CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
(A.D. 1606‒1631.)
The first four of the following extracts are from Smith’s
“Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer
Isles” (edition of 1626), pp. 39‒49. The next four are from
the “Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia,” by William
Strachey, secretary of the Virginia Colony. Reprinted by the
Hakluyt Society (1849), pp. 49‒52, 57, 58, 80, 81, 110, 111. The
ninth is from the “Generall Historie,” p. 219. The tenth is from
“A Description of New England, by Captain John Smith,” printed
in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, 3d series, vol. vi.
pp. 109, 121. The eleventh is from the “Generall Historie,”
pp. 121‒123. The last two are from “Advertisements for the
Unexperienced Planters of New England or anywhere, by Captaine
John Smith, sometimes Governour of Virginia, and Admirall of
New England.” London, 1631. Reprinted in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d
series, vol. iii. pp. 7, 29, 30, 44. There is a memoir of Captain
Smith, by G. S. Hillard, in Sparks’s “American Biography,” vol. ii.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
I.――CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH IN VIRGINIA.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLL,[269] one of the first movers of this
plantation, having many years solicited many of his friends, but found
small assistance, at last prevailed with some gentlemen, as Captain
John Smith, Mr. Edward Maria Wingfield, Mr. Robert Hunt, and divers
others, who depended[270] a year upon his projects; but nothing could
be effected, till, by their great charge and industry, it came to be
apprehended by certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, so that
his Majesty by his letters-patents gave commission for establishing
councils to direct here, and to govern and to execute there. To
effect this was spent another year; and by that, three ships were
provided,――one of a hundred tons, another of forty, and a pinnace[271]
of twenty. The transportation of the company was committed to Captain
Christopher Newport, a mariner well practiced for the western parts of
America. But their orders for government were put in a box, not to be
opened, nor the governors known, until they arrived in Virginia.
On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwall, but by
unprosperous winds were kept six weeks in the sight of England....
We watered at the Canaries. We traded with the savages at Dominica.
Three weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves among the West India Isles.
In Gaudaloupe we found a bath so hot, as in it we boiled pork as well
as over the fire; and, at a little isle called Monica, we took from
the bushes with our hands, near two hogsheads full of birds in three or
four hours. In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles, we spent some time,
where, with a loathsome beast like a crocodile, called a gwayn,[272]
tortoises, pelicans, parrots, and fishes, we daily feasted. Gone from
thence in search of Virginia, the company was not a little discomforted,
seeing the mariners had three days passed their reckoning,[273] and
found no land; so that Captain Ratliffe, captain of the pinnace, rather
desired to bear up the helm to return for England than make further
search. But God the guider of all good actions, forcing them by an
extreme storm to hull[274] all night, did drive them by his providence
to their desired port, beyond all their expectation; for never any of
them had seen that coast.
The first land they made they called Cape Henry, where thirty of them,
recreating themselves on shore, were assaulted by five savages, who
hurt two of the English very dangerously. That night was the box opened,
and the orders read, in which Bartholomew Gosnoll, John Smith, Edward
Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratliffe, John Martin, and George
Kendall, were named to be the council, and to choose a president among
them for a year, who, with the council, should govern. Matters of
moment were to be examined by a jury, but determined by the major part
of the council, in which the president had two voices. Until the 13th
of May, they sought a place to plant[275] in; then the council was
sworn, Mr. Wingfield was chosen president, and an oration made[276] why
Captain Smith was not admitted of the council as the rest.
Now falleth every man to work: the council contrive the fort, the
rest cut down trees to make place to pitch their tents, some provide
clapboard to relade the ships, some make gardens, some nets, &c.
The savages often visited us kindly. The president’s overweening
jealousy[277] would admit no exercise at arms, or fortification but
the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a half-moon. By the
extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall, Newport, Smith,
and twenty others, were sent to discover the head of the river.[278]
By divers small habitations they passed. In six days they arrive at
a town called Powhatan, consisting of some twelve houses pleasantly
seated on a hill, before it three fertile isles, about it many of their
cornfields. The place is very pleasant, and strong by nature. Of this
place the prince is called Powhatan, and his people Powhatans. To this
place the river is navigable; but higher within a mile, by reason of
the rocks and isles, there is not passage for a small boat. This they
call the falls. The people in all parts kindly entreated[279] them,
till, being returned within twenty miles of Jamestown, they gave just
cause of jealousy. But had God not blessed the discoverers otherwise
than those at the fort, there had then been an end of that plantation;
for at the fort, where they arrived the next day, they found seventeen
men hurt, and a boy slain by the savages. And had it not chanced a
cross-bar shot[280] from the ships struck down a bough from a tree
amongst them, that caused them to retire, our men had all been slain,
being securely all at work, and their arms in dry-vats.[281]
Hereupon the president was willing the fort should be palisaded,[282]
the ordnance mounted, his men armed and exercised, for many were
the assaults and ambuscades of the savages; and our men, by their
disorderly straggling, were often hurt, when the savages, by the
nimbleness of their heels, well escaped. What toil we had, with so
small a power to guard our workmen a-days,[283] watch all night, resist
our enemies, and effect our business, to relade the ships, cut down
trees, and prepare the ground to plant our corn, &c. I refer to the
reader’s consideration.
