me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort, neither will I bite at such a bait. * * As for any salt water beyond the mountains, the Relations you have had from my people are false," and sitting down, he began to draw maps, on the ground, of all the adjacent regions.

Smith and Newport, to humour his obstinacy, accordingly, with the presents and a guard of fifty men, repaired to Werowocomoco. The solemn coronation of Powhatan, which took place the day after their arrival, is described with much dry humour in the old narrative. His majesty seems to have had some conception of the humbug of the thing, or perhaps a strong distrust of the English, or a dread of necromancy. His furniture having been properly set up, we are told, "his scarlet Cloke and Apparell were with much adoe put on him, being perswaded by Numontack* they would not hurt him; but a foule trouble there was to make him kneele to receive his Crowne, he neither knowing the maiesty nor meaning of a Crowne nor bending of the knee, endured so many perswasions, examples, and instructions as tyred them all; at last, by leaning hard on his shoulders, he a little stooped, and three, having the Crowne in their hands, put it on his head, when, by the warning of a Pistoll, the Boats were prepared with such a volley of shot, that the King started up in a horrible feare, till he saw that all was well."

This august ceremony accomplished, Newport, despite the warnings of the king, with one hundred and twenty men, in "his great five-peeced barge," set forth to ascend the James River in quest of his lump of gold and the South Sea. The boat was stopped by the Falls, and the company, after getting by land about forty miles further, and suffering much from toil and exposure, were compelled to return to Jamestown. On their arrival, Captain Smith set them at work at various useful occupations, such as cutting down trees and hewing timber, taking the lead himself, and making labour pleasant by good-nature and merriment.

* Newport, on his former visit, had presented Powhatan with a boy named Salvage, and the chief, in return, had given him "Namontack, his trustie servant, and one of a arewd, subtile capacitie."

CHAPTER VII.

PLOT AGAINST SMITH.-HIS LETTER TO THE COMPANY. --HIS EFFORTS TO SUPPORT THE COLONY.-EXPEDITION TO SURPRISE POWHATAN.—ARTFUL SPEECHES, AND MUTUAL TREACHERY.-THE ENGLISH AGAIN SAVED BY POCAHONTAS.

To meet the scarcity of provisions, which again menaced the colony, Smith again ascended the Chickahominy, and brought back a great store of corn. Newport and Ratcliffe, in his absence, had plotted to depose him; but, we are told, "their hornes were so much. too short to effect it, as they themselves more narrowly escaped a greater mischiefe." He finally dispatched home a ship freighted with the products of the country, and in a letter to the company, besought a supply of mechanics and labourers. Complaining of the misrep resentations of Newport, he adds, "Now that you should know I have made you as great a discovery as he, for a lesse charge than he spendeth you every meale, I have sent you this Mappe of the Bay and Rivers, with an annexed Relation of the Countries and Nations that inhabit them, as you may see." They had complained that they were kept in ignorance of the country, to which he stiffly replies, "I desire but to know what either you or these here doe know, but what I have learned to tell you, at the continuall hazard of my life."

In the ensuing winter, scarcity again prevailed, and the president, by repeated excursions among the Indians, sleeping, with his attendants, in the snow, gained a scanty and precarious supply. The colony at length being in danger of starvation, he came to the rash and unscrupulous resolution of seizing the stores of Powhatan and making prisoner of that chief himself. On the 29th of December, he set forth up the river, with three boats and forty-six volunteers, and on his way dispatched Mr. Sicklemore, ("a very valiant, honest, and painefull Souldier,") with two more, on an unsuccessful search for the lost colony of Raleigh. Arriving at Werowocomoco, he was well entertained by Powhatan, who, however, was well apprized of his hostile intention, having been informed of it by the Germans, who had been sent to build him a house. Much parley ensued, each professing much friendship, and endeavouring to take the other at a

disadvantage, and Powhatan made a set speech, "expostulating the difference between Peace and Warre."

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*

"Captaine Smith," he said, "you may understand that, having seene the death of all my people thrice, and not any one living of those three generations but myselfe, I know the difference of Peace and Warre better than any in my country. But now I am old, and ere long must die. Think you I am so simple as not to know it is better to eate good meate, lye well, and sleep quietly with my women and children, laugh and be merry with you, have copper, hatchets, or what I want, being your friend; than be forced to flye from all, to lye cold in the woods, feede upon Acornes, rootes, and such trash, and be so hunted by you that I can neither rest, eate, nor sleepe; but my tyred men must watch, and if a twig but breake, every one cryeth, 'there commeth Captaine Smith,' then must I fly I know not whither, and thus with miserable feare end my miserable life." He then endeavoured to persuade the English to lay aside their arms, intending to surprise them; and on their refusal, heaving a deep sigh, "breathed his mind once more," in artful persuasions to the same effect, and reminded Smith how he had always called him his father. "I call you father, indeed," said his guest, "and as a father you shall see I will love you; but the small care you have of such a childe, caused my men to perswade me to looke to myselfe."

