Com Conquers Virginia 57 



the James River to Powhatan's ''Birthright; whereon he sowes 

 his wheate, beanes, peaze, tobacco/' and now the site of Rich- 

 mond. He investigated the York and the Pamunkey Rivers. So 

 he sensed the greatness of the continent behind and beyond the 

 source of those rivers. Here was no narrow isthmus such as 

 the Spaniards had found in Yucatan, with China on the far 

 side of it; but a rich and varied firmament about which he was 

 insatiably curious. Everywhere he went he found corn. And 

 of every tribe whose language he learned to speak he inquired 

 concerning their discovery of the maize. 



Still Jamestown had to buy its corn, giving for the basket- 

 fuls, knives, tools, blue beads, clothing, mirrors, as well as 

 occasional luxuries from the stores Newport and Captain Nel- 

 son brought. Only in the spring of 1609, when John Smith was 

 President, was he able to set the first cornfield in Jamestown. 

 Two Indians, Tassore and Kemps, captured the winter before, 

 "fettered prisoners and as evil a pair as would sell their king 

 for a piece of copper/' were told off to instruct the settlers 

 how to break the ground and set the seed. One is glad to 

 read that for this service they were given their freedom. Smith's 

 cornfield comprised forty acres. It flourished as had nothing 

 else the settlers had planted. When Newport arrived with the 

 third supply, the new colonists seized on seven acres of the 

 field and in three days had eaten every ear of the yield. 



Jamestown had bread to eat. Jamestown had squirrel stew 

 and venison and roasted turkey, and compotes of raspberries 

 sweetened with sugar pressed from the green maize stalks. 

 Pocahontas was responsible for some of this. As Smith wrote 

 Queen Anne, commending to her the Princess in whose honor 

 scores of English inns hung out the sign, "The Belle Savage/' 



Jamestown with her wild train, she as freely visited as her father's 

 habitation; and during the time of two or three years, she next 

 under God, was still the instrument to preserve this colony from 

 death, famine and utter confusion. 



Such was the weakness of this poor Commonwealth. As had not 

 the savage fed us, we directly had starved. And this relief, most 



