ry, on the borders of the upper James River,
with one hundred and twenty picked men, commanded by Captain Waldo,
Lieutenant Percy, Captain Wynne, Mr. West, and Mr. Scrivener. Smith,
with eighty or ninety men, some sick, some feeble, being left at
Jamestown; Newport and his party, embarking in the pinnace and boats,
went up to the falls of the river, where, landing, they marched forty
miles beyond on the south side in two days and a half, and returned by
the same route, discovering two towns of the Monacans--Massinacak, and
Mowchemenchouch. The natives, "the Stoics of the woods," evinced neither
friendship nor enmity; and the English, out of abundant caution, took
one of their chiefs, and led him bound at once a hostage and a guide.
Having failed to procure any corn from the Indians, Newport's party
returned from the exploration of this picturesque, fertile, well-watered
region, more than half of them sick or lame, and disheartened with
fatigue, stinted rations, and disappointed hopes of finding gold.

Smith, the president, now set the colonists to work; some to make glass,
others to prepare tar, pitch, and soap-ashes; while he, in person,
conducted thirty of them five miles below the fort to cut down trees and
saw plank. Two of this lumber-party happened to be young gentlemen, who
had arrived in the last supply. Smith sharing labor and hardship in
common with the rest, these woodmen, at first, became apparently
reconciled to the novel task, and seemed to listen with pleasure to the
crashing thunder of the falling trees; but when the axes began to
blister their unaccustomed hands, they grew profane, and their frequent
loud oaths echoed in the woods. Smith taking measures to have the oaths
of each one numbered, in the evening, for each offence, poured a can of
water down the offender's sleeve; and this curious discipline, or
water-cure, was so effectual, that after it was administered, an oath
would scarcely be heard in a week. Smith found that thirty or forty
gentlemen who volunteered to work, could do more in a day than one
hundred that worked by compulsion; but, he adds, that twenty good
workmen would have been better than the whole of them put together.

Smith finding so much time wasted, and no provisions obtained, and
Newport's vessel lying idle at heavy charge, embarked in the discovery
barge, taking with him eighteen men and another boat, and leaving orders
for Lieutenant Percy to follow after him, went up the Chi