Powhatan, and he had on a robe of raccoon skins with all the tails hanging.
About him sat his chief men, and behind these were gathered women. All were
painted, head and shoulders; all wore, bound about the head, adornments
meant to strike with beauty or with terror; all had chains of beads. Smith
does not report what he said to Powhatan, or Powhatan to him. He says that
the Queen of Appamatuck brought him water for his hands, and that there was
made a great feast. When this was over, the Indians held a council. It
ended in a death decree. Incontinently Smith was seized, dragged to a great
stone lying before Powhatan, forced down and bound. The Indians made ready
their clubs; meaning to batter his brains out. Then, says Smith, occurred
the miracle.

A child of Powhatan's, a very young girl called Pocahontas, sprang from
among the women, ran to the stone, and with her own body sheltered that of
the Englishman....*

* A vast amount of erudition has been expended by historical students to
establish the truth or falsity of this Pocahontas story. The author has
refrained from entering the controversy, preferring to let the story stand
as it was told by Captain Smith in his "General History" (1624).--Editor.


What, in Powhatan's mind, of hesitation, wiliness, or good nature backed
his daughter's plea is not known. But Smith did not have his brains beaten
out. He was released, taken by some form of adoption into the tribe, and
set to using those same brains in the making of hatchets and ornaments. A
few days passed and he was yet further enlarged. Powhatan longed for two of
the great guns possessed by the white men and for a grindstone. He would
send Smith back to Jamestown if in return he was sure of getting those
treasures. It is to be supposed that Smith promised him guns and