tims arose as a
man and put Smith at the head of affairs.

The "terrible summer" left hardly ten men who could wield axe or hoe.
Smith himself was ill with malarial fever, yet nursed the sick, prayed
with the dying, and kept up the hearts of all by brave words and braver
action. He bought corn and meat of the Indians when they would sell, and
when they refused, secured supplies by intimidation. Yet we find him, as
soon as the immediate peril was over, again the subordinate of envious
leaders, and volunteering to satisfy malcontents in America and in
England, by heading a party in mid-December to attempt the discovery of
the great "South Sea," for so long the _ignis fatuus_ of Western
adventurers.

The explorers sailed up the James, diverging here and there into the
tortuous creeks of the Chickahominy. When stopped by shallows, Smith
procured a canoe and Indian guides and pushed on with but two other
white men (Robinson and Emry) into the unknown wilderness, teeming with
spies jealous of the foreign intruders. Attempting to land at
"Powhatan," one of "the emperor's" residences, he and his guide sank
into the morass and were fired upon from the shore.

"The salvages ... followed him with 300 bowmen, led by the king of
Pamunkee, who, searching the turnings of the river, found Robinson and
Emry by the fire-side. These they shot full of arrowes and slew."

Smith bound the Indian guide to his arm and used him as a shield, thus
saving his own life. He was, however, captured, lashed to a tree, and
would have been killed, but for his address in presenting the King
Opecancanough with "a round ivory double compass Dyall"--his own pocket
compass--directing the attention of the "salvages" to the movement of
the needle, and describing the uses of the instrument.

"A month those Babarians kept him prisoner; many strange triumphes and
conjurations they made of him, yet he so demeaned himself among them as
he not only diverted them from surprising the Fort, but procured his own
libertie, and got himself and his company such estimation among them
that these Salvages admired him as a demi-god."

From the pen of a contemporary we have the account of what led to his
"libertie." He had killed two of the attacking party, and was condemned
by Powhatan to die for the offence.

[Illustration: Captain Smith saved by Pocahontas.]

"Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner they could, a long
consultation was held; but the concl