Chapter 4: 1607-1608, Tsenacomoco or Virginia

The great canoes of the pale-skinned ones appeared in the Big Salt Bay in the time of the flowers. The women and children were planting corn in one of the meadows surrounding our village when the messenger came to tell Opechancanough of their arrival.

2 “Who are these people, and why did they come here?” wondered the weroance (regional chief). “Go and tell the Mamanatowick (supreme chief) what you have seen,” Opechancanough commanded the messenger. “I would know his thoughts about them,” he called after the man who was already trotting off into the forest.

3 The weroance was clearly concerned about the presence of these foreign people within the territory of Tsenacomoco. The Kecoughtans said that the people smelled bad and completely covered their skins with the strangest manner of clothing. They had also reported that the people had no manners and appeared to be very hungry. “They are extremely rude,” the weroance of the Paspahegh had agreed.

4 “What do they want here?” Opechancanough pondered. “This can’t be good,” he concluded, and he ordered his warriors to keep a close eye on the pale-skins.

5 That evening, Opechancanough held a council in his yeehacon. As the warriors entered the vault-shaped longhouse of their chief, each one nodded in his direction and took their places on the mats in front of him. After a long silence, the weroance studied the faces of his men and began to speak.

6 “It was foretold by our wise ones that a people would come here one day to take hold of our land and sweep us all away,” he opened. “We have all heard this saying, but I never heard anyone say that we simply have to give up and quietly walk away from our homes,” Opechancanough continued. “I have given much thought to this – I think that we should be very wise and careful in how we deal with the pale-skinned ones,” he concluded.

7 Several of the warriors nodded their heads in agreement, but some of the warriors were clearly less patient with the situation. “We should drive them away now!” one man offered. “We have all heard about how weak they are. We have heard how they fell like leaves fall from the trees when the wind grows cold during the attack by the Paspahegh and Weyanoke. Their fire sticks are loud, but our arrows find their targets!” he concluded. “They can’t even feed themselves,” another man interjected.

8 “We will watch them and wait for an opportunity to deal with them,” finished the weroance. “We will speak of this again when the time is right.”

9 Then the women brought in some bread and venison which they had prepared for the occasion. Thus, the warriors enjoyed a meal together and joked about the peculiarities and weaknesses of their pale-skinned neighbors.

10 In the meantime, the pale-skinned ones traded their iron hatchets, copper and beads for more and more of our corn. The corn that had been grown to feed our people during the cold time. The Kecoughtan were right: These people are very hungry – they never get enough to eat!

11 One day, word came to Opechancanough that some of the pale-skins were hunting in his territory. He quickly led a large group of warriors to the area where the men had been spotted.

12 There was a skirmish in the brush just ahead, and he soon learned that one of the pale-skinned hunters had been captured along the river of the Chickahominy. When the man was presented to him, Opechancanough’s first inclination was to kill the trespasser. “He is their weroance!” shouted one of the warriors.

13 Just then, as Opechancanough was contemplating what to do with the unwelcome intruder, the man produced a round object and presented it to the weroance. A small stick floated on the surface of the object, but Opechancanough could not touch it.

14 The man, taking advantage of the distraction his compass had created, said that his name was Smith; and that he was indeed the leader of his people. “Tie him to that tree until I decide what to do with him!” Opechancanough ordered.

15 “This matter is too important to be settled here,” the chief finally announced. “We must take him to Wahunsenacah and let the Mamanatowick decide his fate,” Opechancanough decided. “First, we will take him back to our own lodges and feed him,” the weroance ordered. “I have a few questions to ask him before I turn him over to my brother,” he thought to himself.

16 That evening, Captain Smith was fed with a generous portion of venison and cornbread. Afterwards, the weroance joined him before the fire in the lodge where they were holding him to discuss some of the issues that had been bothering him ever since the Englishmen had arrived.

17 “Where is your home?” Opechancanough began. “Across the great waters,” Smith replied.

18 “Why did you leave your home?” “We ventured out onto the sea to trade and fish, but a great storm delivered us to your shores.”

19 “Why have you stayed so long?” “We suffered some damage to our canoes and are waiting for our friends at home to resupply us.”

20 “Do you plan to leave when your friends return?” “Not immediately, in fact, some of our people like this place so well that they will probably want to make their home here.”

21 “Do you think that your god will favor you in this new land?” “I’m sure that He would favor us wherever we go.”

22 “I think you are not telling me the whole truth,” the weroance thought to himself. “Tomorrow, we will begin our journey to see the great Powhatan,” Opechancanough concluded. “You must give an account of yourself and your people to him.”

23 They traveled every day. At the end of each day, they spent the night in another village – always moving in the direction of their meeting with Powhatan.

