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for three days the wildest kind of orgies imaginable were held over the captive. His high courage never flinched, and even as a prisoner he contrived to impress his foes with the superiority of the white race. timidations had availed nothing, perchance bribery might win this fearless stranger; he was offered "life, liberty, land, and women" if only he would show them how to get possession of Jamestown. He would not even consider the suggestion, though if he refused he might have to endure the torture, an art of which the Indians were past masters, yet he scorned to betray the men whose necessities and dangers had lain so near his heart. The Indians, however, were in no undue haste to kill the pale face; he had taught them the use of his compass, he should also instruct them in the use of his firearms. Smith gravely advised them to plant the gunpowder in order that they might have a crop next year, and in showing them the use of his pistol was so clumsy as to break it. Thus their pursuit of knowledge in that direction was arrested.

The next destination of the captive was Werowocomico, the capital of Powhatan. Two hundred warriors were there assembled and a large retinue of women, whose custom it was to participate in their councils. That Smith was regarded as no mean prize was evidenced even in trifles, for no less a personage than the Queen of Apamattuck was ordered to serve him. He was provided with food; and then the long consultation of the chiefs began, which finally terminated in the sentence that by lot his

fate was to be decided. And Fate decreed death.

A little child with wide open eyes was watching the scene with eager anxiety. There he lay bound and helpless, that wonderful pale-faced chief who had sailed far over the seas from another world, a world that was a veritable fairy-land to the little princess. Had she not seen the treasures he had brought, bells and beads, hobby horses, and musical instruments, and was this glorious being to be slain before her very eyes, and she utter no protest? She was only between ten and twelve years of age, yet the child plead with her father, the mighty Powhatan, to spare the life of the captive. The powerful chief thrust his little daughter aside. and the simple preparations were made. Two great stones were arranged to pillow the head of the victim, Smith was eagerly dragged to the spot, and the clubs of the warriors raised to beat out his brains, when with a child's impetuosity and a woman's wisdom the dauntless little "Pocahontas, the King's dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevail, got his head in her arms and laid her own upon his to save him from death; whereat the Emperor was content he should live to make him hatchets and her bells, beads, etc."

Thus Powhatan pictured the future life of Smith, and two days later adopted him as his son. After a few days had elapsed Smith was allowed. to return to Jamestown, accompanied by an Indian escort, which was to bring back the guns and grindstone, besides the various trinkets promised Powhatan and others of the tribe. The grindstone was so heavy and the

gun, which had been fired for their benefit, terrified them so, that both those treasures were left behind in Jamestown.

About six weeks had elapsed since Smith left the settlement and again he found the malcontents, headed this time by Ratcliffe, ready to flee. The lazy, shiftless men, with broken fortunes, who left England on a fruitless quest for gold, had no mind to endure the privation of the life before them. The few fortunate ones who could have fled would gladly have loaded the pinnace with provisions and sailed away, leaving their less fortunate comrades to die of starvation or be massacred by the Indians, but Smith inexorably held them to their duty. The power of his presence was so great they dared not disobey him. So they plotted against him, accusing him of being responsible for the death of the two men who had been left in the canoe, and although such a foolish accusation came to naught, for the men could easily have escaped had they but remained in the canoe and followed Smith's instructions, he was held a prisoner. Luckily at this juncture Newport returned from England and liberated both Smith and Wingfield.

The other members of the council' became jealous of the regard the Indians had shown for Smith, for Powhatan had created him a Werowance, or chief of the tribe. Smith understood the Indian nature as did none of his contemporaries, moreover he possessed the traits the Indians most admired: cool intrepidity, patience and the cleverness to outwit them. Powhatan was a wily politician, getting the better of the whites in nearly

every dealing with them. Smith alone was his superior and the means of saving the infant colony from utter annihilation. Moreover, in Pocahontas, Smith had a powerful ally. Repeatedly she visited Jamestown, fascinated by the strange sights she saw there, and bringing back with her on each occasion liberal supplies of provisions. But the colonists, most of them careless and and self-indulgent, never seemed to appreciate the situation. Smith was giving his all, "his goods he spent, his honor, his faith and his sure intent-but 'twas not in the least what these men had meant -they did not understand."

