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msTORicAL Classic %DiNcs 
 
 THE 
 
 Settlement of Virginia. 
 
 Captain John Smith. 
 
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 mSrORIGAL CLASSIC READINGS.— No. 2. 
 
 k HISTORY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Settlement of Virginia. 
 
 BY 
 
 Capt. JOHN SMITH. 
 
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 Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. 
 
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 N>> Captain John Smith. 
 
 ^ ^ BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Oaptaii^ JoHiq- Smith was born in Willonghby, Lincolnshire, 
 England, in 1579, and on the death of his parents, when he was 
 about thirteen years of age, he was left with a competent fortune, 
 but his guardians, regarding his estate more than himself, gave 
 him full liberty and no money. At the age of fifteen he was 
 bound as apprentice to the greatest merchant in his part of the 
 country, but, because of Smithes love of adventure and his disap- 
 pointment at not being sent to sea at once, he ran away and did 
 not see his master for eight years. 
 
 He went as an attendant into France, and on again returning 
 to England, received ten shillings, of money already belonging to 
 him, to relinquish all claims in his deceased father's estate. Go- 
 ing back to France he served as a soldier in that country, and af- 
 terwards in the Low Countries. In 1599 he embarked for Scotland, 
 where he expected, through letters that had been given him, to 
 obtain a place at court, but failing in this he returned to AYil- 
 loughby, his native place, and there built himself an isolated 
 lodge, and devoted his attention to the study of the arts of war 
 and of horsemanship. 
 
 Again becoming restless, he went into the Netherlands, where 
 he was duped by four French rogues to sail for France, only to 
 be robbed of all his baggage, and finally to be landed with but a 
 single piece of gold in his pocket, so that he was forced to sell 
 his cloak to pay his passage. Pitying friends afforded the means 
 to meet immediate needs and to resume his wanderings. It was 
 not long after this that he met one of the rogues, and easily van- 
 quished him in single combat. 
 
 He embarked for Italy, but the pilgrim passengers from the 
 
4 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 provinces, on their way to Rome, took so great offense to him be- 
 cause of his nationality that they threw him overboard. Reach- 
 ing a desert island he hailed a ship, which had sought refuge 
 from the storm, and was taken aboard. According to his own 
 account, Smith so won the favor of the captain that he easily got 
 passage through to the Adriatic, where, meeting with a Venetian 
 argosy, a fight ensued and resulted disastrously to the argosy 
 and her cargo, half of which was seized. Smith was landed with 
 four hundred and fifty pounds (£450) more than he had when he 
 was picked up. He therefore improved the opportunity of trav- 
 eling through Italy and of going to Rome. It was while on 
 these travels that he met in Austria with a baron whose regiment 
 he joined on an expedition to Turkey, where he proved himself 
 so ingenious in devising stratagems, which were most successful 
 on two occasions, that he was soon made captain of horse. On 
 another occasion he improvised a very effective bomb, which 
 brought sad havoc to the Turks. 
 
 During one long and tedious siege the Turks in derision sent 
 the following challenge : '' That to delight the ladies, who did 
 long to see some court-like pastime, the lord Turbashaw did defy 
 any captain that had command of a company who durst combat 
 with him for his head." 
 
 After much discussion the challenge was accepted, and Captain 
 Smith Avas chosen by lot to champion the British. At the first 
 charge his lance passed through the head of his adversary, who 
 fell dead. This death so enraged a friend of Turbashaw, that he 
 at once sent a challenge, which Smith in turn accepted. The 
 Turk was shot from his horse, and his head, horse, and armor taken 
 as prize. After this Smith sent a challenge to any Turk who 
 would meet him. It was accepted, and Smith was again the victor. 
 
 In 1602 Smith was found wounded after the battle of Rotten- 
 ton and taken prisoner. A short time afterwards he was sold as 
 a slave and sent to Constantinople. Thence he was taken from 
 court to court in Tartary. His head w^as shaved ^' so bare as his 
 hand," a great ring of iron was riveted about his neck, and a hair 
 coat was put on him, During all these experiences Smith care- 
 
OAPTAm JOHN- SMITff. 5 
 
 fully noted the manners and customs of the people, their diet, 
 clothing, houses, treatment of slaves, feasts, religion, and con- 
 duct in war. After a year's captivity, in revenge for cruel treat- 
 ment, he beat out his master's brains with a ^^ threshing bat" 
 while working in the field. Then realizing his desperate strait, 
 he donned his master's clothing, hid the dead body under the 
 straw, filled his knapsack with corn, and mounting his horse started 
 into the desert. After traveling many days Smith reached a 
 Muscovite garrison on the river Don. The governor used him 
 kindly. After this he made a thorough tour of Europe, turned 
 his course through the heart of Europe, crossed to Africa, and 
 then back to Portugal. In 160-4 he returned to England on c 
 man-of-war. 
 
 Of Smith's adventures in America the abstracts to be found in 
 this book will give a fair account. However improbablj^ it may 
 seem, w^e can hardly deny that it is consistent with the story 
 given of Smith's earlier wanderings through almost every part of 
 the then knoAvn world. 
 
 Having considered Smith as an adventurer, it remains to speak 
 of his writings, which were but the narratives of his adventures. 
 Our chief interest in them springs from the fact that he was the 
 first contributor to American literature; and further, that the sub- 
 jects which he chose are the first records of the first American 
 settlement. 
 
 Though quite a prolific writer, only three of Smith's books 
 were written in America. The first, ^^ A True Relation of Vir- 
 ginia," was written within the fii-st thirteen months after the 
 settlement of the A^irginia colony, and was sent to London, where 
 it was published in 1608. The character of this work may be 
 judged from the selections which are given in this book. 
 
 It was not long after the publication of "A True Relation" 
 that Smith was made Governor of Virginia. As such he was re- 
 sponsible to the London Company, who had secured the patent 
 to the new territory and had spent money for its colonization. 
 Becoming somewhat impatient at not receiving large and imme- 
 diate dividends from their investment, the proprietors sent a 
 
6 CAPTAI N JOHN SMITH. 
 
 • 
 
 letter of inqiii]-y in the form of seven questions to the Governor. 
 The questions called forth seven categorical answers, and these 
 answers comprise Smith's second contribution to American lit- 
 erature. By the same vessel which conveyed Smith's letter to his 
 company in London he sent tlie manuscript for his third Ameri- 
 can work, entitled ''A Map of the Bay and the Rivers, with an 
 annexed Relation of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them." 
 As its title indicates, the book is devoted to the topography, cli- 
 mate, vegetation, and inhabitants, all of which are graphically de- 
 scribed, as may be judged from reading the selection on ^^ The 
 Natural Inhabitants./' The book was not printed until 1612. 
 All of Smith's writings are marked by the same spirit of bold ro- 
 mance which characterized his life. 
 
 In the Fall of 1609, Smith, probably at the suggestion of the 
 London proprietors, returned to England, where his further 
 services as one of the Virginia Colony were dispensed with. 
 '' Smith thus disappeared from the stage of affairs in Virginia, but 
 he had played a great part in the first scenes of American history, 
 and his character and subsequent career deserve some notice." 
 In 1614 he made a voyage of exploration, of which a map of the 
 New England coast from the Penobscot River to Cape Cod is the 
 result. In 1615 he sailed with a colony for settlement in New 
 England. 
 
 On the voyage he was captured by a French pirate and taken as 
 a prisoner to Rochelle, and though he soon made his escape to 
 England he never again left that country. Until his death in 
 1631, his interest in the colonizing of America was unflagging. 
 
 " So snapped the chords of a stout heart, and a remarkable hfe ended. 
 The character of the man must have appeared from his career. He was 
 brave as his sword, full of energy, impatient of opposition, and had all the 
 faults and virtues of the dominant class to which he belonged. His en- 
 durance was unshrinking, and his life in Virginia indicated plainly that he 
 had enormous recoil. He was probably never really cast down, and seems 
 to have kept his heart of hope, without an effort, in the darkest hours, 
 when all around him despaired. He is said to have been cordial and 
 winning in his manners, and even his critics declared that he had 'a 
 prince's heart in a beggar's purse ;' it is equally certain that he was im- 
 
CAPTALV JOHN SMITH. 7 
 
 patient of temper, had large self-esteem, and was fond of applause. He 
 seems to have spent his last years in London, industi-iously engaged on his 
 histories. He was buried under the chancel of St. Sepulchre's Church, 
 and on the slab above his head was carved his shield, with three Turks' 
 heads engraved thereon, and the following inscription :" * 
 
 To THE LIVING MEMORY OF HIS DECEASED FrIEND, CaPTAIN 
 
 John Smith, who departed this mortal 
 
 LIFE ON THE 21. DaY OF JUNE, ]631. 
 
 Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd kings, 
 Subdu'd large Territories, and done things 
 Which to the World impossible would seem. 
 But that truth is held in more esteem. 
 
 Shall I report his former service done 
 In honor of his God and Christendom : 
 How that he did divide from pagans three, 
 Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry : 
 For which great service in that climate done, 
 Brave Sigismundus (King of Hungarion) 
 Did give him as a Coat of Arms to wear, 
 Those conquer'd heads got by his sword and spear ? 
 
 Or shall I tell of his adventures since. 
 Done in Virginia, that large Continence : 
 How that he subdu'd Kings unto his yoke. 
 And made those Heathen fly as wind doth smoke ; 
 And made their land, being of so large a station, 
 A habitation for our Christian Nation : 
 Where God is glorified, their wants suppli'd, 
 Which else for necessaries might have di'd ? 
 
 But what avails his Conquest, now he lies 
 Inter'd in earth, a prey for worms and flies ? 
 O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep, 
 Until the keeper that all souls doth keep. 
 Return to Judgment, and that after thence, 
 With angels he may have his recompense. 
 
 Captain John Smith, sometime Governor 
 
 OP Virginia, and Admiral op 
 
 New England. 
 
 * History of Virginia, by J. Esten Cooke. 
 
8 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 However Captain Smith's account of his own adventures may be re- 
 garded by American writers and students of history, it has been deemed of 
 sufficient importance in England to be published in The English Scholar's 
 Library, the editor of which speaks as follows : 
 
 "As it is our purpose to do justice to all sides of this fascinating subject, we have 
 approached the present text perfectly free from any kind of partisanship. Inasmuch, 
 however, as the accuracy of some of Captain Smith's statements has in this generation 
 been called in question, it was but our duty to subject every one of the nearly forty 
 thousand lines of this book to a most searching criticism; scanning every assertion of 
 fact most keenly, and making the text, by the insertion of a multitude of cross-refer- 
 ences, prove or disprove itself. 
 
 " The result is perfectly satisfactory. Allowing for a popular style of expression, the 
 text is homogeneous; and the nine books comprising it, though written under very 
 diverse circumstances, and at intervals over the period of twenty -two years (1608-30), 
 contain no material contradiction. Inasmuch, therefore, as, wherever we can check 
 Smith, we find him both modest and accurate, we are led to think him so, where no 
 such check is possible. 
 
 " One cannot read the following, without seeing that John Smith was something more 
 than a brave and experienced soldier. Not only in his modesty and self-restraint, his 
 moderation and magnanimity, his loyalty to the king, affection for the church, and love 
 for his country, did he represent the best type of the English gentleman of his day, but 
 he was also a man of singular and varied ability. 
 
 " Put all this beside the one single Pocahontas incident by which he is popularly 
 remembered, and one sees that the real John Smith is a far greater man than the 
 mythical one. 
 
 " It is not too much to say, that had not Captain Smith strove, fought, and endured 
 as he did, the present United States of America might never have come into existence. 
 It was contrary to all probability that, where so many had succumbed already, the 
 Southern Virginian Company's expedition of 1606-7 should have succeeded." 
 
 Capt. Smith's Complete "Works, from which these selections have been 
 made, is a volume of over eleven hundred pages, and contains an account 
 of the author's adventures in many countries. Aside, therefore, from 
 being too voluminous, the book gives much that would not be of interest 
 to the student of American history. Therefore only such selections are 
 here given as relate to events of the voyage to, and the final settlement 
 at, Jamestown. The original text has been followed as nearly as possible; 
 but, on account of the author's quaint narrative, it has been necessary, at 
 times, to substitute language more intelligible to the class of readers for 
 whom this book is intended. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 9 
 
 "The Virginia 'plantation,' as the old writers called it, began at a 
 remarkable period. The year 1600 may be taken as the dividing line 
 between two eras— the point of departure of a new generation on the un- 
 tried journey into the future. Europe had just passed through the great 
 convulsion of the Reformation, and this with the invention of printing had 
 suddenly changed the face of the world. It is diliicult to speak of this 
 change without apparent exaggeration. A mysterious voice had awakened 
 the sleepers, and they had started up, shaking off the old fetters. 
 
 "The nations of Europe were like blind men who have suddenly been 
 made to see. Daring aspirations took possession of them, and the new 
 ideas of the new age crowded into every mind, hurrying and jostling each 
 other. 
 
 " Men longed for new experiences, to travel and discover new coun- 
 tries, to find some outlet for the boiling spirit of enterprise which had 
 rushed into and overflowed the time. The adventurous sea voyages of the 
 period were the direct outcome of this craving; suddenly a passion for 
 maritime exploration had developed itself. 
 
 "Magellan circumnavigated the world, and Sir Francis Drake doubled 
 Cape Horn, coasted northward to the present Alaska, attempted the north- 
 west passage, and finding it impracticable, crossed the Pacific, traversed the 
 Indian Ocean, and returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope. 
 Beyond the Atlantic was the virgin Continent, unexplored by Englishmen, 
 awaiting brave hearts and strong hands. To a people so ardent and rest- 
 less the prospect was full of attraction. 
 
 " Virgina was the promised land, and they had only to go and occupy 
 it." — John Esten Cooke: Virginia. 
 
