He left the fort on the second of June, 1608, in an open barge of "less than three tons burthen." His only instrument was a compass. His companions were—a physician, six gentlemen and seven soldiers.
They crossed the Chesapeake Bay to the eastern shore, proceeding along the coast, "searching every inlet and bay fit for harbours and habitations." The Bay was easy to navigate, the greatest menace were the sudden thunder squalls.
Smith soon became disgusted with his crew. He wrote that they had not "a marriner or any that had skill to trim their sayles, use their oares, or any business belonging to the Barge, but 2 or 3, the rest being Gentlemen, or as ignorant in such toyle and labour."
For provisions they had "nothing but a little meale or oatmeale and water to feed them; and scarse halfe sufficient of that for halfe that time, but by the Savages and by the plentie of fish they found in all places, they made themselves provision as opportunitie served."
A thunder-storm took mast and sails and they were so "over-racked" by such "mightie waves," that it was with great difficulty that they kept the barge from sinking. They repaired the sails with their shirts. The crew begged to turn back to Jamestown but Captain Smith spoke to them in this manner:
"Gentlemen—
"You cannot say but I have shared with you of the worst that is past; and for what is to come, of lodging, diet, or whatsoever, I am contented you allot the worst part to my selfe. As for your feares, that I will lose my selfe in these unknowne large waters, or be swallowed up in some stormie gust: abandon those childish fears, for worse then is past cannot happen, and there is as much danger to returne, as to proceed forward. Regaine therefore your old spirits: for returne I will not (if God assist me) til I have—found Patawomeck, or the head of this great water you conceit to be endlesse."
It was now the thirteenth of June.
Captain John Smith headed the barge toward the western shore of the Bay. On the sixteenth of June "we fel with the river Patawomeck."
When John Smith had last seen this River of Swans, as the Indians had named it, water and sky were darkened by hordes of wildfowl. There had been the sound of the whirring of many wings and great clamour. Now all was quiet. There was nothing to remind him of that amazing congregation of fowl that he had seen during "cohonks" except the marshes, lying here and there along shore.
"Feare being gone and our men recovered, wee were all contented" as the barge sailed into the mouth "of this 9 myle broad river." On the south lay the Northern Neck, indented by numerous inlets that promised harbours, its eastern end extending into Chesapeake Bay. Its virgin forest was now decked out with leaf and flower which sent fragrance to the sea-weary voyagers.
For thirty miles they sailed without adventure. Then two Indians appeared and conducted them up a little creek towards Onawmanient—"where all the woods were laid with Ambuscadoes to the number of 3 or 400 Salvages; but so strangely painted, grimed, and disguised, shouting, yelling, and crying, as we rather supposed them so many divels."
Captain Smith thought it best to scare them a little, so he trained his guns so that the bullets would graze the water. This and the "eccho of the woods so amazed them, that down went their bowes and arrowes." Peace was made, hostages were exchanged and James Watkins, one of the company, was sent with them "6 myles up the woods to their king's habitation. Wee were kindly used by these Salvages: of whom we understand they were commanded to betray us by Powhatan."
Powhatan had his forces well organized. As they progressed up the river they found the Indians ready for them: "The like incounters were found at Patawomeck, Cecocawone, (Coan) and divers other places."
The only tribes that received them with friendliness were the Moyaones, Nacotchtants and Toags. There seems to be no further record of these tribes.
They went as far up the river as they could go in the barge, "140 myles"; this was above the site of the present city of Washington, and about ten miles above Georgetown. Captain Smith was stopped here by impassable falls. His disappointment must have been great that his search here did not yield an outlet to the "South Sea."
On the return trip they had the good fortune to meet a number of Indians in canoes loaded with slaughtered game—bears, deer and other "beasts." Smith and his party were given liberal portions of the fresh meat, which must have cheered them some.
In this part of the river there were great rocks on the shores towering above the trees, and the high banks gleamed in places like "a tinctured spangled skurfe, that made many places seeme as guilded." Dreams of gold were always in the minds of men at that time. Perhaps here was to be found the "glistering mettal" that John Smith had heard about from the Indians the winter before.
Most of the company clambered up the banks and burrowed in the earth among the cliffs. The ground was so sprinkled with gleaming spangles as to seem "halfe pin dust." Smith refrained from this made scramble and proceeded in a more organized way.
