Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America (32 page)

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Authors: Giles Milton

BOOK: Big Chief Elizabeth: The Adventures and Fate of the First English Colonists in America
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Smith had been so intrigued by the rumoured existence of white men living to the south of Chesapeake Bay that he had long vowed to send out search parties as soon as it was feasible. This had proved impossible in the immediate aftermath of his capture by Powhatan, but once he was back at Jamestown he began planning an overland expedition to look for the lost colonists. His task was made considerably easier when, in 1608, he struck up friendship with the previously hostile Paspahegh tribe. Chief Wowinchopunk declared his support for Smith’s proposal to search for the English colonists and offered to accompany two of the Jamestown settlers on a trek through the thickly forested shores to the south of the bay. Their goal was the mysterious village of Ocanahonan, which no Indian could point to on a map, but which most agreed was on either the Roanoke or Chowan rivers—both of which had been explored by Lane, White, and Harriot.
The details of the expedition were never set down on paper, but John Smith gives some inkling of what happened, and a sketch map of the land around Jamestown allows for a partial reconstruction of their long march. The adventurous chieftain and the two explorers, penetrating deep into the wilderness, seem to have reached the
thickly wooded banks of the Roanoke River. From here they turned inland and marched even further into the interior until their aching feet brought them into contact with a string of little villages. At every new settlement they asked for information until they eventually had some success. One tribe informed them that at a village called Pakerikanick “remain the four men clothed that came from Roonock [Roanoke] to Okanahowan.”
For some undisclosed reason, the men did not push further inland towards this village, perhaps because their Indian guide refused to accompany them. Instead, the men headed straight back to Jamestown to break the exciting news to Smith, and a report of their mission was immediately dispatched to England.
Newport’s instructions were not just to locate John White’s colonists, but to persuade “one of the lost company” to return to England. Smith did his best to oblige. In the winter of 1608 he “desired guides to Chowanoke” from another chieftain and sent a second search party out into the wilderness. “To performe this journey was sent Michael Sicklemore, a very honest, valient and painefull soldier; with him two guides and directions howe to search for the lost company of Sir Walter Rawley.” Sicklemore set off into the wilderness as instructed, but his hardship was all to no avail. “[He] returned from Chawwonoke but found little hope and less certaintie of them [that] were left by Sir Walter Ralegh. The river he saw was not great, the people few, the countrey most overgrowne with pynes.” Another party was dispatched to the territory of the Mangoak tribe, but despite a valiant effort by Nathaniel Powell and Anas Todhill, “nothing could they learne but they were all dead.” Yet rumours persisted about the survival of the lost colony, and the Indians repeatedly spoke of a tribe to the southwest of Chesapeake Bay whose “people have howses built with stone walls, and one story above another, so taught them by those English.”
Smith was intrigued by the conflicting reports and would certainly have widened the search had there not been a pressing need
to find more food. Newport had brought with him a new influx of colonists, among them the first women, bringing the total number to about two hundred. Filling so many bellies was not easy, especially since most settlers were afflicted by the same disease—laziness—that had wrecked the chances of the Roanoke colony. They complained continuously, and when they were ordered to chop trees, “the axes so oft blistered their tender fingers that commonly every third blow had a lowd oath to drowne the eccho.”
Smith considered a pint of grain a day essential to keep his colonists alive. This meant bartering with the Indians for 200 pints a day or about twenty-two bushels a week. While this was possible in the autumn, when food was plentiful, it became a great deal more difficult in the winter and spring. Clashes with the Indians had soured relations, and there had been several incidents in which crops had been taken from them by force. Newport had managed to secure additional supplies by trading his weapons, but when he sailed for England, Smith called a halt to this foolish policy. Powhatan was so furious that he vowed to starve the colonists to death.
It was not long before food ran short and Smith was forced to take immediate action to avert catastrophe. Shortly before Christmas 1608, he set off to confront Powhatan with the demand that he resume food supplies to the English colony.
