give their countrymen notice of the event of their expedition. They uttered six dismal yells to announce that six of their party had been slain; and sent forth one war-hoop, to proclaim that they had brought home a pris

oner.

The yell of these Indians resembled the sound of Whoo, whoo, whoop, which was continued in a long shrill tone till their breath was exhausted, when they suddenly paused with a horrid shout. The war-hoop was a cry yet louder, which they modulated into notes, by placing the hand before the mouth. They could be both very distinctly heard at a considerable distance.

It was evening when the Indians approached the town of Orapakes with their prisoner. The moon was walking in brightness, the firefly was on the wing, and the melancholy note of the Muckawiss * was heard from the woods.

The whole village came out to learn the particulars of what they had only heard in general terms; and now a widow was to be seen mourning her husband, a mistress bewailing her lover, and children crying for their fathers.

But unspeakable was the astonishment of the women and children on beholding the prisoner, who was so unlike any human being *Whip-poor-will.

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they had ever before seen. They gazed with speechless wonder at him; some clasping their hands in dumb admiration; some contrasting the redness of their own colour with the whiteness of his; and others unbuttoning his clothes and buttoning them again with a loud laugh.

The men, however, betrayed, or affected to betray, no emotions of surprise. The old people sat with stoical composure in separate circles on the ground, smoking their calumets by moonlight, and conversing with profound gravity; while the young fellows pursued the exercises that engaged them, shooting arrows at a mark, throwing the hatchet, wrestling, and running. All the domestic drudgery devolved on the women. Of these some were busied in splitting wood, some bearing logs from the forest, and some kindling fires.

When the wonder produced among the women by the novelty of Smith's appearance subsided, they all joined in a yo-hah, or huzza, which was not deficient in harmony. An elder then rose and harangued the female multitude. The object of his speech was to enjoin them to satiate their revenge on the back of the prisoner, who was sentenced to run the gauntlet, for the War Captains whom he had slain. The women then provided themselves with twigs, and having drawn themselves up in two lines, Smith was stripped, and compelled to run the gauntlet through the crowd.

Cruelty was succeeded by kindness. A repast of Indian corn was placed before him, on which having fed, half a dozen of the prettiest squaws in the village, who had washed and adorned themselves with much coquetry, were presented to the stranger, for him to select a mistress. But Smith, whose back still smarted under the lashes they had so prodigally bestowed upon him, felt very little disposed for dalliance; and he turned away unmoved by their seducing attitudes.

It is not to be supposed that the slumbers of Smith were very soft; but, however he might have been inclined to sleep, the horrid noises that prevailed through the night in the village would have rendered it impracticable; for the relations of those whom he had slain never remitted their yells; but when one was exhausted, another prolonged the clamour.

Smith passed the night in the wigwam of Opechancanough, and here he was witness to the mode of carrying on an Indian intrigue. When Opechancanough and his family were snoring on the ground, a young Indian stole softly through the door, walking on his hands and feet, somewhat after the manner of a bear. Smith, who was not ignorant of the implacable resentment of the Indian character, was led to suppose it was some assassin coming to revenge the death of a relation, and seizing a tomahawk which lay on the ground, he pre

pared to resist the murderer; but he soon discovered that a softer passion than revenge stimulated this nocturnal visitor. The Indian gently approached the embers of the fire which was not quite extinguished, and, lighting a splinter of wood, advanced with great caution towards a young squaw, who was reposing in the wigwam; he then uncovered her head, and jogged her till she waked, or pretended to wake. The nymph rising up, the lover held to her the light, which he had carefully concealed in the hollow of his hand; and which she immediately blew out. This act inflamed the respectful lover to boldness; for it discovered that the heart of his mistress was not cruel.

Smith passed the night in a conflict of hope and fear; but the next morning, while his mind was still filled with the horrors of an imaginary death, he was on the brink of experiencing a real one. An Indian Chief, whose son during the night had been seized with a delirious fever, hid himself behind a tree, and when Smith approached it, conversing with Opechancanough, threw a hatchet at his head, which underwent a rotary motion as it flew through the air, and had not Smith stooped providentially at the moment to gather a flower, his soul had certainly been dispatched to the region of ghosts. The superstition of the savage had ascribed his

son's disorder to the sorcery of the prisoner; whom the Indians conducted to the raving man, imploring he would recover him. Smith, having examined the fellow, assumed a profound look, and informed the bystanders, that he had a water at James-town, which, in such a disorder, never failed to produce a cure; but Opechancanough had more cunning than to allow him to go and fetch it.

Smith found the Indians at Orapakes making the greatest preparations for an assault upon James-town. To facilitate their designs, they desired Smith's advice and assistance; holding out to him the alluring rewards of life, and liberty, and lands, and women. But he represented to them the danger of the attempt with such hyperbolical amplification; and described the springing of mines, great guns, and other warlike engines, with such an aggrandizement of horror, that the hearers were exceedingly terrified and amazed. And then he persuaded some of them to go to James-town, under the pretence of obtaining toys; and in the leaf of a table-book he apprized the Colonists of the warlike preparations of the beseigers, directing them to affright the messengers with the explosion of bombs, and not to fail sending the things that he wrote for. Within three days the messengers returned, greatly astonished themselves,