W H A T H A P P E
N E D T I L L
T H E F I R S T S
U P P L Y
from
T H E G E N
E R A L H I S T O R Y O F V
I R G I N I A
1
6 0 7 1 6 1 4
John Smith
[June 1607January 1608]
Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that
within ten days scarce ten
amongst us could either go or well stand, such extreme
weakness and sickness
oppressed us. And thereat none need marvel, if they
consider the cause and
reason, which was this.
Whilst the trading ships stayed, our allowance was
somewhat bettered by a
daily proportion of biscuit, which the sailors would
pilfer to sell, give, or
exchange with us for money, sassafras, furs, or love.
But when they departed,
there remained neither tavern, beer house, nor place
of relief but the common
kettle. Had we been as free from all sins as gluttony
and drunkenness, we might
have been canonized for saints. But our President
would never have been
admitted, for engrossing to his private [use] oatmeal,
sack, oil, aqua vitae, beef,
eggs, or what not[all] but the [common] kettle. That,
indeed, he allowed
equally to be distributed, and that was half a pint of
wheat, and as much barley
boiled with water for a man a day. And this having
fried some twenty-six weeks
in the ships hold contained as many worms as grains,
so that we might truly
call it rather so much bran than corn. Our drink was
water, our lodgings castles
in the air.
With this lodging and diet our extreme toil in bearing
and planting palisadoes
so strained and bruised us and our continual labor in
the extremity of the heat
had so weakened us as were cause sufficient to have
made us as miserable in
our native country or any other place in the world.
From May to September those that escaped lived upon
sturgeon and sea
crabs. Fifty in this time we buried.
But now was all our provision spent, the sturgeon
gone, all helps abandoned.
Each hour [we were] expecting the fury of the savages,
when God, the patron of
all good endeavors, in that desperate extremity so
changed the hearts of the
savages that they brought such plenty of their fruits
and provisions that no man
wanted.
And now, where some affirmed it was ill done of the Council
[in England] to
send forth men so badly provided, this
incontradictable reason will show them
plainly they are too ill advised to nourish such ill
conceits. First, the fault of our
going was our own. What could be thought fitting or
necessary we had; but
what we should find or want or where we should be we
were all ignorant. And
supposing to make our passage in two months with
victual to live and the
advantage of the spring to work, we were at sea five
months, where we both
spent our victual and lost the opportunity of the time
and season to plant by the
unskillful presumption of our ignorant transporters
that understood not at all
what they undertook.
Such actions have ever since the worlds beginning
been subject to such
accidents, and everything of worth is found full
difficulties, but nothing so
difficult as to establish a commonwealth so far remote
from men and means
and where mens minds are so untoward as neither do
well themselves nor
suffer others. But to proceed.
[While exploring up-river in a desperate attempt to
find an Indian village with
a supply of food, John Smith was captured by the
Indians.] The manner how
they used and delivered him is as followeth:
The savages having drawn from George Cassen whither
Captain Smith was
gone, prosecuting that opportunity they followed him
with three hundred
bowmen, conducted by the king of Pamunkey, who in
divisions searching the
turnings of the river, found Robinson and Emry by the
fireside. Those they shot
full of arrows and slew.
[When the Indian party began to surround Smith, he
defended
himself
with the aid of a savage, his guide, whom he bound to
his arm with his garters
and used him as a buckler.] Then finding the captain,
as is said, that used the
savage that was his guide as his shield (three of them
being slain and diverse
others so gauld [frightened]) all the rest would not
come near him. Thinking
thus to have returned to his boat, regarding them as
he marched more than his
way, [he] slipped up to the middle in an oozy creek
and his savage with him. Yet
durst they not come to him till being near dead with
cold he threw away his
arms. Then according to their composition they drew
him forth and led him to
the fire, where his men were slain. Diligently they
chafed his benumbed limbs.
He, demanding for their captain, they showed him
Opechancanough, king of
Pamunkey, to whom he gave a round ivory double compass
dial. Much they
marveled at the play of the fly and needle, which they
could see so plainly and
yet not touch it because of the glass that covered
them. But when he
demonstrated by that globe-like jewel the roundness of
the earth and skies, the
sphere of the sun, moon and stars, and how the sun did
chase the night round
about the world continually; the greatness of the land
and sea, the diversity of
nations, variety of complexions, and how we were to
them antipodes, and
many other such like matters, they all stood as amazed
with admiration.
Notwithstanding, within an hour after they tied him to
a tree and as many as
could stand about him prepared to shoot him. But the
king holding up the
compass in his hand they all laid down their bows and
arrows and in a triumphant
manner led him to Orapaks, where he was after their
manner kindly
feasted and well used.
