A first book in American history, with special reference to the lives and deeds of great Americans . the Indians thought that men who sailed in bigcanoes and discharged guns that blazed and smoked andmade a noise like thunder and knocked the trees down,must have some mysterious power. But they also thoughtthat if they could persuade the white people to give themsome big guns they could easily conquer all the Indiantribes with which they were at war. The Indians surrounded Smith with curious charms byway of finding out whether he was friendly to them ornot. They fed him very wel
A first book in American history, with special reference to the lives and deeds of great Americans . the Indians thought that men who sailed in bigcanoes and discharged guns that blazed and smoked andmade a noise like thunder and knocked the trees down,must have some mysterious power. But they also thoughtthat if they could persuade the white people to give themsome big guns they could easily conquer all the Indiantribes with which they were at war. The Indians surrounded Smith with curious charms byway of finding out whether he was friendly to them ornot. They fed him very well; but Smith, who was as igno-rant of Indians as they were ofwhite people, thought that theywere fattening him to eat him,so he did not have much appetite. Powhatan [pow-ha-tan] wasthe name of the great chief ofthese Indians. This chief setSmith free. He sent some menalong with him on his return to Jamestown to bring backtwo cannons and a grindstone in exchange for the prisoner;but the Indians found these things rather too heavy to carry,and they were forced to return with nothing but 28 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. Captain Smith seems to have been the best man tocontrol the unruly settlers and manage the Indians. Thepeople in England who had sent out this colony thoughtthey could make the chief, Powhatan, friendly by send-ing him presents. They sent him a crown, a wash basin,and a bedstead, also a red robe, and other things quite un-necessary to a wild Indian. But when Powhatan for thefirst time in his life had a bedstead and a wash basin anda red gown, he thought himself so important that hewould not sell corn to the settlers, who were in dangerof starving. Captain Smith, however, showed him someblue glass beads, pretending that he could not sell thembecause they were made of some substance like the sky,and were to be worn only by the greatest princes. Pow-hatan became Ka]f crazy to get these precious jewels, andSmith bought a large boat-load of corn for a pound or twoof be
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Keywords: ., bookauthoregglesto, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1915