II.――THE VIRGINIA COLONISTS.
BEING, for most part, of such tender educations, and small experience
in martial accidents, because they found [neither] English cities,
nor such fair houses, nor at their own wishes any of their accustomed
dainties, with feather-beds and downy pillows, taverns and alehouses
in every breathing-place, neither such plenty of gold and silver, and
dissolute liberty, as they expected, had little or no care of any thing
but to ... procure their means to return for England. For the country
was to them a misery, a ruin, a death, a hell, and their reports here
and their actions there according.
Some other there were that had yearly stipends[284] to pass to and
again for transportation. And those with their great words deluded
the world with such strange promises as abused the business much worse
than the rest. For the business being builded upon the foundation of
their feigned experience, the planters, the money, and means have still
miscarried; yet they ever returning, and the planters so far absent,
who could contradict their excuses? Which, still to maintain their
vain glory and estimation from time to time, have used such diligence
as made them pass for truths, though nothing more false. And, that
the adventurers might be thus abused, let no man wonder; for the
wisest living is soonest abused by him that hath a fair tongue and
a dissembling heart.
There were many in Virginia merely projecting, verbal and idle
contemplators,[285] and those so devoted to pure idleness, that, though
they had lived two or three years in Virginia, lordly necessity itself
could not compel them to pass the peninsula or palisades of Jamestown;
and those witty spirits, what would they not affirm in behalf of our
transporters[286] to get victual from their ships, or obtain their good
words in England to get their passes! Thus from the clamors and the
influence of false informers are sprung those disasters that sprung in
Virginia; and our ingenious verbalists[287] were no less a plague to us
in Virginia than the locusts to the Egyptians. For the labor of twenty
or thirty of the best only preserved in Christianity by their industry
the idle lives of near two hundred of the rest, who, living near
ten months of such natural means as the country naturally of itself
affordeth. Notwithstanding all this, and the worst fury of the savages,
the extremity of sickness, mutinies, faction, ignorances, and want of
victual, in all that time I lost but seven or eight men, yet subjected
the savages to our desired obedience, and received contribution from
thirty-five of their kings, to protect and assist them against any that
should assault them. In which order they continued true and faithful,
and as subjects to his Majesty, so long after as I did govern there,
until I left the country.
III.――SMITH CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS.
AND now the winter approaching, the rivers became so covered with
swans, geese, ducks, and cranes, that we daily feasted with good
bread, Virginia peas, pumpkins and putchamins,[288] fish, fowl, and
divers sorts of wild beasts as fat as we could eat them: so that none
of our tuftaffatty humorists[289] desired to go for England. But our
comedies never endured long without a tragedy; some idle exceptions
being muttered against Captain Smith for not discovering the head of
Chickahamania[290] River, and taxed by the council to be too slow in so
worthy an attempt. The next voyage he proceeded so far, that, with much
labor by cutting of trees asunder, he made his passage; but, when his
barge could pass no farther, he left her in a broad bay, out of danger
of shot, commanding none should go ashore until his return. Himself,
with two English and two savages, went up higher in a canoe; but he was
not long absent. But his men went ashore, whose want of government gave
both occasion and opportunity to the savages to surprise one George
Cassen, whom they slew, and much failed not[291] to have cut off the
boat and all the rest. Smith, little dreaming of that accident, being
got to the marshes at the river’s head, twenty miles in the desert, had
his two men slain, as is supposed, sleeping by the canoe, while himself,
by fowling, sought them victuals; who finding he was beset with two
hundred savages, two of them he slew, still defending himself with the
aid of a savage, his guide, whom he bound to his arms with his garters,
and used him as a buckler; yet he was shot in his thigh a little, and
had many arrows that stuck in his clothes, but no great hurt till at
last they took him prisoner. When this news came to Jamestown, much
was their sorrow for his loss, few expecting what ensued. Six or seven
weeks those barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphs and
conjurations they made of him; yet he so demeaned himself among them,
as he not only diverted them from surprising the fort, but procured
his own liberty, and got himself and his company such estimation
amongst them, that those savages admired him more than their own
Quiyougkcosoucks.[292] The manner how they used and delivered him is
as followeth.
Illustration: OLD PRINT OF SMITH’S CAPTURE.
The savages having drawn from George Cassen whither Capt. Smith was
gone, prosecuting that opportunity, they followed him with three
hundred bowmen, conducted by the King of Pamaunkee, who in divisions,
searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and Emry by the
fireside: those they shot full of arrows, and slew. Then finding the
captain, as is said, that used the savage that was his guide as his
shield,――three of them being slain, and divers others so galled,――all
the rest would not come near him. Thinking thus to have returned to his
boat, regarding them, as he marched more than his way, slipped up to
the middle in an oozy[293] creek, and his savage with him; yet durst
they not come to him, till, being near dead with cold, he threw away
his arms. Then according to their composition[294] they drew him forth,
and led him to the fire, where his men were slain. Diligently they
chafed his benumbed limbs.
