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Chesapeake Bay. In the latter end of April, 1607, he discovered Capes Henry and Charles; and on the 13th of May, he landed his colony on a beautiful peninsula, formed by a river, which the natives called Powhatan. They were soon involved in a war with the Indians; who, though they annoyed the colonists considerably, by attacking them while at work, where generally dispersed by firing a gun, or letting loose a bull-dog. The other adventurers so much envied the courage and talents of Captain John Smith, one of the officers in the expedition, that they not only imprisoned him, during their voyage, under the frivolous pretence of his having intended to make himself king of Virginia, -but would not suffer him to be one of the council, when, on opening the packets, they found his name among the rest. When it became necessary, also, that Captain Newport and the officers should return to England, they proposed, with affected humanity, that Smith should go with them, and have his trial in his native country: but he demanded a hearing on the spot; was honourably acquitted; and took his seat among the council. Newport left the colony about the 15th of June; leaving behind him, one bark, and about one hundred persons.

The number was soon abridged. Wasting with improvidence the stores, which they already possessed, and careless to seek others, when those should be exhausted, each man became reduced to the daily allowance of only a pint of worm-eaten wheat and barley: the climate, at all times hot, was now humid; and before the month of September, the colonists had buried one half of their number; among the rest Bartholomew Gosnald, whose good or ill fortune it was, to have originated and pushed forward the undertaking. These miseries were the natural parent of disorder. The colonists quarrelled with themselves; and, charging their president with having embezzled the choicest of their stores, such as beef, bread, and brandy,- they drove him from the office, and put Radcliffe in his place. But a sense of external danger soon quieted, in a measure, their internal dissensions. The exigency was such as naturally devolved all the real authority upon a man like Captain Smith; who erected a rude fort to keep off

the natives; assisted his comrades in fabricating houses to shelter them from the weather; and, when it was the season for gathering Indian corn, put himself at the head of small parties, and, sometimes by presents, sometimes by force, continued to obtain an abundant share of the harvest. The influence which he acquired by such conduct, drew upon him, of course, the enmity of the president and his fellow-councillors; but he defeated all their machinations; and continued to deserve the gratitude of his countrymen, by the address and courage, with which he defended them against their enemies, and kept them from starvation.

In an excursion to discover the head of Chiccakomini River, he was attacked by an overpowering force of Indians; and, while fighting and retreating before them, suddenly found himself plunged to his neck in a swamp, and could defend himself no longer. His captors, at first, intended to kill him outright; but he had presence of mind enough to amuse them with a pocket-compass; and taking him for some being of a supernatural order, they finally resolved upon carrying him to the palace of their king. Powhatan, it seems, was not accessible to superstitious terror. He ordered, that Smith's head should be laid on a stone, and his brains beaten out with clubs; but, when they had got him arranged for the purpose. POCAHONTAS, THE KING'S DAUGHTER, A BEAUTIFUL AND INTERESTING PRINCESS, THREW HERSELF BETWEEN HIM AND THE EXECUTIONER; FOLDED HIS HEAD IN HER ARMS, AND OFFERED HER OWN IN ITS STEAD. Powhatan was so much affected with the circumstance, that he not only spared Smith's life,-but, after the requisite ceremonies, let him go back to Jamestown.

In a voyage round the Potowmac, for a cargo of corn, Captain Argal learned, that Pocahontas had fled from her father, and lay concealed in his neighbourhood. He bribed her confidants; got her on board of his vessel; and carried her to Jamestown. Mr. Rolfe was captivated with her; she with Mr. Rolfe; and their marriage not only secured the stable and sincere friendship of King Powhatan, but led to a treaty with the Chiccahominies, which ended in their becoming tributary to the English.

