Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/258

170 WORKMEN AND HEROES (Ratcliffe) " the next day to have put him " (Smith) " to death by' the Leviticall law for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending the fault was his that had led them to their ends; but he quickly took such order with such lawyers that he layd them by the heeles till he sent some of them prisoners to England." The colony was almost destitute of food, and the memories of the famine of last year terrified the imaginations of those who had lived through it. " Gentle- men " having again predominated in reinforcements sent from England, the crops planted and gathered in Smith's absence had been meagre, while rats brought over in one of the vessels had wrought havoc with stored grain. Like an angel of mercy was the apparition of Pocahontas, at the head of a "wild train " of Ind- ians laden with corn and game, approaching the fort. " Ever once in four or five days during the time of two or three years," the young princess, thus attended, visited the fort and succored the needy settlers. Smith declares that " next under God she preserved the colony from death, famine, and utter confu- sion." He might have subjoined that, but for himself, not even Pocahontas's bounty could have saved the settlement from the consequences of misconduct and misrule. His was the only voice lifted to condemn the mad folly of loading a home- ward-bound vessel with the glittering mud of a neighboring creek. That he was " not enamored of their dirty skill to freight such a drunken ship with so much gilded dirt " was one of the mildest of his phrases, as, " breathing out these and many other passions," he harangued those who had " no thought, no discourse, no hope, and no work but to dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, and load gold." Before the English assayers confirmed his judgment as to the value of this cargo, the intrepid adventurer had sailed, with fourteen others, up the Chesapeake into new and wonderful regions. Never losing heart, even when he believed himself to be dying from the sting of a poisonous fish, he discovered and entered the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and tributary creeks, fighting his way when not allowed to proceed peaceably. In July (1608) he led another party to the spot now occupied by the city of Baltimore, and made friends with a tribe called Susquehannocks, believed to be sun-worshippers. Returning from these voyages of three thousand miles in all, he drew in masterly style a chart of the countries explored, and sent it to England. Jamestown was still in a state of what he calls " combustion," under the tyranny of Ratcliffe. Emboldened by Smith's return, the colonists deposed the hated governor, and formally elected Smith Governor of Virginia. The winter closed in upon an "affrighted" population. Storehouses were nearly empty, agriculture having been neglected in the gold fever. As Smith could not be " persuaded to use " the gallows, so he now announced that " no persuasion could persuade him to starve." In company with George Percy and fifty others, he visited his old ally Powhatan, and tried to buy food. A change had come to the emperor's heart. He addressed his quondam armorer as a " rash youth ; " pro- tested that he was afraid of him, and would not treat with the English unless they came to him unarmed. Warned by Pocahontas, who stole through the