the shore and the islands; the fish leaped from the sunny waters around them; and all nature seemed to welcome the coming of the new colony with smiles.

The adventurers were employed in seeking a place for settlement until the 13th of May, when they took possession of a peninsula, on the north side of the river Powhatan, called by the emigrants James river, about forty miles from its mouth. To make room for their projected town, they commenced clearing away the forest, which had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives. The members of the Council, while they adhered to their orders in the choice of their President, on the most frivolous pretences excluded from a seat among them the individual, who was probably of all others the best fitted for the office, Captain Smith, though nominated by the same instrument from which they derived their authority. His superior talents, and the fame he had previously acquir ed in war, excited their envy, while possibly they induced him to assume, that a greater deference was due to his opinion than his coadjutors were willing to admit. At length, however, by the prudent exhortations of Mr. Hunt, their chaplain, the animosities which had arisen were composed, Smith was admitted into the Council, and they all turned their undivided attention to the government of the colony. In honor of their monarch, they called the town, the erection of which they now commenced, Jamestown. Thus was formed the first permanent colony of the English in America.

The vicinity of the settlement was a vast wilderness, though a luxuriant one, inhabited by a race of Indian savages, possessing both the virtues and the vices peculiar to their state. At first they treated the colonists with kindness; but misunderstandings, from various causes, ere long interrupted the peace, and annoyed the proceedings of the English. Nor was the hos tility of the natives the only occasion of discomfort; the extreme heat of summer, and the intense cold of the succeeding winter, were alike fatal to the colonists. From May to September, fifty persons died, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, a member of the Council. The store. house at Jamestown accidentally taking fire, the town, thatched with reeds, burned with such violence, that the fortifications, arms, apparel, bedding, and a great quantity of private goods and provision, were consumed.

These distresses naturally led them to reflect upon their situation; and having become sensible of their injustice to Smith, his personal talents and activity were, in their adversity, appealed to with that regard and deference which, in prosperous times, are yielded only to vested authority and official station. From some unaccountable jealousy on the part of the Governor, the fort had been left in an unprotected state, but, by the advice of Smith, it was now put into a state to defend them against the attacks of the Indians. To procure provisions and explore the country, he made frequent and distant excursions into the wilderness. In one of these, he seized an Indian idol, made with skins stuffed with moss, for the redemption of which as much corn was brought him as he required. Some tribes he gained by caresses and presents, and procured from them a supply of provisions; others he attacked with open force, and defeat

EARLY HISTORY OF AMERICA.

ing them on every occasion, whatever their superiority in numbers might be, compelled them to impart to him some portion of their winter stores. As the recompense of all his toils and dangers, he saw abundance and contentment re-established in the colony, and hoped that he should be able to maintain them in that happy state, until the arrival of ships from England in the spring. But in the midst of his energetic measures, while exploring the source of the river Chickahominy, he was surprised and attacked by a party of Indians. He defended himself bravely until his companions were killed, when he took to flight; but running incautiously, he sunk up to his shoulders in a swamp and was taken prisoner. The exulting savages conducted him in triumph through several towns to Werowocomoco, where Powhatan, their King, resided in state, with a strong guard of Indians around him. When the prisoner entered the The queen of apartment of the sovereign, all the people gave a shout. Appamatuck was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands; and another person brought a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them. Having feasted him in their best manner, and exhibited some of

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their Indian dances before him, they held a long consultation, at the conclusion of which, two great stones were brought before Powhatan. Smith had now reason to consider his career as drawing to a close; by the united efforts of the attendants, he was forcibly dragged, his head laid upon one of the stones, and the mighty club upraised, a few blows from which were to terminate his existence. But a very unexpected interposition now took place. Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, was seized with emotions of tender pity, and ran up to her father, pathetically pleading for the life of the stranger. When all entreaties were lost on that stern and savage potentate, she hastened to Smith, snatched his head in her arms, and laid her own on his, declaring that the first blow must fall upon her. The heart even of a savage father was at last melted, and Powhatan granted to his favorite daughter the life of Smith.

During his captivity among the Indians, Smith found many opportunities of witnessing their peculiar manners and ceremonies, and has described

them, in some respects, with much minuteness. Among other things, he describes the magical performances to which they had recourse, in order to ascertain whether Smith intended them good or evil; for they were still greatly in awe of him. Early one morning, therefore, a great fire was made in a log-house, and a large mat spread on two opposite sides. They made Smith sit down upon one; and his guard, still consisting of some twenty or thirty stout Indians, then left the house.

