IV.—Captain Gilbert’s Adventure with the Indians.
[Captain Gilbert, the companion of Captain Popham, went up the River Kennebec, or Sachadehoc, in a shallop with nineteen men, and had this adventure with Indians.]
In the morning there came a canoe unto them,and in her a sagamo[264] and four savages,—some of those which spoke to them the night before. The sagamo called his name Lebenoa, and told us how he was lord of the River Sachadehoc. They entertained him friendly, and took him into their boat, and presented him withsome trifling things, which he accepted. Howbeit, he desired some one of our men to be put in his canoe as a pawn of his safety, whereupon Captain Gilbert sent in a man of his, when presently the canoe rowed away from them, with all the speed they could make, up the river. They followed with the shallop, having great care that the sagamo should not leap overboard. The canoe quickly rowed from them, and landed; and the men made to their houses, being near a league on the land from the river’s side, and carried our man with them. The shallop, making good way,at length came to another downfall,[265] which was so shallow and so swift that by no means they could pass any farther, for which Captain Gilbert, with nine others, landed,and took their fare,[266] the savage sagamo, with them, and went in search after those other savages, whose houses, the sagamo told Captain Gilbert, were not far off. And, after a good tedious march, they came indeed at length unto those savages’ houses, where [they] found near fifty able men, very strong and tall, such as their like before they had not seen, all newly painted, and armed with their bows and arrows. Howbeit, after that the sagamo had talked with them, they delivered back again the man, and used all the rest very friendly, as did ours the like by them, who showed them their commodities of beads, knives, and some copper, of which they seemed very fond, and, by way of trade, made show that they would come down to the boat, and there bring such things as they had, to exchange them for ours. So Captain Gilbert departed from them; and, within half an hour after he had gotten to his boat, there came three canoes downunto them, and in them some sixteen savages, and brought with them some tobacco, and certain small skins, which were of no value; which Captain Gilbert perceiving, and that they had nothing else wherewith to trade, he caused all his men to come aboard. And, as he would have put from the shore, the savages perceiving so much, subtly devised how they might put out the fire in the shallop, by which means they sawthey should be free from the danger of our men’s pieces;[267] and, to perform the same, one of the savages came into the shallop, and taking the firebrand which one of our company held in his hand thereby to light the matches, as if he would light a pipe of tobacco, as soon as he had gotten it into his hand he presently threw it into the water, and leaped out of the shallop. Captain Gilbert, seeing that, suddenly commanded his men to betake them to their muskets, and the targetiers too, from the head of the boat; and had one of the men before, with his target on his arm, to step on the shore for more fire. The savages resisted him, and would not suffer him to take any, and some others holding fast the boat-rope, that the shallop could not put off. Captain Gilbert caused the musketeers to present their pieces, the which the savages seeing, presently let go the boat-rope, and betook them to their bows and arrows, and ran into the bushes,nocking[268] their arrows, but did not shoot, neither did ours at them. So the shallop departed from them to the farther side of the river, where one of the canoes came unto them, and would have excused the fault of the others. CaptainGilbert made show as if he were still friends, and entertained them kindly, and so left them, returning to the place where he had lodged the night before, and there came to an anchor for that night.
BOOK XI.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
(A.D. 1606–1631.)
The first four of the following extracts are from Smith’s “Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles” (edition of 1626), pp. 39–49. The next four are from the “Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia,” by William Strachey, secretary of the Virginia Colony. Reprinted by the Hakluyt Society (1849), pp. 49–52, 57, 58, 80, 81, 110, 111. The ninth is from the “Generall Historie,” p. 219. The tenth is from “A Description of New England, by Captain John Smith,” printed in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, 3d series, vol. vi. pp. 109, 121. The eleventh is from the “Generall Historie,” pp. 121–123. The last two are from “Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England or anywhere, by Captaine John Smith, sometimes Governour of Virginia, and Admirall of New England.” London, 1631. Reprinted in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d series, vol. iii. pp. 7, 29, 30, 44. There is a memoir of Captain Smith, by G. S. Hillard, in Sparks’s “American Biography,” vol. ii.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
I.—Captain John Smith in Virginia.
CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW GOSNOLL,[269] one of the first movers of this plantation, having many years solicited many of his friends, but found small assistance, at last prevailed with some gentlemen, as Captain John Smith, Mr. Edward Maria Wingfield, Mr. Robert Hunt, and divers others,who depended[270] a year upon his projects; but nothing could be effected, till, by their great charge and industry, it came to be apprehended by certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, so that his Majesty by his letters-patents gave commission for establishing councils to direct here, and to govern and to execute there. To effect this was spent another year; and by that, three ships were provided,—one of a hundred tons, another of forty,and a pinnace[271] of twenty. The transportation of the company was committed to Captain Christopher Newport, a mariner well practiced for the western partsof America. But their orders for government were put in a box, not to be opened, nor the governors known, until they arrived in Virginia.