
and unbuckling one of his garters tied the Indian to his left arm as
a shield. The poor savage "offered not to strive." The two retreated,
walking backward, Smith firing all the way, hoping to reach the canoe;
but he was presently surrounded by two hundred savages with drawn bows.
The great chief Opechancanough was at their head. He writes: "My hinde
treated betwixt them and me of conditions of peace; he discovered me to
be the Captaine. My request was to retire to the boate: they demanded my
arms, the rest they saide were slaine, onely me they would reserve.
"My Indian importuned me not to shoot. In retiring, being in the midst
of a low quagmire and minding them more than my steps, I stept fast in
the quagmire and also the Indian. Thus surprised I resolved to trie their
mercies; my armes I caste from me, till which none durst approach me,
whereupon they drew me out and led me to the king."
[Illustration: Smith's Island, where John Smith was captured by the
Indians.
Copyright, 1906, by Jamestown Official Photo. Corp'n.]
The Indians chafed his benumbed limbs and warmed him by their fire.
His old friend Wochinchopunck, king of the Paspaheghs, interceded for
his release, but he was taken into the presence of Opechancanough. He
presented the chief with a small compass. This incident is told in so
remarkable a manner by William Symondes, "Docteur of Divinitie," that I
venture to give it in his own words. He was the friend of "good Maister
Hunt," and his "Discoveries and Accidents" bore the _imprimatur_ of John
Smith's signature.
"They shewed him Opechakanough, king of Pamawnkee; to whom he gave a
round Ivory double compass Dyall. Much they marvailed at the playing of
the Fly and needle which they could see so plainly and yet not touch it,
because of the glasse that covered them. But when he demonstrated by that
Globe-like Jewell the roundness of the earth, and skies, the spheare of
the Sunne, Moone and Starres, and how the Sunne did chase the night round
about the world continually; the greatnesse of the Land and Sea, the
diversitie of Nations, varietie of complexions, and how we were to them
_Antipodes_ and many such like matters, they all stood as amazed with
admiration." If this address was really spoken as quoted, one cannot fail
to admire the courage and self-possession of a captive who could deliver
a comprehensive address, including land, sea, and the heavens, in a new
language, and in the most unfavourable circumstances that can well be
imagined. We dare not challenge the truth of the assertions. There is the
signature of the Docteur of Divinitie, the friend of good Maister Hunt!
There is the signature of Captain John Smith.
Presently the Indians bound him to a tree and were about to shoot him to
death when the chief, holding up the compass, commanded them to lay down
their bows and arrows. He had not fully understood the "cosmographicall
lecture," and he wished to have the mysterious needle, which he could
see and not touch, made clear to his comprehension. Besides, he was
fully persuaded that he held captive the white man's great commander,
and so important a personage must be brought before his king. Smith was
accordingly fed and refreshed, and they set out with him on a triumphal
march through the land of Powhatan. Marching in Indian file, they led
their captive, guarded by fifteen men, about six miles to a hunting town
in the upper part of the swamp, for this was a hunting party; their women
and children, according to their custom, had built their arbours covered
with mats, kindled the fires, and made ready for the hunters when they
should return laden with deer. All these women and children swarmed forth
to meet the hunters and stare at the strange white man. The chief was
in the finest spirits. He and his followers indulged in the wild Indian
dance of triumph, and their barbarous shouts reached the ears of Smith,
as he lay in the "long house," closely guarded, and trying to solve the
problem of their intentions with regard to himself,--seeing that they
sent him enough bread for twenty men, but refused to eat with him. Were
they fattening him for the sacrifice? Were they cannibals? Alas, he knew
not! "For supper," he writes, "the Captain sent me a quarter of venison
and 10 pounds of bread, and each morning 3 women presented me three great
platters of fine bread, and more venison than ten men could devour I had."
He might well dread, with Polonius, that he was to eat that he might be
eaten. True, William White, one of the boys brought out with the colony,
had run away, and lived among them six months, and had been returned
through some caprice. The boy had discovered they were "noe Cannabells."
