tore of corn with such tears and lamentations of women and children as
touched the hearts of the English with compassion.[72:A]

Returning, he descended the York as far as Werowocomoco, intending to
surprise Powhatan there, and thus secure a further supply of corn; but
Powhatan had abandoned his new house, and had carried away all his corn
and provisions; and Smith, with his party, returned to Jamestown. In
this expedition, with twenty-five pounds of copper and fifty pounds of
iron, and some beads, he procured, in exchange, two hundred pounds of
deer suet, and delivered to the Cape-merchant four hundred and
seventy-nine bushels of corn.

At Jamestown the provision of the public store had been spoiled by
exposure to the rain of the previous summer, or eaten by rats and worms.
The colonists had been living there in indolence, and a large part of
their implements and arms had been trafficked away to the Indians. Smith
undertook to remedy these disorders by discipline and labor, relieved by
pastimes and recreations; and he established it as a rule, that he who
would not work, should not eat. The whole government of the colony was
now, in effect, devolved upon him--Captain Wynne being the only other
surviving councillor, and the president having two votes. Shortly after
Smith's return, he met the Chief of Paspahegh near Jamestown, and had a
rencontre with him. This athletic savage attempting to shoot him, he
closed and grappled, when, by main strength, the chief forced him into
the river to drown him. They struggled long in the water, until Smith,
grasping the savage by the throat, well-nigh strangled him, and, drawing
his sword, was about to cut off his head, when he begged for his life so
piteously that Smith spared him, and led him prisoner to Jamestown,
where he put him in chains. He was daily visited by his wives, and
children, and people, who brought presents to ransom him. At last he
made his escape. Captain Wynne and Lieutenant Percy were dispatched,
with a party of fifty, to recapture him, failing in which they burned
the chief's cabin, and carried away his canoes. Smith now going out to
"try his conclusions" with "the salvages," slew some, and made some
prisoners, burned their cabins, and took their canoes and fishing weirs.
Shortly afterwards the president, passing through Paspahegh, on his way
to the Chickahominy, was assaulted by the Indians; but, upon his firing,
and their discovering who he was, they threw dow