"Decem.--The 10th of December, Mr.Smyth went up the ryver of the Chechohomynies to trade for corne; he was desirous to see the heade of that river; and, when it was not passible with the shallop, he hired a cannow and an Indian to carry him up further.The river the higher grew worse and worse.Then hee went on shoare with his guide, and left Robinson and Emmery, and twoe of our Men, in the cannow;which were presently slayne by the Indians, Pamaonke's men, and hee himself taken prysoner, and, by the means of his guide, his lief was saved; and Pamaonche, haveing him prisoner, carryed him to his neybors wyroances, to see if any of them knew him for one of those which had bene, some two or three eeres before us, in a river amongst them Northward, and taken awaie some Indians from them by force.At last he brought him to the great Powaton (of whome before wee had no knowledg), who sent him home to our towne the 8th of January."The next contemporary document to which we have occasion to refer is Smith's Letter to the Treasurer and Council of Virginia in England, written in Virginia after the arrival of Newport there in September, 1608, and probably sent home by him near the close of that year.In this there is no occasion for a reference to Powhatan or his daughter, but he says in it: "I have sent you this Mappe of the Bay and Rivers, with an annexed Relation of the Countryes and Nations that inhabit them as you may see at large." This is doubtless the "Map of Virginia," with a description of the country, published some two or three years after Smith's return to England, at Oxford, 1612.
It is a description of the country and people, and contains little narrative.But with this was published, as an appendix, an account of the proceedings of the Virginia colonists from 1606 to 1612, taken out of the writings of Thomas Studley and several others who had been residents in Virginia.These several discourses were carefully edited by William Symonds, a doctor of divinity and a man of learning and repute, evidently at the request of Smith.To the end of the volume Dr.Symonds appends a note addressed to Smith, saying:
"I return you the fruit of my labors, as Mr.Cranshaw requested me, which I bestowed in reading the discourses and hearing the relations of such as have walked and observed the land of Virginia with you."These narratives by Smith's companions, which he made a part of his Oxford book, and which passed under his eye and had his approval, are uniformly not only friendly to him, but eulogistic of him, and probably omit no incident known to the writers which would do him honor or add interest to him as a knight of romance.Nor does it seem probable that Smith himself would have omitted to mention the dramatic scene of the prevented execution if it had occurred to him.
If there had been a reason in the minds of others in 1608 why it should not appear in the "True Relation," that reason did not exist for Smith at this time, when the discords and discouragements of the colony were fully known.And by this time the young girl Pocahontas had become well known to the colonists at Jamestown.The account of this Chickahominy voyage given in this volume, published in 1612, is signed by Thomas Studley, and is as follows:
