e
gentlemen, the greater part were indolent, dissolute reprobates, of good
families; and they found themselves not in a golden El Dorado, as they
had fondly anticipated, but in a remote wilderness, encompassed by want,
exposure, fatigue, disease, and danger.

The return of Smith, and his report of the plenty that he had witnessed
at Werowocomoco, and of the generous clemency of Powhatan, and
especially of the love of Pocahontas, revived the drooping hopes of the
survivors at Jamestown. The arrival of Newport at the same juncture with
stores and a number of additional settlers, being part of the first
supply sent out from England by the treasurer and council, was joyfully
welcomed. Pocahontas too, with her tawny train of attendants, frequently
visited Jamestown, with presents of bread, and venison, and raccoons,
sent by Powhatan for Smith and Newport. However, the improvident traffic
allowed between Newport's mariners and the natives, soon extremely
enhanced the price of provisions, and the too protracted detention of
his vessel made great inroads upon the public store. Newport, not long
after his arrival, accompanied by Smith, Scrivener, newly arrived, and
made one of the council, and thirty or forty picked men, visited
Powhatan at Werowocomoco. Upon their arrival, Smith landed with a party
of men, and after crossing several creeks on bridges of poles and bark,
(for it appears that he had mistaken the right landing place, having
probably passed up a little beyond the mouth of Timberneck Bay,) they
were met and escorted to the town by Opechancanough, Nantaquaus,
Powhatan's son, and two hundred warriors. Powhatan was found seated on
his bedstead throne of mats, with his buckskin pillow or cushion,
embroidered with beads. More than forty trays of bread stood without, in
rows on each side of the door. Four or five hundred Indians were
present. Newport landed on the next day, and some days were past in
feasting, and dancing, and trading, in which last Powhatan exhibited a
curious mixture of huckstering cunning, and regal pride. Smith gave him
a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a hat. Charmed with some
blue beads, for one or two pounds of them he gave in exchange two or
three hundred bushels of corn. Newport presented him a boy named Thomas
Salvage, in return for an Indian named Namontack. Smith acted as
interpreter.

The English next visited Opechancanough, at his seat, Pamunkey. The blue
beads came to be in great