Powhatan stirs his Dutch allies to reluctant activity—They concoct a conspiracy to seize Jamestown and massacre the English—The movement fails and all Powhatan’s warriors fall into the hands of Smith—“It is within my power to cut off the Powhatans root and branch!”—The old Chief is bowed in shame and repentance—A very righteous fate befalls the perfidious Dutchmen—Friendly relations are again established between the whites and the Indians—A grand scheme of government which has a bad inception—Ratcliffe, Archer and other mischief-makers return to Virginia—Smith is seriously injured and returns to England.

The Dutchmen at Werowocomico had been living on the fat of the land. They were installed as honored members of the tribe and granted many unusual privileges. Powhatan was well pleased with their work in the erection of his English house and their success in stealing from the settlement. But he expected much more from these white allies, who came to him boasting that they would show him how to subdue the English and drive them into the sea. The traitors would have been well content to have Powhatan forget those idle promises and allow them to continue in peace the life of ease and comfort into which they had settled. They were mechanics, quite ignorant of military matters. They could steal muskets but were unable to drill the savages in the use of them and, indeed, through their faulty instructions caused a number of the Indians to be blown up by gunpowder. However, Powhatan was insistent that they should redeem their promises and it became necessary to bestir themselves.

Smith had effectually put a stop to the traffic between the thieves in the fort and their confederates among the Indians, but it would have been quite impossible to prevent communications, since there was constant intercourse between the settlers and the natives of the surrounding country. The Dutchmen, therefore, had no difficulty in laying plans with certain of their countrymen in Jamestown. A scheme was at length conceived that appeared to present some prospect of success and met with the approval of Powhatan. On a certain night the conspirators within the fort were to blow up the arsenal and set fire to the settlement at several points simultaneously. In the confusion that would follow two thousand Indians would rush into the enclosure and massacre the surprised settlers. There was one point about this arrangement that was not quite satisfactory to the plotters. Their contemplated rush might be effectually checked by a few faithful and determined men in control of the big guns. These were always handled by experienced English gunners and it would be necessary to seduce some of these from their allegiance. With this view, the schemers approached Douse and Mallard, whose posts were at the main entrance. To them they promised rich rewards and high favor with Powhatan on condition of disabling the guns on the night of the attack and deserting to the enemy. The gunners apparently fell in with this proposal and the conspirators congratulated themselves on having their plans arranged beyond the possibility of miscarriage.

On the appointed night two thousand warriors under picked chiefs crept up to within half a mile of the fort and lay in waiting for the signal flames that were to call them to the attack. Hour after hour passed without a sign from Jamestown. The settlement was apparently sunk in peaceful slumber, but, as a matter of fact, every man within the stockade was wide awake and standing silently to his arms ready to repel an attack, whilst the conspirators lay snug and safe in the jail. At the first streak of dawn, the disappointed Indians prepared to return, when they found themselves face to face with a body of musketeers. They were ordered to lay down their arms and did so without delay. Contention would have been useless for they lay between two bodies of the English and were completely cut off. Captain Percy, in command of the ambuscade, now demanded the surrender of the renegade white men. The Indians were unable to comply with this request for those worthies, realizing that something was wrong, had sneaked off some hours earlier and were on their way to Werowocomico.

The warriors were rounded up and marched into the fort, and Smith immediately selected one of their chiefs to act as a messenger and sent him, under the escort of Master Richard Whyffin and Serjeant Ford, to Powhatan.

“Tell your Werowance,” ran Smith’s message, “that I have all his warriors penned up as we pen our sheep. It is within my power to cut off the Powhatans root and branch, and if I visit them with their deserts, that will I do. For the present I demand the immediate surrender of the foreign renegados who fled from this place and those that I sent to work at Werowocomico. I make no conditions. What I may do with the warriors of the Powhatans is yet to be determined. Mayhap my temper may cool upon reflection, but at present my heart is filled with wrath against Powhatan and all his tribe. Go! I have spoken!”

The following day the Indian messenger and the two Englishmen returned, but they were unaccompanied by the Dutchmen. From Powhatan the chief brought this message:

“Powhatan is bowed in anguish and his gray hairs sweep the dust. He prays the great English Werowance to hear these his words for they are spoken in truth and all sincerity from the bottom of his heart. Powhatan pleads for mercy and the friendship of Captain Smith. Never again, so long as Powhatan lives, will he or any of his people raise hand against the English. This is no idle talk, Powhatan swears it by the name of his gods and the god of the strangers and will give ample hostages to insure his good faith. Why should Captain Smith slay the warriors who but obeyed the commands of their Werowance? Would he visit his wrath upon the squaws and children of the Powhatans who sit wailing in their wigwams? If the fields of Werowocomico, of Pamaunke and of Oropaks, yield no harvest in the coming fall, where will the English procure corn to stay their hunger? But if the white Werowance must satisfy his just wrath, then let him come to Werowocomico and sate it upon me. I am here alone and unguarded and will bow my head to the stroke of his sword. Then let him return and release my warriors so that the wailing of my people may not reach my ears in the happy hunting grounds of my fathers.

“As to the renegados, who betrayed me as they had betrayed you, it is not in Powhatan’s power to return them to you for they were slain before your messengers arrived in Werowocomico. The hungry curs slunk back to their wigwams in time for the morning meal. This I gave them in plenty—for it is not our custom to send a man fasting to the spirit-land—but afterwards their brains were dashed out by my orders and their bodies have been seen by the English captains who came with your messenger.

