Unwilling to be among the downed, he cured himself somehow and learned to subsist on crabmeat and sturgeon, going foraging, trading and exploring up and down the rivers with a few hardy survivors. He heard a great deal about the great Powhatan whose realm included all of the country from the Roanoke River in the south to the head of the Chesapeake in the north. His chief seat was upon the north side of the York River at Werowocomoco. As Smith crept up the James River in his shallop, guileless Indian swimmers beckoned him on. Taken in by Smith's friendly greetings, they opened the doors of their bark-covered wigwams, where Smith, a natural and welcome democrat, sat down and ate as one of them. He noted that their canoes were often carved out of single trees, that their oval-shaped wigwams were made of bark upon a framework of saplings, and that their gardens produced cymblings, beans and corn as well as tobacco. Soon he was paying return visits to the same places in order to trade for corn, but hospitality soon gave out, if corn did not. They even scorned the beads with which he tried to bargain. Counting on relegating them to their timid places, he fired some muskets, putting the dickering savages to flight. These white devils were surely "sons of thunder" they decided, with their "fire-sticks" and their "thunder tubes." Now, with cool weather, things seemed better. Smith assured the forlorn colonists that this was a sportsmen's paradise with sturgeon in the sea, squirrel and deer on the land and quail in the air. All was not peaceful within the palisade, however. Edward Maria Wingfield was unpopular as President, and all resented his hauteur and the luxuries which he allowed himself while others had short rations. Smith went along with John Martin and Captain Ratcliffe to bear grudges. What about the bad corn which he had allotted to them? He would not let Ratcliffe have so much as a penny whittle, a chicken or a spoonful of beer. Besides, he had called him, Smith, a liar! They won out and Wingfield was deposed, Ratcliffe being elected in his place.