He demanding for their captain, they showed him Opechankanough, King
of Pamaunkee, to whom he gave a round ivory double compass-dial. Much
they marvelled at the playing of the fly and needle, which they could
see so plainly, and yet not touch it, because of the glass that covered
them. But when he demonstrated by that globe-like jewel the roundness
of the earth and skies, the sphere of the sun, moon, and stars, and
how the sun did chase the night round about the world continually, the
greatness of the land and sea, the diversity of nations, variety of
complexions, and how we were to them antipodes, and many other such
like matters, they all stood as amazed with admiration. Notwithstanding,
without an hour after, they tied him to a tree, and as many as could
stand about him prepared to shoot him; but, the king holding up the
compass in his hand, they all laid down their bows and arrows, and in
a triumphant manner led him to Orapaks, where he was after their manner
kindly feasted, and well used.
Their order in conducting him was thus: drawing themselves all in
file, the king in the midst, had all their pieces and swords borne
before him. Captain Smith was led after him by three great savages,
holding him fast by each arm; and on each side six went in file with
their arrows nocked.[295] But arriving at the town,――which was only
thirty or forty hunting-houses made of mats, which they remove as
they please, as we our tents,――all the women and children staring to
behold him, the soldiers first, all in file, performed the form of
a bissom[296] so well as could be; and on each flank, officers as
sergeants to see them keep their order. A good time they continued this
exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dancing in such several
postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches;
being strangely painted, every one his quiver of arrows, and at his
back a club; on his arm a fox or an otter’s skin, or some such matter
for his vambrace;[297] their heads and shoulders painted red with oil
and pocones[298] mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an
exceeding handsome show; his bow in his hand, and the skin of a bird
with her wings abroad dried, tied on his head, a piece of copper, a
white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails
of their snakes tied to it, or some such like toy. All this while,
Smith and the king stood in the midst, guarded, as before is said; and
after three dances they all departed. Smith they conducted to a long
house, where thirty or forty tall fellows did guard him; and ere long
more bread and venison was brought him than would have served twenty
men. I think his stomach[299] at that time was not very good: what he
left they put in baskets, and tied over his head. About midnight, they
set the meat again before him, all this time not one of them would eat
a bit with him, till the next morning they brought him as much more;
and then did they eat all the old, and reserved the new as they had
done the other, which made him think they would fat him to eat him. Yet
in this desperate estate to defend him from the cold, one Maocassater
brought him his gown, in requital of some beads and toys Smith had
given him at his first arrival in Virginia.
IV.――CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS.
[This narrative is taken from Smith’s “Generall Historie.” It
was possibly written by Captain Smith, but is now generally
disbelieved by historical students, because it is inconsistent
with an earlier account of the same events, also written by
Smith, and because the incident is not mentioned by Strachey,
who also described the Virginia Colony.]
TWO days after, a man would have slain him――but that the guard
prevented it――for the death of his son, to whom they conducted him to
recover the poor man, then breathing his last. Smith told them that at
Jamestown he had a water would do, if they would let him fetch it. But
they would not permit that, but made all the preparations they could to
assault Jamestown, craving his advice, and, for recompense, he should
have life, liberty, land, and women. In part of a table book[300] he
wrote his mind to them at the fort,――what was intended, how they should
follow that direction to affright the messengers, and without fail
send him such things as he wrote for; and an inventory with them. The
difficulty and danger he told the savages, of the mines, great guns,
and other engines, exceedingly affrighted them; yet, according to his
request, they went to Jamestown in as bitter weather as could be of
frost and snow, and within three days returned with an answer.
But when they came to Jamestown, seeing men sally out, as he had told
them they would, they fled. Yet in the night they came again to the
same place where he had told them they should receive an answer, and
such things as he had promised them; which they found accordingly, and
with which they returned, with no small expedition, to the wonder of
them all that heard it, that he could either divine, or the paper could
speak....
Not long after, early in a morning, a great fire was made in a long
house, and a mat spread on the one side as on the other. On the one
they caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of the house; and
presently came skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted over with
coal, mingled with oil, and many snakes’ and weasels’ skins stuffed
with moss, and all their tails tied together, so as they met on the
crown of his head in a tassel. And round about the tassel was as a
coronet of feathers, the skins hanging round about his head, back, and
shoulders, and in a manner covered his face; with a hellish voice, and
a rattle in his hand. With most strange gestures and passions, he began
his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of meal; which
done, three more such like devils came rushing in with the like antic
tricks, painted half black, half red; but all their eyes were painted
white, and some red strokes like mustaches along their cheeks. Round
about him those fiends danced a pretty while; and then came in three
more as ugly as the rest, with red eyes, and white strokes over their
black faces. At last they all sat down right against him, three of them
on the one hand of the chief priest, and three on the other. Then all
with their rattles began a song; which ended, the chief priest laid
down five wheat-corns; then straining his arms and hands with such
violence that he sweat, and his veins swelled, he began a short oration:
at the conclusion they all gave a short groan, and then laid down
three grains more. After that began their song again, and then another
oration, ever laying down so many corns as before, till they had twice
encircled the fire. That done, they took a bunch of little sticks
prepared for that purpose, continuing still their devotion; and at
the end of every song and oration they laid down a stick betwixt the
divisions of corn. Till night, neither he nor they did either eat or
drink, and then they feasted merrily, with the best provisions they
could make. Three days they used this ceremony, the meaning whereof,
they told him, was to know if he intended them well or no. The circle
of meal signified their county; the circles of corn, the boundaries
of the sea; and the sticks, his country. They imagined the world to be
flat and round like a trencher, and they in the middle. After this they
brought him a bag of gunpowder, which they carefully preserved until
the next spring, to plant, as they did their corn, because they would
be acquainted with the nature of that seed. Opitchapam, the king’s
brother, invited him to his house, where, with as many platters of
bread, fowl, and wild beasts as did environ him, he bid him welcome;
but not any of them would eat a bit with him, but put up all the
remainder in baskets....
