e the savages, goodly, well-formed fellows, but grim-looking,
carried the corn on their backs down to the boats. The barges of the
English being left aground by the ebb-tide, they were obliged to wait
till the next high-water; and they returned ashore to lodge in some
Indian wigwams.

Powhatan, and the treacherous Dutchmen who had been sent to build him a
house, and who were attracted by the abundant good cheer that they
enjoyed at Werowocomoco, now together plotted Smith's destruction. But
Pocahontas, the chieftain's dearest jewel, in that dark night, passing
through the gloomy woods, told Smith that great cheer would soon be sent
to him, but that her father with all his force would quickly come and
kill him and all the English, with their own weapons, while at supper;
that therefore, if he would live, she wished him to go at once. Smith
would have given her such toys as she delighted in; but, with tears
streaming down her cheeks, she said that she would not dare to be seen
to have them, for if her father should know it she would die; and so she
ran away by herself as she had come. The attempt to surprise Smith was
accordingly soon after made; but, forewarned, he readily defeated the
design.

Upon the return of the tide, Smith and his party embarked for Pamaunkee,
at the head of the river, leaving with Powhatan Edward Boynton, to kill
fowl for him, and the Dutchmen, whose treachery was not as yet
suspected, to finish his house. As the party sent forward to build the
house had been there about two weeks, and as the chimney is erected
after the house, it may be probably inferred that "Powhatan's Chimney"
was built by the Dutchmen. It indeed looks like a chimney of one of
those Dutch houses described by Irving in his inimitable "Legend of
Sleepy Hollow." It is the oldest relic of construction now extant in
Virginia, and is associated with the most interesting incident in our
early history. This chimney is built of stone found on the banks of
Timberneck Bay, and easily quarried; it is eighteen and a half feet
high, ten and a half wide at the base, and has a double flue. The
fire-place is eight feet wide, with an oaken beam across. The chimney
stands on an eminence, and is conspicuous from every quarter of the bay;
and itself a monumental evidence of no inconsiderable import. That the
colonists would construct for Powhatan's house a durable and massive
chimney there is every reason to believe, and here is such a one still