Still, it does not appear, that Powhatan adopted any policy but such as he believed indispensable to the welfare, not to say, the existence, of his sovereign dominions. His warfare was an Indian warfare, indeed. But setting aside those circumstances of education and of situation which rendered this a matter both of pride and necessity, it may be safely said, that he but followed the example of those who should have known better. Not only did he act _generally_ in self-defence against what he deemed the usurpation of a foreign and unknown people, who had settled without permission upon his shores; but he was galled and provoked by peculiar provocations in numerous instances. The mere liberty of taking possession of a part of his territory might have been overlooked. Probably it was so. In the earliest days of the settlement, when nothing could be easier for Powhatan than to extinguish it at a single assault, it is acknowledged that his people often visited the English and treated them with kindness. [FN] Not long afterwards, indeed, they committed some trespasses, but meanwhile a party of the English had invaded the interior of the country. Considering the dissolute and unprincipled character of a large part of them, it is not improbable that still greater freedom was exercised with the Indians; such of course as the historians would be likely neither to record nor to know. And yet Smith himself has told enough--of himself--to make this point clear. In his very first expedition after corn, seeing, he says, "that by trade and, courtesie nothing was to be had, _he made bold to try such conclusions as necessitie inforced._" He let fly a volley of musketry, ran his boats ashore, skirmished with the natives, and forcibly obtained a supply of provisions. And thus--adds the scrupulous captain-- "Thus God vnboundlesse by his power Made them so kinde would vs devour." * * * * * [FN] Ibid, Vol. I. It was nothing to the emperor, or to his subjects, that Smith went beyond his authority in these matters. "The patient council"--he writes in another connexion--"that nothing would moue to warre with the sauages, would gladly have wrangled with Captaine Smithe for his crueltie." He adds, that his proceedings--his _conclusions_, is his own language--had inspired the natives with such fear, that his very name was a terror. No wonder that he sometimes had peace and war twice in a day. No wonder that scarcely a week passed without some villainy or other. Again, when the Chickahominies refused to trade, the resident, "perceiving [supposing] it was Powhatan's policy to starve him," landed his company forthwith, and made such a show of anger and ammunition that the poor savages presently brought in all their provisions.