As misfortune is not unfrequently the parent of moderation and reflection, this state of misery produced a system of conduct towards the neighbouring Indians, which, for the moment, disarmed their resentments, and induced them to bring in such supplies as the country afforded at that season. It produced another effect of equal importance. A sense of imminent and common danger called forth those talents which were fitted to the exigency, and compelled submission to them. On captain Smith, who had preserved his health unimpaired, his spirits unbroken, and his judgment unclouded, amidst this general misery and dejection, all eyes were turned, and in him, all actual authority was placed by common consent. His example soon gave energy to others.
He erected such rude fortifications as would resist the sudden attacks of the savages, and constructed such habitations as, by sheltering the survivors from the weather, contributed to restore and preserve their health, while his own accommodation gave place to that of all others. In the season of gathering corn, he penetrated into the country at the head of small parties, and by presents and caresses to those who were well disposed, and by attacking with open force, and defeating those who were hostile, he obtained abundant supplies.
While thus actively and usefully employed abroad, he was not permitted to withdraw his attention from the domestic concerns of the colony. Incapacity for command is seldom accompanied by a willingness to relinquish power; and it will excite no surprise that the late president saw, with regret, another placed above him. As unworthy minds most readily devise unworthy means, he sought, by intriguing with the factious, and fomenting their discontents, to regain his lost authority; and when these attempts were disconcerted, he formed a conspiracy with some of the principal persons in the colony, to escape in the bark, and thus to desert the country. The vigilance of Smith detected these machinations, and his vigour defeated them.[15]
[Sidenote: Smith is captured by the Indians,]
The prospect which now presented itself of preserving the colony in quiet and plenty, until supplies could be received from England, was obscured by an event which threatened, at first, the most disastrous consequences. In attempting to explore Chiccahomini river to its source, Smith was discovered and attacked by a numerous body of Indians; and in endeavouring, after a gallant defence, to make his escape, he sank up to his neck in a swamp, and was obliged to surrender. The wonder and veneration which he excited by the exhibition of a mariner's compass, saved him from immediate death. He was conducted in triumph, through several towns, to the palace of Powhatan, the most potent king in that part of the country, who doomed him to be put to death by placing his head upon a stone, and beating out his brains with a club. At the place of execution, with his head bowed down to receive the blow, he was rescued from a fate which appeared to be inevitable, by that enthusiastic and impassioned humanity which, in every climate, and in every state of society, finds its home in the female bosom. Pocahontas, the king's favourite daughter, then about thirteen years of age, whose entreaties for his life had been ineffectual, rushed between him and the executioner, and folding his head in her arms, and laying hers upon it, arrested the fatal blow. Her father was then prevailed upon to spare his life, and he was sent back to Jamestown.[16]