 "A new power was now to be enlisted in the service of colonization. 
 Hitherto whatever had been done had been due to the energy and enter- 
 prise of private men. It could hardly, however, be expected that any 
 should be found to follow in the footsteps of Gilbert and Raleigh. The 
 Muscovy and East India companies offered more encouraging examples. 
 The former had achieved success beyond the scope of any individual. 
 The colonies of Virginia had before them a later and more conspicuous 
 precedent. In 1599 a small band of London merchants met together to 
 discuss a corporate scheme of trade with the East. That meeting laid the 
 foundation of the Empire in India. Their labors had also an indirect re- 
 sult, trivial in comparison, yet not without importance. We can hardly 
 doubt that the rapid success of the East India Company led the advocates 
 of American colonization to adopt it as their model. The fate of each 
 body was singularly at variance with its early promise. The East India 
 Company at its outset did not aim at anything beyond trading voyages and 
 
10 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 the establishment of factories. The Virginia Company sought to found a 
 colonial empire. The former took rank among the rulers of the earth and 
 numbered princes among its vassals. The latter, even in its brief day of 
 prosperity, was little more than a trading association." — Doyle: English 
 Colonies in America. 
 
 " Sir Walter Raleigh spent a large fortune in attempting to colonize Vir- 
 ginia. He succeeded in directing the attention of his countrymen to the 
 region which had kindled his own enthusiasm, but his colonies never 
 prospered. Sometimes the colonists returned home, disgusted by the hard- 
 ships of the wilderness. Once they were massacred by the Indians. When 
 help came from England the infant settlement was in ruins. The bones of 
 unburied men lay about the fields; wild deer strayed among the untenanted 
 houses. Once a colony wholly disappeared. To this date its fate is 
 unknown. 
 
 " Sir Walter was enduring his long captivity in the Tower writing his 
 ' History of the World,' and moaning piteously over the havoc which prison- 
 damps wrought upon his handsome frame. The time had now come, and 
 his labors were about to bear fruit. The history of Virginia was about to 
 open. It opened with meager promise. A charter from the King estab- 
 lished a company whose function was to colonize, whose privilege was to 
 trade. The company sent out an expedition, which sailed in three small 
 vessels. It consisted of one hundred and five men. . . . 
 
 " Happily for Virginia, there sailed with these founders of a new empire 
 a man whom providence had highly gifted with fitness to govern his 
 fellow-men. His name was John Smith. He was still under thirty, a 
 strong-limbed, deep-chested, massively-built man. From boyhood he had 
 been a soldier — roaming over the world in search of adventures, wherever 
 hard blows were being exchanged. He w^as mighly in single combat. 
 Once, while opposing armies looked on, he vanquished three Turks, and, 
 like David, cut off their heads, and bore them to his tent. Returning to 
 England when the passion for colonizing was at its height, he caught at 
 once the prevailing impulse. He joined the Virginia expedition; ultimately 
 he became its chief , " — Robert Mackenzie: America. 
 
PART I. 
 
 I. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE LONDON VIRGINIA COMPANY 
 TO THE COLONISTS FOR THE INTENDED VOYAGE TO 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 1606. 
 
 As we doubt not that you will have especial care to observe the 
 ordinances set down by the King's Majesty, and delivered unto 
 you under the Privy Seal; so, for your better direction upon your 
 first landing, we have thought good to recommend the following 
 instructions : 
 
 When it shall please God to send you to the coast of Virginia 
 you shall make your best endeavor to find out a safe port in the 
 entrance of some navigable river, making choice of such a one as 
 runs farthest inland, and if you happen to discover rivers suit- 
 able for harbors, and amongst them any one that has two main 
 branches, if the difference be not great, make choice of that 
 which bendeth most to the North-west,^ for in that way you shall 
 soonest find the other sea. When you have made choice of the 
 river on which you mean to settle, be not hasty in landing your 
 victuals and munitions,^ but first let Captain Newport discover 
 how far that river may be found navigable, that you may make 
 selection of the strongest, most wholesome and fertile place; for 
 
 ' Northwest. — The Indians, in 1586, 
 had tokl the English wondrous tales 
 of gold at the head-waters of the 
 Roanoke River, and that its source 
 was so near the western ocean that 
 the salt water would sometimes 
 
 dash over into the clear fountains 
 of the stream. These fables still 
 influenced the London Company. 
 
 2 Munitions. — Ammunition and 
 military stores of all kinds. 
 
12 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 if you make many removes, besides losing time, you will greatly 
 spoil your victuals and your casks, and will be to great trouble 
 in transporting them in small boats. 
 
 But if you choose your place as far up as a bark of fifty tons 
 will float, then you may lay all your })rovisions ashore with ease, 
 and receive the trade of all the countries^ about you in the land. 
 Such a place you may perchance find a hundred miles from the 
 river's mouth, and the farther up the better. For if you settle 
 near the entrance, except it be on some island that is strong by 
 nature, an enemy may approach you on even ground, and may 
 easily puir you out; but if he be driven to seek you a hundred 
 miles inland in boats, you shall from both sides of the river, 
 where it is narrowest, so conquer him with your nmskets that he 
 shall never be able to i)revail against you. 
 
 And to the end that you be not surprised, as the French were 
 in Florida,^ and the Spaniard in the same place by the French, 
 you would do well to make this double provision. First, erect a 
 little store at the mouth of the river that will lodge some ten 
 men; with whom you may have a light boat, so that when any 
 fleet is in sight the men may come with speed to give you warn- 
 ing. Secondly, you must in no case suffer any of the natives to 
 inhabit the country between you and the sea-coast; for you can- 
 not so conduct yourselves that they w^ill not grow discontented 
 with your habitation, and be ready to guide and assist any nation 
 that may come to invade you. If you neglect this, you neglect 
 your safety. 
 
 When you have discovered as far up the river as you mean to 
 plant yourselves, and landed your victuals and munitiol^s, you 
 would do well to divide your six score men into three paifts, so 
 that every man may know his charge; one part of them you may 
 appoint to fortify and build your storehouse for victuals; of the 
 
 ''Trade of the countries, etc. — The 
 merchant adventurers supposing the 
 land to be divided among several 
 Indian nations, and that their trade 
 would be valuable. 
 
 •*Pull you out. — Conquer and drive 
 away. 
 
 ^Florida. — Referring to the attack 
 by Meleudez. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 IB 
 
 other forty you may employ tliirty in preparing your ground and 
 sowing your corn and roots; the remaining ten you must leave as 
 sentinels at the haven's mouth. The third forty you may em- 
 ploy for two months in exploring the river above you, and the 
 country about you. Captain Newport and Captain Gosnold may 
 take charge of these forty discoverers. 
 
 When they espy any high lands or hills. Captain Gosnold may 
 take twenty of the company to cross over the lands, and may 
 carry a half-dozen pickaxes to try to find minerals. The other 
 twenty may go by the river, and pitch up boughs upon the bank's 
 side as a mark by which the other boats may follow them. You 
 may also take with them a wherry/ such as is used here in the 
 Thames, by which you may send back to the President for sup- 
 plies without being driven to return for every small errand. You 
 must observe, if you can, whether the river on which you settle 
 springs out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be out of any 
 lake, the passage to the other sea will be more easy; and it is 
 likely enough that out of the same lake you shall find some 
 spring which runs the opposite way towards the East India Sea. 
 
 In all your passages you must take great care not to offend the 
 natives, if you can avoid it, and employ a few of your company 
 to trade with them for corn and all other lasting victuals if they 
 have any. This you must do before they perceive that you 
 mean to settle among them; for not being sure how your own 
 seed will prosper the first year, you must avoid the danger of fa- 
 mine, and so endeavor to obtain a store of the country corn.' 
 Your discoverers that pass over land with hired guides must 
 look well to it that they slip not from them; and for more secur- 
 ity let them take a compass with them, and write down how far 
 they go upon every point ^ of the compass; for in that country. 
 
 6 Wherry. — A light, sliarp boat 
 used in river or harbor for carrying 
 passengers from place to place. 
 
 "' The country corn. — Indian corn 
 or maize. 
 
 ^ Upon every point — To make note 
 of the number of miles traveled in 
 each and every direction by the 
 compass so as to easily retrace the 
 journey. 
 
14 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 having no way nor path, you will hardly ever find a passage back 
 if your guides desert you. 
 
 And however weary your soldiers may be, let them never trust 
 the country people to carry their weapons; for if they run from 
 you with your shot, which alone they fear, they will easily kill 
 you all with their arrows. And whenever any of your men shoot 
 in their presence, be sure they may be chosen out of your best 
 marksmen ; for if they see your learners miss what they aim at, 
 they will think the weapon not so terrible, and therefore will be 
 bold to assault you. Above all things, do not advertise the kill- 
 ing of any of your men that the country people may know it, for 
 if they perceive that they are but common men, and that with the 
 loss of many of theirs they diminish any part of yours, they will 
 make attacks upon you. If the country be populous, you would 
 do well also not to let them see or know when any of your men 
 are sick, as this also may encourage them to many enterprises. 
 
 You must take especial care to choose a seat for habitation that 
 shall not be overburdened with woods near your town: for all 
 the men you have could not clear twenty acres a year; besides, it 
 might serve for a covert^ for your enemies round about. Neither 
 must you settle in a low or moist place, because it will prove un- 
 healthful. You can judge of the good air by the people: for 
 where the lands are low, the people are blear-eyed, and have 
 swollen legs; but if the natives are strong and clean made, it is a 
 true sign of a wholesome soil. 
 
 You must draw up the pinnace,'" that is left with you, under 
 the fort, and take her sails and anchors ashore, all but a small 
 kedge" to ride by; lest some ill-disposed persons slip away with 
 her. You must take care that your hired mariners do not mar 
 your trade; for those that do not intend to settle will for a lit- 
 tle gain, debase the value of exchange, and hinder the trade for- 
 
 ^ Covert. — Hiding-place. 
 
 ^0 Pinnace — A small vessel, navi- 
 gated with oars and sails, and hav- 
 ing generally two masts, rigged 
 like those of a schooner. 
 
 " Kedge. — A small anchor to hold 
 a vessel while riding in a harbor or 
 river. 
 
CAPTAIN JOEN SMITH. 15 
 
 ever after, and therefore you must not admit or suffer any person 
 whatsoever, other than such as shall be appointed by the Presi- 
 dent and Council there, to buy any merchandise or other things 
 whatsoever. 
 
 It is necessary that all your carpenters and other like workmen 
 first build your storehouse and those other rooms of public and 
 necessary use before any house is set up for any private person; 
 and though the workmen may belong to private persons, yet let 
 them all work together first for the company and then for private 
 men. And, as order is as cheap as confusion, it would be advis- 
 able to set your houses even and by a line, so that your streets 
 may have a good breadth, and be carried square about your mar- 
 ket-place, and that every street may open into it; in order that 
 from thence, with a few field-pieces, you may command every 
 street throughout. You may also fortify the market-place if you 
 think needful. 
 
 You shall do well to send a perfect report by Captain Newport 
 of all that is done; at what height you are situated, how far in- 
 land, what commodities you find, what soil, woods, and their sev- 
 eral kinds; and so of all other things. Suffer no man to return 
 but by passport from the President and Council, or to write any 
 letter of anything that may discourage otheis. Lastly, and 
 chiefly, the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make 
 yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your 
 own, and to serve and fear God the Giver of all Goodness, for 
 every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted 
 shall be rooted out. 
 
16 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 11. 
 
 THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENGLISH COLONY IN 
 VIRGINIA. 
 
 Taken- faithfully out of the Writings of Thomas 
 Studly, Cape-Merchant, and Others. 
 
 It might well be thought that a country so fair as Virginia and 
 with a people so tractable would long ere this have been quietly 
 possessed, to the satisfaction of the adventurers and to the per- 
 petuating of their memory. But because all the world sees in it 
 only a failure, the following Treatise shall give satisfaction to all 
 impartial readers how the business hath been conducted; and no 
 doubt they will easily understand how it came to pass that there 
 was no ,better success in those proceedings. 
 
 Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, the first mover of this planta- 
 tion, for ma^ny years solicited many of his friends, but found small 
 assistance. At last he prevailed with some gentlemen, as Master 
 Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John Smith, and divers others, 
 but effected nothing till by their great care and industry it came 
 to be undertaken by certain of the nobility, two gentry, and mer- 
 chants, so that his Majesty by his letters patent (1606) gave com- 
 mission for establishing councils, to direct here, and to govern 
 and execute there. To do this, another year was spent; and by 
 that time three ships were provided — one of one hundred tons, 
 another of forty, and a pinnace of twenty. The transportation 
 of the company was committed to Captain Christopher Newport, 
 a man well acquainted with the western parts of America, as he 
 had voyaged there more than once. Their orders for govern- 
 ment were put in a box, not to be opened nor the governors 
 known until they arrived in Virginia. ^ 
 
 ' The king's whim of conceaHng 1 lonial Council until the expedition 
 in a sealed box the names of the Co- | should arrive in Virginia left the 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 17 
 
 On the 19th of December, 1606, we set sail from Blackwall, 
 but by unfavorable winds were kept six weeks in sight of Eng- 
 land; all which time Mister Hunt/ our preacher, was so weak and 
 sick that few expected his recovery. Although he was but ten 
 or twelve miles from his habitation, and notwithstanding the 
 stormy weather, or tlie scandalous imputations which some few, 
 little better than Atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us, sug- 
 gested against him, all could never force from him so much as a 
 seeming desn-e to leave the business. 
 
 We watered^ at the Canaries;* we traded with the savages at 
 Dominica;^ three weeks we spent in refreshing ourselves 
 amongst these West India Isles. In Guadaloupe^ we found a 
 bath^ so hot, that in it we boiled pork as well as over the 
 fire. And at the little isle called Monica^ we took from the 
 bushes with our hands near two hogsheads full of birds in 
 three or four hours.. 
 
 Going from thence in search of Virginia, the company was not 
 a little discomforted, seeing the mariners had three days passed 
 their reckoning, and found no land; so that Captain RatclifPe 
 (captain of the pinnace) rather desired to bear up the helm' to 
 return to England, than make further search. But God, the 
 guider of all good actions, forcing them by an extreme storm to 
 huir all night, did drive them by his providence to their desired 
 
 emigrants, in the interim, without 
 an authorized head. Hence, natu- 
 rally, their dissensions on the voy- 
 age. 
 
 "^ Mister Hunt. — Robert Hunt, a 
 minister of the Church of England. 
 He settled among the colonists and 
 remained in the country, but how 
 long he lived is not known. 
 
 ^ Watered. — Took a supply of fresh 
 water on board the vessels to use 
 during the voyage. 
 
 •* Canaries. — A group of islands 
 
 near the northwestern coast of Af- 
 rica. 
 
 ^ Dominica,Guadaloupe, and Monica. 
 — Islands among the West Indies. 
 
