Pocahontas proves a friend in need
After a time Smith returned to Jamestown only to find the settlers facing starvation, and the officers planning to escape to England in the colony's only vessels. He promptly arrested the leaders and restored order. In a few days a band of Indians, led by Pocahontas, entered the fort. They were loaded down with baskets of corn.
The fear of starvation was now gone, because every few days the little maiden came with food for the settlers. Ever afterwards they called her "the dear blessed Pocahontas." She was the good angel of the colony.
Powhatan refuses to give any more corn
When winter came on, Smith resolved to secure another supply of corn. But Powhatan had noticed the increase of settlers and the building of more houses. He feared that his people might be driven from their hunting grounds. Smith knew that Powhatan's women had raised plenty of corn, so immediately sailed up the river to the old chief's village.
Pocahontas shows her friendship
Powhatan bluntly told Smith he could have no corn unless he would give a good English sword for each basketful. Smith promptly refused, and compelled the Indians to carry the corn on board his boat. That very night, at the risk of her life, Pocahontas stole through the woods to tell Smith of her father's plot to kill his men. They kept close watch all night, and next morning sailed safely away.
But Smith needed still more corn, and stopped at another Indian town. Suddenly he found himself and his men surrounded by several hundred Indian warriors. A moment's delay, and all would have been over. Smith rushed into the chief's wigwam, seized him by the scalp-lock, dragged him out before his astonished warriors, pointed a pistol at his breast, and demanded corn. He got it; and the English sailed back to Jamestown with three hundred bushels of corn on board.
Smith induces the settlers to go to work