vivid. There is a fascination too, not unmixed with sadness, in

watching the early dreams of El Dorado fade away as the stern reality of a New World to be conquered comes to make itself known and felt. Naturally the old delusions persisted at home in England long after the colonists had been taught by costly experiences to discard them, and we smile at the well-meant blundering of the ruling powers in London in their efforts to hasten the success of their enterprise. In vain did the faithful Newport seek to perform the mandates of the London Company. No nuggets of gold were to be found, nor traces of poor Eleanor Dare and her friends, and The Powhatan told the simple truth when he declared that there were difficult mountains westward and it would be useless to search for a salt sea behind them. Newport tried, nevertheless, but came back exhausted long before he had reached the Blue Ridge; for what foe is so pertinacious as a strange and savage continent? In pithy terms does Anas Todkill, one of the first colonists, express himself about these wild projects: "Now was there no way to make us miserable but to neglect that time to make our provision whilst it was to be had; the which was done to perfourme this strange discovery, but more strange coronation. To lose that time, spend that victuall we had, tire and starue our men, having no means to carry victuall, munition, the hurt or sicke, but their own backes: how or by whom they were invented I know not." How eloquent in grief and indignation are these rugged phrases! A modern writer, an accomplished Oxford scholar, expresses the opinion that the coronation of The Powhatan, although "an idle piece of formality," "had at least the merit of winning and retaining the loyalty of the savage."[64] Master Todkill thought differently: "as for the coronation of Powhatan and his presents of bason, ewer, bed, clothes, and such costly nouelties; they had bin much better well spared than so ill spent; for we had his favour much better onlie for a poore peece of copper, till this stately kinde of soliciting made him so much overvalue himselfe, that he respected vs as much as nothing at all."[65]

[Sidenote: Smith's map of Virginia.]

When Newport sailed for England, he took with him Ratcliffe, the deposed president, a man of doubtful character of whom it was said that he had reasons for using an alias, his real name being Sickelmore. Deposed presidents were liable to serve as tale-bearers and mischief-makers. Wingfield had gone home on the previous voyage, and Newport had brought back to Virginia complaints from the Company about the way in which things had been managed. Now Smith sent to London by Newport his new map of Virginia embodying the results of his recent voyages of exploration, a map of remarkable accuracy and witness to an amount of original labour that is marvellous to think of. That map is a living refutation of John Smith's detractors; none but a man of heroic mould could have done the geographical work involved in making it.

With the map Smith sent what he naïvely calls his "Rude Answer" to the London Company, a paper bristling with common-sense and not timid when it comes to calling a spade a spade. With some topics suggested by this "Rude Answer" we shall concern ourselves in the next chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Some skepticism was manifested by one of Smith's contemporaries, Thomas Fuller, who says, in his _Worthies of England_, "It soundeth much to the diminution of his deeds that he alone is the herald to publish and proclaim them." The good Fuller was mistaken, however. Some of Smith's most striking deeds, as we shall see, were first proclaimed by others.

[37] Campbell's _Lives of the Chief Justices_, i. 210.

[38] This sketch of Smith's early life is based upon his _True Travels_, etc., in his _Works_, edited by Edward Arber, Birmingham, 1884, pp. 821-880.

[39] For a good sketch of Sigismund and his relations to the Empire and to the Turks, see Schlosser's _Weltgeschichte_, vol. xiii. pp. 325-344.

[40] Smith's _Works_, ed. Arber, pp. xxii., 842.

[41] Purchas, _His Pilgrimes_, ii. 1363.

[42] So many long missing historical documents have turned up of late years that it is never safe to assert that one is "lost." That great scholar, Don Pascual de Gayangos, seems to have seen a printed Spanish translation of Farnese's book, but I do not know where it is.

[43] It would be just like Smith, I think, not to make much account of his exploit. Hence he neglected to make any record of his grant of arms until the appearance of Purchas's book in 1625, and resulting talks among friends, probably impressed upon him the desirableness of making such a record.

[44] Thomas Carlton's verses, in Smith's _Works_, ed. Arber, p. 692.

[45] See my _Discovery of America_, ii. 105.

