dungeon, sent
him some victuals and charcoal for a fire. "Ere midnight his brother
returned with the pistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was so
smothered with the smoke he had made, and so piteously burnt, that we
found him dead. The other most lamentably bewailed his death, and broke
forth in such bitter agonies, that the President, to quiet him, told him
that if hereafter they would not steal, he would make him alive again;
but he (Smith) little thought he could be recovered." Nevertheless, by
a liberal use of aqua vitae and vinegar the Indian was brought again to
life, but "so drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the which as
much tormented and grieved the other as before to see him dead." Upon
further promise of good behavior Smith promised to bring the Indian out
of this malady also, and so laid him by a fire to sleep. In the morning
the savage had recovered his perfect senses, his wounds were dressed,
and the brothers with presents of copper were sent away well contented.
This was spread among the savages for a miracle, that Smith could make
a man alive that was dead. He narrates a second incident which served
to give the Indians a wholesome fear of the whites: "Another ingenious
savage of Powhatan having gotten a great bag of powder and the back of
an armour at Werowocomoco, amongst a many of his companions, to show
his extraordinary skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen the
soldiers at Jamestown. But he dried it so long, they peeping over it to
see his skill, it took fire, and blew him to death, and one or two more,
and the rest so scorched they had little pleasure any more to meddle
with gunpowder."

"These and many other such pretty incidents," says Smith, "so amazed
and affrighted Powhatan and his people that from all parts they desired
peace;" stolen articles were returned, thieves sent to Jamestown for
punishment, and the whole country became as free for the whites as for
the Indians.

And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a prosperous period of three
months, the longest season of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but only a
respite from greater disasters. The friendship of the Indians and the
temporary subordination of the settlers we must attribute to Smith's
vigor, shrewdness, and spirit of industry. It was much easier to manage
the Indian's than the idle and vicious men that composed the majority of
the settlement.

In these three months they manufactured three or four lasts (f