Illustration: FACSIMILE ILLUSTRATION FROM SMITH’S “GENERAL
HISTORY.”
At last they brought him to Meronocomoco,[301] where was Powhatan,
their emperor. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers stood
wondering at him, as he had been a monster, till Powhatan and his train
had put themselves in their greatest braveries.[302] Before a fire,
upon a seat like a bedstead, he sat, covered with a great robe made of
raccoon-skins, and all the tails hanging by. On either hand did sit a
young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on each side the
house two rows of men, and behind them as many women, with all their
heads and shoulders painted red, many of their heads bedecked with the
white down of birds; but every one with something; and a great chain of
white beads about their necks. At his entrance before the king, all the
people gave a great shout. The Queen of Appamatuck[303] was appointed
to bring him water to wash his hands; and another brought him a bunch
of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him after
the best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation was held;
but the conclusion was, two great stones were brought before Powhatan.
Then as many as could laid hands on him,[304] dragged him to them, and
thereon laid his head; and being ready with their clubs to beat out his
brains, Pocahontas, the king’s dearest daughter, when no entreaty could
prevail, got his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his, to save
him from death.[305] Whereat the emperor was contented he should live
to make him hatchets, and her bells, beads, and copper; for they
thought him as well[306] of all occupations as themselves. For the king
himself will make his own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, pots; plant, hunt,
or do any thing so well as the rest....
Two days after, Powhatan, having disguised himself in the most
fearfulest manner he could, caused Captain Smith to be brought forth
to a great house in the woods, and there, upon a mat by the fire, to
be left alone. Not long after, from behind a mat that divided the house
was made the most dolefulest noise he ever heard; then Powhatan, more
like a devil than a man, with some two hundred more as black as himself,
came unto him, and told him now they were friends, and presently he
should go to Jamestown, to send him two great guns and a grindstone,
for which he would give him the country of Capahowosick, and forever
esteem him as his son Nantaquond. So to Jamestown with twelve guides
Powhatan sent him. That night they quartered in the woods, he still
expecting――as he had done all this long time of his imprisonment――every
hour to be put to one death or other, for all their feasting. But
Almighty God by his divine providence had mollified the hearts of
those stern barbarians with compassion. The next morning betimes,
they came to the fort, where Smith, having used the savages with what
kindness he could, he showed Rawhunt, Powhatan’s trusty servant, two
demi-culverins[307] and a millstone, to carry Powhatan. They found
them somewhat too heavy; but when they did see him discharge them,
being loaded with stones, among the boughs of a great tree loaded with
icicles, the ice and branches came so tumbling down, that the poor
savages ran away half dead with fear. But at last we regained some
conference [308] with them, and gave them such toys, and sent to
Powhatan, his women, and children, such presents, as gave them, in
general, full content.
V.――KING POWHATAN.
HE is a goodly old man, not yet shrinking, though well beaten with
many cold and stormy winters, in which he hath been patient of many
necessities and attempts of his fortune to make his name and family
great. He is supposed to be little less than eighty years old, I dare
not say how much more. Others say he is of a tall stature and clean
limbs, of a sad aspect, round, fat-visaged, with gray hairs, but plain
and thin, hanging upon his broad shoulders; some few hairs upon his
chin, and so on his upper lip. He hath been a strong and able savage,
sinewy, and of a daring spirit, vigilant, ambitious, subtile to enlarge
his dominions.... Cruel he hath been, and quarrelsome, as well with his
own _weroances_[309] for trifles, and that to strike a terror and awe
into them of his power and condition, as also with his neighbors, in
his younger days, though now delighted in security and pleasure....
Watchful he is over us, and keeps good espial[310] upon our proceedings,
concerning which he hath his sentinels, that――at what time soever any
of our boats, pinnaces, or ships come in, fall down, or make up the
river――give the alarm, and take it quickly one from the other, until
it reach and come even to the court or hunting-house, wheresoever he
and his _cronoccoes_, that is, councillors and priests, are; and then
he calls to advise, and gives out directions what is to be done....
