The capture of the leader of the colony sharpened the appetites of the Indians for greater deeds, and they got ready to destroy Jamestown. They tried by every means they could think of to get Smith to help them, promising him much land and the finest of their women as wives. Nothing could lead Smith to turn against his own countrymen, and he tried to show his captors that their plan was hopeless. Smith then did a slight thing of itself, which filled the Indians with wonder. Taking a blank leaf from his pocket book, he wrote upon it a brief account of the plot, and asked his friends to send him a number of articles which he named, and which he promised the Indians they could get by taking the slip of paper to Jamestown. The messengers made the journey in the face of severe weather, and brought back the things which Smith had promised. How he managed thus to talk with his friends many miles away, was a mystery which the native mind could not grasp. Since the red men had to give up their plan of capturing Jamestown, they tried to impress him with their own greatness. He was taken from place to place, among the different tribes, and finally brought back to Opecancanough. He was feasted again, the Indians looking upon him as a sort of god. He was next led into the presence of the mighty Powhatan, where, after a time, it was decided to put him to death. This brings us to the incident which is the most famous in the history of Captain John Smith. He says his head was laid upon two large stones and the warriors were about to beat out his brains, when Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, and not more than ten or twelve years old, threw her arms around the prisoner's neck, and prayed her father to spare him. He could not refuse the pleadings of his loved child. Whether such an incident ever took place will never be known. While it is not impossible, many doubt its truth. It seems to have been an afterthought of the grim boaster, for years passed without anyone hearing a reference of it, and it was not until the death of Pocahontas that Captain Smith told how he had passed through such a strange experience. [Illustration: POCAHONTAS SAVING THE LIFE OF JOHN SMITH]