The winter of 1607-8 was severely cold; the great granaries Smith had built, and by tact and diplomacy in trading with the Indians had succeeded in filling with grain, were totally destroyed by fire, as well as the church and a number of the settlers' homes. This was a terrible calamity, and the exposure and privation that followed caused the death of one-half of the settlement. But in the spring, with the help of one hundred and twenty additional colonists, the church, storehouses, dwellings and fortifications were again rebuilt, and none too soon, for though peace had been concluded in the winter through the efforts of Smith, yet the Indians were once more growing restless and began their depredations by stealing. Smith was again to the fore and in an expedition attacked and defeated the Indians, taking eighteen prisoners. Through them he learned of another conspiracy in his own household, to deliver him into the hands of the Indians that they might put him to death. His enemies in the colony, who

had brought many accusations against him, finally asserted that he exceeded his authority and they resorted to this last cowardly expedient to get rid of him. They could not see that he was abundantly able to defend himself from harm, while they without him could scarcely preserve themselves from utter destruction.

Sick at heart he left them for a while, and that summer he spent in making two exploring expeditions, the first along the Potomac, the second to the mouth of the Susquehanna. He found no gold for the London Company, but he made a close study of the Indian life and also drew up a map of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, an invaluable addition to the geography of the world. Meanwhile, in the colony, Ratcliffe had been deposed from the presidency and Smith elected in his stead. It was an office he had refused more than once and had never desired. Nor on the other hand did the majority of the colonists, idle, dissipated, "unruly gallants," as Smith termed them, desire him, but they had begun to realize that he was the only man who could save them, that he alone could carry them through the approaching winter. Smith had a strong backing in thirtyeight soldiers, the best men in the colony, who remained through life his staunch friends, and upon whom he could absolutely rely; two of these men had served under his command in Rothenthurm. His first work as president was to strengthen the fort, rebuild many of the houses and establish a weekly drill. Soon a vessel came from London bringing again Newport and between seventy and eighty additional colonists, and also

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the most visionary, impracticable orders from the home company. number of presents were prepared for Powhatan, including a crown sent him by King James, with a bedstead and furnishings. The haughty Indian

objected to kneel to receive a crown from England's King; was he not already the ruler of Virginia in his own right? Newport, under the instructions of the London Company, was determined upon discovering gold, and also upon finding Raleigh's lost colony; both of these misdirected efforts only exhausted the strength of his men and accomplished nothing.

One of Smith's strongest points lay in the fact that he was quick to recog nize actual conditions, while most of his countrymen, either in Virginia or London, clung to a theory and wasted their energies in pursuing phantoms. But the London stockholders must get some return for all their outlay of money, and the importance of the very existence of the colony was lost. sight of in the lust for gold or its equivalent. So Smith at this time, much against his good judgment, was obliged to take men from the important work of providing for the coming winter, and by the orders from London was forced to manufacture what goods he could. Newport had brought with him a few skilled workmen, and the colonists learned amidst the greatest difficulties to manufacture glass, while others worked at tar, pitch and soap ashes. And none worked harder than Smith himself. Meanwhile winter, with its usual scarcity of food, was approaching, and again Smith started on a foraging expedition. But Powhatan had influenced his people not to trade, and

it was only by heeding the Emperor's request that some carpenters be sent to build a house for his fine bedstead that Smith could succeed in bargaining for any grain. These carpenters were Dutchmen, and thinking it would be very unlikely that Smith could keep the colony alive during the winter, betrayed its weakness to Powhatan in order to save themselves from starvation. Feeling that now Smith was in his power, Powhatan determined to kill the one Englishman whom he feared. Smith's little party after trading with Powhatan was unable to leave that day, for the tide was too low when the corn was brought, and they suspected treachery. But early that night the little maid Pocahontas made her way to the English camp and told Smith of her father's plan. Forewarned was ever forearmed with him, and again this Indian princess, though but a child, saved his life and that of the colony.

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Still there was not enough corn and Smith next tried trading with Opechancanough. This mighty chief first tried to entrap the white man and then sought to kill him, but Smith was too clever and succeeded in taking Opechancanough himself prisoner. Upon his demand for corn it was given and given in abundance, though some of it, they discovered to their sorrow, was poisoned. Next came the news from Jamestown that two of the Council, Scrivener and Gosnold, were drowned, and Smith hastened home with his provisions-and none too soon, for a strong hand was needed in the colony. Through the treachery of the Dutchmen, the Indians were no longer afraid, and were stealing

from the colony everything they could lay hands on. Smith took command of a small fighting party, killed six or seven Indians, took a few prisoners, and burned several wigwams, before he succeeded in intimidating them. Peace was then established, and when the spring time came Smith ordered the first planting of corn that was ever done by the English in America. The live stock, too, was more flourishing in this spring of 1609.

In England, affairs were taking a new turn. The London Company had been re-organized and several vessels had set sail for Jamestown, bringing the old enemies of Smith-Ratcliffe, Martin and Archer. Some consider it an accident, others again regard it as another plan to murder him; be that as it may, when Smith was up the river one hundred miles from Jamestown in an open boat, the bag of gunpowder on which he slept exploded. That he escaped death was miraculous, but the magnificent constitution of the man of thirty conquered the frightful burns, though he was in no condition to remain and endure the hardships in the colony. He bade farewell to Percy, the new governor, who had been elected by the malcontents, and sailed for England, October 4, 1609.

At last he was gone. Their illdisciplined, reckless natures would brook no prudent restraint. Most of them were so self-centred that they considered only their own individual hardships, with very little thought of the good of the whole. John Smith summed up the situation in one sentence: "Nothing is to be expected thence but by labor," and labor was

the last thing they desired. They longed for gold. The wretched failure of the expeditions under both Raleigh and Granville were caused chiefly by the lack of food; Smith's diplomatic treatment of the Indians procured in a large measure both food and peace. His time had been mainly devoted to obtaining for them the actual necessities of life, but "the excellent things he planned, the work of his heart and hand, were given to the men who did not know, and did not understand." On that weary voyage home, beyond the agony of his physical pain, was the consciousness that though "some of him lived, yet most of him had died" in that fair new land of Virginia. His bright hopes, his noble ambitions, his wise plans for the success of Jamestown were slain by the men who could not be made to comprehend the condition and with the remembrance of those former lost colonies it was with a heavy heart he crossed the seas. Three times England had tried and failed, and if she now retreated, Spain, her hated foe, would unquestionably take possession of North America, as she had of the Southern continent.

Once again in England the report he gave of the colony seriously alarmed the London Company, and provisions and the right kind of men under Lord Delaware were sent as soon as possible to the relief of Jamestown, and none too soon did they arrive, for the miserable, nearly famished sixty survivors of the terrible winter known as "Starving Time," were all that remained of the prosperous five hundred colonists that Smith had left six months before. These sixty wretched men, unable to face

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further disaster, had broken up the settlement, and in the pinnace had determined to set sail for home, but with abundant food and additional men, hope revived, and Jamestown again renewed the struggle for existThus whether in Virginia, or in London, John Smith's protecting care was felt. Unknown to himself his life work had been accomplished, his impress had been made on Virginia forever. Though only two years he had been in the colony, he had given a permanency to the settlement, and in the eyes of both the Spaniards and the Indians the position of England was henceforth established.

The London Company did not relish Smith's advice though they followed it, and asked his counsel on more than one occasion. His "rude answer," written several months before his return, stated the distressing condition. of the colony and in no honeyed phrases had expressed his opinion of the unreasonable demands of the company. Now his presence was a too constant reminder of their mistakes and they cared to meet him as little as possible. Moreover, the men who had been with him in Virginia, in order to vindicate their own actions, united in denunciations of his; they could prove nothing, but their tongues created the fire, the smoke of which for years enveloped him like a cloud, that burned even more cruelly than the gunpowder. He then wrote and published a book entitled "The Proceedings & Accidents of the English Colony in Virginia," a vindication of his conduct there, and also "A Map of Virginia," as well as books and pamphlets on war, trade and

colonization.