Captain John Smith

by C. H. Forbes-Lindsay

For the next two weeks and more, the colonists remained upon the ships. Meanwhile they explored the surrounding country for a favorable site on which to settle. The Indians with whom they came in contact during this time treated them with the utmost kindness, freely furnishing food and tobacco, which latter few of the settlers had ever smoked, although Raleigh had introduced the leaf into England some years earlier. Everything was so strange to the adventurers, many of whom were absent from their native land for the first time, that they forgot for a while their discontent and jealousies in the interest and wonder excited by new sights and scenes.

We can imagine, for instance, the mixed sensations of the strangers when a band of Rappahonacks marched towards them, headed by their chief playing upon a reed flute. They were all fantastically trimmed, we will say, for their only dress was a coat of paint. The chief, as befitted his rank, was the most grotesque figure of all, but the effect was equally hideous and awesome and the Englishmen were divided between merriment and fear. On one side of his head the chief wore a crown of deer’s hair dyed red and interwoven with his own raven locks; on the other side, which was shaven, he wore a large plate of copper, whilst two long feathers stood up from the centre of his crown. His body was painted crimson and his face blue. Around his neck was a chain of beads, and strings of pearls hung from his ears which were pierced to hold bird’s claws set in gold. He and his followers each carried a bow and arrows and a tomahawk with stone head.

At length it was decided to settle upon a little peninsula jutting into the river. There was a great deal of disagreement about this site. Smith favored it, mainly because its comparative isolation made it easier to defend than a location further inland, but he was allowed no voice in the selection. It was, however, an unfortunate choice, for the ground was low and marshy and no doubt a great deal of the later mortality was due to the unhealthy situation of the infant settlement of Jamestown. Here, however, the colonists landed on the thirteenth day of May and set up the tents in which they lived for some time thereafter. There is too much to be done to justify the absence of an available strong arm and Smith, although virtually a prisoner still, is allowed to join in the general labor and this he does cheerfully without any show of resentment on account of his past treatment.

The President gave evidence of his incapacity from the very outset. Relying implicitly upon the friendly attitude of the Indians he refused to allow any defences to be considered, and even went so far as to decline to unpack the arms which had been brought from England, declaring that to do so would be a display of distrust which the savages might resent. The latter, who were permitted to go in and out of the camp with their weapons, were no doubt for a time divided in mind as to whether the white men were superhuman beings invulnerable to arrows or only a species of foolish and confiding fellow-creatures such as they had never known. Wingfield had most of his men busy felling trees and making clapboards with which to freight the vessels on their return, for it must be understood that these colonists were practically employees of the company that had been at the expense of sending them out and which expected to make a profit on the investment. It was necessary therefore to secure cargoes for shipment to England, but the position should have been fortified and houses erected before all else.

Newport was anxious to have more extensive information of the country to report to his employers who entertained the belief—absurd as it seems to us—that by penetrating one or two hundred miles farther westward the settlers would come upon the Pacific and open a short route to India. Newport therefore organized an expedition to explore the river. He took twenty men and was glad to include Smith in the party. There was no opposition on the part of the Council to the arrangement. Indeed, it was entirely to their liking. None of them was over keen to penetrate the unknown with its possible dangers and each was reluctant to leave the settlement for the further reason that he distrusted his fellow-members of the Council and was jealous of them. As to Smith, they had made up their minds to send him back to England a prisoner, to be tried on charges of treason, conspiracy, and almost anything else their inventive minds could conceive.

So Captain Newport and his party proceeded slowly up the river in their shallop, greeted kindly by the Indians in the various villages along the banks and feasted by them. The travellers in their turn bestowed upon their entertainers presents of beads, nails, bottles, and other articles, trifling in themselves but almost priceless to the savages who had never seen anything of the kind. At length the party arrived at a village named Powhatan. It was located very near the present situation of Richmond, and perhaps exactly where the old home of the Mayo family—still called “Powhatan”—stands. This village was governed by a son of the great Werowance. The capital of the latter was at Werowocomico, near the mouth of the York River, but he happened to be at Powhatan at the time of Newport’s arrival. I say that he happened to be there, but it is much more likely that he had been informed of the expedition and had gone overland to his son’s village with the express intention of meeting the strangers, about whom he must have been keenly curious.

Powhatan was the chief of all the country within a radius of sixty miles of Jamestown, and having a population of about eight thousand, which included two thousand or more warriors. Although over seventy years of age, he was vigorous in mind and body. His tall, well-proportioned frame was as straight as an arrow. His long gray hair flowed loose over his shoulders and his stern and wrinkled countenance expressed dignity and pride. The English learned to know him for a keen and subtle schemer, to whom the common phrase, “simple savage,” would be altogether misapplied. He was sufficiently sagacious to realize from the first that in the white men he had a superior race to deal with and he made up his mind that the most effective weapon that he could use against them would be treachery.

On this occasion, he dissembled the feelings of anger and fear that he must have felt against the intruders and received them with every sign of amity. To his people, who began to murmur at their presence and displayed an inclination to do them harm, he declared:

“They can do us no injury. They desire no more than a little land and will pay us richly for it. It is my pleasure that you treat them kindly.”