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This interesting circumstance in the early History of North America, is thus related by Dr. Robertson:"Pocahontas, the favourite daughter of the great Chief Powhatan, to whose intercession Captain Smith was indebted for his life, persevered in her partial attachment to the English; and as she frequently visited their settlements, where she was always received with respectful hospitality, her admiration of their arts and manners continued to increase. During this intercourse, her beauty, which is represented as far superior to that of her countrywomen, made such impressions on the heart of Mr. Rolfe, a young man of rank in the colony, that he warmly solicited her to accept of him as a husband. Where manners are simple, courtship is not tedious. Neither artifice prevents, nor ceremony forbids the heart from declaring its sentiments. Pocahontas readily gave her consent; Dale encouraged the alliance, and Powhatan did not disapprove it. The marriage was celebrated with extraordinary pomp; and from that period a friendly correspondence subsisted between the colony and all the tribes subject to Powhatan, or that stood in awe of his power. Rolfe and his princess (for by that name the writers of the last age always distinguish her set out for England, where she was received by James and his Queen with the respect suited to her birth. Being carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian faith, she was publicly baptized, but died a few years after, on her return to America, leaving one son, from whom are sprung some of the most respectable families in Virginia, who boast of their descent from the race of the ancient rulers of their country."

In modern tim.es Miss PATTISSON, the Cidevant, Madame Jerome Buonaparte, has been celebrated as a female of extraordinary beauty and accomplishments.

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INDIVIDUALS OF GIGANTIC STATURE.

THE PATAGONIANS.

(Various Authorities.)

THE following account of the very tall men seen near the Straits of Magellan in the year 1764, by the crew of the Dolphin man of war, under the command of the honourable commodore Byron, was communicated in a letter by Mr. Charles Clarke, officer on board that ship, to Dr. Maty, secretary to the Royal Society.

"We had not," says the writer, "got above ten or twelve leagues into the straits of Magellan from the Atlantic Ocean, before we saw several people, some on horseback, and some on foot, upon the north shore, and with the help of our glasses could perceive them beckoning to us to come on shore; at the same time we observed to each other that they seemed to be of an extraordinary size. We, however, continued to stand on, and should have passed without taking the least further notice of them could we have proceeded; but our breeze dying away, and the tide making against us, we were obliged to anchor, when the commodore ordered his boat of twelve oars, another of six, to be hoisted out, manned, and armed. In the first went the commodore, in the second Mr. Cummings, our first lieutenant, and myself. At our first leaving the ship, their number did not exceed forty, but as we approached the shore we perceived them pouring down from all quarters, some galloping, others running, all making use of the utmost expedition; they collected themselves in a body just at the place we steered for. When we had got within twelve or fourteen yards of the beach, we found it a disagreeable flat shore, with very large stones, which we apprehended would injure the boats; we therefore looked at two or three different places to find the most convenient spot for landing: they supposed we deferred coming on shore through apprehensions of danger from them, upon which they all threw open the skins they had over their shoulders, the only clothing they had, and consequently the only thing they could secret any kind of arms with, and many

of them lay down to the water's edge. The commodore made a motion for them to go a little way from the water that they might have room to land, which they immediately complied with, and withdrew thirty or forty yards: we formed each man with his musket, in case any violence should be offered. As soon as we were formed, the commodore went from us to them, then at about twenty yards distance, they seemed exceedingly happy at his going among them; immediately gathered round him, and made a rude kind of noise, which I believe was their method of singing, as their countenances bespoke it by a kind of jollity. The commodore then made a motion to them to sit down, which they did in a circle, with him in the middle, when Mr. Byron took some beads and ribbons which he had brought for that purpose, and tied about the women's necks, &c. with which they seemed much pleased. We were struck with the greatest astonishment at the sight of people of such a gigantic stature, notwithstanding our previous notice with our glasses from the ship. By the time we got on shore their number increased to about five hundred, men, women and children. We were with them nearly two hours, at noon day within a very few yards, though none but Mr. Byron and Mr. Cummings shook hands with them; we were, however, near enough and long enough with them to convince our senses, so far as not to be cavilled out of the very existence of those senses at that time, which some of our countrymen and friends would absolutely attempt to do. They are of a copper-colour, with long black hair, and some of them are certainly nine feet, if they do not exceed it; the commodore, who is very near six feet, could but just reach to the top of one of their heads, which he attempted on tip-toes, and there were several taller than he on whom the experiment was tried. They were prodigiously stout, and as well and proportionably made as I ever saw people in my life. That they have some kind of arms among them is I think indisputable, from their taking methods to convince us they had none, at that time about them. The women I think bear much the same proportion to the men as our Europeans do; there was hardly a man there less than eight feet, most of them were consider

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