probably omit no incident known to the writers which would do him honor
or add interest to him as a knight of romance. Nor does it seem probable
that Smith himself would have omitted to mention the dramatic scene of
the prevented execution if it had occurred to him. If there had been a
reason in the minds of others in 1608 why it should not appear in the
“True Relation,” that reason did not exist for Smith at this time, when
the discords and discouragements of the colony were fully known. And
by this time the young girl Pocahontas had become well known to the
colonists at Jamestown. The account of this Chickahominy voyage given in
this volume, published in 1612, is signed by Thomas Studley, and is as
follows:
“The next voyage he proceeded so farre that with much labour by cutting
of trees in sunder he made his passage, but when his Barge could passe
no farther, he left her in a broad bay out of danger of shot, commanding
none should go ashore till his returne; himselfe with 2 English and two
Salvages went up higher in a Canowe, but he was not long absent, but
his men went ashore, whose want of government gave both occasion and
opportunity to the Salvages to surprise one George Casson, and much
failed not to have cut of the boat and all the rest. Smith little
dreaming of that accident, being got to the marshes at the river's head,
20 miles in the desert, had his 2 men slaine (as is supposed) sleeping
by the Canowe, whilst himselfe by fowling sought them victual, who
finding he was beset by 200 Salvages, 2 of them he slew, stil defending
himselfe with the aid of a Salvage his guid (whome bee bound to his
arme and used as his buckler), till at last slipping into a bogmire
they tooke him prisoner: when this news came to the fort much was
their sorrow for his losse, fewe expecting what ensued. A month those
Barbarians kept him prisoner, many strange triumphs and conjurations
they made of him, yet he so demeaned himselfe amongst them, as he
not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own
liberty, and got himselfe and his company such estimation amongst them,
that those Salvages admired him as a demi-God. So returning safe to the
Fort, once more staied the pinnas her flight for England, which til his
returne could not set saile, so extreme was the weather and so great the
frost.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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