, by a
singular transposition of names, called Wighcocomoco. Here the Indians
ran along the banks in wild amazement, some climbing to the tops of
trees and shooting their arrows at the strangers. On the following day a
volley of musquetry dispersed the savages, and the English found some
cabins, in which they left pieces of copper, beads, bells and
looking-glasses. On the ensuing day a great number of Indians, men,
women, and children, thronged around Smith and his companions with many
expressions of friendship. These savages were of the tribes Nause,
Sarapinagh, Arseek, and Nantaquak, of all others the most expert in
trade. They were of small stature like the people of Wighcocomoco; wore
the finest furs, and manufactured a great deal of Roenoke, or Indian
money, made out of shells. The Eastern Shore of the bay was found low
and well wooded; the Western well watered, but hilly and barren; the
valleys fruitful, thickly wooded, and abounding in deer, wolves, bears,
and other wild animals. A navigable stream was called Bolus, from a
parti-colored gum-like clay found on its banks, it is now known as the
Patapsco.

The party having been about a fortnight voyaging in an open boat,
fatigued at the oar, and subsisting on mouldy bread, now importuned
Smith to return to Jamestown. He at first refused, but shortly after,
the sickness of his men, and the unfavorable weather, compelled him
reluctantly to turn back, where the bay was about nine miles wide and
nine or ten fathoms deep. On the sixteenth of June they fell in with the
mouth of the Patawomeke, or Potomac, where it appeared to be seven miles
wide; and the tranquil magnificence of that majestic river reanimated
their drooping spirits, and the sick having now recovered, they agreed
to explore it.

About thirty miles above the mouth, near the future birth-place of
Washington, two Indians conducted them up a small creek, toward Nominy,
where the banks swarmed with thousands of the natives, who, with their
painted bodies and hideous yells, seemed so many infernal demons. Their
noisy threats were soon silenced by the glancing of the English bullets
on the water and the report of the muskets re-echoing in the forests,
and the astonished red men dropped their bows and arrows, and, hostages
being exchanged, received the whites kindly. Toward the head of the
river they met some canoes laden with bear, deer, and other game, which
the Indians shared with the English.

On their ret