As we are not endeavoring to write the early history of Virginia, but
only to trace Smith's share in it, we proceed with his exploits after
the arrival of the first supply, consisting of near a hundred men, in
two ships, one commanded by Captain Newport and the other by Captain
Francis Nelson. The latter, when in sight of Cape Henry, was driven by
a storm back to the West Indies, and did not arrive at James River with
his vessel, the Phoenix, till after the departure of Newport for England
with his load of “golddust,” and Master Wingfield and Captain Arthur.
In his “True Relation,” Smith gives some account of his exploration of
the Pamunkey River, which he sometimes calls the “Youghtamand,” upon
which, where the water is salt, is the town of Werowocomoco. It can
serve no purpose in elucidating the character of our hero to attempt to
identify all the places he visited.
It was at Werowocomoco that Smith observed certain conjurations of the
medicine men, which he supposed had reference to his fate. From ten
o'clock in the morning till six at night, seven of the savages, with
rattles in their hands, sang and danced about the fire, laying down
grains of corn in circles, and with vehement actions, casting cakes of
deer suet, deer, and tobacco into the fire, howling without ceasing.
One of them was “disfigured with a great skin, his head hung around with
little skins of weasels and other vermin, with a crownlet of feathers
on his head, painted as ugly as the devil.” So fat they fed him that
he much doubted they intended to sacrifice him to the Quiyoughquosicke,
which is a superior power they worship: a more uglier thing cannot
be described. These savages buried their dead with great sorrow and
weeping, and they acknowledge no resurrection. Tobacco they offer to the
water to secure a good passage in foul weather. The descent of the crown
is to the first heirs of the king's sisters, “for the kings have as many
women as they will, the subjects two, and most but one.”
After Smith's return, as we have read, he was saved from a plot to take
his life by the timely arrival of Captain Newport. Somewhere about this
time the great fire occurred. Smith was now one of the Council; Martin
and Matthew Scrivener, just named, were also councilors. Ratcliffe
was still President. The savages, owing to their acquaintance with and
confidence in Captain Smith, sent in abundance of provision. Powhatan
sent once or twice a week “deer, bread, raugroughcuns (probably not
to be confounded with the rahaughcuns [raccoons] spoken of before, but
probably 'rawcomens,' mentioned in the Description of Virginia), half
for Smith, and half for his father, Captain Newport.” Smith had, in his
intercourse with the natives, extolled the greatness of Newport, so that
they conceived him to be the chief and all the rest his children, and
regarded him as an oracle, if not a god.
Powhatan and the rest had, therefore, a great desire to see this mighty
person. Smith says that the President and Council greatly envied his
reputation with the Indians, and wrought upon them to believe, by
giving in trade four times as much as the price set by Smith, that their
authority exceeded his as much as their bounty.
We must give Smith the credit of being usually intent upon the building
up of the colony, and establishing permanent and livable relations with
the Indians, while many of his companions in authority seemed to regard
the adventure as a temporary occurrence, out of which they would make
what personal profit they could. The new-comers on a vessel always
demoralized the trade with the Indians, by paying extravagant prices.
Smith's relations with Captain Newport were peculiar. While he magnified
him to the Indians as the great power, he does not conceal his own
opinion of his ostentation and want of shrewdness. Smith's attitude
was that of a priest who puts up for the worship of the vulgar an idol,
which he knows is only a clay image stuffed with straw.
In the great joy of the colony at the arrival of the first supply, leave
was given to sailors to trade with the Indians, and the new-comers soon
so raised prices that it needed a pound of copper to buy a quantity
of provisions that before had been obtained for an ounce. Newport
sent great presents to Powhatan, and, in response to the wish of the
“Emperor,” prepared to visit him. “A great coyle there was to set him
forward,” says Smith. Mr. Scrivener and Captain Smith, and a guard of
thirty or forty, accompanied him. On this expedition they found the
mouth of the Pamaunck (now York) River. Arriving at Werowocomoco,
Newport, fearing treachery, sent Smith with twenty men to land and
make a preliminary visit. When they came ashore they found a network of
creeks which were crossed by very shaky bridges, constructed of crotched
sticks and poles, which had so much the appearance of traps that Smith
would not cross them until many of the Indians had preceded him, while
he kept others with him as hostages. Three hundred savages conducted
him to Powhatan, who received him in great state. Before his house were
ranged forty or fifty great platters of fine bread. Entering his house,
“with loude tunes they made all signs of great joy.” In the first
account Powhatan is represented as surrounded by his principal women and
chief men, “as upon a throne at the upper end of the house, with such
majesty as I cannot express, nor yet have often seen, either in Pagan
or Christian.” In the later account he is “sitting upon his bed of mats,
his pillow of leather embroidered (after their rude manner with pearls
and white beads), his attire a fair robe of skins as large as an Irish
mantel; at his head and feet a handsome young woman; on each side of his
house sat twenty of his concubines, their heads and shoulders painted
red, with a great chain of white beads about each of their necks. Before
those sat his chiefest men in like order in his arbor-like house.”
This is the scene that figures in the old copper-plate engravings. The
Emperor welcomed Smith with a kind countenance, caused him to sit beside
him, and with pretty discourse they renewed their old acquaintance.
Smith presented him with a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a
hat. The Queen of Apamatuc, a comely young savage, brought him water,
a turkeycock, and bread to eat. Powhatan professed great content with
Smith, but desired to see his father, Captain Newport. He inquired also
with a merry countenance after the piece of ordnance that Smith had
promised to send him, and Smith, with equal jocularity, replied that he
had offered the men four demi-culverins, which they found too heavy
to carry. This night they quartered with Powhatan, and were liberally
feasted, and entertained with singing, dancing, and orations.