Meanwhile, he privately sent for his soldiers at the boats to land quickly and surprise the chief; but the latter, forewarned of their movements, retreated into the woods, and his warriors, in great number, closed around the house. But Smith, rushing among them with sword and target, made good his exit, and Powhatan, says the narrative, "to excuse his flight and the sudden coming of this multitude, sent our Captaine a great bracelet and a chaine of pearl, by an ancient Oratour,"-who had charge, with plausible explanations, to smooth the affair over. The captain had purchased a quantity of corn. which the Indians carried to his barge, and prepared to pass the night in the village. Powhatan, "bursting with desire to have his head," meanwhile, laid a deep plot for the destruction of the intruders. "Notwithstanding," continues the old narrative, "the eternall all seeing God did prevent him, and by a strange meanes. For Pocahontas, his dearest iewell and daughter, in that darke night came through the irksome woodes, and told our Captaine great cheare should be sent us by and by; but Powhatan and all the power he

could make would after come kill us all, if they that brought it could not kill us with our owne weapons when we were at supper. Therefore, if we would live, shee wished us presently to be gone. Such things as she delighted in he would have given her; but with the teares running downe her cheekes, she said she durst not be seene to have any, for if Powhatan should know it, she were but dead; so shee ranne away by herselfe as she came."

In the evening, according to the plot, a number of savages, bearing great platters of venison and other refreshments, came to the quarters of the English. With much civility, they requested the latter to put out the matches of their guns, alleging that the smoke made them sick; but the intended victims only redoubled their precautions against surprise, and Powhatan, who sent messenger after messenger to learn the state of affairs, at length despaired of finding them off their guard, and relinquished his design. The next morning the uninvited visitors took their departure. "It certainly cannot be regretted that this attempt of Smith to seize the person and property of the chief who had formerly spared his life should have been unsuccessful."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PLOT AT PAMUNKEY: DEFEATED BY THE DARING AND ENERGY OF SMITH. -THE COLONY SUPPLIED.-SMITH POISONED. HIS UNSCRUPULOUS POLICY.-HIS FIGHT WITH THE KING OF PASPAHEGH.-"PRETTY ACCIDENTS" AMONG THE INDIANS.

AT Pamunkey, the seat of Opechancanough, whither they next repaired, liberal entertainment was provided for the English, and a plot for their destruction was again concerted. At the house of that chief, Smith, with only fifteen companions, was finally sur rounded by a force of seven hundred armed warriors; his host, "with a strained cheerfulnesse," holding him engaged in talk the while. On seeing his situation, the captain, in a stirring little speech, exhorted his people "to fight like men and not die like sheepe," and then, telling his treacherous host, "I see your plot to murder me,

but I feare it not," defied him to single combat. Besides his life, he offered to stake on the issue any amount of copper against the same value in corn-"and our Game," he said, "shall be, the Conquerour take all." But the chief, declining this handsome proposal, endeavoured to induce his guest to venture forth, on pretence of bestowing on him a rich present, thirty of the savages lying in ambush behind a great log to shoot him.

Apprized of this design, the incensed captain, "in a rage snatched the king by his long locke in the middest of his men," clapped a pistol to his breast, and led him forth before the multitude of his warriors. The chief then "bestowed his presents in good sadnesse,' his people, fearing for his life, making no resistance; and Smith "still holding the King by the hayre," addressed the assembled savages with stern reproaches. "If you shoote but one Arrow," he concluded, "to shed one drop of bloud of any of my men, or steale the leaste of these Beades and Copper which I spurne here before me with my foote; you shall see I will not cease revenge (if once I begin) so long as I can heare to find one of your Nation that will not deny the name of Pamaunk. I am not now at Rassaweak, half drowned with myre, where you tooke me prisoner. You promised to fraught my ship ere I departed, and so you shall, or I will loade her with your dead carcasses." This "angry parle," however, he ended more mildly, offering the release of their chief and his own friendship, if they would fulfil their agreements. Struck, it would seem, with equal awe and admiration, the Indians laid aside their weapons, and began to bring in great store of provisions, and singularly enough, yet, from repeated experience, not improbably, they appear to have fulfilled their agreement with real cordiality.

Meanwhile, affairs at Jamestown had gone ill, Scrivener, the deputy, with ten others, having been drowned, on a stormy day, in a boat. The life of the messenger sent with the disastrous tidings to Werowocomoco, was only saved by the compassion of Pocahontas, who contrived to hide him from the executioners. The contest of their wits was presently renewed between Smith and Powhatan, the former endeavouring to surprise that chief and seize his store of provisions, (a plan again defeated by "those damned Dutchmen," says the indignant narrator,) and the latter leaving no means untried to take the life of his redoubted foe. His people not daring to attack the English openly, an attempt was made to poison them, which, however, only had the effect to make Smith and some others disa