It was a bitterly cold winter, and the men had to smash their way through the ice-littered water of the Chickahominy River. They arrived at Powhatan’s settlement after nearly two weeks of exertion, only to find “the river was frozen neare halfe a myle from the shore.” Smith was forced to hack at the thick ice with his oar until he and his party reached the semifrozen swamp. They could go no further in the boat; the only alternative was to slip into the waist-deep water and wade to the shore.
Smith “by his owne example … taught them to march neere middle deepe, a flight shot through this muddy frozen oase.” One of
his men, Master Russell, “being somewhat ill and exceeding heavie, so overtoyled himselfe as the rest had much adoe (ere he got ashore) to regaine life into his dead benumbred spirits.” The bedraggled little party were desperately hoping for a warm welcome from Powhatan, but the emperor’s speech—recorded by Smith in his journal—proved quite as frosty as the weather.
“Captaine Smith,” he said, “some doubt I have of your comming hither, that makes me not so kindly seeke to relieve you as I would: for many doe informe me your comming hither is not for trade but to invade my people and possesse my country.” Smith did his best to feign indignation, assuring Powhatan that he had no such intention. But his protestations were undermined by his refusal to hand over his weapons, and led Powhatan to launch wearily into a lecture on the benefits of cooperation. “Thinke you I am so simple,” he said, “not to know it is better to eate good meate, lye well and sleepe quietly with my women and children; laugh and be merry with you … than be forced to flie from all, to lie cold in the woods, feede upon acornes, rootes and such trash?” He added that he was heartily sick of having to keep watch over the English, and repeated his demand that Smith hand over his weapons, assuring him that this would lead to permanent friendship. But Smith refused to cooperate on the grounds that it was not Powhatan’s place to give orders.
“Powhatan,” he said, “you must know [that just] as I have but one God, I honour but one king; and I live not here as your subject but as your friend, to pleasure you with what I can.” In one short conversation, the two men had reached the crux of the problem—who was ruler of Virginia? Powhatan said it was him. John Smith said it was King James.
Powhatan was by now so sick of the English that he apparently decided to “have the head of Captaine Smith,” ordering his kinsmen to slaughter the redbeard and all his men. He knew that without Smith at the helm, Jamestown could not survive.
The murders were to take place that very night while the Englishmen’s
boat was still stuck fast in the frozen mud. They were to be attacked while they slept, and put to the sword by Powhatan’s “grim devils.” But the emperor was to find himself outwitted in a way he could never have forseen. “For Pocahontas, his dearest jewell and daughter, in the darke night came through the irksome woods and told our captaine … [that] Powhatan and all the power he could make would after come kill us all.” After informing Smith of the exact plan of attack, “shee wished us presently to be gone … with the teares running downe her cheekes, shee said shee durst not be seene … for if Powhatan should know it, she were but dead.”
Smith could scarcely believe his good fortune: for the second time in a year, this precocious little girl of about twelve years of age had saved his life. Like Manteo two decades previously, she found her-self captivated by the English settlers and their magical array of tools and instruments and wished to learn more about their strange ways. On this occasion, her action brought about the swift escape of Smith and his men. They fled to the boat and managed to smash their way out of the icy water, staggering back to Jamestown alive but hungry.
 
Smith was not a big man, but his fiery nature impressed the Indians. Even Powhatan had a sneaking admiration for his dealings with lesser chieftains
Unaware of the duplicitous role being played by his daughter, Powhatan sent her to Jamestown on several occasions to relay messages to the colonists. In the rare times when relations between English and Indians were peaceful, she was a regular visitor to the settlement and brought gifts of grain, turkeys, and bread. “Every once in foure or five dayes, Pocahontas with her attendants brought him [Smith] so much provision, that saved many of their lives, that els for all this had starved with hunger.” Her visits were popular with many of the younger colonists, who particularly enjoyed watching her perform cartwheels—naked—around the settlement. She was “a well featured but wanton young girle,” wrote the colony’s secretary, “[who] sometymes resorting to our fort [would] gett the boyes forth with her into the markett place and make them wheele, falling on their handes [and] turning their heeles upwardes, whome she would follow and wheele so herselfe naked as she was, all the fort over.”
