EXPLORATIONS OF SMITH.

39

CHAPTER XIII.

Captain Smith goes on an Exploring Voyage.-He is taken Prisoner, and carried before Powhatan.

1. As soon as the colony became secure, and was well supplied with provisions, Smith undertook a voyage of discovery. An opinion preTailed among the first voyagers to America, into which Smith had fallen among the rest, that it was only a little way across the country to the South Sea, then deemed the ocean path to every kind of wealth. They supposed that by ascending almost any river which came from the north-west, they could soon find a passage by water thither.

2. The Chick-a-hom'-i-ny River is a branch of the James, uniting with it a little above Jamestown. With a small number of associates, Smith ascended it in a barge as far as it was boatable, and then, leaving the barge with a part of the men, who were to remain on board, ascended in a canoe still higher up the stream.

CHAP. XIII.-1. What opinion had Smith adopted? 2. What river did Smith ascend with an exploring party?

3. He had no sooner left the boat, than the crew went ashore at the very spot where a brother of Powhatan, with some Indians, lay in ambush. They seized one of the men, and, after having compelled him to tell them which way their commander had gone, they cruelly murdered him, and then went in pursuit of Smith and his party.

4. Having proceeded about twenty miles, they overtook and attacked them, killing the companions of Smith, and wounding him. They then surrounded and attempted to take him; but, though wounded, he defended himself until he had killed three of his assailants, when he sank deep in a marsh and was captured.

5. Smith knew the character of the Indians, and set about devising expedients to prolong his life. He took from his pocket a compass, and amused his captors by showing them the vibrations of the needle. He thus excited their curiosity, and by various means arrested their immediate purpose of taking his life.

6. He was, however, detained, and was obliged to exercise his ingenuity to amuse the savages. He endeavored to give them some faint notions of the earth and the visible heavenly bodies; he also wrote a note on a piece of paper and sent it to the colonists at Jamestown, thus showing that by this means he could communicate with his friends.

7. Thus the savages came to the conclusion that their prisoner was a magician, and it might not be safe to destroy him; therefore they at length concluded to conduct him to Powhatan. He was bound for this purpose and brought before the king, whom he found seated on a wooden throne, with two girls, his daughters, at his side. After a consultation with his principal men, it was determined to put him to death, and they proceeded to make the preparations.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Story of Pocahontas.-She saves Captain Smith's Life, and becomes the Friend of the English.—She is married to Rolfe.

1. Two large stones were brought in, and laid at the feet of the savage king, and Smith's head was placed on one of them, while the

3. What occurred after Smith left the boat? 4. How was Smith pursued and taken! 5. What did Smith do? 6. What particularly astonished the Indians? 7. What did the savages believe Smith to be? Why did they take him to Powhatan? What did Powhatan determine to do?

CHAP. XIV.-1. What preparations were made for the death of Smith?

STORY OF POCAHONTAS.

41

savages gathered around to witness the execution. At length the club of the destroyer was raised, and every one was waiting in silent suspense to see it fall on the victim.

2. At this critical instant, Po-ca-hon'-tas, the eldest of the king's daughters, now scarcely twelve years of age, rushed forward with a shriek, and threw herself between the unhappy stranger and the executioner. Her hair was loose, and her eyes were wild and streaming with tears. She raised her hands to her father, and besought him, with all her power of eloquence, to spare his captive.

3. Powhatan, though little used to pity, could not resist her entreaties and tears. He paused, and looked round upon his warriors, as if to gather their opinion of what was proper to be done. They too were touched with pity, though they were savages. At last he raised his daughter, and promised her to spare the prisoner's life.

4. He was accordingly saved, and the very next day conducted by

2. What did Pocahontas now do? 3. What of Powhatan and the savages? 4. What was done with Smith? What treaty did he make?

a guard of twelve men to Jamestown. He had been a prisoner about seven weeks. Before his departure he made a treaty with the king, by which he was to send back two cannon and a grindstone, for which Powhatan was to let him have a large tract of country, and forever regard him as his son.