 ^ Bath. — A spring of hot water. 
 , ' Bear up the helm. — To change the 
 course of a ship when close-hauled, 
 or sailing with a side wind, and make 
 her run before the wind. 
 
 ^ To hull. — The nautical term for 
 the sailing of a ship compelled by 
 severe storms to take in all sails and 
 to drive before the wind. 
 
18 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN- SMITH. 
 
 port, contrary to all their expectations; for never any of them 
 had seen that coast. 
 
 The first land they made they called Cape Henry;^ where an- 
 choring, Mister Wingfield, Gosnold, and Newport, with thirty 
 others, foolishly imagining that the place was uninhabited, landed 
 unarmed, and while recreating themselves on shore, were as- 
 saulted by five savages, who hurt two of the English very dan- 
 gerously. 
 
 That night (26th April, 1G07) the box was opened and the or- 
 ders read: in which Bartholomew Gosnold, Edward Wingfield, 
 Christopher Newport, John Smith, John Ratclift'e, John Martin, 
 and George Kendall were named to be tlie Council, and to 
 choose a president amongst them for a year, who with the Coun- 
 cil 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. " One and and all of these men, 
 with the exception of Smith and Gosnold, were grossly incompe- 
 tent. 
 
 III. 
 JAMESTOWN. 
 
 1607. 
 
 True EELATioiq" of such Occurrences of Note as have 
 
 HAPPENED AT VIRGINIA, SINCE THE FIRST PLANTING OF 
 
 THAT Colony. 
 
 You shall understand that after many obstacles by tempests in 
 the Downs' we arrived safely upon the southwest part of the 
 great Canaries. Within four or five days after we set sail for 
 
 9 Cape Henry. — Named for the 
 Prince of Wales, eldest son of King 
 James. 
 
 1 Downs. — A road for shipping in 
 the Eno-lish Channel. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 19 
 
 Dominica. The 2Gtli of April, the first land we made was Cape 
 Henry, at the very mouth of Chesapeake Bay, which we were 
 then little expecting, having by a cruel storm been blown to the 
 northward. 
 
 Anchoring in this bay, twenty or thirty men went ashore with 
 the captain, and in coming on land were assaulted by certain 
 Indians, who charged on them within pistol-shot. In this con- 
 flict Captain Archer and Matthew Morton were shot; whereupon 
 Captain Newport coming to their aid made a shot which the In- 
 dians little respected, but having spent their arrows they retired 
 without harm. 
 
 At this place the box was opened, in which the Council for 
 Virginia was nominated, and arriving at the place' where we are 
 now seated, the Council was sworn, and the President elected, 
 which for that year was Mister Edward Maria AVingfield. The 
 situation chosen Avas a very fit place for the erecting of a great 
 city, but about this some contention passed betwixt Captain Wing- 
 . field and Captain Gosnold. Notwithstanding this, all our pro- 
 visions were brought ashore, and with as much speed as might be, 
 we went about our fortification. The twenty-second day of May, 
 Captain Newport and myself, with others, to the number of twen- 
 two persons, set forward to explore the river some fifty or sixty 
 miles, finding it in some places broader and in some narrower; 
 the country on each side was plain, high ground, with many 
 fresh springs. 
 
 The people in all places kindly treated us, feasting us with 
 strawberries, mulberries, bread, fish, and other of their country 
 provisions, whereof we had plenty. Captain Newport kindly 
 requited their least favors with bells, pins, needles, beads, or 
 glasses, which so pleased them that his liberality made them 
 follow us from place to place, and always kindly to respect us. 
 While staying to refresh ourselves on a little island, four or five 
 savages came and described to us the course of the river; and 
 
 2 Jamestown. — So called in honor of James I. The first permanent 
 English settlement within the limits of the present United States. 
 
20 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 afterwards in our journey they often met us, and traded for 
 such provisions as we had. He whom we supposed to be the 
 chief king of all the rest most kindly entertained us, giving a 
 guide to go with us up the river to Powhatan/ from which 
 place their great emperor takes his name. 
 
 But to finish this discovery we passed on farther, where with- 
 in a mile we were intercepted by great craggy stones in the 
 midst of the river, where the water falls so rapidly and with 
 such violence that no boat can possibly pass. That night we re- 
 turned to Powhatan; the next day we returned to the falls, leav- 
 ing a mariner as pledge with the Indians for a guide of theirs. 
 He that they honored for king followed us by the river. Cap- 
 tain Newport repaid his kindness with a gown and hatchet; re- 
 turning to Arsetecke,* we stayed there the next day to observe 
 the latitude thereof, and then, with many signs of love, we 
 departed. 
 
 The next day the Queen of Agamatack' kindly treated us, her 
 people being no less contented than the rest; and from thence we 
 went to another place, where the people showed us the manner 
 of their diving for mussels, in which they find pearls. 
 
 One night, passing some twenty miles from our fort the peo- 
 ple, according to their former churlish condition, seemed little to 
 like us. This gave us occasion to suspect some mischief at the fort, 
 and therefore we repaired to the fort with all speed, where the 
 first we heard was that four hundred Indians the day before had 
 surprised and assaulted it. Had not God, by means of the ships, 
 from which they shot with their ordinances and muskets, caused 
 the Indians to retire, they would have entered the fort, where 
 our own men were busy planting corn. 
 
 With all speed we palisaded our fort ; for six or seven days 
 we had alarms by ambuscades , and four or five of our men were 
 
 3 Powhatan. — This place was within 
 a mile of the falls, near the present 
 site of Richmond. 
 
 ■^Arsetecke. — An Indian village, 
 near the now famous " Dutch Gap.'' 
 
 ^ Agamatack. — The Queen of Ap- 
 pomattox ; subject to Powhatan, 
 yet of the same authority as any of 
 the neio-hborins: chiefs. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN S^IITH. 21 
 
 cruelly wounded by being abroad. The Indian loss we know not, 
 but, as they report, three were slain and some hurt. 
 
 Captain Newport having set things in order, set sail for Eng- 
 land the 22d of June, 1607, leaving provision for thirteen or 
 fourteen weeks. The day before the ship^s departure, the king 
 sent the Indian that had met us before in our discovery to assure 
 us peace. Our fort was then palisaded round, and all our men 
 in good health and comfort, although through some discontent it 
 did not long continue. The President and Captain Gosnold, 
 with the rest of the Council, were for the most part discontented 
 with one another, in so much that things were not conducted 
 with discretion, nor was business effected in such good manner, 
 as wisdom for our own good and safety required. 
 
 We were plagued with so much famine and sickness, that the 
 living were scarce able to bury the dead. The chief cause was 
 our want of sufficient and good victuals, with continual watch- 
 ing, four or five each night at three bulwarks." We had great 
 store of sturgeon only, and on this our men would so greedily 
 surfeit, that it cost many their lives. The sack, aqua vit^/and 
 other preservatives for our health, were kept only in the Presi- 
 dent's hands, for himself and a few associates. Shortly after 
 this time Captain Gosnold fell sick, and Avithin three weeks died. 
 Captain Eatcliffe was then also very sick and weak, and though I 
 also had suffered the same extremity, by God's assistance I had 
 recovered. Kendall about this time, for divers reasons, was de- 
 posed from the Council ; and shortly after it pleased God to 
 move the Indians to bring us corn ere it was half ripe, though 
 we rather expected they would destroy us. 
 
 By the tenth of September there were about forty-six of our 
 men dead, and Captain Wingfield had ordered the affairs in such 
 a manner that he was gener,ally hated by all. With one consent, 
 therefore, he was deposed from his Presidency, and Captain Eat- 
 cliffe in turn was elected. Our provision was now within twenty 
 
 ^ Bulwarks. — The fort was built in 
 the shape of a triangle, having a bul- 
 wark at each corner, and four or 
 
 five pieces of artillery mounted in 
 
 hem. 
 
 Aqua vitae. —Water of life. 
 
22 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 days of being spent, but the Indians brought us great store both 
 of corn and bread ready-made. There also came such aoundance 
 of fowls into the rivers, that they greatly refreshed our weak 
 condition, and soon many of our weak men were able to go about. 
 As yet we had no houses to cover us, our tents were rotten, and 
 our cabins worse than nothing. Our best commodity was iron, 
 which we made into little chisels. 
 
 The sickness of the President and of Captain Martin con- 
 strained me to be cape merchant,^ and to spare no pains in 
 making houses for the company, who, notwithstanding our mis- 
 ery, did not cease their malice, grudging, and muttering. As most 
 of our chief men were now either sick or discontented, the rest 
 were in such despair that they would rather starve and rot with 
 idleness than be persuaded to do anytliing for their own relief 
 without constraint. Our victuals being now within eighteen 
 days of being S2:)ent, and the Indians' trade decreasing, I was 
 sent to the mouth of the river, to an Indian town,® to trade for 
 corn, and to try the river for fish. But our fishing did not avail 
 by reason of the stormy weather. 
 
 The Indians, thinking us nearly famished, with careless kind- 
 ness offered us little pieces of bread and small handfuls of 
 beans or wheat, in return for a hatchet or a piece of copper. In 
 like manner I entertained their kindness, and in like scorn of- 
 fered them commodities of little value ; but the children, or any 
 that showed extraordinary kindness, I treated liberally with gifts 
 of such trifles as well contented them. Though finding this 
 cold comfort, I anchored before the town, and the next day re- 
 turned to trade. In this time God (the absolute disposer of all 
 hearts) altered their conceits, for now they were no less desirous 
 of our commodities than we of their corn. Under pretence of 
 fetching fresh water, I sent a man to see the town, their corn 
 and force, and to try their intent, for they desired me to come 
 
 *^ Cape Merchant. — Treasurer. On 
 shipboard this name signilied the 
 persoii in charge of the cargo ; it 
 
 is similar to the modern "super- 
 cargo." 
 ^ Indiaa towa, — Now Hampton. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 23 
 
 to their houses. Understanding their purpose, I visited them 
 with four men. 
 
 With fish, oysters, bread, and deer, they kindly traded with 
 me and my men, being no less in doubt of my intent than I of 
 theirs ; for I might with twenty men have well freighted a ship 
 with corn. The town contained eighteen houses, pleasantly 
 seated upon three acres of ground, half surrounded by a great 
 bay of the river. The town Joined the mainland by a neck of 
 land sixty yards long. With sixteen bushels of corn I returned 
 towards our fort. On the way I encountered two canoes of Indi- 
 ans, who came aboard. They were the inhabitants of a kingdom 
 on the south side of the river, which is five miles wide and 
 nearly twenty miles from the mouth. With these I traded, but 
 as they had with them only their hunting provision, they re- 
 quested me to return to their town, where I could load my boat 
 with corn. After that I returned to the fort with nearly 
 thirty bushels of corn, the very name of which gave great com- 
 fort to our despairing company. 
 
 Time was thus passing away, and as not over fourteen days' 
 victuals were left, some motions were made about our President 
 and Captain Archer going to England to procure a supply. In 
 the mean time we had been fairly provided with houses, and our 
 President and Captain Martin were now able to walk abroad. 
 With much ado it was decided that the pinnace and barge 
 should go to Powhatan to trade for corn. Lots were cast to see 
 who should go in her : the chance was mine ; and while she was 
 rigging, I made a voyage to Topohanack. '" There the women and 
 children fled from their houses, but at last I drew them near. 
 They dared not trade, though they had plenty of corn, and I had 
 no commission to rob. 
 
 On my return I traded with a churlish and treacherous na- 
 tion, and having loaded ten or twelve bushels of corn, they tried 
 to take our guns and swords by stealth, and as we seemed to dis- 
 like it, they were ready to assault us. While standing upon our 
 
 '° Topohanack.— An Indian village on the south side of th§ Jttmes River. 
 
24 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 guards in coasting the shore, some would come out of the woods, 
 and with corn to trade. But lest we should be obliged either to 
 endure overmuch wrong or directly to resort to revenge, we re- 
 turned with ten bushels of corn. 
 
 Though by God's assistance we obtained good store of corn, 
 yet some bad spirits, not content with God's providence, still 
 grew mutinous ; in so much that our President, having occasion 
 to chide the blacksmith for some misdemeanor, the blacksmith 
 not only swore at him, but also offered to strike him with some 
 of his tools. For this rebellious act the smith was condemned 
 by a jury to be hanged. On the ladder to the gallows he con- 
 tinued very obstinate, as if hoping for a rescue ; but when he saw 
 no other way but death for him, he became penitent, and de- 
 clared a dangerous conspiracy, and so himself escaped. As princi- 
 pal in this conspiracy. Captain Kendall was condemned by a jury, 
 and shot to death. 
 
 One day we went within three or four miles and hired a canoe, 
 and two Indians to row us a-fowling. Though some wise men 
 may condemn this as too bold and too indiscreet, yet if they 
 well consider the friendship of the Indians in conducting me, 
 the desolateness of the country, the probability of finding some 
 lake, the malicious judges of my actions at James Town, and 
 the desire to have something of worth to report, to encourage 
 our adventurers in England, — these considerations might well 
 have caused any honest mind to have done the like, as well for 
 his own sake as for the public good. Having two Indians for 
 my guides and two of our own company, I set forward, leaving 
 seven men in the barge. 
 
 I took one of the Indians with me to see the nature of the soil 
 and to cross the bendings of the river; the other Indian I left 
 with Mister Robinson and Thomas Emory, with their matches 
 lighted,'^ and ordered them to discharge a gun for my retreat at 
 the first sight of an Indian. Within a quarter of an hour I 
 
 '' Matches lighted. — Their guns were mntcblocks^ licuce the uecessity 
 for lighted matches. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH, 25 
 
 heard a loud cry and a shouting of Indians, but no warning shot. 
 Presently I was struck with an arrow on the right thigh, and 
 soon I was environed by two hundred men. Thus surprised, I 
 resolved to try their mercies: I cast my arms from me, till which 
 time none dared to approach me. 
 
 Having seized on me, they drew me out and led me to the 
 king. I presented him with a compass dial, and described by 
 my best means its use. He so amazedly admired this, that he 
 suffered me to proceed in a discourse of the roundness of the 
 earth, the course of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. With 
 kind speeches and bread he requited me, and conducted me to 
 the canoe, where John Robinson lay slain with twenty or thirty 
 arrows in him, but Emory I saw not. 
 