As she matured, her intuitive intelligence came to the fore, and she “much exceedeth any of the rest of his people.” Smith was impressed, and concluded that “for wit and spirit, [she was] the only nonpariel of his country.”
By December 1608 her visits had come to a halt and the gifts of food from Powhatan had also dried up. Winter was always a testing time in Virginia, and as the snow fell on Jamestown with wearisome monotony, the colony stumbled from disaster to catastrophe. Two Dutchmen among the colonists were so convinced that Jamestown was doomed that they switched their allegiance to Powhatan, crowning their treachery by stealing hatchets, swords, and muskets. Soon after, eleven men set sail on a food-gathering expedition, but “so violent was the wind [in] that extreame frozen time” that their skiff was flipped upside down in the James River. All eleven men perished.
But the biggest blow of all came when the colonists came to clean out their storehouse. “In searching our casked corne, we found it halfe rotten, and the rest so consumed with so many thousands of rats … as we knew not how to keepe that little we had.” Smith was only able to keep his settlers alive by sending rotating teams of men into the wilderness to forage on acorns, berries, and anything they were able to kill.
At long last, in June 1609, a supply ship arrived from England bearing good news. King James’s lack of interest in his New World territories was such that he had removed the Virginia Company from direct control by the crown. It was now placed in private stewardship—under licence—and the distinguished Lord De La Warr had been named as governor general for life. Overnight, there was new blood in the enterprise. Preparations were under way for a huge supply fleet bringing fresh hands and a lieutenant governor, the experienced old warhorse, Sir Thomas Gates.
Good news was always accompanied by bad in Virginia, and this occasion was to prove no exception. The mighty fleet had indeed set sail as planned, but as it ploughed its way across the Atlantic, it sailed into the teeth of a hurricane. The Sea Venture, the flagship, was dashed against the infamous reefs of the Bermudas. The seven other vessels fared only slightly better. After makeshift repairs to their splintered timbers, they limped into Jamestown bringing scant supplies, “unruly” crews, and another 400 mouths to feed—including women and children. This would have been difficult in any circumstances, but it was made impossible by rival factions arguing over whether Smith’s term as president had been brought to an end by virtue of the new charter. The great survivor was preparing to defend himself when he found himself overtaken by events. One afternoon, he had the misfortune to fall asleep in a boat while wearing his flask of gunpowder. Somehow, this came into contact with a lighted match and the powder was instantly ignited. “[It] tore the flesh from his body and thighes, nine or ten inches square, in a most pittifull manner; but to
quench the tormenting fire, frying him in his cloaths, he leaped overboord into the deepe river where ere they could recover him, he was neere drowned.” No one could say if it was an accident or a botched murder attempt, but the terrible burn broke Smith’s indomitable spirit. He resigned the presidency and, physically debilitated, elected to sail home on the first ship to return to England. His reign had come to an end.
His replacement was George Percy, brother of the Duke of Northumberland, who was still languishing in the Tower of London with his old friend Sir Walter Ralegh. Percy was an “ambityous, unworthy and vayneglorious fellowe,” according to Smith, and was epileptic and asthmatic as well. He was also obsessed with his appearance and devoted a great part of his time attending to his dress and his diet. In a letter to his brother, he expressed some regret at having spent more than £432 since arriving in America, but explained that it was imperative for a man in his position to “keepe a continuall and dayly table for gentlemen of fashion about me.” He enclosed an order for £6 18s. of gold lace and a flamboyant Dutch beaver hat. If Percy was to be a colonial governor, he was going to look the part.

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