Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New NationBy David A. Price, Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. 300 pp.; $25.95
The wisdom of John Smith’s firm approach to the Indians: These were notgentle children of nature yearning for Christianity. “The alternativeto intimidation was not love and friendship,” he writes, “it was openwar—which the English, in 1608, would have lost to the last man.”
The English meant no provocation, but their very presence was aprovocation. From time to time Indians found it useful to trade withthe colony, or to enlist its help in quarrels with enemies, but theirabiding attitude was hostility. Many men back in England—and many whocame later to Virginia—continued to believe harmonious relations werepossible with the “naturals,” but Smith soon understood uneasytoleration was the best the English could expect.
John Smith continued to explore, getting as far as Delaware, and thefuture site of Washington, DC. However, by 1609 he had made so manyenemies among the “gentlemen” that the company cashiered him and broughthim back to England.
He never returned to Virginia.
By this time therewere about 500 people in Jamestown, but the newcomers were still, asMr. Price explains, “looking forward to lives of idle leisure supportedby supplies from London, food from the natives, and gold from theground.” This was because the Virginia Company strictly controlled allnews about the colony, even censoring private letters, so as not todiscourage potential investors and colonists with tales of torture andstarvation. The deluded colonists were still not growing enough food tofeed themselves.
After Powhatan had met the incompetents who replaced Smith, he beganattacking the colony again with surprise raids. His men massacred aparty of English who went looking for food, and left their bodies forthe others to find, with bread stuffed in their mouths.
A ship that went out to trade with Powhatan came back empty, andwith only 16 of the 50 men who had set out on the trip. The commanderhad not taken the usual precautions with the Indians, and got the usualtreatment of slow dismemberment and burning. “And so for want ofcircumspection [he] miserably perished,” recorded one of hiscontemporaries.