Richard of Jamestown : a Story of the Virginia ColonyOtis, James
History
Richard of Jamestown : a Story of the Virginia Colony
Otis, James
Virginia -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Juvenile fiction
I myself would have been pleased to go on shore and see these strange
people, but not being able to do so save at the cost of leaving my
master, I can only repeat some of the curious things which Nathaniel
Peacock told me. It must be known that there was more than one nation,
or tribe, of savages in this new land of Virginia, and each had its king
or chief, who was called the werowance. I might set down the names of
these tribes, and yet it would be so much labor lost, because they are
more like fanciful than real words. As, for example, there were the
Paspaheghes, whose werowance was seemingly more friendly to our people
than were the others.
Again, there were the Rapahannas, who wore the legs of birds through
holes in their ears, and had all the hair on the right side of their
heads shaven closely.
It gives them much pleasure to dance, so Nathaniel said, he having seen
them jumping around more like so many wolves, rather than human beings,
for the space of half an hour, shouting and singing all the while.
All the Indians smoked an herb called tobacco, which grows abundantly
in this land, and I have Nathaniel's word for it that one savage had a
tobacco pipe nearly a yard long, with the device of a deer carved at the
great end of it big enough to dash out one's brains with.
There is very much more which might be said about these savages that
would be of interest; but I am minded now to leave such stories for
others to tell, and come to the day when Captain Newport was ready to
sail with the Susan Constant and the Goodspeed back to England, for his
share in the adventure was only to bring us over from England, after
which he had agreed to return.
The pinnace was to be left behind for the use of us who remained in the
strange land. Before this time, meaning the thirteenth day of May, the
members of the Council had decided upon the place where we were to build
our village. It was to be in the country of the Paspahegh Indians, at a
certain spot near the shore where the water runs so deep that our ships
can lie moored to the trees in six fathoms.
THE PEOPLE LAND FROM THE SHIPS
Then it was that all the people went on shore, some to set up the tents
of cloth which we had brought with us to serve as shelters before houses
could be built; others to lay out a fort, which it was needed should
be made as early as possible because of the savages, and yet a certain
other number being told off to stand guard against the brown men, who
had already shown that they could be most dangerous enemies.
My master went ashore, as a matter of course, with the others, I
sticking close to his side; but neither of us taking any part in the
work which had been begun, because the charges of wickedness were still
hanging over his head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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