rrender. 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]

[Footnote 16: Stith.]

[Sidenote: Returns to Jamestown.]

On arriving at that place, after an absence of seven weeks, he found
the colony reduced to thirty-eight persons, who seemed determined to
abandon a country which appeared to them so unfavourable to human
life. He came just in time to prevent the execution of this design.
Alternately employing persuasion, threats, and even violence, he
induced the majority to relinquish their intention; then turning the
guns of the fort on the bark, on board which were the most determined,
he compelled her to remain, or sink in the river.[17]

[Footnote 17: Stith.]

By a judicious regulation of intercourse with the Indians, over whom
he had gained considerable influence, he restored plenty to the
colony, and preserved it until the arrival of two vessels which had
been dispatched from England under the command of captain Newport,
with a supply of provisions and instruments of husbandry, and with a
reinforcement of one hundred and twenty persons, composed of many
gentlemen, several refiners, gold smiths, and jewellers, and a few
labourers.

The influence of Smith disappeared with the danger which had produced
it, and was succeeded by an improvident relaxation of discipline,
productive of the most pernicious consequences.[18]

[Footnote 18: Ibid.]

[Sidenote: A glittering earth mistaken for gold dust.]

About this time, a shining earth, mistaken by the colonists for gold
dust, was found in a sma