About his person ordinarily attendeth a guard of forty or fifty of the
tallest men his country do afford. Every night, upon the four quarters
of his house, are four sentinels drawn forth, each standing from other
a flight-shot;[311] and at every half-hour, one from the _corps de
garde_[312] doth halloo, unto whom every sentinel returns answer round
from his stand: if any fail, an officer is presently sent forth that
beateth him extremely. The word _weroance_, which we call and construe
for a king, is a common word, whereby they call all commanders; for
they have but few words in their language, and but few occasions to
use any officers more than one commander, which commonly they call
_weroance_.
It is strange to see with what great fear and adoration all this
people do obey this Powhatan; for at his feet they present whatsoever
he commandeth: and at the least frown of his brow the greatest will
tremble, it may be because he is very terrible and inexorable in
punishing such as offend him.... And sure it is to be wondered at, how
such a barbarous and uncivil prince should take unto him――adorned and
set forth with no great outward ornament and munificence――a form and
ostentation of such majesty as he expresseth, which oftentimes strikes
awe and sufficient wonder in our people presenting themselves before
him.
VI.――A VIRGINIA PRINCESS.
NOR is [she] so handsome a savage woman as I have seen amongst them,
yet with a kind of pride can take upon her a show of greatness; for we
have seen her forbear to come out of her _quintan_, or boat, through
the water, as the other, both maids and married women, usually do,
unless she were carried forth between two of her servants. I was once
early at her house――it being summer time――when she was laid without
doors, under the shadow of a broad-leaved tree, upon a pallet of osiers,
spread over with four or five fine gray mats, herself covered with
a fair white dressed deerskin or two; and, when she rose, she had a
maid who fetched her a frontall[313] of white coral, and pendants of
great but imperfect colored and worse drilled pearls, which she put
into her ears, and a chain with long links of copper, which they call
_tapoantaminais_, and which came twice or thrice about her neck, and
they account a jolly ornament. And sure thus attired, with some variety
of feathers and flowers stuck in their hairs, they seem as debonaire,
quaint, and well pleased as ... a daughter of the house of Austria[314]
decked with all her jewels. Likewise, her maid fetched her a mantle,
which they call _puttawus_, which is like a side cloak, made of blue
feathers, so artificially and thick sewed together, that it seemed
like a deep purple satin, and is very smooth and sleek; and after,
she brought her water for her hands, and then a branch or two of fresh
green ashen leaves, as for a towel to dry them.
VII.――AN INDIAN DANCE IN VIRGINIA.
Illustration: INDIAN DANCE.
AS for their dancing, the sport seems unto them, and the use, almost as
frequent and necessary as their meat and drink, in which they consume
much time, and for which they appoint many and often meetings, and
have therefore, as it were, set orgies[315] or festivals for the same
pastime, as have yet at this day the merry Greeks.... At our colony’s
first sitting down amongst them, when any of our people repaired[316]
to their towns, the Indians would not think they had expressed their
welcome sufficiently enough, until they had showed them a dance, the
manner of which is thus. One of them standeth by, with some fur or
leather thing in his left hand, upon which he beats with his right
hand, and sings withal, as if he began the choir, and kept unto the
rest their just time; when upon a certain stroke or more,――as upon
his cue or time to come in,――one riseth up, and begins to dance. After
he hath danced a while, steps forth another, as if he came in just upon
his rest; and in this order all of them, so many as there be, one after
another, who then dance an equal distance from each other in ring,
shouting, howling, and stamping their feet against the ground with
such force and pain, that they sweat again, and with all varieties of
strange mimic tricks and distorted faces, making so confused a yell and
noise as so many frantic and disquieted bacchanals; and sure they will
keep stroke just with their feet to the time he gives, and just one
with another, but with the hands, head, face, and body, every one hath
a several gesture. And those who have seen the dervishes in their holy
dances, in their mosques, upon Wednesdays and Fridays in Turkey, may
resemble[317] these unto them. You shall find the manner expressed in
the figure.
VIII.――INDIAN CHILDREN IN VIRGINIA.
TO make the children hardy, in the coldest mornings they wash them in
the rivers, and by paintings and ointments so tan their skins, that,
after a year or two, no weather will hurt them. As also, to practise
their children in the use of their bows and arrows, the mothers do
not give them their breakfast in a morning before they have hit a mark
which she appoints them to shoot at; and commonly, so cunning they
will have them, as throwing up in the air a piece of moss, or some such
light thing, the boy must with his arrow meet it in the fall, and hit
it, or else he shall not have his breakfast.