5. He reached Jamestown in safety, but not wishing to send guns to the savages, he determined to frighten them. However, he brought forward the two cannon and a grindstone, but they thought them too heavy to carry. He then discharged the cannon, loaded with stones, among the trees, which so terrified them that they were glad to return to Powhatan with a quantity of toys and trinkets in their stead.

6. Powhatan was greatly pleased with the presents, but Indian friendships are not always permanent. Some time afterward, his savage feelings became again excited against the English, and a plan was laid for cutting them all off at a blow, which, but for the interference of Pocahontas, would probably have succeeded. The day and the hour were set, and Pocahontas was informed of both.

7. The very night before the deed was to be done, in the midst of a terrible storm, which, with the thick darkness, kept the savages in their huts, Pocahontas proceeded to Jamestown, and revealed the plot. The colonists were, therefore, on their guard, and a part of them saved. This first Indian plot to massacre the English took place in 1609.

8. It does not appear that the savages ever found out who revealed their plan, for Pocahontas remained at her father's house for some time afterward. In the meanwhile, with the aid of Captain Smith, peace was once more established between the two nations.

9. Pocahontas, having now become the warm friend of the English, came every few days to the fort at Jamestown, with her basket of corn for the garrison, which proved of great service to them. At length, however, she was stolen by a foraging party of the white people, and a large sum was demanded of her father for her ransom.

10. Powhatan was unwilling to comply with the terms proposed, and began to prepare for a war with the English; and had it not been for an event as singular as it was unforeseen, a most fatal conflict would doubtless have arisen. A young Englishman, by the name of Rolfe, proposed to marry Pocahontas, and the proposal met the approbation of the king.

11. She accordingly professed the faith of the Christian religion, and was baptized from a font hewn from the trunk of a tree, in the little

5. Why did not the Indians take the cannon? 6. What plot was soon laid? 7. How did Pocahontas save the colony? 8, 9. What of the capture of Pocahontas? 10. How was war prevented? 11. What of Pocahontas as a wife and mother?

STATE OF THE COLONY.

43

rugged church at Jamestown. Soon after she was married. She became a faithful wife and an exemplary and pious mother. Some of the principal families in Virginia are descended from this union of a young planter with an Indian princess.

12. In 1616, Pocahontas went with her husband to England, but she was unhappy there. Captain Smith, who was in London at the time of her arrival, called to see her, but he was a little reserved in his manners toward her. This added to the intensity of her feelings, and she wept like a child.

13. Captain Smith inquired the cause of her grief. "Did I not save thy life," said she, "in America? When I was torn from the arms of my father, and conducted among thy friends, didst thou not promise to be a father to me? Didst thou not say that if I went into thy country, thou wouldst be my father, and I should be thy daughter? Thou hast deceived me; and behold me here, now, a stranger and an orphan!"

14. Captain Smith could not resist such eloquence. He introduced her to many families of respectability, and did all he could, while she remained in England, to make her happy; he never, however, ventured to bring her before the king. She fell a victim to the united influences of grief and the climate, and died at the age of twenty-two, as she was about to re-embark for America.

CHAPTER XV.

Depressed State of the Colony.-Arrival of Captain Newport and more Emigrants.-The Gold Fever.-Smith's Voyage of Discovery.

1. DURING the captivity of Captain Smith, he had been carried in triumph, by the Indians, from the Chickahominy River to their villages on the Rap-pa-han'-nock and Po-to'-mac, and thence through their other settlements to the Pamunkey river, and finally to the lower residence of Powhatan, in what is now called Gloucester [glos'-ter] county.

2. "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good," says an old but current and just maxim; and the captivity of Smith, though an evil

12. What of Pocahontas in the year 1616? 13, 14. What occurred between Pocahonta and Captain Smith in England? What was the fate of Pocahontas?

CHAP. XV.-1, 2. What good arose from Smith's capture by the Indians?