 TV, 
 
 POCAHONTAS* 
 
 The Indians conducted Smith in the following manner: Draw- 
 ing themselves up in file, the king' was in the midst and all the 
 pieces and swords were borne before him. Captain Sniith was led 
 after him by three great savages, who held him fast by each arm, 
 and on each side six Indians went in file with their arrows held 
 ready on the bow-string. Arriving at the town' (which was but 
 thirty or forty hunting houses made of mats, which they remove 
 as they please, as we do our tents), all the women and children 
 stared to behold him. The warriors first performed as well as 
 could be, and on each flank were officers as sergeants to see them 
 keep their orders. 
 
 'The King. — Opechancanough, the I ^ Town. — Orapaks, about 12 miles 
 brother of Powhatan. I east from the falls near Richmond. 
 
 * Written by Thomas Studley, the first cape merchant in Virginia, and 
 I. S. [John Smith]. 
 
26^ CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 They continued this exercise a long time, and then cast them- 
 selves in a ring, dancing in several postures, and singing and 
 yelling out fiendish notes and screeches. They were strangely 
 painted, and each had his quiver of arrows, and at his back a 
 club; on his arm a fox or an otter^s skin, or some such thing, for 
 his shield. Their heads and shoulders were painted red with oil 
 and pocones^ mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an 
 exceedingly handsome show. Each had his bow in his hand, 
 and the skin of a bird with her wings spread on his head; also a 
 piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle 
 of a snake tied to it, or some such toy. All this while Smith 
 and the king stood in the midst guarded, and after three long 
 dances all departed. Smith was conducted to a long house, 
 where thirty or forty tall fellows guarded him. 
 
 Ere long there was brought to him enough venison and bread to 
 have served twenty men. I think his appetite at that time was not 
 very good. They put what he left in baskets and tied it over his 
 head. About midnight they again set the meat before him. All 
 of this time not one of tliem would eat a bite with him. The 
 next morning they brought him as much more, and then they 
 ate all the old, and reserved the new as they had done the other, 
 which made him think they wanted to fat him to eat him. Yet 
 in this desperate condition one brought him his gown to protect 
 him from the cold, in return for some beads and toys which 
 Smith had given him on his first arrival in Virginia. 
 
 Two days after a man would have slain Smith for the death 
 of his son. They had demanded of him to cure the young man 
 then breathing his last. Smith told them that he had a water 
 at Jamestown which would do it, if they would let him fetch 
 it. They would not permit that, but made all the preparations 
 they could to assault Jamestown, craving his advice, and offering 
 
 2 Pocones — Is a small root which grows in the mountains. On being dried 
 and beaten to powder it turns red, and this the Indians use for anointing 
 and painting their heads and garments. They account it very precious, 
 and of much worth. 
 
CAPTAIN JOUl^ SMITH. 
 
 27 
 
 him for recompense life, liberty, and land. On part of a table 
 book* he wrote his ^^lan to them at the fort what was intended, 
 how they should affright the messengers, and without fail should 
 send him such things as he wrote for, and an inventory^ with 
 them. The difficulty and danger of the mines, grettt guns, and 
 other engines of which he told the savages, frightened them ex- 
 ceedingly ; yet, according to his request, they went to James 
 town, in as bitter weather as could be on account of frost and 
 snow, and within three days returned with an answer. 
 
 But when they were come to Jamestown they saw men sally^ 
 out, as Smith told them they would, and they fled. In the 
 night they came again to the place where he had told them 
 they should receive an answer, and such things as he had prom- 
 ised them. They found them accordingly, and returned with 
 no small haste, and told, to the wonder of all that heard, that 
 either he could divine,' or the paper could speak. Then they led 
 Smith off upon the rivers Rapahanock and Potomac, and over 
 other rivers, and back again by several nations, to the king^s 
 habitation at Pamunkee, where they entertained him with 
 most strange and fearful conjurations.* 
 
 Not long after, early in the morning, a great fire was made in 
 a long house, and a mat was spread on either side. On the one 
 side they caused Smith to sit, and then all the guard went out of 
 the house. And presently there came skipping in a great grim 
 fellow, all painted over with coal, mixed with oil. Many snakes' 
 and weasels^ skins stuffed with moss, and all tied together by 
 their tails, met on the crown of his head in a tassel, and round 
 about the tassel was a coronet of feathers. The skins huns" 
 round about his head, back, and shoulders, and in a manner cov- 
 
 ^ Ta"ble book — A book on which 
 anything' was written without ink. 
 Siniihir to modern tablets. 
 
 ^ Inventory. — Meaning ? 
 
 ^ Sally. — To rush out suddenly, as 
 a body of troops from a besieged 
 place. 
 
 ''Divine.— To foretell by some 
 superstitious or supernatural means. 
 
 8 Conjurations. — A magical form of 
 words ; an incantation ; an enchant- 
 ment. 
 
28 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 ered his face. He had a fearful voice, and held a rattle in his 
 hand. With most strange gestures he began his invocation, by 
 surrounding the fire with a circle of meal; then three more such 
 fiends came rushing in with like antics, painted half black, half 
 red. Their eyes were painted white, and some red strokes along 
 their cheeks. These fiends danced round about him a pretty 
 long while, and then three more came in as ugly as the rest, 
 with red eyes, and white strokes over their black faces. 
 
 At last they all sat down right in front of him — three of them 
 on the one hand and three on the other hand of the chief priest. 
 Then all with their rattles began a song, after which the chief 
 priest laid down fine wheat grains. Then straining liis 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 
 they began their song again, and then another oration, each time 
 laying down as many grains as before, till they had twice encir- 
 cled the fire. After this they took a bunch of little sticks pre- 
 pared for the purpose, and still continuing their devotion, at the 
 end of every song and oration, they laid down a stick between 
 the divisions of corn. Neither he nor they ate or drank till 
 night, and then they feasted merrily, with the best provisions 
 they could make. 
 
 Three days they used this ceremony; the meaning of it, they 
 told him, was to know if he intended them well or not. The circle 
 of meal signified their country, the circles of corn the bounds of 
 the sea, and the sticks his country. They imagined that the 
 world was flat and round, like a trencher,^ and that they were in 
 the middle of it. After this they brought him a bag of gun- 
 powder, which they carefully preserved till the next spring, to 
 plant as they did their corn ; because they wished to be ac- 
 quainted with the nature of that seed. 
 
 The king's brother invited him to his house, whereto he bade 
 him welcome, and as many platters of bread, fowl, and wild 
 
 » Treacher. — A wooden dish, or platter, oii which meat was served. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 29 
 
 beasts as surrounded him. Not any of the Indians would eat 
 with him, but would put away all that remained in baskets. On 
 his return all the king's women and their children flocked 
 about him for their part of the food, as it was a custom to be 
 merry with such fragments. 
 
 At last they brought Captain Smith to Powhatan, their em- 
 peror. Here more than two hundred of those grim courtiers 
 stood wondering at Smith as if he had been a monster, till Pow- 
 hatan and his train put themselves in their best trim. Before a 
 fire, and upon a seat like a bedstead, Powhatan sat covered with 
 a great robe made of raccoon skins with all the tails hanging. 
 On either hand sat a young servant of sixteen or eighteen years, 
 and along on each side of the house two rows of men, and be- 
 hiiid them as many women, with faces and shoulders painted 
 red, many of their heads bedecked with the white down of birds, 
 or a great chain of white beads about their necks. 
 
 At Captain Smith's entrance before the king all the people gave 
 a great shout. The queen was appointed to bring him water to 
 wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, 
 instead of a towel, on which to dry them. Having feasted him 
 after the best barbarous manner they could, a long consultation 
 was held. At last two great stones were brought before Powhatan. 
 Then as many as could lay hands on Captain Smith dragged him 
 to the stones, and laid his head on them, and were ready with 
 their clubs to beat out his brains. At this instant, Pocahontas, 
 the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got 
 his head in her arms, and laid her own head upon his to save 
 him from death. Thereupon the emperor was contented to 
 have him live to make for him hatchets, and for Pocahontas 
 bells, beads, and ornaments of copper ; for they thought him as 
 good at all occupations as they were. For the king makes his 
 own robes, shoes, bows, arrows, and j^ots ; and plants, hunts, or 
 does anything as well as the rest. 
 
 Two days after,'" Powhatan disguised himself in the most 
 
 '^ Jan. 7, 1608. 
 
30 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 fearful manner he could, and had Captain Smith brought 
 forth to a great house in the woods, and left alone there 
 upon a mat by the fire. Not long after, from behind a mat that 
 divided the house, was made the most doleful noise he ever 
 heard : then Powhatan, more like a devil than a man, with some 
 two hundred more, as black as himself, came to him and told 
 him that they were now friends, and that he should presently 
 go to James Town, and he wished him to send him two great 
 guns and a grindstone, for which he would give him part of his 
 country, and forever esteem him as his son. 
 
 So Powhatan sent him to James Town with twelve guides. That 
 night they quartered '' in the woods, and he still expected (as he 
 had during the long time of his imprisonment), notwithstanding 
 all their feasting, to be put to one death or another. But Al- 
 mighty God 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, showed Powhatan^s trusty servant two cannons and a 
 millstone to carry to Powhatan. They found them somewhat 
 too heavy ; but when the Indians saw him discharge the cannon 
 loaded with stones, among the boughs of a great tree loaded with 
 icicles, the ice and branches came tumbling down so, the poor 
 savages ran away half dead with fear. But at last we regained 
 some conference with them, and gave them such toys, and sent to 
 Powhatan, his women and children, such presents as fully con- 
 tented them. 
 
 Now every once in four or five days, Pocahontas, with her at- 
 tendants, brought Captain Smith enough provisions to save 
 many of their lives. 
 
 Thus from numb death our good God sent relief. 
 The sweet assuager of all other grief. 
 
 Captain Smithes narrative of the plenty he had seen, and of the 
 state and bounty of Powhatan (which till that time was un- 
 known), so revived their dead spirits (especially the story of the 
 
 J ' Quartered . —Meaning f \ ^- MpUlfied. ^Meaning f 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 31 
 
 love of Pocahontas), that all fear was abandoned. Thus you may 
 see what difficulties still hindered any good endeavor, yet you 
 see by what strange means God hath still delivered it.'' 
 
 Now whether it would have been better for Captain Smith 
 to have accepted any of those several projects, to have aban- 
 doned the country, with some ten or twelve of them, who were 
 called the better sort, and to have left Master Hunt, our preach- 
 er; Master Anthony Gosnold, a most honest, worthy, and indus- 
 trious gentleman ; Master Thomas Wotton, and some twenty- 
 seven others of his countrymen, to the fury of the savages, 
 famine, and all manner of mischiefs and inconveniences (for 
 they were but forty in all, to keep possession of this large coun- 
 try) ; or starve himself with them for company, or by venturing 
 abroad to make them j^rovision, or by his opposition to preserve 
 the action, and save all their lives, — I leave to the censure of all 
 honest men to consider. 
 
 CAPTAIN SMITH'S ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 
 Of Their Customs. 
 WiTHiiq" sixty miles of Jamestown there are about five thou- 
 sand people, but of able men fit for war there are scarce fifteen 
 hundred. There is a far greater number of women and children 
 than of men. To support so many together, they have yet no 
 means, because they derive so small a benefit' from their land, 
 be it ever so fertile. Six or saven hundred have been the most 
 that have been seen together. The people differ very much in 
 stature, and especially in language. Some are very great, others 
 very little; but generally tall and straight, of a comely propor- 
 tion, and of a brown color when they are of age, but white when 
 they are born. Their hair is generally black, and but few have 
 any beard. The men shave one half of their hair, and wear the 
 
 '^ It. — Refers to the colony and 
 the preservation of their lives. 
 'Benefit. — The cultivation of the 
 
 soil by the Indians was of a most 
 primitive character, and little calcu- 
 lated to result in large crops. 
 
32 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 other half long. For barbers they have the women^ who with 
 two shells will grate away the hair, in any fashion they please. 
 The hair of the women is cut in many fashions suitable to their 
 years, but some i3art always remains long. 
 
 They are very strong, of an able body, and full of agility; able 
 to endure lying in the woods under a tree by the fire in the worst 
 of winter, or in the weeds and grasses in ambuscade""' in summer. 
 They are treacherous in everything, except where fear constrains 
 them; crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension, and very ingenu- 
 ous.^ Some are of fearful disposition, some are bold, most are 
 cautious, all are savage, and generally covetous of copper, beads, 
 and such like trinkets. They are soon moved to anger, and so 
 ipalicious that they seldom forget an injury. They seldom steal 
 far©in«nie' another, lest their conjurers* should reveal it, and 
 tiheyl'sliouki be pursued and punished. Their women are care- 
 ful not to be suspected of dishonesty without the leave of their 
 husbands. 
 
 Each household knows its own lands and gardens, and most 
 live by their own labor. For their apparel they are sometimes 
 covered with the skins of wild beasts, which in winter are 
 dressed with the hair, but in summer without. The better sort 
 use large mantles' of deer-skins. Some of these mantles are 
 embroidered with white beads, some with copper, others painted 
 after their manner. But the common sort have scarce enough 
 to cover their nakedness, unless with grass, the leaves of trees, or 
 such like. We have seen some wear mantles made of turkey 
 feathers, so prettily wrought and woven with threads that 
 nothing but the feathers could be discerned. They were exceed- 
 ingly warm, and very handsome. 
 
 They decorate themselves mostly with copper beads and paint. 
 Some of the women have their bodies and faces tattooed" with 
 
 - Ambuscade. — Meaning ? 
 
 3 Ingenuous. — Free from reserve. 
 
 ■* Conjurers. — Among the Indians 
 these were men who pretended to 
 act by supernatural power, and to 
 have the ability to foretell many 
 
 things. As the Indians were super- 
 stitious, the conjurers had great 
 power over them. 
 
 ^Mantles. — Cloaks, or loose-fittins' 
 garments. 
 
 ^ Tattooed. — Meaning ? 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 33 
 
 pictures of beasts and serpents, artificially wrought into their 
 flesh with black spots. In each ear they have three great holes, 
 from which they hang chains, bracelets, or pieces of copper. 
 Some of the men wear in those holes a small green and yellow 
 colored live snake, nearly half a yard in length. Some wear on 
 their heads the wing of a bird or some large feather, and a rat- 
 tle,' which they take from the tail of a snake. Many have the 
 whole skin of a hawk or some strange fowl stuffed, with the wings 
 spread. Their heads and shoulders are painted red with the 
 root of pocone bruised to powder and mixed with oil: this they 
 claim will preserve them from the heat in summer and from the 
 cold in winter. Many other forms of paintings they use, but he 
 is the bravest that is the most monstrous to behold. 
 
