Next day they went ashore at a place Newport calls Queen Apumatuc's
Bower. This Queen, who owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much land
under cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. This ancient
representative of woman's rights in Virginia did honor to her sex. She
came to meet the strangers in a show as majestical as that of Powhatan
himself: “She had an usher before her, who brought her to the matt
prepared under a faire mulberry-tree; where she sat down by herself,
with a stayed countenance. She would permitt none to stand or sitt neare
her. She is a fatt, lustie, manly woman. She had much copper about her
neck, a coronet of copper upon her hed. She had long, black haire, which
hanged loose down her back to her myddle; which only part was covered
with a deare's skyn, and ells all naked. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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