With Japazaws, King of Patowmeke, as guide, he ascended one of the tributaries of the river, called Quiyough, as far as the depth of water would allow. Here Captain Smith left the barge, taking with him six men. He was surrounded by Indians. Some of these he decorated with chains and told them that if they conducted him safely to the mine they could keep the ornaments.
When they arrived at the place of the treasure, nine or ten miles inland, the Englishmen saw that the Indians had been digging there with their shells and hatchets for a long time.
To their great disappointment the mine was not gold but antimony. The Indians, who had been in the habit of digging there, washed the element of its dross "in a fayre brooke of christel-like water" which "runneth hard by it" and put it in little bags and sold it all over the country. It was used to paint their idols and themselves. Smith noted that it made them look like "blackmoores dusted over with silver."
No minerals were discovered in this search either. They were rewarded in a slight degree by some furs of mink, beaver, otter, bear and marten, which they obtained mostly from the Indians of Cascarawaoke. This was a merchant tribe that did much of the manufacturing and trading of this country. The Potomac must have been used as a highway for trade as the word Patowmeke is said to mean "to bring again," or, in a freer rendering, "traveling traders, or pedlars."
Smith's party found "plentie" of fish, "lying so thicke, with their heads above the water, as for want of nets (our barge driving amongst them) we attempted to catch them with a frying pan; but we found it a bad instrument to catch fish with."
Smith now continued toward the mouth of the Potomac and the Chesapeake. He had little of tangible value to show for the trip up the river but he had added greatly to his store of knowledge and could now add the Potomac to his map of the Chesapeake and surrounding country.
He notes that the Potomac was "inhabited on both sides. First on the South side at the very entrance is Wighcocomoco (Little Wicomico) and hath some 130 men, beyond them Sekacawone (Coan) with 30. The Onawmanient with 100. And the Patawomekes more than 200."
A point of land at the mouth of the Potomac, on the south side, he named for himself, Smith's Point.[2]
When Captain John Smith and his bargeload of adventurers left the Potomac they passed the tip of Smith's Point and headed south. They were now on the Chesapeake Bay.
Indians had long used this great inland sea as their waterway. Their word, Chesapeake, has been translated in a number of ways, among them—country on a great river and great salt bay.
The Spaniards, who visited the Bay in the sixteenth century, had documented it as Bahia de Santa Maria (St. Mary's Bay). Later, they called it Bahia del Xacan (Axacan Bay), and a very old Spanish map calls it, Madre de Aguas, meaning Mother of Waters.
Captain Smith describes it simply as "a goodly bay." He wrote: "This Bay lyeth North and South, in which the water floweth neare 200-myles, and hath a channell for 140 myles, of depth betwixt 6 and 15 fadome, holding in breadth for the most part 10 or 14 myles."
Two of Smith's company recorded the fact that "Neither better fish, more plenty or variety, had any of us seene in any place, swimming in the water, then in the bay of Chesapeake."
The Indians well knew the riches of their great Bay. They caught the fat fish in weirs, with nets and lines for their angles made by their women from thread spun from "the barkes of trees, Deeres Sinews, or a Kind of Grass." They ate the sea-crabs that were said to be so large that four Englishmen could feast on one of them. They roasted the oysters reported to have been thirteen inches long at the time of the coming of the white man. The shells were not wasted by the Indians—they were used for medicine, ornaments, and wampum was made from the purple edges of the clams. Even the lowly periwinkle was eaten.
As the first English ships entered Chesapeake Bay the crews were startled to see whales and schools of tumbling porpoises. The early colonists were soon to learn that there were so many porpoises in the Bay that canoes were sometimes overturned by them.
When the Jamestown colony was starving they lived on the bounties of the Bay—they caught the sea-crabs and sturgeons and sheepshead; the latter they likened to the broth of their English mutton. And these same strangers "groped in the deep for oysters which lay in places thick as stones," according to an early writer.
There were many oddities in the Bay which intrigued the Europeans—a small fish that resembled St. George's Dragon, with legs and wings omitted, the stinging nettle, and "the Todefish which will swell till it be like to brust, when it commeth into the aire."
As Captain John Smith and his crew proceeded down the Bay in the barge they passed the end of the Northern Neck and came to the mouth of the Rappahannock River. It was the intention of Smith to explore this river and visit the acquaintances he had made "upon the river of Toppahannock" during his captivity the preceding winter. But they were stopped by the ebb-tide. The following account of what happened at the mouth of the Rappahannock was written by members of the company, Dr. Walter Russell and Anas Todkill.