[46] It seems likely that the point at the upper end of the Roads received its name of Newport News from the gallant captain. On several old maps I have found it spelled Newport Ness, which is equivalent to Point Newport.

[47] See above, p. 75.

[48] It was not far from this spot that Ayllon had made his unsuccessful attempt to found a Spanish colony in 1526. See my _Discovery of America_, ii. 490.

[49] The Englishmen were bewildered by barbaric usages utterly foreign to their experience. Kinship among these Indians, as so generally among barbarians and savages, was reckoned through females only, and when the English visitors were told that The Powhatan's office would descend to his maternal brothers, even though he had sons living, the information was evidently correct, but they found it hard to understand or believe. So when one of the chiefs on the James River insisted upon giving back some powder and balls which one of his men had stolen, it was regarded as a proof of strict honesty and friendliness, whereas the more probable explanation is that a prudent Indian, at that early time, would consider it bad medicine to handle the thunder-and-lightning stuff or keep it about one. See my _Beginnings of New England_, p. 85.

[50] See above, p. 75.

[51] Smith's _Works_, ed. Arber, p. 95.

[52] Smith's _Works_, p. lxxii.

[53] Neil's _Virginia Company_, p. 19.

[54] Smith's _Works_, p. lxxxiv.

[55] It is true, this letter of 1616 was first made public in the "General History" in 1624 (see Smith's _Works_, p. 530); so that Smith's detractors may urge that the letter is trumped up and was never sent to Queen Anne. If so, the question recurs, Why did not some enemy or hostile critic of Smith in 1624 call attention to so flagrant a fraud?

[56] Brown's _Genesis_, ii. 964; Neill's _Virginia Vetusta_, pp. v-x.

[57] See above, p. 76.

[58] Even in The Powhatan's wigwam, it was only after "having feasted him [Smith] after their best barbarous manner they could," that the Indians brought the stones and prepared to kill him. Smith's _Works_, p. 400.

[59] It is true that in 1608 the Powhatans were still unfamiliar with white men and inclined to dread them as more or less supernatural; but they had thoroughly learned that fair skins and long beards were no safeguard against disease and death. If they did not know that the Jamestown colony had dwindled to eight-and-thirty men, they knew that their own warriors had slain all Smith's party and taken him captive.

[60] Smith's _Works_, p. 400.

[61] Id. p. 26. Of course the cases of rescue and adoption were endlessly various in circumstances; see the case of Couture, in Parkman's _Jesuits_, p. 223; on another occasion "Brigeac was tortured to death with the customary atrocities. Cuillérier, who was present, ... expected the same fate, but an old squaw happily adopted him, and thus saved his life." Parkman's _Old Régime in Canada_, revised ed. p. 108. For adoption in general see Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 80; _League of the Iroquois_, p. 342; Colden's _History of the Five Nations_, London, 1755, i. 9.

[62] Of the really critical attacks upon the story of Pocahontas, the most important are those of Charles Deane, in his _Notes on Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia_, Boston, 1859, and Henry Adams, in the _North American Review_, vol. civ. Their arguments have been ably answered by W. W. Henry, in _Proceedings of Virginia Historical Society_, 1882, and Charles Poindexter, in his _Captain John Smith and his Critics_, Richmond, 1893. There are two writers of valuable books who seldom allude to Smith without sneers and words of abuse,--Alexander Brown, of Virginia, and Edward Duffield Neill, of Minnesota; they seem to resent, as a personal grievance, the fact that the gallant captain ever existed. On the other hand, no one loves him better than the learned editor of his books, who has studied them with microscopic thoroughness, Edward Arber. My own defence of Smith, when set forth in a lecture at University College, London, 1879, was warmly approved by my friend, the late Henry Stevens.

[63] The word "raccoon" is a thorn in poor Smith's flesh, and his attempts to represent the sound of it from guttural Indian mouths are droll: "There is a beast they call _Aroughcun_, much like a badger, but useth to live on trees as squirrels do."--"He sent me presents of bread and _Raugroughcuns_."--" Covered with a great covering of _Rahoughcums_."--"A robe made of _Rarowcun_ skins," etc., etc.

[64] Doyle's _Virginia_, p. 124.

[65] Smith's _Works_, p. 122.