Both men, women, and children have their several names; at first,
according to the several humor of their parents. And for the
men-children, at first, when they are young, their mothers give them a
name, calling them by some affectionate title, or, perhaps, observing
their promising inclination, give it accordingly; and so the great King
Powhatan called a young daughter of his whom he loved well, Pocahontas,
which may signify “little wanton;”[318] howbeit, she was rightly called
Amonate at more ripe years. When they become able to travel into the
woods, and to go forth a hunting, fowling, and fishing with their
fathers, the fathers give him another name, as he finds him apt, and
of spirit to prove toward[319] and valiant, or otherwise, changing the
mother’s [name], which yet in the family is not so soon forgotten. And
if so be, it be by agility, strength, or any extraordinary strain of
wit, he performs any remarkable or valorous exploit in open act of arms,
or by stratagem, especially in the time of extremity in the wars for
the public and common state, upon the enemy, the king, taking notice
of the same, doth then, not only in open view and solemnly, reward
him with some present of copper, or chain of pearl and beads, but doth
then likewise――and which they take for the most eminent and supreme
favor――give him a name answerable to the attempt, not much differing
herein from the ancient warlike encouragement and order of the Romans
to a well-deserving and gallant young spirit.
IX.――“THE PLANTER’S PLEASURE AND PROFIT.”
THERE are who delight extremely in vain pleasure, that take much
more pains in England to enjoy it than I should do here to gain wealth
sufficient: and yet I think they should not have half such sweet
content; for our pleasure here is still gain, in England charges and
loss. Here nature and liberty afford us that freely which in England
we want, or it costeth us dearly. What pleasure can be more than being
tired with any occasion ashore, in planting vines, fruits, or herbs; in
contriving their own ground to the pleasure of their own minds, their
fields, gardens, orchards, buildings, ships, and other works, &c.; to
recreate themselves before their own doors, in their own boats upon
the sea, where man, woman, and child, with a small hook and line, by
angling, may take divers sorts of excellent fish at their pleasures?
And is it not pretty sport to pull up twopence, sixpence, and
twelvepence as fast as you can haul and veer a line? He is a very bad
fisher [who] cannot kill in one day, with his hook and line, one, two,
or three hundred cods; which dressed and dried, if they be sold there
for ten shillings a hundred, though in England they will give more
than twenty, may not both servant, master, and merchant be well content
with this gain? If a man work but three days in seven, he may get more
than he can spend, unless he will be exceedingly excessive. Now that
carpenter, mason, gardener, tailor, smith, sailor, forger, or what
other――may they not make this a very pretty recreation, though they
fish but an hour in a day, to take more than they can eat in a week;
or if they will not eat it, because there is so much better choice, yet
sell it, or change it with the fishermen or merchants, for any thing
you want? And what sport doth yield a more pleasing content, and less
hurt and charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the sweet air
from isle to isle, over the silent streams of a calm sea, wherein the
most curious may find profit, pleasure, and content?
Thus, though all men be not fishers, yet all men whatsoever may in
other matters do as well, for necessity doth in these cases so rule
a commonwealth, and each in their several functions, as their labors,
in their qualities, may be as profitable, because there is a necessary
mutual use of all.
For gentlemen, what exercise should more delight them than ranging
daily these unknown parts, using fowling and fishing for[320] hunting
and hawking? and yet you shall see the wild hawks give you some
pleasure in seeing them stoop six or seven times after one another, an
hour or two together, at the skults[321] of fish in the fair harbors,
as those ashore at a fowl, and never trouble nor torment yourselves
with watching, mewing,[322] feeding, and attending them, nor kill horse
and man with running, and crying, “See you not a hawk?” For hunting,
also, the woods, lakes, and rivers afford not only chase sufficient for
any that delights in that kind of toil or pleasure, but such beasts to
hunt, that, besides the delicacy of their bodies for food, their skins
are so rich as they will recompense thy daily labor with a captain’s
pay.
X.――THE GLORIES OF FISHING.
Illustration: COD-FISHING.
THE main staple from hence to be extracted, for the present, to produce
the rest, is fish; which, however it may seem a mean and base commodity,
yet who will but truly take the pains, and consider the sequel, I
think will allow it well worth the labor. It is strange to see what
great adventures the hopes of setting forth men-of-war to rob the
industrious innocent would procure.... But who doth not know that
the poor Hollanders, chiefly by fishing, at a great charge and
labor, in all weathers in the open sea, are made a people so hardy
and industrious? and by the sending this poor commodity to the
Easterlings[323] for as mean,[324] which is wood, flax, pitch, tar,
rosin, cordage, and such like,――which they exchange again to the
French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and English, &c., for what they
want,――are made so mighty, strong, and rich, as no state but Venice, of
twice their magnitude, is so well furnished with so many fair cities,
goodly towns, strong fortresses, and that abundance of shipping and
all sorts of merchandise, as well of gold, silver, diamonds, precious
stones, silks, velvets, and cloth-of-gold, as fish, pitch, wood, or
such gross commodities? What voyages and discoveries, east and west,
north and south, yea, about the world, make they! What an army, by sea
and land, have they long maintained in despite of one of the greatest
princes of the world! And never could the Spaniard, with all his mines
of gold and silver, pay his debts, his friends and army, half so truly
as the Hollanders still have done by this contemptible trade of fish....