"But our boate (by reason of the ebbe) chansing to ground upon many shoules lying in the entrance, we spied many fishes lurking amongst the weedes on the sands. Our captaine sporting himselfe to catch them by nailing them to the ground with his sword, set us all a fishing in that manner. By this devise, we tooke more in an houre then we all could eat.
"But it chanced, the captaine taking a fish from his sword (not knowing her condition) being much of the fashion of a Thornebacke with a long taile whereon is a most poysoned sting of 2 or 3 inches long, which shee strooke an inch and (a) halfe into the wrist of his arme. The which, in 4 houres, had so extremely swolne his hand, arme, shoulder and part of his body, as we al with much sorrow concluded (anticipated) his funerall, and prepared his grave in an Ile hard by (as himselfe appointed); which then wee called Stingeray Ile, after the name of the fish. Yet by the helpe of a precious oile, Doctor Russell applyed, ere night his tormenting paine was so wel asswaged that he eate the fish to his supper: which gave no lesse joy and content to us, then ease to himselfe.
"Having neither Surgeon nor surgerie but that preservative oile, we presently set saile for James Towne."
It was not until August of 1608 that Captain John Smith had the opportunity to explore the Rappahannock River. With him in the barge were twelve men—"nearly the same persons as before"—and an Indian guide named Mosco, "a lusty Salvage of Wighcocomoco."
Unlike the other Indians, Mosco had a fine black bushy beard, of which he was proud. Because of this peculiarity he ranked himself with the Englishmen. Smith believed him to have been the son of a Frenchman.
It was probably due to Mosco's influence that Smith's party was kindly received and entertained by the Moraughtacunds. Mosco hurried about, bringing wood and water, and guiding them throughout the neighborhood. When Smith decided that it was time to push on Mosco warned him not to visit the Rappahannock Indians. He described them as hostile to the Moraughtacunds, and would be to the English too, because of their friendly visit.
Captain Smith believed that Mosco was using this argument to keep all their trade for his friends. He headed the barge across the river toward the forbidden territory.
All seemed well as they neared the shore. A dozen or more Indians were on hand to direct them to a good landing in a creek, where three or four canoes filled with corn and other commodities for barter, were already lined up.
When in doubt Smith's custom was to exchange hostages. He made this known but the Indians were reluctant to comply. After consultation among themselves four or five of them ran out in the creek bringing with them their hostage.
Still distrustful, Smith sent one of his men, Anas Todkill, ashore to look around. Within a stone's throw of the landing Anas discovered two or three hundred Indians in ambush among the trees. Todkill attempted to return to the barge but was intercepted by the Rappahannocks. At the same time the Indian hostage jumped from the barge but was instantly killed in the water by the English. A volley of shot from the barge scattered the Indians and Todkill managed to escape. Several Indians were wounded and killed but the English were unharmed.
In this short while many arrows were shot but the barge was protected by Indian shields, or targets, woven so firmly of sticks and grass that no arrow could penetrate them. These Smith had gotten from the Massawomeks.
Captain Smith and his comrades carried the captured canoes and arrows across the river as gifts to Mosco and his friends. The return of the English "was hailed with a trumpet."
When the barge started up the river the next day Mosco was one of the company. As they passed through a narrow place in the river, arrows that seemed to fly from unseen hands began to hit the shields around the boat. At the first arrow Mosco fell flat, hiding his head against the bottom of the barge, but he directed his friends where to look in the marsh, at the little bushes growing amongst the grass. The guns were trained accordingly and at the first volley the bushes fell down and the ambush disappeared. After the barge had moved about half a mile away the Englishmen looked back and saw the thirty or forty Rappahannocks of the ambuscade "dancing and singing very merrily."
As the barge progressed up the river the explorers were kindly treated by the several tribes that they encountered. But the company was saddened, and lessened, by the death of Richard Featherstone, whose body had weakened under the excessive heat and humidity of this unaccustomed climate.
The body of the young Englishman was laid to rest on the shores of a little bay. His comrades honored him as best they could by firing a volley of shot, and naming the bay for him—Featherstone Bay. Smith marked it on his map and it is believed by some to have been near the site of the present city of Fredericksburg.[3]
The next day they sailed as high up the river as the barge would float. Smith went ashore and set up crosses of wood and brass and cut their names upon trees to signify that possession had been taken of the country by English authority.
While Smith was thus occupied the sentinel was surprised by an arrow that fell beside him. The white men found that they were surrounded by Indians who were hiding behind trees. After a half-hour skirmish the Indians disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared. Mosco was the hero of the battle—he emptied his quiver, ran to the barge for fresh supplies and pursued the fugitives. Coming upon a wounded enemy Mosco would have beaten his brains out except for the English.
