This is the story Smith afterwards told of the time when he was in the hands of the Indians. Some people, however, do not believe it is quite all true.
At any rate, his life was saved and Pocahontas was the friend of the white people ever after.
In a few weeks Powhatan said to John Smith:
"You may go back to Jamestown if you will promise to send me two cannons and a grindstone as soon as you arrive."
Smith was quite willing to make the promise.
When he was once more safe among his own people he found they were in great trouble. Some of them were planning to run away in the only large boat. The others would then be left to the mercy of the Red Men. They were all much in need of their wise leader.
The promise to Powhatan was not forgotten. The Indians, however, who had come back with Smith to get the cannons and the grindstone could not carry them home. They were too heavy. So the men were quite willing to take some trinkets instead.
Many times after that the people of Jamestown suffered because they did not have enough to eat. They were saved again and again by Pocahontas, who filled her boat with baskets of corn and paddled down the river to her white friends.
One evening she heard her people making a plan. They said: