rs if
they did not kill Smith. At one time swarms of natives, unarmed, came
bringing great supplies of provisions; this was to put Smith off his
guard, surround him with hundreds of savages, and slay him by an ambush.
But he also laid in ambush and got the better of the crafty foe with
a superior craft. They sent him poisoned food, which made his company
sick, but was fatal to no one. Smith apologizes for temporizing with
the Indians at this time, by explaining that his purpose was to surprise
Powhatan and his store of provisions. But when they stealthily stole
up to the seat of that crafty chief, they found that those "damned
Dutchmen" had caused Powhatan to abandon his new house at Werowocomoco,
and to carry away all his corn and provisions.

The reward of this wearisome winter campaign was two hundred weight
of deer-suet and four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn for the
general store. They had not to show such murdering and destroying as the
Spaniards in their "relations," nor heaps and mines of gold and silver;
the land of Virginia was barbarous and ill-planted, and without precious
jewels, but no Spanish relation could show, with such scant means, so
much country explored, so many natives reduced to obedience, with so
little bloodshed.

XII. TRIALS OF THE SETTLEMENT

Without entering at all into the consideration of the character of the
early settlers of Virginia and of Massachusetts, one contrast forces
itself upon the mind as we read the narratives of the different
plantations. In Massachusetts there was from the beginning a steady
purpose to make a permanent settlement and colony, and nearly all those
who came over worked, with more or less friction, with this end before
them. The attempt in Virginia partook more of the character of a
temporary adventure. In Massachusetts from the beginning a commonwealth
was in view. In Virginia, although the London promoters desired a colony
to be fixed that would be profitable to themselves, and many of the
adventurers, Captain Smith among them, desired a permanent planting, a
great majority of those who went thither had only in mind the advantages
of trade, the excitement of a free and licentious life, and the
adventure of something new and startling. It was long before the movers
in it gave up the notion of discovering precious metals or a short way
to the South Sea. The troubles the primitive colony endured resulted
quite as much from its own instability o