She had her women attending her, adorned much like herself (except they wanted the copper).Here we had our accustomed eates, tobacco, and welcome.Our Captaine presented her with guyfts liberally, whereupon shee cheered somewhat her countenance, and requested him to shoote off a piece; whereat (we noted) she showed not near the like feare as Arahatic, though he be a goodly man."The company was received with the same hospitality by King Pamunkey, whose land was believed to be rich in copper and pearls.The copper was so flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the thickness of his finger as if it had been lead.The natives were unwilling to part with it.The King had about his neck a string of pearls as big as peas, which would have been worth three or four hundred pounds, if the pearls had been taken from the mussels as they should have been.
Arriving on their route at Weanock, some twenty miles above the fort, they were minded to visit Paspahegh and another chief Jamestown lay in the territory of Paspahegh--but suspicious signs among the natives made them apprehend trouble at the fort, and they hastened thither to find their suspicions verified.The day before, May 26th, the colony had been attacked by two hundred Indians (four hundred, Smith says), who were only beaten off when they had nearly entered the fort, by the use of the artillery.The Indians made a valiant fight for an hour; eleven white men were wounded, of whom one died afterwards, and a boy was killed on the pinnace.This loss was concealed from the Indians, who for some time seem to have believed that the whites could not be hurt.Four of the Council were hurt in this fight, and President Wingfield, who showed himself a valiant gentleman, had a shot through his beard.They killed eleven of the Indians, but their comrades lugged them away on their backs and buried them in the woods with a great noise.For several days alarms and attacks continued, and four or five men were cruelly wounded, and one gentleman, Mr.
Eustace Cloville, died from the effects of five arrows in his body.
Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fort should be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed and exercised.The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, and it was unsafe for any to venture beyond the fort.
Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President Wingfield's management.Captain Newport says: " There being among the gentlemen and all the company a murmur and grudge against certain proceedings and inconvenient courses [Newport] put up a petition to the Council for reformation." The Council heeded this petition, and urged to amity by Captain Newport, the company vowed faithful love to each other and obedience to the superiors.On the 10th of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the Council.In his "General Historie," not published till 1624, he says: "Many were the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious) spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher Mr.Hunt, reconciled them and caused Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council." The next day they all partook of the holy communion.
In order to understand this quarrel, which was not by any means appeased by this truce, and to determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it, it is necessary to examine all the witnesses.
Smith is unrestrained in his expression of his contempt for Wingfield.But in the diary of Wingfield we find no accusation against Smith at this date.Wingfield says that Captain Newport before he departed asked him how he thought himself settled in the government, and that he replied "that no disturbance could endanger him or the colony, but it must be wrought either by Captain Gosnold or Mr.Archer, for the one was strong with friends and followers and could if he would; and the other was troubled with an ambitious spirit and would if he could."The writer of Newport's "Relatyon" describes the Virginia savages as a very strong and lusty race, and swift warriors."Their skin is tawny; not so borne, but with dyeing and painting themselves, in which they delight greatly." That the Indians were born white was, as we shall see hereafter, a common belief among the first settlers in Virginia and New England.Percy notes a distinction between maids and married women: "The maids shave close the fore part and sides of their heads, and leave it long behind, where it is tied up and hangs down to the hips.The married women wear their hair all of a length, but tied behind as that of maids is.And the women scratch on their bodies and limbs, with a sharp iron, pictures of fowls, fish, and beasts, and rub into the 'drawings' lively colors which dry into the flesh and are permanent." The "Relatyon " says the people are witty and ingenious and allows them many good qualities, but makes this exception: "The people steal anything comes near them; yea, are so practiced in this art, that looking in our face, they would with their foot, between their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, or any indifferent light thing, which having once conveyed, they hold it an injury to take the same from them.They are naturally given to treachery; howbeit we could not find it in our travel up the river, but rather a most kind and loving people."VI
QUARRELS AND HARDSHIPS
On Sunday, June 21st, they took the communion lovingly together.
That evening Captain Newport gave a farewell supper on board his vessel.The 22d he sailed in the Susan Constant for England, carrying specimens of the woods and minerals, and made the short passage of five weeks.Dudley Carleton, in a letter to John Chamberlain dated Aug.18, 1607, writes "that Captain Newport has arrived without gold or silver, and that the adventurers, cumbered by the presence of the natives, have fortified themselves at a place called Jamestown." The colony left numbered one hundred and four.