 Their buildings and habitations are for the most part by the 
 rivers, or not far distant from some fresh spring. The houses 
 are built, like our arbors, of small sprigs bowed and tied, and so 
 closely covered with mats, or the bark of trees, that notwith- 
 standing either wind, rain, or weather, they are as warm as 
 stoves, but very smoky; yet at the top of the house, right over 
 the fire, there is a hole through which the smoke may escape. 
 They sleep on little benches of reeds covered with a mat, held 
 up a foot and more from the ground by a wooden support. On 
 these, round about the house, they lie one by the other near the 
 fire, some covered with mats, and some with skins. There are 
 from six to twenty in a house. Their houses are in the midst of 
 their fields or gardens, which are small plots of ground, some 
 twenty acres, some forty, and there are some larger — from one 
 hundred to two hundred acres. Sometimes from two to fifty 
 of these houses are together, or but a little separated by groves 
 of trees. There is but little wood near their habitations, by rea- 
 son of their burning it for fire, and a man may gallop a horse 
 amongst these woods any way, except where the creeks or rivers 
 hinder. 
 
 ''Rattle.— The extremity of the 
 rattlesnake's tail is- composed of 
 several horny membranous cells, 
 
 loosely joined together, so that a 
 rattling noise is produced when the 
 snake shakes its tail. 
 
34 CAPTAIN JOHN iJMITH. 
 
 Men, women, and children have their several names according 
 to the humor of their parents. The women, they say, love their 
 children very dearly. To make them hardy, they wash them in 
 the rivers in the coldest mornings, and by painting and ointments 
 so tan their skins, that after a year or two no weather will hurt 
 them. The men pass their time in fishing, hunting, wars, and 
 such manlike exercises, scorning to be seen doing any woman- 
 like work. The women and children do all the work. They 
 make mats, baskets, pots, mortars; pound their corn, make their 
 bread, prepare their victuals, plant and gather their corn, and 
 bear all kinds of burdens. 
 
 They readily kindle their fire by rubbing a dry pointed stick, 
 in a hole made in a little square piece of wood, which taking fire 
 will kindle moss, leaves, or any dry thing that will quickly burn. 
 In March and April they live much upon their fishing weirs;^ 
 and feed on fish, turkeys, and squirrels. In May and June they 
 plant their fields, and live mostly on acorns, walnuts, and fish. But 
 to change their diet, some scatter in small companies, and live upon 
 fish, beasts, crabs, oysters, land tortoises, strawberries, ai.d mul- 
 berries. In June, July, and August, they feed upon roots, ber- 
 ries, fish, and green wheat. It is strange to see ho tv their bodies 
 change with their diet (even as the deer and wild beasts), for with 
 the different seasons they seem fat and lean, strong and weak. 
 Powhatan, their great king, and some others that are provident,^ 
 roast their flesh and fish, and keep it till time of need. 
 
 For fishing, hunting, and wars they use their bows and ar- 
 rows. They bring their bows to the form of ours by scraping 
 with a shell. Their arrows are made, some of straight young 
 sprigs, which they head with bone two or three inches long. 
 These they use to shoot at squirrels on trees. Another sort of 
 arrow is made of reeds. These are pierced with wood headed 
 with splinters of crystal or some sharp stone, the spurs of a 
 turkey, or the bill of some bird. For a knife they use the splin- 
 ter of a reed to cut their feathers in form. With this knife they 
 
 8 Weirs. — Fences or inclosures made of twigs and the branches of trees, 
 and placed in streams to catch fish, ^ Provident. — Meaning f 
 
CAPTAIX JOHN SMITH. 
 
 35 
 
 will joint a deer or any beast, shape their shoes, buskins/" and 
 mantles. To make the notch of their arrows they have the 
 tooth of a boar set in a stick. The arrow-head they quickly 
 make with a little bone, or with any splint of a_ stone, or glass 
 in the form of a heart. With the sinews of deer and the tops 
 of deers' horns boiled to a jelly they make a glue that will not 
 dissolve in cold water, and with this they glue the head to the 
 end of their arrows. 
 
 For their wars they use targets" that are round and made of 
 the bark of trees, and wear a sword of wood at their backs, but 
 oftentimes they use the horns of a deer, put through a piece of 
 wood in the form of a pickaxe for swords. Some have a long 
 stone sharpened at both ends and used in the same manner. 
 This they were wont to use for hatchets also, but now by trading 
 they have plenty of iron. Such are their chief instruments and 
 arms. They fish much in boats, which they make of one tree 
 by burning and scratching away the coals with stones and shells 
 till they have made it in the form of a trough. Some of them 
 are an ell deep, '^ forty or fifty feet in length, and will bear forty 
 men. But the most ordinary are smaller, and will bear ten, 
 twenty, or thirty men. Instead of oars they use paddles and 
 sticks, with which they will row faster than we can our barges. 
 
 Betwixt their hands and thighs their women spin the bark 
 of trees, deer sinews, or a kind of grass, into thread, which they 
 make very even. This thread serves for many uses about 
 their houses and apparel. They also make nets and lines of it 
 for fishing. Their hooks are either of bone, in the form of a 
 crooked pin or fish-hook, or of the splinter of a bone tied to a 
 little stick. At the end of the line they tie on the bait. 
 
 They use also long arrows*^ tied to a line wherewith they shoot 
 at fish in the rivers, but they of Accawmack'^ use staves like jav- 
 elins'^ headed with bone. With these they dart fish swimming in 
 
 '^ 'Rnikvaz.— Meaning ? 
 
 " Targets. — Shields. 
 
 ^-'EU deep. — How many inches? 
 
 J3j,Qiig arrows.— Spears. 
 
 ^^ Accawmack. — A territory on the 
 E. shore of Chesapeake Bay, near 
 Cape Charles. 
 
 '^ Javelins, — Harpooug. 
 
36 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 the water. They have also many artificial weirs in which they 
 get abundance of fish. In their hunting and fishing they take 
 the greatest pains; and as it is their ordinary exercise from in- 
 fancy, they esteem it a pleasure, and are very proud to be expert 
 in it. By their continual ranging and travel they know all the 
 advantages and places most frequented with deer, beasts, fish, 
 fowl, roots, and berries. In tlieir hunts they leave their habi- 
 tations, and forming themselves into companies, go with their 
 families to the most desert places, where they spend their time 
 in hunting and .fowling np the mountains, or by the heads of the 
 rivers, where there is plenty of game. For betwixt the rivers 
 the ground is so narrow, that little game comes there which they 
 do not devour. It is a marvel tliat they can so accurately pass 
 three or four days' journey through these deserts without habita- 
 tion. Their hunting houses are like unto arbors covered with 
 mats. 
 
 The women follow after them, with corn, acorns, mortars, 
 and all the baggage they use. When they come to the place of 
 exercise, every man does his best to show his dexterity, for by 
 excelling in those qualities they get their wives. They will 
 shoot forty yards level, or very near the mark, and one hundred 
 and twenty yards is their best at random. In their hunts in the 
 desert they commonly go two or three hundred together. Hav- 
 ing found the deer, they surround them with many fires, and be- 
 twixt the fires they place themselves. Some take their stand in 
 the midst. They chase the deer, thus frightened by the fires 
 and the voices, so long within the circle that they often kill 
 six, eight, ten, or fifteen at a hunting. They also drive them 
 onto some narrow point of land and force them into the river, 
 where with their boats they have ambuscades to kill them. 
 When they have shot a deer by land, they track it like blood- 
 hounds by the blood, and so overtake it. Hares, partridges, 
 turkeys, fat or lean, young or old, they devour all they can 
 catch. In one of these huntings they found Captain Smith en- 
 gaged in the discovery of the head of the Chickahominy river, 
 where the^y slew his men and took him prisoner in a bogmire. 
 
CAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 37 
 
 It was there that he saw those exercises, and gathered these ob- 
 servations. 
 
 One savage hunting alone uses the skin of a deer slit on one 
 side, and so put on his arm that his hand comes to the head 
 which is stuffed; and the horns, head, eyes, ears, and every part 
 is artificially counterfeited as perfectly as he can devise. Thus 
 shrouding his body in the skin, by stalking'' he approaches the 
 deer, creeping on the ground from one tree to another. If the 
 deer chances to suspect danger or stands to gaze, he turns the 
 head with his hand to appear like a deer, also gazing and licking 
 himself. So watching his best advantage to approach, he shoots 
 him, and chases him by the marks of his blood till he gets 
 him. 
 
 When they intend any wars the chiefs usually have the advice 
 of their priests and conjurers, and their allies and ancient friends; 
 but the priests chiefly determine their resolution. They aj^point 
 some muscular fellow captain over each nation. They seldom 
 make war for land or goods, but for women and children, and es- 
 pecially for revenge. They have many enemies in all the west- 
 ern countries beyond the mountains and the heads of the 
 rivers. 
 
 The Powhatans are constrained sometimes to fight against all 
 their enemies. Their chief attempts are to capture by strata- 
 gem, treachery/' or surprises. They do not put women and 
 children captives to death, but keep them. 
 
 They have a method in war, and for our pleasure they showed 
 it to us. Having painted and disguised themselves in the fierc- 
 est manner they could devise, they divided themselves into two 
 companies, with nearly a hundred in a company — the one com- 
 pany called Monacans, the other Powhatans. Each army had 
 its captain. These as enemies took their stand a musket shot 
 from one another, ranged themselves fifteen abreast, and in 
 
 '^stalking. — Walking softly and I of disguise very near to game in 
 warily so as to approach under cover I order to shoot it. 
 
 I '' Stratagem, treachery.— 3/^7? z??^'? 
 
^g CAPTAiiY JOHN SMITH. 
 
 ranks four or five yards apart ; not in file, but with openings 
 between their files, so that the rear could shoot as conveni- 
 ently as the front. Having thus pitched the fields, a messen- 
 ger from each part went with these conditions : that the fugitives 
 of the vanquished, upon their submission in two days after, 
 should live, but their wives and children should be prize for the 
 conquerors. 
 
 The messengers no sooner returned than the companies ap- 
 proached in order. On each rank a sergeant, and in the rear an 
 officer for lieutenant, all duly keeping their orders, yet leaping 
 and singing after their accustomed manner in wars. Upon the 
 first flight of arrows they gave most horrible shouts and screeches. 
 When they had spent their arrows they came together, charging 
 and retiring, every rank following tlie other. As they got a 
 chance they caught their enemy by the hair of the head, and 
 down he came. The victor with his wooden sword seemed to 
 beat out his enemy^s brains, and yet the moment it was possible 
 he crept to the rear to maintain the skirmish. 
 
 The Monacans decreasing, the Powhatans charged upon them 
 in the form of a half-moon ; they, unwilling to be enclosed, fled 
 all in a troop to their ambuscades, on which they very cunning- 
 ly led the Powhatans. The Monacans dispersed themselves 
 among the fresh men hidden in ambush, whereupon the Powhat- 
 ans retired with all speed. The Monacans seeing this, took ad- 
 vantage to retire again, and so each company returned to its own 
 quarters. All their actions, voices, and gestures, both in charg- 
 ing and retreating, were so strained to the height of their qual- 
 ity and nature, that the strangeness of the scene made it seem 
 very delightful. For music they use a thick cane, on which 
 they pipe as on a recorder ;" but for their wars they have a great 
 deep platter of wood, Avhich they cover with a skin, at each cor- 
 ner of which they tie a walnut ; and these meeting at the back 
 (of this platter) are twisted together with a small rope till the 
 skin is so taut ^* and stilf, that they may beat upon it as a drum. 
 
 '* Recorder. — An antique musical instrument, somewhat resembling a 
 flute or flageolet, "> TaxX.— Meaning ? 
 
CAlTAtN JQM^ SMTtt. 39 
 
 But their chief instruments are rattles made of small gourds or 
 pumpkin shells. These mingled with their voices, sometimes 
 twenty or thirty together, make such a terrible noise as would 
 rather affright than delight a man. 
 
 If any great commander arrives at the habitation, they spread 
 a mat, as the Turks do a carpet, for him to sit upon. Upon 
 another right opposite they seat themselves Then all with a 
 loud voice of shouting bid him welcome. After this two or more 
 of their chief men make an oration, testifying their love. This 
 they do with such vehemence and such great passion, that they 
 sweat till they drop, and are so out of breath they can scarcely 
 speak. A man would take them to be exceedingly angry or 
 stark mad. 
 
 They trade for copper, beads, and such like, for which 
 they give such commodities as they have — as skins, fowl, fish, 
 flesh, and their country corn. But their victuals are their 
 chief riches. Every spring they make themselves sick with 
 drinking the juice of a root mixed with water, whereof they 
 take so great a quantity, that they scarcely recover their former 
 health in three or four days. They have many professed physi- 
 cians, who with their charms and rattles, with an infernal row 
 of words and actions, will seem to cure their inward grief. 
 With a preparation of roots they ordinarily heal green wounds ; 
 but to scarify^" a swelling or make incision their best instru- 
 ments are some splinted stone. They thought so much of our 
 surgeons, that they believed any of their plasters would heal 
 any hurt. 
 
 2. Of their Religion". 
 
 There is in Virginia no place yet discovered so savage that the 
 natives have not a religion. 
 
 All things that could do them injury beyond their prevention, 
 as the fire, water, lightning, thunder, our ordnance pieces, and 
 horses, they adore with their kind of divine worship. But the 
 
 ■■'^Scarify, — To make small incisions so as to draw blood. 
 
4:0 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 chief divinity they worship is the clevih Him they call Oke/^ and 
 serve him more witli fear than love. They say they have con- 
 ference with him, and fashion themselves as near to his shape as 
 they can imagine. In their temples they have his image carved, 
 and then painted and adorned with chains, cop23er, and beads ; 
 and near by him is commonly the sepulcher of their kings. 
 