You shall scarce find any bay, shallow shore, or cove of sand, where
you may not take many clams, or lobsters, or both, at your pleasure,
and in many places load your boat, if you please; nor isles where
you find not fruits, birds, crabs, and mussels, or all of them, for
taking, at a low water. And, in the harbors we frequented, a little
boy might take of cunners and pinnacks,[325] and such delicate fish,
at the ship’s stern, more than six or ten can eat in a day, but with a
casting-net, thousands when we pleased; and scarce any place, but cod,
cusk, halibut, mackerel, skate, or such like, a man may take with a
hook or line what he will. And in divers sandy bays a man may draw
with a net great store of mullets, bass, and divers other sorts of such
excellent fish, as many as his net can draw on shore. No river where
there is not plenty of sturgeon, or salmon, or both; all which are to
be had in abundance, observing but their seasons. But if a man will
go at Christmas to gather cherries in Kent, he may be deceived, though
there be plenty in summer. So here these plenties have each their
seasons, as I have expressed. We, for the most part, had little but
bread and vinegar; and though the most part of July, when the fishing
decayed, they wrought[326] all day, lay abroad in the isles all night,
and lived on what they found, yet were not sick. But I would wish
none put himself long to such plunges, except necessity constrain it.
Yet worthy is that person to starve that here cannot live, if he have
sense, strength, and health.
XI.――VISIT OF POCAHANTAS TO LONDON IN 1617.
DURING this time, the Lady Rebecca, alias Pocahontas, daughter to
Powhatan, by the diligent care of Master John Rolfe, her husband,
and his friends, was taught to speak such English as might well be
understood, well instructed in Christianity, and was become very formal
and civil after our English manner. She had also, by him, a child,
which she loved most dearly; and the treasurer and company took order,
both for the maintenance of her and it. Besides, there were divers
persons of great rank and quality had been very kind to her; and,
before she arrived at London, Captain Smith, to deserve her former
courtesies, made her qualities known to the queen’s most excellent
majesty and her court, and wrote a little book to this effect to the
queen, an abstract whereof followeth:――
To the Most High and Virtuous Princess,
Queen Anne of Great Britain.
_Most Admired Queen_,――The love I bear my God, my king and country,
hath so oft emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, that
now honesty doth constrain me [to] presume thus far beyond myself
to present your Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a
deadly poison to all honest virtue, I must be guilty of that crime,
if I should omit any means to be thankful. So it is,
That some ten years ago, being in Virginia, and taken prisoner
by the power of Powhatan, their chief king, I received from this
great savage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son
Nantaquond, the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever
saw in a savage, and his sister Pocahontas, the king’s most
dear and well-beloved daughter,――being but a child of twelve or
thirteen years of age, whose compassionate, pitiful heart of my
desperate estate gave me much cause to respect her, I being the
first Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw.
And, thus enthralled in their barbarous power, I cannot say I
felt the least occasion of want that was in the power of those my
mortal foes to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After
some six weeks’ fatting amongst those savage courtiers, at the
minute of my execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own
brains to save mine; and not only that, but so prevailed with her
father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown, where I found
about eight and thirty miserable, poor, and sick creatures, to
keep possession of all those large territories of Virginia. Such
was the weakness of this poor commonwealth, as, had the savages
not fed us, we directly had starved.
Illustration: POCAHANTAS.
And this relief, most gracious Queen, was commonly brought us by
this lady, Pocahontas. Notwithstanding all these passages, when
inconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this tender virgin
would still not spare to dare to visit us, and by her our jars
have been oft appeased, and our wants still supplied. Were it the
policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance of God
thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection
to our nation, I know not. But of this I am sure; when her father,
with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me,
having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her
from coming through the irksome woods; and with watered eyes gave
me intelligence, with her best advice to escape his fury, which
had he known, he had surely slain her. Jamestown, with her wild
train, she as freely frequented as her father’s habitation; and,
during the time of two or three years, she, next under God, was
still the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine,
and utter confusion, which, if in those times, had once been
dissolved, Virginia might have lain as it was at our first arrival
to this day. Since then, this business having been turned and
varied by many accidents from that I left it at, it is most
certain, after a long and troublesome war after my departure,
betwixt her father and our colony, all which time she was not
heard of, about two years after, she herself was taken prisoner,
being so detained near two years longer. The colony by that means
was relieved, peace concluded, and at last, rejecting her
barbarous condition, [she] was married to an English gentleman,
with whom at this present she is in England; the first Christian
ever of that nation, the first Virginian ever spoke English, or
had a child in marriage by an Englishman,――a matter surely, if
my meaning be truly considered and well understood, worthy a
princess’ understanding.
Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your Majesty, what,
at your best leisure, our approved histories will account you at
large, and done in the time of your Majesty’s life; and, however
this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot
from a more honest heart. As yet I never begged any thing of the
state, or any; and if my want of ability, and her exceeding desert,
your birth, means, and authority, her birth, virtue, want, and
simplicity, doth make me thus bold, humbly to beseech your Majesty
to take this knowledge of her, though it be from one so unworthy
to be the reporter as myself.... And so I humbly kiss your
gracious hands.
