A very small proportion of the land was occupied. The Indian villages were few and miles apart. The country round about the Jamestown settlement was in the possession of the Algonquin tribe, divided into many bands, generally numbering not more than a few hundred souls, each band under its own chief and all owning allegiance to a king or werowance named Powhatan. There was constant intercourse between the villages, and their men joined together for purposes of war, or the chase. Rough forest trails formed the only roads between the different centres, whilst blazed trees marked by-paths that led to springs, favorite trapping grounds, or other localities of occasional resort. The royal orders permitted the opening of the box of instructions as soon as the colonists should have reached Virginia, and they lost no time in satisfying their anxiety to learn the membership of the Council. It appeared that the King had selected for that distinction and responsibility, Edward Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, George Kendall and John Smith. The last named was still in irons and his fellow-councilmen were, with the possible exception of Newport, unfriendly to him. It was decided that he should not be admitted to the body, and the remaining members proceeded to elect Wingfield, Smith’s arch-enemy, to the position of President. For the next two weeks and more, the colonists remained upon the ships. Meanwhile they explored the surrounding country for a favorable site on which to settle. The Indians with whom they came in contact during this time treated them with the utmost kindness, freely furnishing food and tobacco, which latter few of the settlers had ever smoked, although Raleigh had introduced the leaf into England some years earlier. Everything was so strange to the adventurers, many of whom were absent from their native land for the first time, that they forgot for a while their discontent and jealousies in the interest and wonder excited by new sights and scenes. We can imagine, for instance, the mixed sensations of the strangers when a band of Rappahonacks marched towards them, headed by their chief playing upon a reed flute. They were all fantastically trimmed, we will say, for their only dress was a coat of paint. The chief, as befitted his rank, was the most grotesque figure of all, but the effect was equally hideous and awesome and the Englishmen were divided between merriment and fear. On one side of his head the chief wore a crown of deer’s hair dyed red and interwoven with his own raven locks; on the other side, which was shaven, he wore a large plate of copper, whilst two long feathers stood up from the centre of his crown. His body was painted crimson and his face blue. Around his neck was a chain of beads, and strings of pearls hung from his ears which were pierced to hold bird’s claws set in gold. He and his followers each carried a bow and arrows and a tomahawk with stone head.