After the physician, Anthony Bagnalle, had dressed the prisoner's wounds, he recovered enough to answer Smith's questions. He belonged, he told them, to the nation of the Mannahocks and was the brother of a chief. He had heard that the English were a people come from under the world to take their world from them. When asked what was beyond the mountains, he answered, "The sun." This Indian's name was Amoroleck.
Mosco was not in sympathy with these proceedings. He told the English that the Mannahocks were a "naughty" race, as bad as the Rappahannocks, and that they had better be on their way.
Smith did not take Mosco's advice. It was night when the party finally embarked and started back down the river. Before long the arrows started rattling against the shields and dropping into the barge. The stream was narrow here, with high banks on one side. Amoroleck called to his people, but in vain; he could not be heard above the shrieks of the warriors. Every now and then Smith discharged a musket in the direction of the most noise. The Indians were persistent and followed the barge for about twelve miles. The darkness was probably all that saved the Englishmen.
At daybreak the barge emerged into a wide place, where the weary adventurers dropped anchor out of arrow-shot, and ate breakfast. They were so tired and hungry that they paid no attention to the four or five hundred warriors crowded along the banks, until after breakfast. Then they took down the shields and showed themselves, with Amoroleck in plain view amongst them. After a consultation the Indians hung their bows and arrows upon trees and two Indians, with bows and quivers on their heads, swam out to the barge and presented these in token of friendship.
Captain Smith now went ashore and told the Indians to send for their kings. Four kings, or chiefs, soon appeared. Smith gave them back Amoroleck. The Indians were happy over this and gave the English bows, arrows, pipes and pouches, but in return they asked for the pistols which the English carried. Smith satisfied them with less dangerous trinkets, and left them dancing and singing and making merry.
The barge continued its journey downstream until the neighborhood of the Moraughtacunds was reached. They stopped here to tell these friends of Mosco of their victory over the Mannahocks. The Moraughtacunds were a feeble race, and small in stature. They begged Smith to subdue the Rappahannocks also.
Smith decided to help this weak tribe, as he would be at the same time helping the English. He summoned the kings of the Rappahannocks to a conference. When they had assembled Captain Smith threatened to burn their villages, destroy their canoes and corn and prove himself a bad enemy. Among the things that Smith demanded was the son of a "king," named Rappahannock, as a hostage. The chief objected to this—he had only one son and he could not live without him—but he would give up certain of his women who had been stolen by the Moraughtacunds. Smith found that this was the cause of the recent wars.
Captain Smith returned to the Moraughtacunds[4] and had the three women brought before him. He had a chain of beads put around the neck of each. He then sent for the King Rappahannock to come, and bade him choose the one he most desired. The second choice was given to the "king" of the Moraughtacunds. Then Smith generously presented Mosco with the third woman. All parties seemed to be satisfied with this distribution.
The next day six or seven hundred Indians of both tribes assembled to celebrate the peace that had been thus established. No weapons were to be seen, friendship was pledged with the English, and the Indians volunteered to plant corn for them. In return John Smith promised hatchets, beads and copper.
Mosco was so pleased that at the height of the celebration he renounced his name in favor of one meaning "stranger" and voluntarily became a subject of the English King, James the First.
After the celebration Captain Smith sailed again into the Chesapeake, leaving behind this river that the Indians called Quick-Rising-Water.
In 1609 an English boy landed at Jamestown. He was probably about fourteen years old at that time since records show that he had been baptized in England in 1595.
In a short while Henry Spelman was to find himself in a virgin forest among painted savages and wild beasts. What a change for this young son of a British nobleman!
Harry had no doubt been accustomed to a quiet and bookish atmosphere at his home at Congham, Norfolk. His father, Sir Henry, was interested in history and antiques, and in fact was noted for his studies along those lines.
And why did Sir Henry permit a boy so young to set out upon such a dangerous expedition? Was it because Harry was a third son and could therefore expect little in the way of lands and riches? Since Sir Henry was one of the Council for New England, and treasurer of the Guiana Company, he may have had his eyes on broader horizons.
