All the evidence would indicate that Japazaws was a very wily politician. He liked English kettles and knives as much as some of his red neighbors disliked him, and he never did get around to knuckling under to Opechancanough. No doubt the fort was a smart move on his part. In any event, because of Japazaws’ need for white friends with guns Captains Spelman and Croshaw escaped death. Henry Spelman was not so fortunate the following year however. On a trading voyage farther up the Potomac River, at the later site of Washington, D. C., he was killed by the Anacostan Indians after being captured in an ambush along with Henry Fleet and some other traders and servants. Just a few days before his death Spelman had betrayed a warrior who hazarded warning him of his own intended murder. It appears he even witnessed the agony of the red man’s tortured execution. Then, by some sort of final justice, he died at the hands of the same savages to whom he had given over the kindly warrior. _Aqua vitae_ may have had something to do with this murderous episode, for, like the French and the Dutch before them and like the English who were to follow in New England, some traders in Virginia taught the savages to drink strong waters as a means of extracting a richer profit during barter. And what a frightful chance they took! Emotionally volatile and capricious by nature, the red man was even more unpredictable of course when he was under the influence of liquor. He might lose his trading sense to the advantage of the white men who purposely plied him with _aqua vitae_ during the feasting that always preceded barter, but when he realized he had been cheated he was apt to reach for another jug and his tomahawk at the same time. No doubt many a trader suffered a slow and bestial death while looking into the bloodshot eyes of savages galled by stomach fires that he himself had kindled. Henry Fleet, who had been captured with Spelman, managed the predicament in which he found himself with more skill than his friend, indeed with some foresight. While no one in the colony heard from him in over four years, and all thought he was dead, Fleet not only contrived to escape execution by the savages, but spent his captivity to real advantage. By the time he was finally released he had learned enough about the Algonquin language and had become sufficiently fraternal with his captors to engage in a profitable trade in skins with them. Then, returning to London, where he had excellent family connections, he acquired financial backing from William Cloberry and other well-known merchants there. Afterward, as Captain Henry Fleet, he traded in the Chesapeake for some years in his own ships and later played a significant role in the genesis of the war between the Virginians and Lord Baltimore over the fur trade. * * * * *