So Captain Newport and his party proceeded slowly up the river in their shallop, greeted kindly by the Indians in the various villages along the banks and feasted by them. The travellers in their turn bestowed upon their entertainers presents of beads, nails, bottles, and other articles, trifling in themselves but almost priceless to the savages who had never seen anything of the kind. At length the party arrived at a village named Powhatan. It was located very near the present situation of Richmond, and perhaps exactly where the old home of the Mayo family--still called “Powhatan”--stands. This village was governed by a son of the great Werowance. The capital of the latter was at Werowocomico, near the mouth of the York River, but he happened to be at Powhatan at the time of Newport’s arrival. I say that he happened to be there, but it is much more likely that he had been informed of the expedition and had gone overland to his son’s village with the express intention of meeting the strangers, about whom he must have been keenly curious. Powhatan was the chief of all the country within a radius of sixty miles of Jamestown, and having a population of about eight thousand, which included two thousand or more warriors. Although over seventy years of age, he was vigorous in mind and body. His tall, well-proportioned frame was as straight as an arrow. His long gray hair flowed loose over his shoulders and his stern and wrinkled countenance expressed dignity and pride. The English learned to know him for a keen and subtle schemer, to whom the common phrase, “simple savage,” would be altogether misapplied. He was sufficiently sagacious to realize from the first that in the white men he had a superior race to deal with and he made up his mind that the most effective weapon that he could use against them would be treachery. On this occasion, he dissembled the feelings of anger and fear that he must have felt against the intruders and received them with every sign of amity. To his people, who began to murmur at their presence and displayed an inclination to do them harm, he declared: “They can do us no injury. They desire no more than a little land and will pay us richly for it. It is my pleasure that you treat them kindly.” In the meanwhile, his keen penetrating glance was taking in every detail of his visitors’ appearance, scrutinizing their weapons and dress, and closely examining their faces as they spoke, for the settlers had picked up a little of the language.