[57] See above, p. 76.
[58] Even in The Powhatan's wigwam, it was only after "having feasted him [Smith] after their best barbarous manner they could," that the Indians brought the stones and prepared to kill him. Smith's Works, p. 400.
[59] It is true that in 1608 the Powhatans were still unfamiliar with white men and inclined to dread them as more or less supernatural; but they had thoroughly learned that fair skins and long beards were no safeguard against disease and death. If they did not know that the Jamestown colony had dwindled to eight-and-thirty men, they knew that their own warriors had slain all Smith's party and taken him captive.
[60] Smith's Works, p. 400.
[61] Id. p. 26. Of course the cases of rescue and adoption were endlessly various in circumstances; see the case of Couture, in Parkman's Jesuits, p. 223; on another occasion "Brigeac was tortured to death with the customary atrocities. Cuillérier, who was present, ... expected the same fate, but an old squaw happily adopted him, and thus saved his life." Parkman's Old Régime in Canada, revised ed. p. 108. For adoption in general see Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 80; League of the Iroquois, p. 342; Colden's History of the Five Nations, London, 1755, i. 9.
[62] Of the really critical attacks upon the story of Pocahontas, the most important are those of Charles Deane, in his Notes on Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia, Boston, 1859, and Henry Adams, in the North American Review, vol. civ. Their arguments have been ably answered by W. W. Henry, in Proceedings of Virginia Historical Society, 1882, and Charles Poindexter, in his Captain John Smith and his Critics, Richmond, 1893. There are two writers of valuable books who seldom allude to Smith without sneers and words of abuse,—Alexander Brown, of Virginia, and Edward Duffield Neill, of Minnesota; they seem to resent, as a personal grievance, the fact that the gallant captain ever existed. On the other hand, no one loves him better than the learned editor of his books, who has studied them with microscopic thoroughness, Edward Arber. My own defence of Smith, when set forth in a lecture at University College, London, 1879, was warmly approved by my friend, the late Henry Stevens.
[63] The word "raccoon" is a thorn in poor Smith's flesh, and his attempts to represent the sound of it from guttural Indian mouths are droll: "There is a beast they call Aroughcun, much like a badger, but useth to live on trees as squirrels do."—"He sent me presents of bread and Raugroughcuns."—" Covered with a great covering of Rahoughcums."—"A robe made of Rarowcun skins," etc., etc.
[64] Doyle's Virginia, p. 124.
[65] Smith's Works, p. 122.
[66] Smith's Works, p. 439.