It was August when Henry arrived in Virginia. It was the hot, muggy season when mosquitoes were plentiful. Shortly after his arrival Captain John Smith took him on a little journey to visit Powhatan. How excited Henry must have been at the prospect of seeing the great chieftain! How little did he suspect what Captain Smith had planned to do with him. Henry later wrote the following account:
"I was carried by Capt. Smith, our President, to ye litell Powhatan where unknowne to me he sould (sold) me to him for a towne called Powhatan (site of present Richmond city) and leavinge me with him, he made knowne to Capt. Weste, (Francis, brother of Lord Delaware) how he had bought a towne for them to dwell in...."
Soon after Captain Smith left Henry with the Indians a massacre ensued in the Indian village. According to early writers of Jamestown, Henry's life was saved by Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas.
At this time the King of Patowmeke was visiting his emperor, probably to pay his tribute, and to save the white boy from the "furie of Powhatan" he took him home with him when he returned to the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac.
This arrangement was probably made by Pocahontas. Before very long she too would be hiding out in the Northern Neck as a guest of the King and Queen of Patowmeke. It is believed by some that Pocahontas and Henry fled with the King of Patowmeke to his village on the Potomac at the same time.
Henry probably adjusted himself quickly to the way of life in the village of the Potomac Indian tribe. He was probably soon wearing a skin belt and a cord as a breechclout like the Indian boys of his age.
Henry doubtless played a game with them that was like football for he later described this game and indicated that it was played by both boys and women but with different rules: "They use football play which wemen and young boyes doe much play at. The men never. They make their gooles as ours only they never fight nor pull one another doune.
"The men play with a litel balle lettinge it fall out of ther hand and striketh it with the tope of his foot, and he that can strike the ball furthest winns that they play for."
We can visualize Henry learning to shoot the bow and arrow, and learning to follow a trail through the forest. The Indian boys probably taught him to snare beaver, otter and other small animals, and to fish with hooks of bone or stone, and to catch crabs with dip-nets made of silk grass.
We know that Henry watched the women gather corn in hand baskets and dump it into larger baskets for he later recorded these facts. He no doubt learned quickly to like the Indian food—the corn pones that came brown-crusted and smoking from the ashes, the fish and meat broiled on hurdles over the fire or turned on a spit. He doubtless tasted the broth and bread made from chestnuts and chinquapins and reserved for the chief men at the greatest feasts, and opossum and beaver, stews of fish and vegetables, and doves and partridges baked in wet clay, and dined on venison, turkey and oysters.
Henry had chores to do too. He wrote that one of his duties was "stilling the king's young child, for none could quiet him so well as myselfe." This undoubtedly makes Henry Spelman the Neck's first white baby-sitter.
He perhaps had his turn with the Indian boys to sit in a little hut on a platform in the field and scare crows away from the newly planted corn.
We can be certain that Henry avoided the hideous priests and their temples and the houses where the bodies of the dead kings and statues of their god Okee were kept. These places were considered too holy for ordinary people to enter. Indians passed these houses quickly, and even when going up or down the river they would throw "some peece of copper, white beads or pocones into the river for feare their Okee should be offended and revenged of them."
Henry attended funerals of the common people where he saw the body wrapped in mats and placed on a scaffold ten or twelve feet high. The relatives mourned greatly and threw beads among the poor. After the funeral the relatives entertained with feasting, music and dancing.
The corpse stayed on the scaffold until the flesh had disappeared and then it was wrapped in a new mat and later buried.
In the Potomac country punishment for crime was swift and often final. Henry was an eye-witness to such punishment: "Then cam the officer to thos that should dye, and with a shell cutt off ther long locke, which they weare on the left side of ther heade, and hangeth that on a bowe before the kings house. Then thos for murther weare beaten with staves till ther bonns weare broken and beinge alive weare flounge into the fier, the other for robbinge was knockt on the heade and beinge deade his bodye was burnt."
The white boy saw many moons come and go there in the wilderness—the moon of stags, the corn moon, the first and second moon of cohonks. He was there at the budding of the spring, the earing of the corn, the highest sun, the fall of the leaf, and then again—cohonks.
He witnessed the solemn celebrations of the plentiful coming of the wild fowl to the river, the return of the hunting season and the ripening of certain fruits. He saw the greatest annual festival at the time of the corn gathering with its war dances, heroic songs, the music rattles and drums, and then the feasting.
One day news came to the village of a boat with sails that was moving up the river and stopping at the Indian settlements in quest of corn. The white men sent from Jamestown by Lord De la Ware were ready to barter copper, beads and other "trucke" for corn. While Henry had been dining so well with the Indians his own people at Jamestown were starving.
