History of the Indians, of North and South America

by Samuel G. Goodrich

Though the number of the Indians in this quarter was not great, yet their skill in war, and the deep-seated jealousy and hatred of the white race, which had grown up with them, rendered them a fearful foe to feeble colonies, separated by a wide ocean from the protection and succour of their native land. The contests of our forefathers with the Indians, therefore, were full of the deepest interest to them, and abound in incidents which cannot fail to arrest the attention of every reader.

When the Europeans first planted themselves at Jamestown, according to Captain Smith’s account, the country, from the sea-coast to the mountains, was inhabited by forty-three different tribes. Thirty of these spread over the tract of country south of the Potomac, within a space of about 8,000 square miles. Within sixty miles of Jamestown, it is said, there were 5,000 of these natives. There were several confederacies among them, the chief of which were the Powhatan confederacy, the confederacy of the Mannahoacks, and that of the Monacans. These last two were united in a grand alliance against the Powhatan league. Long and bloody wars were maintained between these rival sovereignties. The Mannahoack confederacy embraced thirteen tribes, eight of whom were under the Mannahoacks, and five under the Monacans. Besides these, there were also the independent tribes of the Nottoways, Meherriks, Tuteloes, and various others.

These tribes, especially the Powhatan confederacy, were not disposed to allow the English to settle down among them unmolested. Though at times preserving a show of peace, feelings of hostility rankled in their hearts, and the colonists were obliged to be always on their guard. Nor can we blame the Indians that they felt inimical to the settlers. Hitherto, they had remained sole lords and proprietors of the vast territory over which they roamed, undisturbed except by the wars which they carried on with each other. To break in upon this supremacy, and to appropriate their lands, the white man came and planted himself down, not only assuming a superiority of intelligence and power, but of right. The means of communication with distant tribes were evidently greater than has sometimes been imagined, and doubtless the story of Cortés, De Soto, and other invaders, had reached the ears of these savages. We shall not be surprised, therefore, to find that Powhatan, the chief of the tribe of that name, soon began to grow hostile to his new neighbours at Jamestown, after their settlement in 1607. The enemy he had to oppose, however, was the undaunted and chivalrous Captain Smith, whose earlier history seems almost like a romance, appropriately followed out by the strange incidents of his residence in the colony.[7]

The Indians, in the course of numerous attacks and skirmishes, learned to regard Smith as a foe by no means to be despised; and when, in one of his expeditions, he was taken captive, their joy knew no bounds. After being led from one chief to another, Captain Smith was finally presented to Powhatan himself. Opechancanough, who was his successor, seems to have cherished strong feelings of dislike to Smith, and had Powhatan felt disposed to spare him, he would have found himself opposed by his chief warriors. Finally, when he had been seen by all the Indians, and experiments had been tried on his courage, it was determined, in a council of chiefs, that he should have his brains beaten out with a club.

The appointed day arrived. Powhatan and his warriors were present, exulting in the scene. The captive was brought forth; two large stones were placed in a suitable position, and he was laid upon them. At this moment, the compassionate Pocahontas, the darling daughter of Powhatan, sprang forward, and, clasping Smith in her arms, shielded his head with her person, and declared that he should not be killed, unless she, too, fell beneath the same blow. So strange an event appears to have made a deep impression on the father. His daughter persisting in her determination to die with the captive, the chief yielded, Smith was saved, and sent home to Jamestown. This striking event took place in 1607.

Still, Powhatan, for a considerable time, remained the foe of the whites, and at various times designed evil against the colony; but his schemes were frustrated by the vigilance of Smith, aided by the cautions of Pocahontas, who proved herself, on many occasions, his friend. The heroic girl herself was afterwards taken prisoner, and during her residence at Jamestown was married to Mr. Rolfe, a gentleman of great respectability. Powhatan was then induced to relinquish his hostility, and become the friend of the whites. His daughter and her husband went to England, where she was admitted to see the queen, but she died as she was about to return.

Opechancanough, the successor of Powhatan, was said to be originally from the south, and some have conjectured that he was of Mexican descent, as his appearance is described to have differed from that of the other Indians of the Powhatan confederacy. He was a man of more than ordinary abilities, and burned with a desire to rid his country of those whom he viewed as invaders of her soil. In 1622, he concerted a plan for a general massacre, hoping even to effect the entire extermination of the colony. The plot was deeply laid, and planned with great skill. All the members of the confederacy had their several parts assigned them. At the time the plot was formed, many of the Indians mingled with the whites for the purpose of ascertaining the avenues by which to gain access to the town, and the means of striking the blow with most effect.

On the appointed day, the 22d of March, about noon, while the people were at work, and mostly unarmed, the Indians rushed upon them, and at once massacred three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children. So well devised was the plan, that, but for its being betrayed, the whole colony, including Jamestown, must have been cut off at a blow. A Christian Indian, who had been solicited by his brother to kill a Mr. Pace, with whom he then lived, informed him of the plot, and, though not in season to save hundreds from falling victims to the savage enemy, yet intelligence was sent to Jamestown, and the people, in many instances, were seasonably put upon their guard. The Indians, finding they were betrayed, did not attempt an attack upon the town, but plundered and burned the undefended houses, the mills and iron works, and whatever else came in their way.

The next autumn, the Virginians, in their turn, attacked the Indians, burned several of their towns, and took many thousand bushels of corn, which they found stored up for the winter. The consequence of this was, that the Indians were greatly distressed, and suffered much for want of food and the necessaries of life. The succeeding July, the war was carried on with still more vigor; four or five separate parties were appointed to attack the Indians at different points, and many were slain, among whom were some of their kings and war-captains. These disasters at once disheartened and weakened them. Still, they continued to seize upon every advantage that offered, and, in 1630, Opechancanough, observing that the colony was in a state of disunion and anarchy, formed a plan for another surprise and massacre.