 When their kings die their bodies are first hung upon hurdles 
 till they are very dry. About the most of their joints and neck 
 they hang bracelets or chains of copper, pearl, and such things 
 as they used to wear. Then they wrap the bodies very care- 
 fully in white skins, and so roll them in mats for their winding 
 sheets. In the tomb, which is an arch made of mats, they lay 
 them in order. What remains of the wealth of their kings 
 they set at their feet in baskets. These temples and bodies are 
 kept by the priests. For their ordinary form of burial, they dig 
 a deep hole in the earth with sharp stakes ; and the bodies being 
 wrapped in skins and mats, with their jewels, they lay them upon 
 sticks in the ground, and cover them with earth. The burial 
 ended, all the women having their faces painted with black coal 
 and oil, sit twenty-four hours in the houses mourning, lament- 
 ing by turns, and with such yelling and howling as may express 
 their great passion. 
 
 In every territory are a temple and several priests. Their 
 principal temple or place of superstition is upon the top of cer- 
 tain red sandy hills in the woods, where are three great houses, 
 filled with images of their kings and the tombs of their ances- 
 tors. These houses are nearly sixty feet in length, built like an 
 arbor. They consider this place so holy, that none but the 
 priests and kings dare come into the houses : nor do the savages 
 dare go up the river by it in boats, unless they solemnly cast 
 some piece of copper, white beads, or pocones into the river, for 
 fear their Oke should be offended and be revenged. In this 
 place commonly seven priests live. The chief differs from the 
 
 ■^' Oke. — The chief divinity, or evil spirit, worshiped among the Indi- 
 ans of every nation. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN HMITH. 41 
 
 rest in his ornaments ; but inferior priests could hardly be known 
 from the common people, except for the many holes in their ears 
 to hang their jewels. 
 
 The ornaments of the chief priests are certain attires for his 
 head made in this manner. They take a dozen or more snake- 
 skins, and stuff them with moss, together with many weasel and 
 other skins. These they tie by the tails, so that all meet on the 
 top of the head, like a great tassel. Round about this tassel is 
 a crown of feathers ; and the skins hang round about the head 
 and shoulders, in a manner covering the face. The faces of all 
 their priests are painted as ugly as they can devise. Every one 
 has a rattle in his hands. Their devotion was mostly in songs, 
 which the chief priest begins, and the rest follow him. Some- 
 times he makes invocations with broken sentences, by starts, 
 and strange passions, and at every pause the rest give a short 
 groan. 
 
 It could not be perceived that they keep any day more holy 
 than another ; except only in case of some great distress, of 
 want, fear of enemies, times of triumph, and gathering together 
 of fruits, when all the men, women, and children come together 
 to solemnities. The manner of their devotion is sometimes to 
 make a great fire in the house or fields, and for all to sing or 
 dance about it, with rattles and shouts together, for four or five 
 hours. Sometimes they set a man in the midst, and dance and 
 sing about him, he all the while claj^ping his hands as if he 
 would keep time. And after their songs and dancings end, they 
 go to their feasts. They have also divers conjurations. One 
 they made when Captain Smith was their prisoner, in order to 
 know, as they reported to him, if any more of his countrymen 
 would arrive there, and what he there intended. The manner 
 of it was thus : 
 
 First they made a fire in a house. About this fire sat seven 
 priests, and he by them. They then made a circle of meal about 
 the fire ; and that done, the chief priest, attired as is above ex- 
 pressed, began to shake his rattle, and the rest followed him in a 
 song. At the end of the song he laid down three to five grains 
 
42 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 of wheat, and so continued his songs by the grains, till three 
 times they encircled the fire. Then they divided the grains into 
 certain numbers with little sticks, laying down at the end of every 
 song a little stick. In this manner they sat eight, ten, or twelve 
 hours without ceasing, and with such strange stretching of their 
 arms, and violent passion and gestures, as might, they so con- 
 jured, well seem strange to him, who every hour expected his 
 end." They did not eat any meat till late in the evening, when 
 they had finished their work ; and then they feasted with much 
 mirth. For three or four days they continued this ceremony. 
 
 They have also certain altar stones ; but these stand away 
 from their temples, some by their houses, others in the woods 
 and wilderness. Upon these they offer blood, deer suet, and to- 
 bacco. This they do when they return from wars, from hunt- 
 ing, and upon many other occasions. They have also another 
 superstition that they use in storms, when the waters are rough 
 in the rivers and on the sea-coasts. Their conjurers run to the 
 water^s side, or passing in their boats, after many loud outcries 
 and invocations, they cast tobacco, copper, pocones, and such 
 trash into the water, to pacify that god whom they think to be 
 very angry. 
 
 Before eating their meals, the better sort will take the first 
 bit and cast it into the fire — which is all the grace they are 
 known to use. 
 
 In some part of the country they have yearly a sacrifice of 
 children. Such a one was some ten miles from Jamestown, and 
 thus performed : 
 
 Fifteen of the handsomest young boys, between ten and fifteen 
 years of age, were painted white. Having brought them forth, 
 the people spent the forenoon in dancing and singing about 
 them. In the afternoon they put the children at the root of a 
 tree. All the men stood in a guard by them, every one having 
 in his hand a bastinado" made of reeds bound together. They 
 formed a lane, through which there were appointed five young 
 
 2- Expected his end.— ilfea«^X9.^ | ^^ gagtinado. — A cudgel. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. ' 43 
 
 men to fetch these children. So every one of the five went 
 through the guard to fetch a child, each after the other in turo, 
 the guard fearlessly beating them with their bastinadoes,, and 
 they patiently enduring it, defending the children with their 
 naked bodies from the unmerciful blows ; and so the children es- 
 caped. All this time tlie women wept and cried out passionately, 
 and provided mats, skins, moss, and dry wood, as things fitting 
 their children's funerals. 
 
 After the children had thus passed, the guard tore down 
 branches and boughs with sucli violence, that they rent the 
 body of the tree, and made wreaths for their heads, or bedecked 
 their hair with the leaves. What else was d*one with the chil- 
 dren was not seen, but they were all cast on a heap in a valley, 
 as if dead ; and then they made a great feast for all the com- 
 pany. Being asked the meaning of this sacrifice, they answered 
 that the children were not all dead, but only that the Oke or 
 devil did suck the blood from the left breast of those who 
 chanced to be his by lot, till they were dead. But the rest were 
 kept in the wilderness by the young men till nine months were 
 expired, during which time they must not converse with any.; 
 and of these were made their priests and conjurers. 
 
 This sacrifice they held to be so necessary, that if they should 
 omit it, their Oke and all their other gods would let them have 
 no deer, turkeys, corn, nor fish ; and besides, he would make 
 great slaughter amongst them. They think that when their 
 priests are dead they go beyond the mountains toward the set- 
 ting of the sun, and ever remain there in form of their Oke, 
 with their heads, painted with oil and pocones, finely trimmed 
 with feathers, and having beads, hatchets, copper, and tobacco, 
 and doing nothing but dancing and singing with all their pre- 
 decessors. But the common people they suppose do not live 
 after death. 
 
 Many of us used our best endeavors to divert them from this 
 blind idolatry, and though we could not prevail upon them to 
 forsake their false gods, yet this they did believe, that our God 
 as much exceeded theirs, as our guns did their bows and arrows \ 
 
44: 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 and many times they sent men with presents to the President 
 at Jamestown, entreating him to pray to his God for rain, for 
 their gods would not send them any. And in this lamentable 
 ignorance do these poor souls sacrifice themselves to the devil, 
 not knowing their Creator. 
 
 3. Of theik Goyerxmeitt. 
 
 Although the Indians are very barbarous, yet they have 
 amongst them such a government that their magistrates keep 
 their people in due subjection, and in that excel many places 
 that would be counted very civil. The form of their common- 
 wealth'^* is a monarchical government. One as emperor ruleth 
 over many kings or governors. Their chief ruler is called Pow- 
 hatan," and takes his name from the principal place of dwelling. 
 Some countries he has which were his ancestors, and have come 
 unto him by inheritance. All the rest of his territories are re- 
 ported to have been his several conquests. 
 
 In all his ancient inheritance he has houses built like arbors 
 — some thirty, some forty, yards long; and at every house provi- 
 sion for his entertainment. For the greater part of the time he 
 resided about fourteen miles from Jamestown, on the Pamaunke^^ 
 river. But he took so little pleasure in our near neighborhood, 
 that in January, 1609, he removed to a place in the deserts 
 at the head of the Chickahominy" river. He is a tall, well- 
 proportioned man, with a sour look; his head somewhat gray, 
 his beard so thin that it seems none at all. His age, near sixty; 
 and a body very able and hardy to endure any labor. About his 
 person ordinarily attends a guard of forty or fifty of the tallest 
 men his country doth afford. Every night upon the four quar- 
 ters of his house are four sentinels, standing from each other an 
 
 '^"^ Commonwealth. — Meaning ? 
 
 ^^ Powhatan.— This was the official 
 name of the chief ruler. His fam- 
 ily name was Wahuusonacoke. 
 
 ** Pamaunke — York River. 
 ^^ Chickahominy. — Whei'e situat- 
 ed? 
 
OAPTAIN JOHN SMtTS. 45 
 
 arrow's flight ; and at every half-hour one from the corps 
 calls aloud, and every sentinel answers from his stand. If any 
 fail, they presently send forth an officer, who beats him ex- 
 tremely. 
 
 A mile from Orapakes^' in a thicket of wood, Powhatan hath a 
 house, in which he keej^s his treasure of skins, copper, pearl, 
 and beads, which he stores up against the time of his death and 
 burial. Here also is his store of red paint for ointment, and his 
 bows and arrows. This house is tifty or sixty yards in length, 
 frequented only by priests. At the four corners of this house 
 stand four images, as sentinels, — one of a dragon, another a bear, 
 the third like a leopard, and the fourth like a giant — all made 
 according to their best workmanshi23. When he dineth or sup- 
 peth, one of the women, before and after meat, bringeth him 
 water in a wooden platter to wash his hands. Another waiteth 
 with a bunch of feathers instead of a towel to wipe them. 
 
 Ilis kingdom does' not descend to his sons or children, but 
 first to his brothers, whereof he hath three, and after their de- 
 cease to his sisters. First to the eldest sister, then to the rest; 
 and after them to the heirs male and female of the eldest sister; 
 but never to the heirs of the male. Neither he nor any of his 
 people understand any letters whereby to write or read; the only 
 law whereby he ruleth is custom. Yet, when he listeth, his 
 will is a law and must be obeyed. They esteem him not only as 
 a king, but as half a god. His inferior kings rule by custom, 
 and have power of life or death at their command. 
 
 They all know their several lands and habitations, and limits 
 to fish, fowl, or hunt in. They all pay tribute to Powhatan of 
 skins, beads, copper, pearl, deer, turkeys, wild beasts, and corn. 
 What he commandeth, they dare not disobey in the least thing. 
 It is strange to see with what great fear and adoration all these 
 people do obey this Powhatan. At his feet they present what- 
 soever he commandeth, and at the least frown of his brow their 
 
 28 Orapakes. — One of the residences of the Emperor Powhatan, about 
 13 miles east of the falls at Richmond. 
 
46 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 great spirits will tremble witli fear; and no wonder^ for he is very 
 terrible and tyrannous in punishing such as offend him. Their 
 ordinary punishment is to beat a culprit with cudgels. AVe have 
 seen a man kneeling, and at Powhatan's command two men 
 have beat him on the bare skin till he hath fallen senseless in a 
 swoon, and yet never cried or complained. 
 
 In the year 1608 Powhatan surprised his near neighbors and 
 subjects. The occasion was to us unknown, but the manner 
 was thus: First he sent some of his men as if to lodge amongst 
 them that night, then the ambuscades environed all their houses, 
 and at the hour appointed they all fell to the spoil: twenty-four 
 men they slew; the long hair of one side of their heads with the 
 skin, cut off with shells or reeds, they brought away. They sur- 
 prised also the women and the children, and the Werowance.^^ 
 All these they presented to Powhatan. The Werowance, women 
 and children became his prisoners, and do him service. The 
 locks of hair he hanged on a line between two trees. And thus 
 he made ostentation as of a great triumph, showing them to the 
 Englishmen that then came to him at his appointment. They 
 expected provision; he expected to betray them, and supposed he 
 had conquered them by this spectacle of his terrible cruelty. 
 
 VI. 
 CAPTAIN SMITH MADE PRESIDENT. 
 
 1608. 
 
 The Arrival of the Second Supply. — Coron"Ation of 
 
 poavhatait. 
 
 On the tenth of September, 1608, by the election of the Coun- 
 cil and request of the Company, Captain Smith received the 
 
 29 Werowance. — The king, or cliief , of an Indian tribe. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHlf SMITH. 
 
 it 
 
 letters patent/ and took the place of President^ which till then 
 he would by no means accept, though he was often importuned 
 to do so. 
 
 Now the building of Ratcliff^s palace'' was discontinued as a 
 thing needless ; the church was repaired ; the store-house pro- 
 vided with a new roof, and buildings prepared for the supplies 
 we expected; the fort reduced to a pentagonal form ; the order 
 of the watch renewed; the squadrons (each setting of the watch) 
 trained ; every Saturday the whole company exercised on the 
 plain by the west bulwark, prepared for that purpose, where 
 sometimes more than a hundred savages would stand in amaze- 
 ment to behold how a file of our men would batter a tree, against 
 which was set a mark to shoot at. The boats were trimmed for 
 trade, ^ and, being sent out with Lieut. 
 Percy, on their journey encountered the 
 second supply, Uhat brought them back 
 to discover the country of Monacan. " 
 
 How or why Captain Newport ob- 
 tained such a private commission as 
 not to return without a lamp of gold, 
 a certainty of the South Sea, or one of 
 the lost company ^ sent out by Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh, I know not. 
 
 As for the coronation of Powhatan, 
 and his presents of basin and ewer, 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 ' Letters patent. — So denominated 
 because they are written upon open 
 sheets of parchment, with the seal of 
 the sovereign or party by whom they 
 were issued pendent at the bottom. 
 Close letters are folded np and 
 sealed on the outside. 
 
 '^ " Ratcliff had riotously con- 
 sumed the stores, and to fulfill his 
 follies about building him an un- 
 necessary palace in the woods, had 
 brought them all to misery." 
 
 3 Trimmed for trade. — Meaning? 
 
 '^ The second supply. — The ships, 
 with goods, under command of 
 Captain Newport. 
 