The next day Captain Newport came ashore. The two monarchs exchanged
presents. Newport gave Powhatan a white boy thirteen years old, named
Thomas Savage. This boy remained with the Indians and served the colony
many years as an interpreter. Powhatan gave Newport in return a bag of
beans and an Indian named Namontack for his servant. Three or four days
they remained, feasting, dancing, and trading with the Indians.
In trade the wily savage was more than a match for Newport. He affected
great dignity; it was unworthy such great werowances to dicker; it
was not agreeable to his greatness in a peddling manner to trade for
trifles; let the great Newport lay down his commodities all together,
and Powhatan would take what he wished, and recompense him with a proper
return. Smith, who knew the Indians and their ostentation, told Newport
that the intention was to cheat him, but his interference was resented.
The result justified Smith's suspicion. Newport received but four
bushels of corn when he should have had twenty hogsheads. Smith then
tried his hand at a trade. With a few blue beads, which he represented
as of a rare substance, the color of the skies, and worn by the greatest
kings in the world, he so inflamed the desire of Powhatan that he was
half mad to possess such strange jewels, and gave for them 200 to 300
bushels of corn, “and yet,” says Smith, “parted good friends.”
At this time Powhatan, knowing that they desired to invade or explore
Monacan, the country above the Falls, proposed an expedition, with
men and boats, and “this faire tale had almost made Captain Newport
undertake by this means to discover the South Sea,” a project which the
adventurers had always in mind. On this expedition they sojourned also
with the King of Pamaunke.
Captain Newport returned to England on the 10th of April. Mr. Scrivener
and Captain Smith were now in fact the sustainers of the colony. They
made short expeditions of exploration. Powhatan and other chiefs still
professed friendship and sent presents, but the Indians grew more and
more offensive, lurking about and stealing all they could lay hands on.
Several of them were caught and confined in the fort, and, guarded,
were conducted to the morning and evening prayers. By threats and slight
torture, the captives were made to confess the hostile intentions of
Powhatan and the other chiefs, which was to steal their weapons and then
overpower the colony. Rigorous measures were needed to keep the Indians
in check, but the command from England not to offend the savages was so
strict that Smith dared not chastise them as they deserved. The history
of the colony all this spring of 1608 is one of labor and discontent, of
constant annoyance from the Indians, and expectations of attacks. On the
20th of April, while they were hewing trees and setting corn, an alarm
was given which sent them all to their arms. Fright was turned into joy
by the sight of the Phoenix, with Captain Nelson and his company, who
had been for three months detained in the West Indies, and given up for
lost.
Being thus re-enforced, Smith and Scrivener desired to explore the
country above the Falls, and got ready an expedition. But this, Martin,
who was only intent upon loading the return ship with “his phantastical
gold,” opposed, and Nelson did not think he had authority to allow it,
unless they would bind themselves to pay the hire of the ships.
The project was therefore abandoned. The Indians continued their
depredations. Messages daily passed between the fort and the Indians,
and treachery was always expected. About this time the boy Thomas Savage
was returned, with his chest and clothing.
The colony had now several of the Indians detained in the fort. At this
point in the “True Relation” occurs the first mention of Pocahontas.
Smith says: “Powhatan, understanding we detained certain Salvages, sent
his daughter, a child of tenne years old, which not only for feature,
countenance, and proportion much exceeded any of his people, but for wit
and spirit, the only nonpareil of his country.” She was accompanied by
his trusty messenger Rawhunt, a crafty and deformed savage, who assured
Smith how much Powhatan loved and respected him and, that he should not
doubt his kindness, had sent his child, whom he most esteemed, to see
him, and a deer, and bread besides for a present; “desiring us that the
boy might come again, which he loved exceedingly, his little daughter
he had taught this lesson also: not taking notice at all of the Indians
that had been prisoners three days, till that morning that she saw their
fathers and friends come quietly and in good terms to entreat their
liberty.”
Opechancanough (the King of “Pamauk”) also sent asking the release of
two that were his friends; and others, apparently with confidence in the
whites, came begging for the release of the prisoners. “In the afternoon
they being gone, we guarded them [the prisoners] as before to the
church, and after prayer gave them to Pocahuntas, the King's daughter,
in regard to her father's kindness in sending her: after having well fed
them, as all the time of their imprisonment, we gave them their bows,
arrows, or what else they had, and with much content sent them packing;
Pocahuntas, also, we requited with such trifles as contented her, to
tell that we had used the Paspaheyans very kindly in so releasing them.”
This account would show that Pocahontas was a child of uncommon dignity
and self-control for her age. In his letter to Queen Anne, written in
1616, he speaks of her as aged twelve or thirteen at the time of his
captivity, several months before this visit to the fort.
The colonists still had reasons to fear ambuscades from the savages
lurking about in the woods. One day a Paspahean came with a glittering
mineral stone, and said he could show them great abundance of it. Smith
went to look for this mine, but was led about hither and thither in the
woods till he lost his patience and was convinced that the Indian was
fooling him, when he gave him twenty lashes with a rope, handed him his
bows and arrows, told him to shoot if he dared, and let him go. Smith
had a prompt way with the Indians. He always traded “squarely” with
them, kept his promises, and never hesitated to attack or punish them
when they deserved it. They feared and respected him.
The colony was now in fair condition, in good health, and contented; and
it was believed, though the belief was not well founded, that they would
have lasting peace with the Indians. Captain Nelson's ship, the Phoenix,
was freighted with cedar wood, and was despatched for England June 8,
1608. Captain Martin, “always sickly and unserviceable, and desirous
to enjoy the credit of his supposed art of finding the gold mine,” took
passage. Captain Nelson probably carried Smith's “True Relation.”