running into every little bay, inlet, and creek, that invited their prow. They were overtaken by thunder-storms and tempests. They lost their sails, and supplied the loss with their shirts. In some places the savages ran back into the forests, and climbed up into the trees to get a sight at the strangers. Now and then they fell into Indian ambuscades, out of which nothing helped them but their murderous musketry. They steered still northward, and came to the mouth of the Patuxent; and from this point they sailed further onward for some ninety miles, but saw nothing but grand and interminable forests, peopled thickly with wolves, and bears, and other wild beasts.

The supplies ran low, and the men began to grow sick and discontented. Much against his will, therefore, Captain Smith was compelled to return. He did go back as far as the Potomac, and then succeeded in persuading the rest to take a short trip up this beautiful stream. They accordingly sailed as far upward as their inclination led them, falling in with tribe after tribe of Indians, some of them hostile, and some friendly. Again they were apprized of the

wicked intentions of Powhatan against the colony, and in due time they turned back for the settlement. On the way, they fell in with canoes full of savages, whence they obtained fresh supplies of both meat and fish. Here and there they stopped to go on shore and search for the precious minerals; but of course nothing came of such a delusion but the loss of their patience and labor. They easily caught fish from their boat, in some places; and, in the course of the sport, Smith received such a wound in his hand as suddenly threatened his life. His arm was terribly swollen, and he expected to die. He was even carried on shore to select a spot for his burial; and gave directions calmly to all respecting the future affairs of the settlement. But his valuable life was providentially preserved, and he returned to the colony soon after to progress with the conduct of public matters as energetically as before. The fish, from whose sting he barely escaped death, was called the Stingray; and to this day, the little island, northerly from the Rappahannock, where this untoward accident happened, is called after its

name.

CHAPTER IX.

SMITH AMONG THE SAVAGES.

HINGS were in a truly bad condition at
Jamestown when the explorers returned,

T

arising not less from protracted and widespread sickness than from the slip-shod style in which the government was carried on. Almost as soon as Smith got home again, they chose him President of the Council. It appears that, after all, they had far greater faith in his energy and ability, than they ever had in their own vanity and self-conceit. But Smith wanted no office; he desired nothing so much as to see them all make progress by themselves. There was nothing like a mean and selfish ambition in him. He declined their official gift, therefore, preferring to busy himself with making tours of discovery and exploration.

He remained at Jamestown only a couple of

days after his return, when he again set out with about as many men as before. First he went to the river Patapsco; and this stream he explored, with its four distinct branches, to their several heads. He fell in with a tribe called the Massawomeks, who offered his party battle; but a little patience, and a few gifts, soon turned the hatred of the savages into open friendship. Then, after exchanging trinkets for supplies of bear's meat and venison, he came upon another tribe called the Tockwoghs, who dwelt on a little river of the same name. Here his experience was very similar with that among the people of the first tribe. Then he saw the Susquehannocks, who were very large in stature, and formidable to all their neighbors around; and who clad themselves in the most fantastic manner, with skins of bears and wolves. Smith caused public worship to be celebrated in the presence of these children of the forest; and some of them afterwards offered him reverence as a superior being. They besought him to stay among them and become their emperor. They told him of other tribes living far beyond the mountains, and showed him many commodities which they

could have obtained only through the tribes that lived in Canada.

Down the bay he sailed again, giving to every new place discovered an English name, boring holes in the trees by which they might be recog nized when he came that way again, piling up stones, and erecting crosses of wood. He fell in with a tribe called the Rappahannocks, who endeavored to seduce his party into an ambush ; but Smith was much too astute for them; and presently a mêlée ensued, which cost the savages one of their number, and sent them all scampering into the woods with terror.

During this voyage they lost one of their own men by a lingering fever; and there, on the shore, overshadowed by the forests that were centuries old, they dug his lonely grave, firing a sad volley from their musketry over the body which they had laid away in its last rest.

People after people, and tribe after tribe, he came in contact with, bringing them all into professedly friendly relations, and beating their savage prejudices, by violence when it was necessary, out of them. On all hands he received ready promises of supplies of corn and meat,