therefore did I hear much which otherwise would not have been told me.
And what happened during these two months when the gentlemen were much
the same as quarreling among themselves, I shall set down in as few
words as possible, to the end that I may the sooner come to that story
of our life in the new village, which some called James Fort, and others
James Town, after King James of England.
EXPLORING THE COUNTRY
When the shallop had been taken out of the hold of the Susan Constant,
and put together by the Carpenters, our people explored the shores of
the bay and the broad streams running into it, meeting with savages here
and there, and holding some little converse with them. A few were found
to be friendly, while others appeared to think we were stealing their
land by thus coming among them.
One of the most friendly of the savages, so Nathaniel said, having shown
by making marks on the ground with his foot that he wished to tell our
people about the country, and having been given a pen and paper, drew a
map of the river with great care, putting in the islands and waterfalls
and mountains that our men would come to, and afterward he even brought
food to our people such as wheat and little sweet nuts and berries.
I myself would have been pleased to go on shore and see these strange
people, but not being able to do so save at the cost of leaving my
master, I can only repeat some of the curious things which Nathaniel
Peacock told me. It must be known that there was more than one nation,
or tribe, of savages in this new land of Virginia, and each had its king
or chief, who was called the werowance. I might set down the names of
these tribes, and yet it would be so much labor lost, because they are
more like fanciful than real words. As, for example, there were the
Paspaheghes, whose werowance was seemingly more friendly to our people
than were the others.
Again, there were the Rapahannas, who wore the legs of birds through
holes in their ears, and had all the hair on the right side of their
heads shaven closely.
It gives them much pleasure to dance, so Nathaniel said, he having seen
them jumping around more like so many wolves, rather than human beings,
for the space of half an hour, shouting and singing all the while.
All the Indians smoked an herb called tobacco, which grows abundantly
in this land, and I have Nathaniel's word for it that one savage had a
tobacco pipe nearly a yard long, with the
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