What went on, in Virginia, in the Indian mind, can only be conjectured. As
little as the white mind could it foresee the trend of events or the
ultimate outcome of present policy. There was exhibited a see-saw policy,
or perhaps no policy at all, only the emotional fit as it came hot or cold.
The friendly act trod upon the hostile, the hostile upon the friendly.
Through the miserable summer the hostile was uppermost; then with the
autumn appeared the friendly mood, fortunate enough for "the most feeble
wretches" at Jamestown. Indians came laden with maize and venison. The heat
was a thing of the past; cool and bracing weather appeared; and with it
great flocks of wild fowl, "swans, geese, ducks and cranes." Famine
vanished, sickness decreased. The dead were dead. Of the hundred and four
persons left by Newport less than fifty had survived. But these may be
thought of as indeed seasoned.



CHAPTER IV. JOHN SMITH

With the cool weather began active exploration, the object in chief the
gathering from the Indians, by persuasion or trade or show of force, food
for the approaching winter. Here John Smith steps forward as leader.

There begins a string of adventures of that hardy and romantic individual.
How much in Smith's extant narrations is exaggeration, how much is
dispossession of others' merits in favor of his own, it is difficult now to
say.* A thing that one little likes is his persistent depreciation of his
fellows. There is but one Noble Adventurer, and that one is John Smith. On
the other hand evident enough are his courage and initiative, his
ingenuity, and his rough, practical sagacity. Let us take him at something
less than his own valuation, but yet as valuable enough. As for his