24 When they finally reached Werowocomoco, Opechancanough seemed relieved; but his prisoner was quiet and full of apprehension. Captain Smith stood outside of a great longhouse waiting to see the Mamanatowick and was surrounded by scores of warriors who looked as if they would attack him if he even attempted to scratch his nose.

25 Before long, Smith was led into the dark and smoky interior of the house. When his eyes had adjusted to the light, he could see an impressive looking old man sitting on a stack of mats near the fire. His face was wrinkled and hard to make out in the gloom.

26 As he drew nearer, he could see that the old man had a thin grey mustache and beard. He was wearing several strings of pearls around his neck and was enveloped in a rich robe made from what appeared to be raccoon skins. It was then that Smith noticed the women seated on each side of the great chief and the other men seated on mats around the fire.

27 Mesmerized, Captain Smith barely noticed the woman approaching him from the side and holding a basin of water. She motioned for him to wash his hands, and he quickly complied. Then another woman appeared with a bunch of feathers which were clearly intended for him to use in drying off his hands. Finally, another woman approached with a bowl of meat and bread and handed them to the prisoner. After he had finished his meal, Powhatan turned to Captain Smith and smiled.

28 “I have a few things to ask you about,” the old man began. “Why have you and your people settled on my land?” “We were caught in a storm, and the winds carried us to your shores.” “Do you plan to return to your own homes then?” “We will return home when our friends return with more canoes and supplies.”

29 “Why were you so far from your friends when Opechancanough found you?” “I was looking for another great sea, like the one that we crossed from our home.” Powhatan looked perplexed by this answer. “My comrades and I believed that some of our enemies had fled there, and we were trying to find them so that we might punish them when our friends returned,” Smith offered.

30 The Mamanatowick sat in silence for a long time staring into the fire. Then he looked at Captain Smith and motioned for his warriors to bring a large, flattened stone forward to provide a suitable surface on which to execute the prisoner. Two warriors held Smith’s head down against the stone, while another one stood at the ready with a large wooden club.

31 Just then, a young girl flung herself between the executioner and his prey. The girl was clearly excited and began pleading with the old man to spare the life of the prisoner.

32 The old chieftain smiled at the girl and motioned for his warriors to remove the prisoner. “Take him to the House of Spirits and keep him there,” he commanded. Smith later learned that the girl was Powhatan’s favorite daughter, Pocahontas.

33 After a few more days, Powhatan appeared outside of the lodge where Smith was being held as a prisoner. When the captain emerged from the longhouse, the Mamanatowick was standing there surrounded by a large company of warriors.

34 “From this day forward, we will be friends,” announced the old chieftain. “As a token of that friendship, I would be very pleased to have some of your fire sticks,” Powhatan continued. “Two of my finest guns and a grinding stone for your hatchets,” Captain Smith quickly offered.

35 At that, Powhatan motioned to the warriors on either side of him and a group of twelve warriors surrounded the captain. “These men will guide you back to your village and bring me the gifts which you have offered as a token of our friendship,” he concluded. Smith nodded his understanding and gathered his personal effects and headed back to Jamestown.

36 “What a story this will make!” Smith thought as he traveled through the cold, bare woodlands on his way home. “I don’t trust old Powhatan,” he ruminated, “but I trust Opechancanough even less.” “That one is dangerous. He will never see us as friends.”

37 When Smith and his escorts finally made it back to the English settlement on the peninsula, he made a show of fulfilling his promises to the Mamanatowick. The captain ordered his men to give the natives a demonstration of the firepower from two of their biggest cannons. That accomplished, and the natives sufficiently rattled, Smith proceeded to offer the cannons to his escorts in satisfaction of his promise to their master.

38 “Too heavy,” the bewildered men protested. “Oh well, I have other gifts for my friends that you can easily carry back to Werowocomoco,” Smith smiled. The captain then proceeded to distribute the standard fair of copper, beads and hatchets and bid farewell to his escort.

39 Although Captain John Smith had survived his captivity and avoided giving the natives any weapons, he could not help but continue to feel unsettled about these “savages” in the months and years ahead. In fact, his assessment of Opechancanough proved to be prophetic. After Powhatan’s death, Opechancanough would one day assume the mantle of leadership; and he would strive to eject the Englishmen from his homeland with all of the resources at his disposal.

40 Now these are the generations of Opechancanough, a mighty warrior before the Lord:

41 Opechancanough begat Cornstalk.

42 Cornstalk begat Big Turkey.

43 Big Turkey begat a daughter named Tikami.

44 Tikami married a man named Richard Barnes, and they had a daughter together.

45 Her father named her Mary, and she married Edward Vann.