 '•> Monacan. — The country near the 
 upper waters of the James River. 
 
 « Lost company. — A colony of a 
 hundred persons had been left on 
 the island of Roanoke by Captain 
 White, under the auspices of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, in 1587, and were 
 never heard of afterwards. 
 
48 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 bed, clothes, and such costly novelties, they had much better 
 been withheld than so ill spent; for we had his favor much bet- 
 ter for only a plain piece of copper, till this stately kind of so- 
 liciting made him so much overvalue himself, tliat he respected 
 us not at all. As for the hiring of the Poles and Dutchmen, sent 
 over with Captain Newport, to make pitch, tar, glass, mills, and 
 soap Mshes, if the country had been filled with people and necessa- 
 ries, it would have been well ; but to send them, and seventy more, 
 without victuals, to work, was not so well advised as it should 
 have been. Yet this could not have hurt us if they had been 
 two hundred, for though we were then but one hundred and 
 thirty, we were in want ; for we had the savages in that decorum ' 
 (their harvest being newly gathered), that we feared not to get 
 victuals for five hundred. 
 
 Now there was no way to make us miserable but by neglecting 
 the opportunity to make provision whilst it was to be had, which 
 was done by the direction from England to perform this strange 
 discovery, and a more strange coronation. To lose that time, 
 spend what victuals we had, tire and starve our men, was folly. 
 How or by whom such ideas were invented I know not. But we 
 only accounted Captain Newport the author, who to effect these 
 projects had so gilded men's hopes with great promises, that both 
 Company and Council carried out his resolution. 
 
 Of this second supply there were added to the Council one 
 Captain Richard AValdo, and Captain Wynne, two ancient 
 soldiers and valiant gentlemen, but ignorant of the business, 
 being but newly arrived. Although Smith was President, yet 
 the major part of the Council had the authority, and ruled it as 
 they listed.** Captain Smith, to clear away all seeming suspic- 
 ions, to prove that the savages were not so desperate as was pre- 
 tended by Captain Newport, and to show how willing he was to 
 assist them as much as he could, because the coronation would 
 consume much time, he himself took their message to Powhat- 
 an, to entreat him to come to Jamestown to receive his presents. 
 
 ' Decorum. — Meanimj? ^ Listed. — Meaning ? 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITE. 
 
 49 
 
 And where Captain Newport did not dare to go with less than 
 one hundred and twenty, he took with him only four men. 
 With these he went overland some twelve miles, and crossed the 
 
 mean 
 
 Pocahontas. 
 
 who were 
 
 Powhatan, being thirty miles off, was sent 
 time Pocahontas and her women en- 
 tertained Captain Smith in this man- 
 ner. In a plain they made a fire, 
 before which he sat upon a mat, when 
 there was suddenly heard such a hideous 
 noise and shrieking amongst the woods, 
 that the five Englishmen betook them- 
 selves to their arms, and seized on two 
 or three old men near them, suppos- 
 ing Powhatan with all his power had 
 come to surprise them. But presently 
 Pocahontas came, asking him to kill 
 her if they planned any harm ; and the beholders, 
 men, women, and children, satisfied the Captain there was no 
 such intention. 
 
 Presently they were presented with this antic : thirty young 
 women came out of the woods, their bodies all painted, some of 
 one color, some of another, but all differing. Their leader had 
 a fair pair of bucko's horns on her head, and an otter skin at her 
 girdle, and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows on her back, 
 a bow and arrows in her hand : the next had in her hand a 
 sword, another a club, another a pot-stick :" each one with her 
 own device. With most fiendish shouts and cries, they rushed 
 from among the trees, and cast themselves in a ring about the 
 fire, singing and dancing, often falling into infernal passions, 
 and solemnly again returning to sing and dance. Having spent 
 nearly an hour in this masquerade, they departed as they had 
 entered. When this salutation ended, the feast was set, consist- 
 ing of all the savage dainties they could devise. Some attended. 
 
 9 lot-stick. — A stick with a hook at the end. 
 
50 CAPTAIN JOHN HMITM. 
 
 others sung and danced about; and wlien this mirth was ended, 
 with fire-brands instead of torches they conducted us to our 
 lodging. 
 
 Powhatan came the next day. Smith delivered his message 
 regarding the presents sent for him, and desired him to come to 
 his father Newport to accept of them. To this the subtle 
 savage thus replied : " If your king has sent me presents, I also 
 am a king, and this is my land ; I will stay eight days to receive 
 them. Your father is to come to me, not I to him, nor yet to 
 your fort; neither will I bite at such a bait.^^ 
 
 Many other discourses they had (yet each was content to sat- 
 isfy the other with complimentary courtesies), and so Captain 
 Smith returned with his answer. Upon this the presents were 
 sent by water, a distance of nearly a hundred miles, and the 
 captains, with fifty good soldiers, went by land. 
 
 The next day was appointed for Powhatan ^s coronation. Then 
 the presents were brought to him : his basin and ewer ; his bed 
 and furniture set up ; his scarlet cloak and ajjparel, with much 
 ado, put on him, but there was great trouble to make hitn kneel 
 to receive his croAvn. Neither knowing the majesty and meaning 
 of a crown, nor bending of the knee, he required so many persua- 
 sions, examples, and instructions, as tired them all. At last he 
 stooped a little, and three put the crown on his head. Then by the 
 warning of a pistol the boats saluted with such a volley of shot, 
 that the king started up in a horrible fear, till he saw all was well. 
 Then remembering himself, to thank them for their kindness he 
 sent his old moccasins and his mantle of raccoon skin to his brother. 
 King James I., by Captain Newport. And so, after further 
 kindness on both sides, Powhatan presented Newport with a 
 heap of wheat ears, wherewith we returned to the fort. No 
 sooner were we landed than the President dispersed as many as 
 were able, some to make glass, others pitch and soap ashes. But 
 he conducted thirty of us five miles from the fort into the 
 woods, to learn to cut down trees and make clapboards. These 
 hard works were strange indeed to some men of our company, 
 but all these things were carried on so pleasantly, that within a 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 5l 
 
 week they became skillful. They delighted to hear the trees 
 thunder as they fell ; but the axes so oft blistered their tender 
 fingers, that many times every third blow had a loud oath to 
 drown the echo. As a remedy for this sin, the President devised 
 to have every man^s oaths numbered, and at night for every 
 oath to have a can of water poured down his sleeve. With this 
 every offender was so drenched, that after that a man could scarce 
 hear an oath in a week. 
 
 Let no man think by this that the President and these gentle- 
 men spent their time as common wood-hackers at felling trees 
 or other like labors, or that they were pressed to it as hirelings 
 or common slaves, for what they did seemed as only a pleasure 
 and a recreation; yet thirty or forty such volunteers would do 
 more in a day than one hundred of the rest that must be pressed 
 to it by compulsion: but twenty good workmen would have been 
 better than them all. 
 
 VII. 
 THE NEW CHARTER. 
 
 1609. 
 
 '' In England the company was not unnaturally dissatisfied 
 with the results of the colony. The only return they had yet 
 had was two shiploads of timber. Accordingly they determined 
 to get a new charter, and to send out a fresh colony of five hun- 
 dred settlers in nine ships under command of Smith's old enemy 
 Captain Newport. The character of the new settlers was not 
 such as to. give much hope for the future welfare of the colony. 
 The colonists sailed from England in the latter end of May, but 
 the admiral's (Sir Geo. Somers) ship, the Sea- Venture, witli 
 one hundred and fifty men and three governors, with the letters 
 patent, on board, was cast away on the Bermudas. The rest of 
 
52 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITE. 
 
 tlie fleet which had been separated from the Sea-Venture in the 
 storm managed to ride through, and reached the Chesapeake, 
 though in a fearfully shattered condition. The Virginia govern- 
 ment had been reorganized and Smith removed. 
 
 '' The reasons for his disgrace were his ' hard dealings^ with the 
 savages, and not returning the ships freighted — a bitter charge 
 against a man who had derided the yellow dirt and only seized 
 the corn necessary to save the life of the colony. This indica- 
 tion of the state of things in Virginia, at the moment (August, 
 1609), will explain what followed. Eatcliife, coming on shore 
 from the ships, claimed authority in the colony as the represen- 
 tative of the new rulers, who would soon arrive. Riot and con- 
 fusion followed. 
 
 '^ Smith was a man of few words, and could always be counted 
 on to do what he said he would do. The term of his presidency 
 had not yet expired; he was still the head of the colony, and he 
 would hold to strict account those who disobeyed his orders. In 
 less than three months the new colonists had conducted them- 
 selves so factiously that Smith was compelled to cast several 
 ringleaders into prison. Then he separated the colony into 
 three parts, and planted one hundred and twenty men under 
 Martin at Nansemond, and the same number under AVest near 
 the site of the present city of Richmond. 
 
 " Both of these settlements were soon in trouble, and Smith 
 was compelled to visit them to quell their insurrection. Worn 
 and weary with all this dissension he sailed down the river again, 
 bent on finally leaving Virginia. An incident hurried his de- 
 parture. On his way down the James a bag of gunpowder ex- 
 ploded in his boat, ' tearing the flesh from his body and thighs 
 in a most pitiful manner.^ Ilis severe wounds required treat- 
 ment, and there was no one in the colony who was competent. 
 An opportunity to return to England presented itself. The 
 ships were about to sail, and Smith was carried on board, dele- 
 gating his authority to George Percy, who consented to remain 
 and act as President. 
 
 ^^Then the ships set sail, and Smith took his departure, never 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 53 
 
 again to return to Virginia. He left near five hundred per- 
 sons in the colony well supplied with arms, provisions, and 
 goods for the Indian traffic. Jamestown had a fort, church, 
 store-house, and about sixty dwelling-houses, with a stock of 
 hogs, goats, sheep, fowls, and a few horses. At Smith's depart- 
 ure, the colonists gave themselves up to riot and idleness. They 
 wastefully consumed the store of provisions, killed the stock, 
 traded away their arms with the natives, and presently suffered 
 severely from famine. The Indians attacked them, and killed 
 many. In six months there were only sixty persons remaining. 
 At this critical time Gates and Somers arrived from the Bermu- 
 das. Disheartened by the hopeless condition of the colony, they 
 resolved to sail for England; but fortunately, as they were leav- 
 ing the river. Lord Delaware appeared with three ships, well 
 supplied. The colony was resettled, and, from that time, pros- 
 pered." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS. 
 
 1613. 
 
 WRITTEN" BY E. HARRIS AXD JOHN" SMITH. 
 
 It being April, and time to prepare our ground and to plan 
 our corn, we returned to Jamestown. 
 
 Long before this. Master John Rolfe, an honest gentleman, 
 and of good behavior, had been in love with Pocahontas and she 
 with him. I' immediately made this known to Sir Thomas Dale 
 by a letter from Rolfe, wherein he entreated Dale's advice. Sir 
 Thomas Dale well approved the idea. The news of the intended 
 marriage soon came to the knowledge of Powhatan, and proved 
 
 ^ I. The writer of this account was Raphe Hamor ; came to Virginia 
 in 1610, and became secretary of the Council. 
 
54 CAPTAIN JOHN S3fITff. 
 
 acceptable to him, as appeared by his ready consent; for within 
 ten days he sent an old uncle of Pocahontas and two of his sons, 
 to see the manner of the marriage, and as his deputy, to do what 
 they were requested for the confirmation there. This was ac- 
 cordingly done about the first of April (1613), and ever since we 
 have had friendly trade and commerce, as well with Powhatan 
 himself, as all his subjects. 
 
 In the little rudely-constructed church at Jamestown, before 
 the font, which was hewn out of the trunk of a tree, the Princess 
 Pocahontas openly renounced her country's idolatry and was 
 baptized, and given the name of Rebecca. 
 
 LETTER FROM CAPTAIJ^ J0H:N^ SMITH. 1616. 
 
 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, has so often encouraged me in the worst of ex- 
 treme dangers, that now honesty constrains me to present your 
 Majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a deadly poison 
 to all honest virtues, I should be guilty of that crime if I 
 omitted any means to be thankful. 
 
 Some ten years ago, in Virginia, where I was taken prisoner 
 by the power of Powhatan their chief king, I received from this 
 great savage exceeding great courtesy, and especially from his 
 son, the manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a savage, 
 and from 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 in my desperate condi- 
 tion, gave me much cause to respect her. Although the first 
 Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw, and 
 enthralled in their barbarous power, notwithstanding all their 
 threats, I cannot say I felt the least want that was in the power 
 of those my mortal foes to prevent. After I had been fatted 
 some six weeks among those savage courtiers, she, at the min- 
 ute of my execution, hazarded the beating out of her own brains 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 55 
 
 to save mine; and not only that, but she so prevailed with her 
 father, that I was safely conducted to Jamestown; where I found 
 about thirty-eight miserable, poor, and sick creatures, to keep 
 possession of all those large territories of Virginia. Such was 
 the weakness of this poor Commonwealth, that had the savages 
 not fed us, we should have starved. And this relief, most gra- 
 cious Queen, was commonly brought us by this lady Pocahontas. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these events, when inconstant fortune 
 turned our peace to war, this tender maid dared to visit us, and 
 oft appeased our wrangles and supplied our wants. Whether it 
 was 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 
 Powhatan, with the utmost of his policy and power, sought 
 to surprise me at Werowocomoco, the dark night could not pre- 
 vent her from coming through the dangerous woods, and, with 
 moist eyes giving me intelligence, and advice how to escape his 
 fury. Had he known this, he surely would have slain her. 
 With her wild train she has freely frequented Jamestown, as her 
 father's habitation; and during the time of two or three years 
 she, next to God, was the instrument to preserve this Colony 
 from death, famine, and utter confusion; and if Virginia in 
 those times had once been dissolved, it might have remained to 
 this day as it was at our first arrival. 
 
 Since then this business has been turned and varied by many 
 accidents from what I left it on October 4, 1609: It is most cer- 
 tain that during a long and most troublesome war betwixt her 
 father and our Colony, after my departure, she was not heard of. 
 About two years after"* she herself was taken prisoner and de- 
 tained two years. 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 she is now 
 in England; the first Christian ever of that nation, the first Vir- 
 ginian who ever spoke English. 
 