Being about this time preparing to set sail for New England, I
could not stay to do her that service I desired, and she well
deserved; but, hearing she was at Branford with divers of my
friends, I went to see her. After a modest salutation, without
any word, she turned about, obscured her face, as not seeming well
contented; and in that humor her husband, with divers others, we
all left her two or three hours, repenting myself to have written
she could speak English. But not long after, she began to talk,
and remembered me well what courtesies she had done, saying, “You
did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like
to you. You called him father, being in his land a stranger, and
by the same reason so must I do you.” Which, though I would have
excused, I durst not allow of that title, because she was a king’s
daughter. With a well-set countenance she said, “Were you not
afraid to come into my father’s country, and caused fear in him
and all his people,――but me,――and fear you here I should call you
father? I tell you, then, I will, and you shall call me child; and
so I will be for ever and ever your countryman. They did tell us
always you were dead; and I knew no other till I came to Plymouth.
Yet Powhatan did command Vetamatomakkin to seek you, and know the
truth, because your countrymen will lie much.”
This savage, one of Powhatan’s council, being amongst them held
an understanding fellow, the king purposely sent him to number
the people here, and inform him well what we were, and our state.
Arriving at Plymouth, according to his directions, he got a long
stick, whereon by notches he did think to have kept the number
of all the men he could see; but he was quickly weary of that
task. Coming to London, where by chance I met him, having renewed
our acquaintance, where many were desirous to hear and see his
behavior, he told me Powhatan did bid him to find me out, to show
him our God, the king, queen, and prince I so much had told them
of. Concerning God I told him the best I could; the king I heard
he had seen; and the rest he should see when he would. He denied
ever to have seen the king, till by circumstances he was satisfied
he had. Then he replied very sadly, “You gave Powhatan a white dog,
which Powhatan fed as himself; but your king gave me nothing, and
I am better than your white dog.”
The small time I staid in London, divers courtiers and others
my acquaintances hath gone with me to see her, that generally
concluded they did think God had a great hand in her conversion;
and they have seen many English ladies worse favored, proportioned,
and behaved. And, as since I have heard, it pleased both the
king’s and queen’s Majesty honorably to esteem her, accompanied
with that honorable lady, the Lady De la Ware, and that honorable
lord, her husband, and divers other persons of good qualities,
both publicly at the masques, and otherwise, to her great
satisfaction and content; which doubtless she would have deserved,
had she lived to arrive in Virginia.
The treasurer, council, and company having well furnished Captain
Samuel Argall, the lady Pocahontas _alias_ Rebecca with her husband
and others, in the good ship called “The George,” it pleased God at
Gravesend to take this young lady to his mercy, where she made not more
sorrow for her unexpected death than joy to the beholders to hear and
see her make so religious and godly an end. Her little child, Thomas
Rolfe, therefore was left at Plymouth with Sir Lewis Stukely that
desired the keeping of it.
XII.――FIRST BUILDINGS OF THE VIRGINIA COLONISTS.
[This description was written by Smith in the last year of his
life,――1631.]
WHEN I went first to Virginia, I well remember we did hang an
awning――which is an old sail――to three or four trees to shadow us from
the sun. Our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees till we
cut planks, our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees.
In foul weather we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few
better; and this came by the way of adventure[327] for new. This was
our church till we built a homely thing like a barn, set upon crotchets,
covered with rafts, sedge, and earth: so was also the walls. The best
of our houses [were] of the like curiosity,[328] but the most part
far much worse workmanship, that could neither well defend[329] wind
nor rain; yet we had daily common prayer morning and evening, every
Sunday two sermons, and every three months the holy communion, till
our minister died. But our prayers daily, with an homily on Sundays,
we continued two or three years after, till more preachers came....
Notwithstanding, out of the relics of our miseries, time and experience
had brought that country to a great happiness, had they not so much
doted on their tobacco, on whose fumish[330] foundation there is small
stability; there being so many good commodities besides.
XIII.――CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH’S RECOLLECTIONS OF HIS OWN LIFE.
[Also written in the last year of his life,――1631.]
THE wars in Europe, Asia, and Africa, taught me how to subdue the
wild savages in Virginia and New England in America.... Having been a
slave to the Turks, prisoner amongst the most barbarous savages; after
my deliverance commonly discovering and ranging those large rivers
and unknown nations, with such a handful of ignorant companions, that
the wiser sort often gave me for lost; always in mutinies, wants,
and miseries; blown up with gunpowder; a long time prisoner among the
French pirates, from whom escaping in a little boat by myself, and
adrift all such a stormy winter night, when their ships were split,
more than an hundred thousand pound lost, we had taken at sea, and
most of them drowned upon the Isle of Ree,[331] not far from whence
I was driven on shore in my little boat, &c.; and many a score of
the worst of winter months lived in the fields; yet to have lived near
thirty-seven years in the midst of wars, pestilence, and famine, by
which many an hundred thousand have died about me, and scarce five
living of them went first with me to Virginia, and see the fruits of
my labors thus well begin to prosper,――though I have but my labor
for my pains, have I not much reason both privately and publicly
to acknowledge it, and give God thanks, whose omnipotent power only
delivered me to do the utmost of my best to make his name known in
those remote parts of the world, and his loving mercy to such a
miserable sinner?