When the voyagers, after being feasted and fêted at the village of Powhatan, continued their journey up the river, the “Emperor,” as the early writers call him, furnished them with a guide, whose chief duty doubtless was to act as spy and report their movements to him. Newport proceeded up the river until it became too shallow to admit of further progress. He then turned and commenced the descent. He had not gone many days’ journey when he began to notice a change in the attitude of the Indians which prompted him to hasten on to the settlement with all speed. It was well that he did so for the settlers were in a critical situation. We have seen that Wingfield altogether neglected to place the colonists in a position to defend themselves from attack. During the absence of the exploring expedition he had so far departed from his foolish attitude as to permit Captain Kendall to erect a paltry barricade of branches across the neck of the little peninsula, but this was the only measure of safety he could be induced to take. The Indians were permitted to come and go as freely as ever and the arms were left in the packing cases. Of course it was only a matter of time when the Indians would take advantage of such a constantly tempting opportunity to attack the newcomers. One day, without the slightest warning, four hundred savages rushed upon the settlement with their blood-curdling war-whoop. The colonists were utterly unprepared and most of them unarmed. Seventeen fell at the first assault. Fortunately the gentlemen habitually wore swords, these being part of the every-day dress of the time, and many of them had pistols in their belts. They quickly threw themselves between the unarmed settlers and the Indians and checked the latter with the fire of their pistols. Wingfield, who though a fool was no coward, headed his people and narrowly escaped death, an arrow cleaving his beard. Four other members of the Council were among the wounded, so that only one of them escaped untouched. The gallant stand made by the gentlemen adventurers only checked the Indians for a moment, and there is no doubt that every man of the defenders must have been slain had not the ships created a diversion by opening fire with their big guns. Even this assistance effected but temporary relief, for the Indians would have renewed the attack at nightfall, with complete success in all probability, but the appearance of Newport at this juncture with his twenty picked and fully armed men put a different complexion on affairs. The reinforcement sallied against the attacking savages and drove them to retreat.