ave been over twenty-one
when in May, 1609, he joined the company going to Virginia. Henry was
evidently a scapegrace, whose friends were willing to be rid of him.
Such being his character, it is more than probable that he was
shipped bound as an apprentice, and of course with the conditions of
apprenticeship in like expeditions of that period--to be sold or bound
out at the end of the voyage to pay for his passage. He remained for
several years in Virginia, living most of the time among the Indians,
and a sort of indifferent go between of the savages and the settlers.
According to his own story it was on October 20, 1609, that he was taken
up the river to Powhatan by Captain Smith, and it was in April, 1613,
that he was rescued from his easy-setting captivity on the Potomac by
Captain Argall. During his sojourn in Virginia, or more probably shortly
after his return to England, he wrote a brief and bungling narration of
his experiences in the colony, and a description of Indian life. The
MS. was not printed in his time, but mislaid or forgotten. By a strange
series of chances it turned up in our day, and was identified and
prepared for the press in 1861. Before the proof was read, the type
was accidentally broken up and the MS. again mislaid. Lost sight of for
several years, it was recovered and a small number of copies of it were
printed at London in 1872, edited by Mr. James F. Hunnewell.

Spelman's narration would be very important if we could trust it. He
appeared to have set down what he saw, and his story has a certain
simplicity that gains for it some credit. But he was a reckless boy,
unaccustomed to weigh evidence, and quite likely to write as facts the
rumors that he heard. He took very readily to the ways of Indian
life. Some years after, Spelman returned to Virginia with the title
of Captain, and in 1617 we find this reference to him in the "General
Historie": "Here, as at many other times, we are beholden to Capt.
Henry Spilman, an interpreter, a gentleman that lived long time in this
country, and sometimes a prisoner among the Salvages, and done much good
service though but badly rewarded." Smith would probably not have left
this on record had he been aware of the contents of the MS. that Spelman
had left for after-times.

Spelman begins his Relation, from which I shall quote substantially,
without following the spelling or noting all the interlineations, with
the reason for his emigration, which was, "be