As the boat neared the village of the Potomac Indians a messenger came to the chief with word from the captain. Captain Samuel Argall had heard that in the village there was an "English boy named Harry" and he desired to "hear further of him."
King Patowmeke sent the boy to the ship where he conversed with Captain Argall and then returned to the village with an invitation to the chief to visit the ship. The chief accompanied the boy back to the ship.
The visit was pleasant and a deal was made between the chief and the captain—the vessel was "fraughted with corne" and Henry was exchanged for some copper.
Henry had lived with the Indians for "a year and more." Captain Argall found him healthy and apparently contented. He returned to Jamestown and stayed there until the following spring at which time he sailed for England in company with Lord De la Ware.
How different Henry must have seemed to his family! And he was different for he had become almost more like an Indian than a white boy.
While on his return visit to England Henry Spelman wrote a manuscript, entitled "Relation of Virginia," in which he described the country between the Rappahannock and the Potomac. It is probably the first recorded specific description of the Northern Neck:
"The cuntry is full of wood in sum partes, and water they have plentifull, they have marish (marsh) ground and smale fields, for corn, and other grounds wher on their Deare, goates, and stages feadeth, ther be in this cuntry Lions, Beares, Wolves, foxes, muske catts, Hares, a fleinge squirel, and other squirls beinge all graye like conyes, a great store of foule, only Peacockes and common hens wanting: fish in aboundance wher on they (Indians) live most part of the Summer time. They have a kind of wheat cald locataunce and Pease and Beanes, Great store of walnuts growing in every place. They have no orchard frutes, only tow kind of plumbes, the one a sweet and lussius plumbe, long and thicke in forme and liknes of A Nutt Palme, the other resemblinge a medler." (Persimmon)
IN 1616 Henry Spelman returned to Virginia and was employed as interpreter to the colony. In 1618 he was again in England but returned to Virginia on board the Treasurer in that same year. By now he "knew most of the kings of Virginia and spake their languages very understandingly."
In August, 1619, Spelman was tried by the House of Burgesses for speaking disparagingly of Governor Yeardley to Opechancanough. These charges were preferred by Robert Poole, interpreter. Poole said that he had been present at the court of Opechancanough when Spelman had talked "unreverently and maliciously" against the colony government.
Spelman denied most of the charges but admitted that he "hade informed Opechancanough that within a yeare there would come a governor greater then this that nowe is in place."
For this misdemeanor Spelman lost his title of Captain and was sentenced to serve the colony seven years in the nature of interpreter to the Governor. Many thought that he had been "badly rewarded for much good service" that he had done.
When the sentence was read to Spelman it was reported that he showed no signs of remorse for his offenses and muttered to himself and acted more like a "Savage than a Christian."
It was not long before Henry was again in good standing in the colony. He was put in command of a small bark called Elizabeth, and was trading with the Indians along the Potomac at the time of the massacre in March, 1622. At Chicacoan (Coan) an Indian stole aboard his boat and told of the massacre and that Opechancanough had "plotted with his King and countrey to betray them also, which they refused; but them of Wighcocomoco (Little Wicomico) at the mouth of the river, had undertaken it." When Spelman heard this he went to Wicomico but the Indians seeing his men were so well armed appeared friendly and loaded his boat with corn.
In March, 1623, an expedition of twenty-six men, in the Tiger under the command of Captain Spelman, went to trade for beaver and corn with the Anacostan and other Indian tribes between Potomac Creek and the falls of the Potomac (probably near the present site of Washington, D. C.).
Captain Spelman, Henry Fleet and twenty of their companions went ashore, believing the Indians to be their friends. Spelman was "a warie man, well acquainted with the savage nature" but evidently he was not aware how bitterly these Indians had been antagonized a short time before by a party under the command of Captain Isaac Matthews.
While Spelman and his men were ashore the pinnace with only five men left on board was surrounded by Indians in canoes, some of whom climbed up on the deck. The sailors were thus surprised and one of them fired a cannon at random. The savages were so frightened that they jumped overboard and swam ashore leaving their canoes drifting.
The sailors then heard an uproar on shore. It sounded as if a fight was in progress. Suddenly they saw a man's head thrown down the bank. They recognized it as the head of Henry Spelman.
The Anacostan Indians had proved themselves to be too "subtile" for Henry Spelman. But "how he was surprised or slaine is uncertaine." The sailors hastily weighed anchor and set sail for Jamestown.
This ends the true story of the "English boy named Harry" who was betrayed twice in the wilds of Virginia—first by his own people and then by his adopted people.
