These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians in
the world. Mr. Percy said they bore their years well. He saw among the
Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes were sunk
in his head, his teeth gone his hair all gray, and quite a big beard,
white as snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as fast as
anybody.
The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to the
plantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort by
day, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of small
articles, and showing jealousy of the occupation. They murmured, says
Percy, at our planting in their country. But worse than the disposition
of the savages was the petty quarreling in the colony itself.
In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22d of
May, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in the
shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River.
Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding in
trees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and of sturgeon
such as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th, having passed
the town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, the Falls, where they
set up the cross and proclaimed King James of England.
Smith says in his “General Historie” they reached Powhatan on the 26th.
But Captain Newport's “Relatyon” agrees with Percy's, and with, Smith's
“True Relation.” Captain Newport, says Percy, permitted no one to visit
Powhatan except himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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