Not long after, early in a morning a great fire was
made in a long house and a
mat spread on one side, as on the other. On the one
they caused him to sit and
all the guard went out of the house, and presently
came skipping in a great grim
fellow, all painted over with coal mingled with oil;
and many snakes and
weasels skins stuffed with moss and all their tails
tied together, so as they met
on the crown of his head in a tassel; and round about
the tassel was a coronet of
feathers, the skins hanging round about his head,
back, and shoulders, and in a
manner covered his face; with a hellish voice and a
rattle in his hand. With most
strange gestures and passions he began his invocation,
and environed the fire
with a circle of meal. Which done, three more such
like devils came rushing in
with the like antique tricks, painted half black, half
red; but all their eyes were
painted white, and some red strokes like mustachioes
along their cheeks.
Round about him those fiends danced a pretty while,
and then came in three
more as ugly as the rest, with red eyes and white
strokes over their black faces.
At last they all sat down right against him, three of
them on the one hand of the
chief priest and three on the other. Then all with
their rattles began a song;
which ended, the chief priest laid down five wheat
corns, then straining his arms
and hands with such violence that he sweat and his
veins swelled, he began a
short oration. At the conclusion they all gave a short
groan, and then laid down
three grains more. After that began their song again,
and then another oration,
ever laying down so many corns as before, till they
had twice encircled the fire.
That done, they took a bunch of little sticks prepared
for that purpose,
continuing their devotion, and at the end of every
song and oration they laid
down a stick betwixt the divisions of corn. Till night
neither he nor they did
either eat or drink; and then they feasted merrily
with the best provisions they
could make. Three days they used this ceremony, the
meaning whereof they
told him was to know if he intended them well or no.
The circle of meal
signified their country, the circles of corn the
bounds of the sea, and the sticks
his country. They imagined the world to be flat and
round, like a trencher, and
they in the middest.
[Smith was exhibited in various Indian villages, and]
At last they brought him
to Werowocomoco, where was Powhatan, their emperor.
Here more than two
hundred of those grim courtiers stood wondering at him
as [if] he had been a
monster, till Powhatan and his train had put
themselves in their greatest
braveries. Before a fire upon a seat like a bedstead
he sat covered with a great
robe made of raccoon skins, and all the tails hanging
by. On either hand did sit a
young wench of sixteen or eighteen years, and along on
each side the house two
rows of men. And behind them as many women, with all
their heads and
shoulders painted red, many of their heads bedecked
with the white down of
birds but everyone with something, and a great chain
of white beads about their
necks.
At his entrance before the king all the people gave a
great shout. The queen
of Appomattoc was appointed to bring him water to wash
his hands, and
another brought him a bunch of feathers instead of a
towel to dry them. Having
feasted him after their best barbarous manner they
could, a long consultation
was held. But the conclusion was: two great stones
were brought before
Powhatan, then as many as could laid hands on him,
dragged him to them, and
thereon laid his head. And being ready with their
clubs to beat out his brains,
Pocahontas, the kings dearest daughter, when no
entreaty could prevail, got his
head in her arms and laid her own upon his to save him
from death. Whereat
the emperor was contented he should live to make him
hatchets and her bells,
beads, and copper; for they thought him as well of all
occupations as
themselves. For the king himself will make his own
robes, shoes, bows,
arrows, pots; plant, hunt, or do anything so well as
the rest.
Two days after, Powhatan having disguised himself in
the most fearful
manner he could, caused Captain Smith to be brought
forth to a great house in
the woods, and there upon a mat by the fire to be left
alone. Not long after
from behind a mat that divided the house, was made the
most doleful noise he
ever heard. Then Powhatan, more like a devil than a
man, with some two
hundred more as black as himself, came unto him and
told him now they were
friends and presently he should go to Jamestown to
send him two great guns
and a grindstone, for which he would give him the
country of Capahowasick,
and forever esteem him as his son Nantaquaus.
So to Jamestown with twelve guides Powhatan sent him.
That night they
quartered in the woods, he still expecting (as he had
done all this long time of
his imprisonment) every hour to be put to one death or
other, for all their
feasting. But Almighty God (by His divine providence)
had mollified the hearts
of those stern barbarians with compassion. The next
morning betimes they
came to the fort, where Smith, having used the savages
with what kindness he
could, he showed Rawhunt, Powhatans trusty servant,
two demi-culverins
[small cannon] and a millstone to carry Powhatan. They
found them somewhat
too heavy. But when they did see him discharge them,
being loaded with stones,
among the boughs of a great tree loaded with icicles,
the ice and branches came
so tumbling down that the poor savages ran away half
dead with fear. But at last
we regained some conference with them, and gave them
such toys and sent to
Powhatan, his women, and children such presents as
gave them in general full
content.
Now, every once in four or five days, Pocahontas with
her attendants brought
him so much provision that saved many of their lives,
that else for all this had
starved with hunger.
His relation of the plenty he had seen, especially at
Werowocomoco, and of
the state and bounty of Powhatan (which till that time
was unknown) so revived
their dead spirits (especially the love of Pocahontas)
as all mens fear was
abandoned.
Thus you may see what difficulties still crossed any
good endeavor, and the
good success of the business being thus oft brought to
the very period of
destruction. Yet you see by what strange means God
hath still delivered it.