his own son. He was faithful to his word, and despatched him immediately, with twelve guides. That night they quartered in the woods; and during the whole journey Captain Smith expected every moment to be put to death, notwithstanding Powhatan's fair words. But, as the narrative of his adventures has it, "Almighty God, by his divine Providence, had mollified the hearts of those stern barbarians with compassion." Smith reached Jamestown in safety, after an absence of seven weeks, and treated his savage guides with great hospitality and kindness. He showed them two demi-culverins and a millstone, which they proposed to carry to Powhatan, but found them too heavy. He ordered the culverins to be loaded with stones and discharged among the boughs of a tree covered with icicles, in order to magnify to them the effects of these formidable engines. When they heard the report and saw the ice and the branches come rattling down, they were greatly terrified. A few trinkets restored their confidence, and they were dismissed with a variety of presents for Powhatan and his family.

The generous conduct of Powhatan, in restoring a prisoner who had given such fatal proofs of courage and prowess, is worthy of the highest admiration. There is hardly any thing in history, that can afford a parallel to

it. He was stimulated to take the prisoner's life, not only by revenge, a passion strongest in savage breasts, but by policy and that regard to his own interests, which Christian and civilized monarchs are justified in observing. He seems to have acted from some religious feeling, regarding Smith, either as a supernatural being, or as under the special protection of a higher power. How far this may have actuated him, or how far he may have been influenced by affection for his daughter, it is impossible to say; but, supposing both to have operated, we only elevate his conduct by elevating his motives. He must have been a noble being indeed, in whom religion or domestic affection could overcome the strong impulses of passion, revenge, and interest.

V

CHAPTER VI.

Arrival of Newport from England. - His Visit to Powhatan. His Return.

SMITH'S absence from Jamestown seems to have been always attended with evil consequences to the colony. The moment his back was turned, the unruly spirits, whom he

alone could curb, broke out into disaffection and mutiny. He found "all in combustion" on his return. The colony was split into two factions, the stronger of which was preparing to quit the country in the bark. Captain Smith, at the hazard of his life, defeated this project, bringing his cannon to bear upon the bark, and threatening to sink her if they did not stay. In revenge for this, a conspiracy was formed by several, and among them the President, to put him to death, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, whom they said, he had led to their death, and he was consequently guilty of their murder. Such cobweb meshes as these could not hold a man like Smith; for "he quickly took such order with such lawyers, that he laid them by the heels, till he sent some of them prisoners to England." His relation of the plenty he had witnessed in the Indian territory, and of the power and liberality of Powhatan, cheered their drooping spirits, which were revived and sustained by the kindness of Pocahontas; whose deliverance of Smith was not a transient impulse, but consistent with her whole character, and who, with her attendants, every four or five days brought them abundance of provisions, thereby saving the lives of many that must otherwise have perished with hunger. The savages also came in great numbers, bringing presents continually to Captain Smith,

and offering commodities for sale, at the prices which he himself set. His influence over them was unbounded, and they were ready, at his nod, to do any thing he required. They knew that he worshipped one supreme God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, whom they would call, in conversation, the God of Captain Smith.

This high opinion was much confirmed by the arrival of Captain Newport, at the time at which Smith had predicted to them it would happen, being in the latter part of the year 1607. Two ships had sailed from England, one commanded by Newport, and the other by Captain Nelson, the latter of which was dismasted on the coast of America, and blown off to the West Indies. Newport brought with him a reinforcement of men and provisions, and all things necessary. His arrival was a source of great joy to the colonists, but was in the end productive of some embarrassments. The President and council (Ratcliffe and Martin, Smith himself being the third), who had been always jealous of Smith's influence over the natives, endeavored to raise their credit and authority over them higher than his, by giving them four times as much for their goods as he had appointed. To gratify the mariners also, they gave them liberty to trade as much as they pleased; and the consequence was in a short time, that the market was

so glutted, that a pound of copper could not procure what was formerly obtained for an ounce, the laws of political economy operating, before the science was heard of. Their trade was also injured by Captain Newport, who lavished his presents with the profuseness of a true sailor. They served, however, to impress Powhatan with a high idea of Newport's greatness, and made him very desirous of seeing him.

Accordingly the bark was prepared for a visit to Powhatan. Captain Newport was attended by Smith and Mr. Matthew Scrivener, a gentleman of sense and discretion, who had come over with Newport, and been admitted a member of the council, and by a guard of thirty or forty men. When they came to Werowocomoco, Newport began to entertain suspicions of treachery. They were obliged to cross many creeks and streams on bridges loosely made of poles and bark, and so frail that he imagined them to be traps set by the Indians. But Smith assured him there was nothing to fear, and with twenty men, leaving the bark, undertook to go forward and accomplish the journey alone. He went on, and was met by two or three hundred Indians, who conducted him and his companions into the town. He was received with shouts of welcome on all sides. Powhatan exerted himself to the utmost to set before him the most sumptuous and plentiful banquet he