Still their god, Okeus, might demand a human sacrifice; and who so
acceptable to the deity as the irreverent white man who had captured his
image but a short time before!
Opechancanough had deeper reasons for his clemency than the desire to
possess and understand the mariner's compass. He had long meditated an
attack upon Jamestown, and he now sought to entice Smith to join and aid
him. We read that he offered him life, liberty, and as many wives as he
wanted,--and although there were no interpreters, Captain Smith seems
to have understood him. Indian words go far--there are few of them. By
gesture, intonation, accent, the Indian can give to one word as much
meaning as an Englishman can express in half a dozen. It is a strange
language, this of the Powhatans, but it had one excellence: under no
circumstances could a dialect story be evolved from it!
The information of a projected assault upon Jamestown filled Captain
Smith with alarm. He managed to make Opechancanough understand that
presents would be sent to him if he could communicate with Jamestown,
and finally three men were placed at his disposal as messengers. Tearing
a blank leaf from the little book he carried, he wrote a note, probably
to George Percy, telling of the proposed assault, directing what means
should be used to terrify the messengers, and what presents should be sent
to placate his captors. Three naked savages set forth on his errand "in
as bitter weather as could be of frost and snow; and in three days they
returned with the presents to the wonder of them all that heard it, that
he could either divine, or the paper could speake." The colonists had
done their part. The messengers brought thrilling reports of the terrors
by which the fort was environed, the mines, and the monstrous guns,
exploding with infernal smoke, and belching with thunder. The attempt
upon the colony was abandoned for the present and the march resumed, no
doubt undertaken in the same spirit that inspired the Roman conquerors,
when they led their captives in triumph. The route of the procession was
arranged to gratify the curiosity of all the tribes who were on terms
of friendship with the chief. Their priests and conjurers were brought
to terrify the prisoner with their infernal incantations. Smeared with
oil and paint, begrimed with black and red, garbed in the skins of wild
beasts, they danced around him for three days, shaking snake-rattles
over his head with shrieks and howling, "as if," writes the "Docteur of
Divinitie,"
"neere led to hell
amongst the Devills to dwell."
The details of their orgies are too disgusting for repetition. No wonder,
as the captive tells us, he had hideous dreams! As our rhyming clergyman
hath it:--
"His wakynge mind in hideous dreams did oft see wondrous shapes
Of bodies strange and huge in growth and of stupendous makes."
But he preserved a bold front, this stout-hearted Briton, and for aught
his enemies knew to the contrary his courage never forsook him. They had
captured a bag of gunpowder in the barge, and he encouraged them to keep
it for the spring-sowing that it might yield an abundant crop like grain.
They returned his pistol, that he might instruct them in its use, but he
contrived to break the lock of the weapon as if by accident.
When near the end of their journey, they received an invitation from the
great chief, Opitchipan, Powhatan's brother and heir to the kingdom,
to spend a few days at his house. There a banquet was spread for the
prisoner, whether to impress him with a sense of the chief's grandeur, or
to strengthen him for enduring the fate that awaited him, we cannot tell.
Great platters of bread, venison, and wild fowl were spread before him,
"but not any one would eat with him." The fragments in every case were
collected in baskets and hung over his head while he slept, or feigned to
sleep, and if rejected a second time were given to the women and children.
At length, after a long journey by a circuitous route which brought him
within twelve miles of Jamestown, he was conducted to Werowocomoco, the
residence of the great Powhatan, situated on the north side of York River.
He was not immediately conducted into the presence of the emperor, but
remained for several days in the forest at some distance. His reception,
it appears, was to be the occasion of much pomp and ceremonial, far
exceeding anything he had yet seen. These despised palefaces, who wore
outlandish garments and hair on their faces, who could fire great guns
that battered down the limbs of trees, who had no wives of their own and
declined to accept them from others--these fellows should see how the
great Powhatan held his court. Kept in waiting, accordingly, the captive
was thronged by curious crowds who watched him from morning until night.
"Grim courtiers," he tells us, "more than two hundred, who stood gazing
as they had seen some monster."