The expedition crossed the bay at “Smith's Isles,” named after the
Captain, touched at Cape Charles, and coasted along the eastern shore.
Two stout savages hailed them from Cape Charles, and directed them to
Accomack, whose king proved to be the most comely and civil savage they
had yet encountered.
He told them of a strange accident that had happened. The parents of two
children who had died were moved by some phantasy to revisit their dead
carcasses, “whose benumbed bodies reflected to the eyes of the beholders
such delightful countenances as though they had regained their vital
spirits.” This miracle drew a great part of the King's people to behold
them, nearly all of whom died shortly afterward. These people spoke
the language of Powhatan. Smith explored the bays, isles, and islets,
searching for harbors and places of habitation. He was a born explorer
and geographer, as his remarkable map of Virginia sufficiently
testifies. The company was much tossed about in the rough waves of the
bay, and had great difficulty in procuring drinking-water. They entered
the Wighcocomoco, on the east side, where the natives first threatened
and then received them with songs, dancing, and mirth. A point on the
mainland where they found a pond of fresh water they named “Poynt Ployer
in honer of the most honorable house of Monsay, in Britaine, that in
an extreme extremitie once relieved our Captain.” This reference to the
Earl of Ployer, who was kind to Smith in his youth, is only an instance
of the care with which he edited these narratives of his own exploits,
which were nominally written by his companions.
The explorers were now assailed with violent storms, and at last took
refuge for two days on some uninhabited islands, which by reason of the
ill weather and the hurly-burly of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain,
they called “Limbo.” Repairing their torn sails with their shirts,
they sailed for the mainland on the east, and ran into a river called
Cuskarawook (perhaps the present Annomessie), where the inhabitants
received them with showers of arrows, ascending the trees and shooting
at them. The next day a crowd came dancing to the shore, making friendly
signs, but Smith, suspecting villainy, discharged his muskets into them.
Landing toward evening, the explorers found many baskets and much blood,
but no savages. The following day, savages to the number, the account
wildly says, of two or three thousand, came to visit them, and were very
friendly. These tribes Smith calls the Sarapinagh, Nause, Arseek, and
Nantaquak, and says they are the best merchants of that coast. They told
him of a great nation, called the Massawomeks, of whom he set out in
search, passing by the Limbo, and coasting the west side of Chesapeake
Bay. The people on the east side he describes as of small stature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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