Henry Spelman was about twenty-eight years old when he was killed. He had contributed in many ways to the building of a new country. He left to posterity his valuable recorded observations so that others could profit by his courage and industry.
In the autumn of 1609, Captain John Smith was disabled when his powder-bag was accidentally fired. He sailed for England and never returned to Virginia.
After Captain Smith left, Pocahontas came no more to Jamestown. But she did visit elsewhere. In the spring of 1613 she was visiting in the Northern Neck with her relatives and friends along the Potomac.
The sympathy which Pocahontas had shown for the colonists had caused an estrangement between her and her father, Powhatan. She lived with him no longer and was staying in some secrecy with her relations, the King and Queen of Patowmeke.
For the trip Pocahontas probably wore her robe of deer skins, which was lined with pigeons' down, and her royal jewels of shell, and the white feather in her hair which signified that she was a princess. Though slight of stature, she was doubtless impressive when dressed in her regalia.
In April, Captain Samuel Argall was sent to the Potomac to trade for corn. There, he became acquainted with Chief Japazaws, an old friend of Captain Smith, and learned from him that Pocahontas was his guest.
This knowledge gave Captain Argall an idea. Since Captain Smith had left the colony at Jamestown the Indians had again become troublesome. If, thought Captain Argall, Powhatan's favorite daughter could be captured and held as a hostage peace might be made. The idea grew, and he plotted to steal the little Indian princess.
Captain Argall bargained with Japazaws—a copper kettle in exchange for his guest. The chief agreed, but how could he get Pocahontas aboard the English ship?
Japazaws turned the details of the plot over to his wife. It was up to her to lure the princess into the hands of Captain Argall.
The chief's wife told Pocahontas that she had a great desire to see an English ship and that her husband had promised to take her aboard if the princess would go with her. Although she had no idea that her identity was known to Captain Argall, Pocahontas refused to go. She had seen "great canoes" before and did not care to see this one.
Japazaws threatened to beat his wife unless she could persuade Pocahontas to go aboard the ship. In tears the chief's wife again begged Pocahontas to go with her. The kind-hearted girl finally consented.
Captain Argall welcomed his three guests and ushered them into the ship's cabin where a feast had been spread for them. While the banquet was in progress, Japazaws stepped often on the Captain's foot, under the table, to remind him that his part had been done.
At an opportune time the Captain persuaded Pocahontas to go into the gun-room, pretending to have something to talk over in private with Japazaws. Presently, he sent for her and told her, before her friends, that she must go with him and "compound peace betwixt her countrie" and the English before she should ever see her father again.
Pocahontas began to weep and Japazaws and his wife joined in, howling and crying louder than the girl they had betrayed. Soon the chief and his wife, with the copper kettle, went "merrily on shore."
A messenger was sent to Powhatan by Captain Argall, to tell him that he must ransom his beloved daughter with the "men, swords, peeces, tools, &c. hee trecherously had stolne."
Powhatan did not respond to these demands as Captain Argall had planned. His stand against the invaders was more important to him than his own daughter.
In the meantime, fate took a hand—at Jamestown, Pocahontas and "Master John Rolfe, an honest gentleman," fell in love and were married. In this way peace was established, for a time, between the Indians and the colonists.
As "Lady Rebecca," wife of John Rolfe, Pocahontas traveled to England and had other adventures, but her last happy days as a free Indian maiden were spent in the land between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, later known as the Northern Neck. An Indian village called "Petomek," near the mouth of Potomac Creek, was the scene of her kidnapping.
Potomac Creek is located in Stafford County, three miles north of Falmouth. Some believe that Captain Argall found Henry Spelman and Pocahontas at the village of the Potomacs at the same time.
Henry Fleet was one of the expedition of twenty-six men aboard the Tiger who under Captain Spelman in March, 1623, went to trade for beaver skins and corn with the Anacostan and other Indian tribes near the head of the Potomac.
Fleet was with Spelman when he went ashore. After Spelman was killed and his head tossed over the river bank, Fleet was taken prisoner and carried to the village of the Anacostans. This is believed to have been located not far from the present monument of Washington, in Washington, D. C.
Fleet was about twenty-five years old and had but recently arrived in Virginia. His father was William Fleet of the London Virginia Company, which may have been the reason that Henry came to the New World. Henry was adventurous, quick-witted and intelligent. He made good use of his stay in the wilderness of the Northern Neck by studying his new environment. Later he wrote down some of these observations:
"It aboundeth in all manner of fish. The Indians in one night will commonly catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above three fathom broad. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile." He also wrote that he had seen "plenty of black fox, which of all others is the richest fur." This animal was a large marten, so fierce that it was the match for any forest animal up to the size of a deer.