Presently a large grim looking savage came skipping and flourishing 'n, like a wire-dancer. He was all painted over with coal, mingled with oil

On this creature's head, to complete his attractions, was a large ornamental bunch of snake and weasel skins, stuffed with moss, and their tails so tied together, as to meet on the crown of his head, like a tassel. The skins hung down about his face and shoulders, and a coronet of long feathers streamed round about from his tassel. This character now began his invocation. He shouted like a fiend, with all possible gestures, postures, and grimaces. He carried a tremendous rattle in his hand, moreover, to complete the concert. This being over, three more people of the same description, painted half red and half black, came rushing in like the first, and performed nearly the same kind of dance; but the eyes of the last three were painted white; and some rough strokes of paint were daubed along their jaws, as an imitation of English mustachios and whiskers. These men having skipped and howled round about Smith till he was nearly stunned with their noise, retired into the ante-chamber, probably to refresh themselves. But the ceremony was not yet over. Three more now leaped into the room, not a whit less ugly than the others, with red eyes and white mustachios, painted upon faces as black as a kettle. At last, all the dancers seated themselves on the mat opposite to Smith-three on one side of the chief performer, and three on the other. He soon commenced a song, accompanied with the noise of rattles. The chief man then laid down five grains of wheat, and commenced an oration, straining his arms and hands with such violence, that his veins swelled. A the conclusion of this performance, they all gave a short

groan, by way of assent to what was said, and laid down three grains more. Smith was then entertained with another song and oration, the grain being laid down as before. All this continued till night, neither he nor they having a morsel of food. The Indians then feasted merrily upon all the provisions they could muster, giving Smith a good share of them. The ceremonies just described were repeated the two following days. Some maize meal which they strewed around him in circles, represented their country, they said; the wheat, the bounds of the sea; and something else was used to signify the country of the whites. They gave Smith to understand, that the earth was flat and round, like a trencher, themselves being situated, they said, precisely in the middle. After this they showed him a bag of English gunpowder, which they had taken from some of his men. They said they were going to preserve it carefully till the next spring, supposing it to be some new kind of grain which would yield them a harvest.

After an absence of seven weeks, Smith arrived at the colony just in season to prevent its abandonment; and it was with much difficulty that he could dissuade his companions from their determination to return to England. Pocahontas continued to display her partiality towards the whites, by furnishing the colony with supplies of provisions, till the arrival of a vessel from the other side of the water. In the course of the year 1608, Smith made an exploring voyage up the Potomac. Here three or four thousand Indians, having a hint of his coming, lay in wait to kill him. They were frightened into peace, however, by a discharge of Smith's musketry, and even confessed that Powhatan had persuaded them to take up arms.

At the mouth of the Rappahannock river, Smith saw a fish, called the stingray, lying among the reeds near the bank. He struck at the fish with his sword, and received a severe wound in the wrist from the thorn in the tail of the stingray. The pain produced by the wound was so violent, that Smith's life was for a time despaired of. But he recovered, returned to Jamestown, and was chosen President of the colony the same season. Smith made another voyage, of more than three thousand miles, along the coast and up the rivers, in August and September of this same year. He spent some time with the Susquehannock Indians, a tribe which knew nothing of Powhatan but his name. They had iron hatchets

and other tools, which they had obtained from the French in Canada. These Indians are represented as giants in stature, the leg of one of them being three quarters of a yard round; but there was probably some mistake about this.

In 1609, Smith went to see the Indians again, and Powhatan endeavored to get possession of his person; but his life was saved by Pocahontas, who came through the woods in the night, to his camp, and warned him of his danger. After this, Smith visited Opechancanough, the Indian King, at Pamunkey. They had agreed upon a place where they might meet to trade; but when Smith came there, he was beset by seven hundred savages. He boldly seized Opechancanough by the hair, and led him, trembling, into the midst of his people. The latter laid down. their arms, and ransomed their prisoner by a large present of corn to

Smith. He left them the next day. At another time, as Smith was straying alone in the woods, he was attacked by the King Paspahey, a giant savage. After a violent struggle, Smith succeeded in getting him to the ground, bound him, and carried him on his shoulders to Jamestown.

Soon after this occurrence, Smith received a dangerous wound from an accidental explosion of some gunpowder, and was compelled to return to England for the purpose of obtaining medical assistance. "It was natural," observes the historian, Grahame," that he should abandon with regret the society he had so often preserved, the settlement he had conducted through difficulties as formidable as the infancy of Carthage or Rome had to encounter, and the scenes he had dignified by so much wisdom and virtue. But our sympathy with his regret is abated by the reflection, that a longer residence in the colony would speedily have consigned him to a very subordinate office, and might have deprived the world of that stock of valuable knowledge, and his own character of that accession of fame, which the publication of his travels has been the means of perpetuating." Unfortunately, Smith never returned to Virginia, and his loss, as might have been anticipated, was a most lamentable circumstance for the colony. At the end of six months from the time of his departure, sixty only of five hundred colonists remained alive. They were soon after so disheartened that they embarked on board their vessels, with all their stores, and actually dropped down the James river as far as Mulberry island, with the intention of leaving the country forever. But, as they lay anchored at the island, a boat suddenly came in sight, which brought the news that Lord de la War was close at hand with an English fleet, and a supply of stores. With this fleet the colonists returned to Jamestown.

Pocahontas afterwards married an Englishman, and went with her husband to his native country, where she was for several years an object of great curiosity and attention. She died at Gravesend, in 1616. The old King, Powhatan, died at a later period, at the age of nearly one hundred years.

In the year 1622, about sixteen months after the landing of the pil