“Powhatan has spoken the last word. Let the English Werowance decide. Powhatan here awaits his death at the hands of Captain Smith, if it will redeem his people, but if his warriors must be doomed, then let Powhatan come and join them in their death so that all may go together to the happy hunting grounds.”

It is needless to say that Captain Smith was profoundly touched by the pitiful appeal of the old Chief. He did not doubt his present sincerity, nor had he cause to do so. Powhatan was completely humbled and his words were, as he said, “spoken from the bottom of his heart.” So long as Smith remained in the colony the old Werowance maintained his plight and neither he nor his people committed an unfriendly act against the English. The warriors who returned with their arms carried away an impression of the might and justice of Captain Smith that became a tradition in the tribe. For many years after his death the exploits of the White Werowance were related in wigwam and around camp fire. At this time his influence over the Indians of Virginia was supreme and founded upon respect no less than upon fear. His wishes were promptly complied with and the chiefs frequently consulted him about the affairs of the tribe. The most amicable relations were established between the whites and the natives. The former went about the country freely and without fear of harm. The latter came to the fort with their wares and provisions, glad to trade on a fixed scale which was once again established. The settlers learned how to plant corn in the Indian fashion—a method which is followed in Virginia to this day. The Indians taught them how to net fish and snare animals. Thus the colony progressed in the most useful direction and before Smith left them many of the settlers were as adept in the practices of woodcraft as any Indian.

What might have been the outcome had the affairs of the settlement been left in the hands of the man who showed time and again that he had such an understanding of the situation as none of the other leaders possessed, it is impossible to surmise. Certain it is, however, that in such a case, the later experience of the settlers as well as the Indians would have been a much more happy one. As it was, Smith had no sooner reduced conditions to the favorable state which has been described, than another influx of “gentlemen,” vested with authority that they were quite incapable of exercising wisely, tended to undo much of the good which he had accomplished at such great pains.

In the early part of 1609, the London Company secured a new charter, under which they proposed to exploit Virginia on a scale of grandeur which was in itself a proof of their utter ignorance of the real conditions and needs of the colony. The company, as reorganized, was composed of twenty-one peers and innumerable knights and gentlemen. Officers were appointed with high-sounding titles. Lord Delaware was made Captain-general of Virginia; Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-captain-general; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain Newport, Vice-admiral; Sir Thomas Dale, High-marshal; Sir Ferdinando Wainman, General of the Horse. Just think of it! General of the Horse in Virginia! Keeper of the Hogs, or Master of the Poultry, or Superintendent of the Fish Seines, would have been more to the purpose. What a humble and insignificant individual plain “Captain John Smith” must have appeared to these grand gentlemen!

In May, nine vessels with five hundred emigrants were despatched from England, under the command of Gates, Somers and Newport. To each of these a governor’s commission was given with the understanding that he who should arrive first should take charge of the colony and supersede Smith. Evidently these gentlemen were not sportsmen, for, rather than take any chance, they decided to go in the same ship. This vessel, the Sea-Venture, was parted from the rest of the fleet in a hurricane and wrecked on the Bermudas. The lives of the prospective potentates were saved but they did not reach Virginia until months afterwards and when Smith had left. Meanwhile seven of the original ships arrived at their destination. Amongst the mixed company that they landed were Ratcliffe and Archer who figured large in the contingent of “gentlemen.” Most of these were “profligate youth, whose friends were only too well satisfied to give them ample room in remote countries, where they might escape the worse destinies that awaited them at home. Poor gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, rakes and libertines, such as were more apt to ruin than to raise a commonwealth.” The minds of these, naturally open to evil, had been poisoned by Ratcliffe and Archer against Smith, and they landed in a spirit of antagonism to him.

This “lewd Rout,” as one of the contemporary chroniclers terms them, were ripe for mischief and, led on by Ratcliffe and Archer, they plunged into all manner of license and disorder. It was their impression that in the absence of the commissioners the colony was without recognized authority and they might therefore do as they pleased without let or hindrance. They were never more mistaken, however. Smith took the view, rightly without question, that until a commission superseding him arrived, he remained at the head of affairs. He gave these gentry warning that unless they mended their ways he should deal sternly with them. This had the effect of moving them to plots and stratagems designed to put him out of the way. Forced to extreme measures, Smith seized the ringleaders, including those meanest of mortals, Ratcliffe and Archer, and confined them in prison. Order was speedily restored, and, the better to preserve it, Smith divided the colonists, who were in any event too numerous to live in Jamestown, into several parties which he sent into different quarters of the surrounding country to establish settlements. Despite the friendly attitude of the Indians these newcomers contrived to create trouble with them almost immediately, and more lives were thus needlessly sacrificed in a week than had been lost in Smith’s troublous dealings with the Indians in the course of a year.

At this juncture an accident—some think that it was the result of design—put a sudden end to Smith’s career in Virginia. One night as he slept his powder bag exploded, severely injuring him. For several weeks he lay in dreadful pain, unable to rise from his couch. When, at length, he was sufficiently recovered to be carried on board ship, he turned over the government to Captain Percy, and in the autumn of 1609 sailed from Virginia, which he was never to see again.

A sorrowing group of his faithful followers watched the vessel until its ensign dropped below the horizon. One of them has said: “Thus we lost him that in all his proceedings made justice his first guide and experience his second; ever hating baseness, sloth, pride and unworthiness more than dangers; that never allowed more for himself than his soldiers with him; that upon no danger would send them where he would not lead them himself; that would never see us want what he had or by any means could get us; that would rather want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that loved action more than words, and hated falsehood and covetousness worse than death; whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our deaths.”

The literal truth of the last words was soon to be proven.