It fell to Smith's lot to trade with the Indians for provisions that were to keep the settlers alive till the return of Captain Newport. These difficult and dangerous trading expeditions he conducted with success. He always returned to Jamestown safe and with good supplies. Others, all too frequently, when these duties later devolved on them, either returned not at all or with empty baskets. Smith, no doubt, used all means in these expeditions— professions of friendship, cajolery, force, fraud, as well as fair trading. Several of these expeditions he made up the Chicka hominy. On Dec. Io he started out to discover the source of the Chickahominy, for it was thought that probably this source was in a ridge whose westerly flowing streams might have their outlet in the South Sea. It was on this trip that he was cap tured by the Indians and the best-known incident of his life occurred, namely, his rescue by Pocahontas, who when, according to the orders of Powhatan, her father, the great chief of a con federacy of Indians, he was led forth to execution in retaliation for the killing by him of an Indian in the fight in which he was captured, threw herself upon him and by her entreaties pre vailed with her father to spare his life. This was the act of a kindhearted, simple little Indian maiden of twelve or thirteen years of age who had been entertained by Smith with stories and sights of marvels in the time he had been at her father's residence before the execution had been decided on. He was then adopted as a member of the tribe. Later he was permitted to return to Jamestown. He faced another danger, however, when he returned. His enemy Gabriel Archer, who had in his absence been made a member of the Council, promptly charged him under the Levit ical law with the death of his companions. On this absurd charge he was actually tried and sentenced to be hanged. But the hanging was averted by the arrival of Captain Newport from England. When Newport with his "First Supply" arrived on the 9th of Jan. 1608, only 38 of the colonists remained of the original 105. When Newport again left the colony on April io, he took with him Captains Wingfield and Archer. On April 20 arrived the "Phoenix," Captain Francis Nelson, the consort of Newport's ship of the "First Supply." Newport's ship and Nel son's ship bad brought 120 colonists.
In the early summer of 1608 Smith set out on his famous ex ploration of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. He explored both sides of the bay far up to its head and went up the Potomac River as far as the site of the present city of Washington and up the Rappahannock as far as the site of Fredericksburg. At one time he was so violently hurt by a stingray that he found it necessary to return to Jamestown to be treated by a surgeon. On this trip—or two trips—the party travelled three thousand miles in an open boat and met many adventures. One hardly knows which more to admire, the determined endurance of Smith and his men or the careful collection of data which went later into a narrative of the expedition and into a truly remarkable map.
When Smith returned from Stingray Point to get his surgeon, he found the colonists clamouring that Ratcliffe should be deposed from the presidency and Smith put in his place. This was ac
cordingly done by the Council, but Smith asked his friend Scrivener to act for a time, and he resumed his explorations. He remained in Jamestown only from the 21st to the 24th of July. He returned from the second voyage on Sept. 7, 1608. and three days later assumed the duties of president. His activities were incessant. In October came Captain Newport with the "Second Supply" consisting of seventy colonists. The population of Jamestown now numbered about 200, of whom, owing to im proved conduct of affairs, no more than six or seven succumbed to disease before the arrival of the "Third Supply" the following year.
Newport's instructions from the Council in London, impatient for quick returns on the company's investment, were to find gold, discover the passage to the South Sea, search for Raleigh's missing colonists, crown Powhatan (in order to gain his favour), and to employ certain Poles and Dutchmen in making pitch, tar, glass, and soap-ashes. Smith was opposed to these objects, with a varying degree of intensity, as diverting energy which should be expended in making the colony self-supporting, first and foremost in the matter of the food supply. As for Powhatan, he knew that his favour and support were important, that trade with the In dians for supplies was essential, but he was opposed to the use of any great amount of flattery. It was only another case, how ever, in which a distant and imperfectly informed higher authority had to be obeyed by the able administrator on the spot. Hence Smith bent his energies toward carrying out the instructions. But when Newport returned to England, Smith sent, with his cele brated map already referred to, a letter to the Council setting forth plainly his views as to these instructions and as to all questions affecting the good of the colony. His letter is most important, stressing the necessity of sending over competent toilers to make the colony self-supporting.
During the winter Smith found it necessary to make several expeditions among the Indians to obtain corn to stave off famine and was always successful, though it was sometimes necessary for him to force the Indians to trade. He had many narrow escapes from disaster. His courage, his resourcefulness, and his knowledge of Indian character, however, brought him through. After his return from the last expedition, with what seemed to be enough corn to last for a long time, he compelled the lazy among the colonists to do their share of work, and many necessary things were done in Jamestown and the vicinity. Forty acres of corn were planted. Now the rats at Jamestown, however, ate up large quantities of the precious corn, and Smith experimented by send ing parties off to live on oysters and fish, and even billeted some among the friendly Indians in the neighbourhood of Jamestown. Despite everything untoward that had happened and the shortage of food, Smith could feel in the spring and summer of 1609 that a solid foundation was being laid for the future wellbeing of the colony. His authority was now supreme because all the other members of the Council had died or returned to England.