A Book of American ExplorersHigginson, Thomas Wentworth
History
A Book of American Explorers
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
America -- Discovery and exploration; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
they had nothing else wherewith to trade, he caused all his men to
come aboard. And, as he would have put from the shore, the savages
perceiving so much, subtly devised how they might put out the fire
in the shallop, by which means they saw they should be free from the
danger of our men’s pieces;[267] and, to perform the same, one of
the savages came into the shallop, and taking the firebrand which one
of our company held in his hand thereby to light the matches, as if
he would light a pipe of tobacco, as soon as he had gotten it into
his hand he presently threw it into the water, and leaped out of the
shallop. Captain Gilbert, seeing that, suddenly commanded his men to
betake them to their muskets, and the targetiers too, from the head of
the boat; and had one of the men before, with his target on his arm,
to step on the shore for more fire. The savages resisted him, and would
not suffer him to take any, and some others holding fast the boat-rope,
that the shallop could not put off. Captain Gilbert caused the
musketeers to present their pieces, the which the savages seeing,
presently let go the boat-rope, and betook them to their bows and
arrows, and ran into the bushes, nocking[268] their arrows, but did not
shoot, neither did ours at them. So the shallop departed from them to
the farther side of the river, where one of the canoes came unto them,
and would have excused the fault of the others. Captain Gilbert made
show as if he were still friends, and entertained them kindly, and so
left them, returning to the place where he had lodged the night before,
and there came to an anchor for that night.
BOOK XI.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
(A.D. 1606‒1631.)
The first four of the following extracts are from Smith’s
“Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer
Isles” (edition of 1626), pp. 39‒49. The next four are from
the “Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia,” by William
Strachey, secretary of the Virginia Colony. Reprinted by the
Hakluyt Society (1849), pp. 49‒52, 57, 58, 80, 81, 110, 111. The
ninth is from the “Generall Historie,” p. 219. The tenth is from
“A Description of New England, by Captain John Smith,” printed
in the Massachusetts Historical Collections, 3d series, vol. vi.
pp. 109, 121. The eleventh is from the “Generall Historie,”
pp. 121‒123. The last two are from “Advertisements for the
Unexperienced Planters of New England or anywhere, by Captaine
John Smith, sometimes Governour of Virginia, and Admirall of
New England.” London, 1631. Reprinted in Mass. Hist. Coll., 3d
series, vol. iii. pp. 7, 29, 30, 44. There is a memoir of Captain
Smith, by G. S. Hillard, in Sparks’s “American Biography,” vol. ii.
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
I.――CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH IN VIRGINIA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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