1607.

to all its rigours. Before the month of Sep- CHAP. II. tember fifty of the company, and among them Bartholomew Gosnald, who had originated the expedition and so much contributed towards its being carried on, were buried. This scene of distress was heightened by internal dissension. The president was charged with having embezzled the best stores of the colony, and with feasting at his private table with beef, bread, and aqua vitæ, then deemed luxuries of the highest order, while famine and death devoured his fellow adventurers. No crime could, in the public opinion, have been more atrocious. In addition to this, he was detected in an attempt to escape from them and their calamities, in the bark which had been left by Newport. The general indignation could be no longer restrained. He was deposed and Ratcliffe chosen to succeed him.

Misfortune is not unfrequently the parent of moderation and reflection; and this state of misery produced a system of conduct towards the neighbouring Indians, which, for the moment, disarmed their resentments, and induced them to bring in such supplies as the country, in that season, afforded; and thereby to preserve the remnant of the colony. It produced another effect not less important. Their sense of imminent and common danger called forth and compelled submission to those talents which were fitted to the exigency, and best

CHAP. II calculated to extricate them from the difficul 1607. ties with which they were surrounded. Captain Smith, who had been imprisoned and expelled from the council by the envy of those who felt and hated his superiority, and who, after evincing his innocence, had with difficulty been admitted to the station assigned him; preserved his health unimpaired, his spirits unbroken, and his judgment unclouded, amidst this general misery and dejection. In him, by common consent, all actual authority was placed, and he, by his own example, soon gave energy and efficiency to others, in the execution of his commands.

Influence and activity

of Smith.

He immediately erected at Jamestown such rude fortifications as were necessary to resist the sudden attacks of the savages; and with great labour, in which he always took the lead himself, completed the construction of such dwellings as, by sheltering the people from the weather, contributed to restore and preserve their health, while his own accommodation gave place to that of all others. In the season of gathering corn, which with the Indians is the season of plenty, putting himself at the head of small parties, he penetrated into the country, and by presents and caresses to those who were well disposed, and attacking with open force and defeating those who were hostile, he obtained for his countrymen the most abundant supplies. While thus actively

and usefully employed abroad, he was not CHAP. II permitted to withdraw his attention from the 1607. domestic concerns of the colony.

However unfit men may be for command, there are few examples of their descending willingly from exalted stations once filled by them; and it is not wonderful that the late president saw with regret another placed above him. As unworthy minds most readily devise unworthy means, he sought, by intriguing with the factious, and fomenting their discontents, to regain his lost authority; and when these attempts were disconcerted, plans were laid, first by Wingfield and Kendal, and afterwards by the president himself, in conjunction with Martin, the only remaining member of the council except Smith, to escape in the bark, and thus to abandon the country. The vigilance of Smith detected all these machinations, and his vigour defeated them.

captured

Indians.

The hope was now indulged, of preserving He is the colony in quiet and plenty, until supplies byns. could be received from England with the ships which were expected in the spring. This hope was, in a considerable degree, defeated by an event, which threatened, at first, the most disastrous consequences. In an attempt to explore the head of Chiccahoming river, Smith was discovered and attacked by a numerous body of Indians, and in endeavouring to make his escape, after a most gallant defence, his

CHAP. II. attention being directed to the enemy whom 1607. he still fought in retreating, he sunk up to his neck in a swamp, and was obliged to surrender. Still retaining his presence of mind, he showed them a mariner's compass, at which, especially at the playing of the needle, and the impossibility of touching it, although they saw it so distinctly, they were greatly astonished; and he amused them with so many surprising stories of its qualities, as to inspire them with a degree of veneration, which prevented their executing their first design of killing him on the spot. They conducted him in triumph through several towns, to the palace of Powhatan, the most potent king in that part of the Condemned country. There he was doomed to be put to Powhatan. death, by laying his head upon a stone, and

to death by

Saved by
Pocahontas.

beating out his brains with clubs. He was led to the place of execution, and his head bowed down for the purpose of death, when Pocahontas, the king's darling daughter, then about thirteen years of age, whose entreaties for his life had been ineffectual, rushed between him and his executioner, and folding his head in her arms, and laying her's upon it, arrested the fatal blow. Her father was then prevailed on to spare his life, and, after a great many savage ceremonies, he was sent back to Jamestown. Jamestown. On his arrival thither, having been absent seven weeks, he found the colony reduced to thirty-eight persons, most of whom seemed

Returns to

determined to abandon a country, which appeared to them so unfavourable to 'human life. He was just in time to prevent the execution of this design. Alternately employing persuasion, threats, and even violence, he at length, with much hazard to himself, induced the majority to relinquish the intention they had formed, and then turning the guns of the fort on the bark, on board which were the most determined, compelled her to remain, or sink in the river.

CHAP. II.

1607.

arrives

additional

settlers.

By a judicious regulation of their intercourse Newport with the Indians, among whom Smith was now with an in high repute, he preserved plenty in the supply of colony, until the arrival of two vessels which had been dispatched from England, under the command of captain Newport, with a supply of provisions, of instruments of husbandry, and with a re-enforcement of one hundred and twenty persons, consisting of many gentlemen, a few labourers, and several refiners, goldsmiths and jewellers.

The joy of the colony, on receiving this accession of force, and supply of provisions, was extreme. But the influence of Smith disappeared with the danger which had produced it, and an improvident relaxation of discipline, productive of the most pernicious consequences, succeeded to it. Among the unwise practices which they tolerated, an indiscriminate traffic with the natives was permitted, in