Henry was kept in captivity for four years, when his friends managed to ransom him. Small vessels were then trading with the Indians of the Potomac and news of him was probably carried to Jamestown in this way.
During the year 1627 the London Merchants were surprised by the arrival of Henry Fleet from Virginia. Startling tales of his adventures spread abroad. It was said that he had lived with the Indians so long that he had forgotten his own language, that he had often seen the South Sea; that he had seen Indians "besprinkle their paintings with powder of gold."
These stories impressed William Cloberry, a merchant adventurer, and chief man in the Guinea trade. Cloberry believed that Fleet could be useful to him as a trader among the Indians.
On September 6, 1627, the ship Paramour of London, one hundred tons burden, was licensed to clear with Henry Fleet as master. William Cloberry and Company were the owners.
Captain Fleet was well suited by nature and experience to be an Indian trader. For years he traded with the Indians along the Potomac—bartering "beads, bells, hatchets, knives, coats, shirts, Scottish stockings and broadcloth" and other "trucke," for beaver fur, tobacco and corn. Some of the Indian tribes traveled "seven, 8 and 10 days journey" to trade with him. He was the most regular and dependable trader the Indians knew.
By 1632 Captain Fleet was operating several boats in the Indian trade, and in that year he built a shallop and a "Barque" of sixteen tons for his own use. He also opened a trade between the Massachusetts settlement and the Potomac River. Sometimes he carried as much as eight hundred bushels of corn at one time from the Potomac to New England.
One day, while trading for beaver with the Anacostans, Captain Fleet ran into trouble. He met the pinnace of a rival trader, and on board was John Utie of the Virginia Council. The latter arrested him by order of the Council for trading with the Indians without license. Fleet had to stop his activities and set sail for Jamestown, where he was tried, but soon given his liberty.
Captain Fleet became a powerful man in Indian affairs. After the massacre of 1644 he was commissioned to negotiate a peace, at his own expense should he fail. He was successful in arranging a treaty with Necotowance, successor of Opechancanough, "in terms that showed a marked advance of civilization; Necotowance must do homage for his land to the King of England, in token whereof he was fined 20 beaver skins at the going away of the Geese yearly."
When bargaining with Necotowance Captain Fleet had been authorized to build a fort on the Rappahannock, "an important station."
Fleet remained in the region of the Potomac long enough to see the first settlers come to the Northern Neck. He was their friend and interpreter and helped them with their Indian troubles.
In July, 1639, owing to the increase of population in Bermuda, the Proprietors of the Island, in London, petitioned for the region "scituate betwixt the two Rivers of Rapahanock, and Patowmack wch by good Informacon your petit'iors finde to be both healthful and otherwise—not yet Inhabited." (Lefroy's Bermudas, Vol. I, p. 558.)
The first settlers did not come to the Northern Neck from the direction of Jamestown, which would have been the natural direction. Nor did they come for the natural reason—new lands.
Instead, they came from north of the Potomac. In order to understand the reason for the migration of these pioneers from the north side of the Potomac to its south side, it is necessary to go back a few years and study the situation in the upper Chesapeake Bay region.
Before 1640 the activity of white men in the Chesapeake Bay centered about a trading post at Kent Island, situated far up the Bay. The trade there was with the Indian tribes in "fur, skins and Indian baskets."
Captain Henry Fleet, William Claiborne, a Virginian, and Lord Baltimore and his brother were chief among those who were making history in this region at that time.
Claiborne and a number of Virginians had established a colony on Kent Island under a charter secured before Lord Baltimore had settled his colony on the north side of the Potomac in a region that he called Maryland.
When Lord Baltimore was granted a charter to settle in this area, his charter included Kent Island. The charter, however, had said that he should have authority only over uninhabited lands.
Claiborne considered that Kent Island was inhabited and was not, therefore, a part of Maryland.
In 1634, the second Lord Baltimore sent about one hundred settlers, under the leadership of his brother, Leonard Calvert, to a point of land across the Potomac from the Northern Neck, and a settlement was established there, known as the "Citie of St. Mary's."
A year after this colony had been planted the settlers were instructed by their Governor, Leonard Calvert, to seize Kent Island.
Claiborne appealed to the Crown but the decision was in favor of Lord Baltimore's claim.