Leaving Scrivener in charge of the settlement, Smith, with forty-six volunteers, embarked in the pinnace and two barges. George Percy commanded one of the latter and Francis West, brother of Lord Delaware, the other. The journey by water was a tolerably long one for open boats, and they broke it by a stay of two or three days at Kecoughten, a village occupying the site of the present town of Hampton. The Chief received them with genuine friendliness and warned Smith that Powhatan contemplated treachery. Here the party “kept Christmas among the savages, where they were never more merry, nor fed on more plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowl and good bread; nor never had better fires in England than the dry, smoky houses of Kecoughten.” The enthusiasm with which the chroniclers among the colonists expatiate upon such simple comforts as these when it happens to be their good fortune to experience them, gives us a very good idea of the miserable condition that generally prevailed at Jamestown. When at length the party arrived at Werowocomico, they found the river frozen over to a distance of half a mile from shore. Smith overcame this obstruction by leaving his boats and wading to land with a squad of men. The entire absence of welcome was a sinister indication, but Smith, unabashed, took possession of a deserted wigwam on the bank and sent messengers to Powhatan for provisions. These were forthcoming, and the chieftain agreed to meet the English captain the next morning in a formal pow-wow. Before noon the following day, Captain Smith and his handful of men went up to the town, putting a bold face on what they all believed to be a very bad matter. Once more the two chiefs met in the famous “king’s house.” Powhatan received Smith with the utmost coolness, and it was noticeable that he did not address him by his tribal name. When the matter of food supplies came up, he declared that he had so little to spare that he was loath to exchange it for copper which his people could not eat. As a special favor to the English and in consideration of their great need he would stretch a point to let them have thirty bushels in exchange for as many swords, but he was really not at all anxious to make the trade. Indeed, so short was the food supply at Werowocomico that he hoped that the English would speedily depart for he could ill afford to entertain so many hungry stomachs. “As to that,” replied Smith, “we have come at your invitation, and will delay no longer than is necessary to effect our purpose, which is to secure, at a fair price, so much corn and venison as you can readily spare from the well-filled stores of Werowocomico.”