ts go to ruin; not regarding the security of the people against
the Indians, neglecting the corn, and applying all hands to plant
tobacco, which promised the most immediate gain. In this condition they
were when Capt. Samuel Argall was sent thither governor, Anno 1617, who
found the number of people reduced to little more than four hundred, of
which not above half were fit for labor. In the meanwhile the Indians
mixing among them, got experience daily in fire arms, and some of them
were instructed therein by the English themselves, and employed to hunt
and kill wild fowl for them. So great was their security upon this
marriage; but governor Argall not liking those methods, regulated them
on his arrival, and Capt. Yardly returned to England.

Sec. 33. Governor Argall made the colony flourish and increase
wonderfully, and kept them in great plenty and quiet. The next year,
viz.: Anno 1618, the Lord Delawarr was sent over again with two hundred
men more for the settlement, with other necessaries suitable: but
sailing by the Western Islands, they met with contrary winds, and great
sickness; so that about thirty of them died, among which the Lord
Delawarr was one. By which means the government there still continued in
the hands of Capt. Argall.

Sec. 34. Powhatan died in April the same year, leaving his second brother
Itopatin in possession of his empire, a prince far short of the parts of
Oppechancanough, who by some was said to be his elder brother, and then
king of Chickahomony; but he having debauched them from the allegiance
of Powhatan, was disinherited by him. This Oppechancanough was a cunning
and a brave prince, and soon grasped all the empire to himself. But at
first they jointly renewed the peace with the English, upon the
accession of Itopatin to the crown.

Sec. 35. Governor Argall flourishing thus under the blessings of peace and
plenty, and having no occasion of fear or disturbance from the Indians,
sought new occasions of encouraging the plantation. To that end, he
intended a coasting voyage to the northward, to view the places where
the English ships had so often laded; and if he missed them, to reach
the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, and so settle a trade and
correspondence either with the one or the other. In accomplishing
whereof, as he touched at Cape Cod, he was informed by the Indians, that
some white people like him were come to inhabit to the northward of
them, upon the coast of their nei