n. He was inexorable, and ordered the execution to
proceed; but the generous girl laid her head upon that of the intended
victim, and vowed that the death blow should strike her first. The
savage chief moved by his daughter's devotion, spared the prisoner's
life.[303] Smith was soon afterward escorted in safety to Jamestown, and
given up on a small ransom being paid to the Indians.[304] (1608.)

Smith found, on his arrival, that the colonists were fitting out a
pinnace to return to England. He, with ready decision, declared that the
preparations should be discontinued immediately, or he would sink the
little vessel. His prompt determination was successful, and the people
agreed to remain. Through the generous kindness of Pocahontas, supplies
of provisions were furnished to the settlement, till the arrival of a
vessel from England, replenished its stores. Soon after his happy
escape from the hands of the savages, Smith again started fearlessly
upon an expedition to explore the remainder of Chesapeake Bay. He sailed
in a small barge, accompanied only by twelve men, and with this slender
force completed a voyage of 3000 miles along an unknown coast, among a
fierce and generally hostile people, and depending on accident and his
own ingenuity for supplies. During several years Pocahontas continued to
visit the English, but her father was still hostile, and once endeavored
to surprise Smith and slay him in the woods; but again the generous
Indian girl saved his life at the hazard of her own: in a dark night she
ran for many miles through the forest, evading the vigilance of her
fierce countrymen, and warned him of the threatened danger. An open war
now ensued between the English and the Indians, and was continued with
great mutual injury, till a worthy gentleman named Thomas Rolfe, deeply
interested by the person and character of Pocahontas, made her his wife;
a treaty was then concluded with the Indian chief, which was henceforth
religiously observed. (1613.)

The colony[305] meanwhile proceeded with varied fortunes. The emigrants
had been very badly selected for their task: "poor gentlemen, tradesmen,
serving-men, libertines, and such like, ten times more fit to spoil a
commonwealth than either to begin or maintain one." These men were
tempted into the undertaking by hopes of sudden wealth, and were
altogether disinclined to even the slight labor of tilling that
exuberant soil, when only a subsistence was to be their reward