 2 April, 1613. 
 
56 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your Majesty what 
 our approved histories will give you in detail, at your best leis- 
 ure, as done in the time of your Majesty^s life; and however this 
 might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot come 
 from a more honest heart. I never yet begged anything from 
 the state, and it is my w ant of ability, and her exceeding desert, 
 your birth, means, and authority, her birth, virtue, want, and 
 simplicity, that make me thus bold to humbly beseech your Maj- 
 esty to take this knowledge regarding her, even though it be 
 from one so unworthy to be the reporter, as myself. Her hus- 
 band's estate can not make her fit to attend your Majesty. The 
 most and least I can do is to tell you this, because no one has so 
 often tried it as I have and still more because she is of so great a 
 spirit that if she should not be well received her present love to 
 us and Christianity might turn into such scorn and fury as to 
 divert all this good to the worst of evil. On the other hand, if so 
 great a Queen should do her some unexpected honor in return 
 for her kindness to your servants and subjects it would so de- 
 light her as to endear her dearest blood to effect what your 
 Majesty and all the king's honest subjects most earnestly desire. 
 
 Being about this time preparing to sail for New England, I 
 could not stay to do her the service which I desired, and which 
 she well deserved; but hearing that she was at Branford," with 
 some of my friends, I went to see her. After a modest saluta- 
 tion, without a word she turned about and hid her face, as if 
 displeased, and in that humor her husband, with others, left her 
 for two or three hours, and I repented for having written that 
 she could speak English. But not long after she began to talk, 
 and remembered me well and what courtesies she had done me: 
 *^ You did promise Powhatan,^' she said, ^Hhat what was yours 
 should be his, and he the like to you. You called him father, 
 being a stranger in his land, and by the same reason so must I 
 call you. I dared not allow of that title because she was a king's 
 
 3 Branford. — Brentford, not far from London. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 57 
 
 daughter. With a well-set countenance she said: ^'^Were you 
 not afraid to come into my father^s country and cause fear in 
 him and all his people, and do you now fear to have me call you 
 father? I tell you, then, I will, and you shall call me child; and 
 so I will be forever and ever your countryman. They always 
 told us you were dead, and I did not know otherwise until I 
 came to Plymouth;' yet Powhatan gave orders to seek you, and 
 to know the truth, because your countrymen will lie much/' 
 
 One of Powhatan's council was considered a clever fellow and 
 the king purposely sent him, as they say, to count the people 
 here, and to inform him about us and our state. Arriving at 
 Plymouth, according to directions, he got a long stick and, by 
 cutting notches in it, expected to keep the number of all the 
 men he could see, but he was quickly weary of that task. Com- 
 ing to London, where by chance I met him, we renewed our ac- 
 quaintance. Many were desirous to hear him and see his beha- 
 vior. He said Powhatan did bid him find me out that I might 
 show him our God, the king, queen, and prince, about whom I 
 had told them so much. Concerning God, I told them what I 
 could; the king I heard he had seen, and the rest he should see 
 when he wished. He denied ever to have seen the king, till by 
 circumstances he was satisfied that he had; then he replied very 
 sadly: ^^ You gave Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed 
 as well as he fed himself; but your king gave me nothing, and I 
 am better than your white dog.'' 
 
 The small time I stayed in London, courtiers and otherp of my 
 acquaintances, went with me to see Pocahontas and generally 
 concluded that God had a great hand in her conversion, and 
 that they had seen many English ladies worse favored, propor- 
 tioned, and behaviored. As I have since heard, it pleased both 
 the king and queen's majesty to esteem her honorably. Accom- 
 panied with that honorable lady, the Lady Delaware, and that 
 honorable lord, her husband, and other persons of good quality, 
 
 "* Plymouth. —England. 
 
58 CAFTAIN JOim SMITH. 
 
 both publicly, at the masks, ^ and otherwise, to her great satisfac- 
 tion and content, which doubtless she would have deserved, if 
 she had lived to arrive in Virginia. Pocahontas died suddenly 
 at Gravesend, in March, 1617, just as she was on the point of 
 sailing for Virginia. The church of St. George at Gravesend, 
 where she was buried, was burned down in 1727. As she was 
 probably born in 1595, she was only twenty-two when she died. 
 Pocahontas, signifying, it is said, ^^ Bright Stream between two 
 Hills,^^ was her household name, and she was Powhatan^s *' dear- 
 est daughter." 
 
 IX. 
 
 CAPTAIN SMITH'S ANSWERS TO THE SEVEN QUESTIONS 
 OF HIS COMPANY. 
 
 Out of these observations it pleased his Majesty's Commission- 
 ers for the reformation of Virginia, to desire my answer to these 
 seven questions. 
 
 Q. 1. What conceive you is the cause the plantation has pros- 
 pered no better since you left it in so good a forwardness ? 
 
 A. Idleness and carelessness brought all I did in three years, 
 to nothing in six months; and of five hundred men I left, scarce 
 three score remained ; and had Sir Thomas Gates not got there 
 from the Bermudas, I think all would have been dead before they 
 could be supplied. 
 
 Q. 2. What conceive you is the cause that, though the 
 country be good, nothing but tobacco comes from there ? 
 
 A. The frequent changing of governors it seems causes every 
 man to make use of his time, and because corn w\as stinted at two 
 shillings sixpence the bushel, and tobacco at three shillings the 
 pound ; and they value a man's labor worth fifty or threescore 
 
 ^ Masks. — Celebrations, entertainments, and plays performed in honor 
 of Pocahontas. 
 
cAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 50 
 
 pounds a year in tobacco, but in corn not worth ten pounds. Now 
 make a man's labor in corn worth threescore pounds, and in tobac- 
 co but ten pounds a man, then will they raise corn sufficient to 
 entertain all comers, and keep their people in health to do any- 
 thing ; but till then there will be little or nothing to any pur- 
 pose. 
 
 Q. 3. What conceive you to have been the cause of the mas- 
 sacre, and if the savages had the use of any pieces in your time, 
 when, or by whom were they taught ? 
 
 A. The cause of the massacre was the want of martial disci- 
 pline, and because, being scattered, they were not prepared to 
 defend themselves against any enemy. In my time, though 
 Captain Newport furnished them with swords by trade, and 
 many fugitives did the like, and some pieces were got accidental- 
 ly, yet I got the most of them back again ; and it was death to 
 him who should show a savage the use of a gun. I understand 
 that they afterwards became such good marksmen they were 
 employed for fowlers and huntsmen by the English. 
 
 Q. 4. What amount think you would have settled the govern- 
 ment both for defense and planting when you left it ? 
 
 A. Twenty thousand pounds would have hired good laborers 
 and mechanics, and have furnished them with cattle and all 
 necessaries ; and one hundred such would have done more than 
 a thousand of such as went, though the Lord Delaware, kSir 
 Ferdinando Wayman, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir Thomas Dale 
 thought to the contrary, they confessed their error. 
 
 Q. 5. What conceive you would be the remedy and the 
 cost ? 
 
 A. The remedy is to send soldiers and all sorts of laborers and 
 necessaries for them, that they may be there by next Michael- 
 mas (1624). To do this well will stand you in five thousand 
 pounds, but if his Majesty would lend two of his ships to trans- 
 port them, less would serve ; besides the benefit of his grace to 
 the action would encourage all men. 
 
 Q, 6. What think you are the defects of the government both 
 here and there ? 
 
QO CAPTAIN JOBir SMifB. 
 
 A. The multiplicity of opinions here, and officers there, makes 
 so many delays by questions and formalities, that as much time 
 is spent in useless forms as in action. Besides, some are so de- 
 sirous to employ their ships, receiving six pounds for every pas- 
 senger, and three pounds for every ton of goods, at which rate a 
 thousand ships can now better be procured than formerly one 
 could be; that the ships are so pestered as occasions much sick- 
 ness, disease, and mortality; for though all of the passengers die 
 they are sure of their freight ; and then all must be satisfied 
 with orations, disputations, excuses, and hopes. 
 
 As for the letters of advice from hence, and their answers 
 thence, they are so well written that men would believe there 
 were no great doubt of the performance, and that all things were 
 well. People here have always been much subject to this error. 
 Not to believe, or not to relieve the true and poor estate of that 
 colony, whose fruits were commonly spent before they were ripe, 
 is nothing to them here, whose great estates are not sensible of 
 the loss of their adventures, and so no notice is taken of it; but 
 it is so with all men. 
 
 As to the way they think or dispose of all things at their 
 pleasure, I am sure not myself only, but a thousand others, have 
 already spent the most of their estates. The most part have 
 lost their lives and all, only to make way for the trial of more 
 new conclusions; and he that will now risk but twelve pounds 
 ten shillings shall have better respect and more favor than he 
 that sixteen years ago (in 1609) risked as much. But though 
 he risks five hundred pounds, and spends there never so much 
 time, if he has no more and is not able to begin a family, all is 
 lost by order of court. 
 
 In the beginning it was not so ; all then went out of one 
 purse, till those new devices consumed both money and purse; 
 for at first there were but sixteen patentees, now more than a 
 thousand ; then but thirteen counselors, now there are not less 
 than a hundred. I speak not of all, for there are some both hon- 
 orable and honest; but if some of the officers managed their own 
 estates no better than the affairs of Virginia, they and it would 
 
CAPTAm JOHN SMITH. 61 
 
 quickly fall to decay. But this is most evident ; it has caused 
 few officers in England to turn bankrupts; who, for all their 
 complaints, would not leave their places; but of the officers there, 
 few would not like to be at home. But fewer adventurers here 
 will risk any more till they see the business established, although 
 there are some so wilfully improvident that they care for nothing 
 but to get thither, and then if their friends be dead, or they 
 come to want, they die or live but poorly for want of necessaries. 
 To think the old planters can relieve them were too much non- 
 sense; for who here in England is so charitable as to feed two or 
 three strangers, if they have never so much, much less in Vir- 
 ginia, where they are in want. Now the general complaint says 
 that pride, covetousness, extortion, and oppression in a few 
 that engrosses all, occasion no small mischief amongst the 
 planters. 
 
 As for the company, or those that transport them, God forbid 
 that masters there should not have the same privilege over their 
 servants as here; but to sell for forty, fifty, or three-score pounds, 
 a servant whom the company has sent over for eight or ten 
 pounds at the most, without regard to how he shall be main- 
 tained with apparel, meat, drink, lodging, is odious, and the 
 fruits suitable ; therefore it were better such merchants were 
 made slaves themselves, than suffered any longer to use that 
 trade. These are defects sufficient to bring any well-settled 
 commonwealth to misery, much more Virginia. 
 
 Q. 7. How think you it may be rectified ? 
 
 A. If his Majesty would be pleased to annex Virginia to his 
 crown, that both the governors here and there may give their ac- 
 counts to you yearly, or to some that are not engaged in the 
 business, that the common stock be not spent in maintaining one 
 hundred men for the governor, one hundred for two deputies, 
 fifty for the treasurer, five and twenty for the secretary, and more 
 for the marshal and other officers who were never there and 
 never invested anything ; but preferred by favor to be lords over 
 them that broke the ice and beat the path, and that must teach 
 them what to do. If anything happens well, it is their glory; if 
 
^2 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 
 
 ill the fault of the old directors, who in all dangers must endure 
 the worst, yet not five hundred of them have so much as one of 
 the others. 
 
 Some course must soon be taken to maintain a garrison to 
 suppress the savages, till they are able to subsist, and till his 
 majesty pleases to remit his custom ; or it is to be feared they 
 will lose custom and all, for this cannot be done by promises, 
 hopes, counsels and countenances, but with sufficient workmen 
 and means to maintain them. Yet when the foundation is laid, 
 as I have said, and a commonwealth established, then they may 
 be better constrained to labor there than here ; but to rectify a 
 commonwealth with debauched people is impossible, and no wise 
 man, that intends honestly and knows what he undertakes, 
 would throw himself into such a society. For there is no 
 country to pillage as the Romans found ; all you expect from 
 thence must be by labor. 
 
 For the government, I think there is as much ado about it as 
 the kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland, men here imagining Vir- 
 ginia, as they are, erecting as many stately offices as officers, with 
 their attendants, as there are laborers in the country ; where a 
 constable were as good as twenty of their captains ; and three 
 hundred good soldiers and laborers better than all the rest, that 
 go only to get the fruits of other men's labors by the title of an 
 office. Thus they spend Michaelmas rent in Midsummer Moon, 
 and would gather their harvests before they have planted their 
 corn. 
 
 As for the maintenance of the officers, the first that went 
 never demanded any, but risked good sums; and it seems strange 
 to me, that with the fruit of all their labor, besides the expense 
 of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and such multitude^ 
 of people, those same officers could not maintain themselves so 
 well as the old did, beside having now such liberty to do to the 
 savages what they will, which the others had not. 
 
 I more than wonder they have not five hundred savages to 
 work for them towards their general maintenance ; and as many 
 more to return some content and satisfaction to the adventurers. 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 63 
 
 who for all their care, charge and diligence, can hear and see 
 nothing but complaints. It is therefore in your power to rectify 
 all this, and with expedition to pass the authority to them who 
 will release them, lest all be consumed before the difference is 
 settled. 
 
 Unless his Majesty undertakes it, or by act of parliament 
 some small tax is granted throughout his dominions, as a 
 penny upon every pol], called a head penny, two pence upon 
 every chimney, or some such collection might be raised, that 
 would be sufficient to give a good stock, and many servants to 
 sufficient men of ability, and to transport them freely for pay- 
 ing only homage to the crown of England, and such duties to the 
 public good, as their estates increased, and as reason should 
 require. Were this put in practice how many people, of what 
 quality you please, for all those disasters would yet gladly go to 
 spend their lives there, and by this means do more good in one 
 year than all those petty particular undertakings will effect in 
 twenty. 
 
 For the patent the king may, if he please, rather take it from 
 them that have it, than from us who had it first ; from them 
 who pretend to his Majesty what great matters they would do, 
 and how little we did. For anything I can conceive had we 
 remained as at first, it is not likely we could have done much 
 worse; but those who change governments are not without much 
 charge, hazard and loss. 
 
 If I be too plain, I humbly crave your pardon ; but you re- 
 quested me, therefore I do but my duty. For my own part I 
 have so much ado to mend my own, I have no leisure to look 
 into any man's particular fault, but these faults in general I con- 
 ceive to be true, And so I humbly rest. 
 
 Yours to command, J, S. 
 
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