ensed by a
letter received by Lord Salisbury, (Sir Robert Cecil,) Secretary of
State, reporting that the planters intended to divide the country among
themselves. It is altogether improbable that they had conceived any
design of appropriating a country which so few of them were willing to
cultivate, and from which so many of them were anxious to escape. The
folly of the instructions was only surpassed by the inhumanity of the
threat, and this folly and inhumanity were justly exposed by Smith's
letter in reply.[61:A]

Newport brought over with him Captains Peter Wynne and Richard Waldo,
two veteran soldiers and valiant gentlemen; Francis West, brother of
Lord Delaware; Raleigh Crashaw; Thomas Forest with Mrs. Forest, and Anne
Burras, her maid; the first Englishwomen that landed at Jamestown.[62:A]
Some Poles and Germans were sent out to make pitch, tar, glass, soap,
ashes, and erect mills. Waldo and Wynne were admitted into the council;
and Ratcliffe was restored to his seat.

The time appointed for Powhatan's coronation now drawing near, Smith,
accompanied by Captain Waldo, and three others, went overland to a point
on the Pamaunkee (York) River, opposite Werowocomoco, to which they
crossed over in an Indian canoe. Upon reaching Werowocomoco, Powhatan
being found absent, was sent for, and, in the mean time, Smith and his
comrades were being entertained by Pocahontas and her companions. They
made a fire in an open field, and Smith being seated on a mat before it,
presently a hideous noise and shrieking being heard in the adjoining
woods, the English snatched up their arms, and seized two or three aged
Indians; but Pocahontas immediately came, and protested to Smith that he
might slay her if any surprise was intended, and he was quickly
satisfied that his apprehensions were groundless. Then thirty young
women emerged from the woods, all naked, save a cincture of green
leaves, their bodies being painted; Pocahontas wearing on her head a
beautiful pair of buck's horns, an otter's skin at her girdle and
another on her arm; a quiver hung on her shoulder, and she held a bow
and arrow in her hand. Of the other nymphs, one held a sword, another a
club, a third a pot-stick, with the antlers of the deer on their heads,
and a variety of other savage ornaments. Bursting from the forest, like
so many fiends, with unearthly shrieks, they circled around the fire
singing and dancing, and thus continued for an hour, when they again
ret