or in wigwams. Their food was vegetables, fish, or the animals that they shot. Their tools and weapons were made of stone or bone. Their boats were canoes or dug-outs.

The papoose was protected by a wooden framework. The girls learned to
make household utensils, to cook, raise corn, and make the clothes of
the family. The boys learned to hunt, fish, and make their own
weapons. Their games were often tests of endurance.

The warrior always had a scalp-lock. He shot from behind rocks and trees
He often tortured prisoners.

Wampum was used for money and for keeping the records of the tribe.
The Indians believed that after death they would live again. They remem-
bered a kindness, but never forgot an injury. They welcomed the first
white men as teachers come from the skies.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK.

An Indian boy tells a white boy how to build a wigwam.

An Indian girl tells how her mother cooks the dinner.

The Indians held a council about making war upon the whites; what did they say?

Plymouth

and London

Companies

V

VIRGINIA, THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH
COLONY

SIR WALTER RALEIGH at last concluded that planting colonies should be the work of a king or of a company of men, and he gave up his claim to the American lands. While he was in prison, two companies were formed to send colonists to Virginia. They were named the Plymouth Company and the London Company. King James gave to the Plymouth Company the land between Nova Scotia and Long Island, and to the London Company, the land between the Potomac and Cape Fear. From the Atlantic

to the Pacific is about three thousand miles. but no one supposed then that it was more than one or two hundred, and King James declared that these grants were to extend from ocean to ocean. The strip between the two claims was to belong to the company that could colonize it first. The Plymouth Company did little more than to coast along the

shore and trade with the In-
dians, but the London Com- The London
pany founded the first per- first colony
Company's

manent English settlement in
America.

In 1607 the London Com-
pany sent out one hundred
and five men. Many promi-
nent persons in England were
interested in this colony, and
Hakluyt wrote them a long
letter of advice. He told
them to be kind to the "nat-
urals," as he called the In-
dians, but not to trust them.

An English poet wrote a poem Ideas of
Virginia
about "Virginia, earth's only
paradise." In the plays of
the time there was much talk

about this marvelous country. One character says:

"I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us. . . All the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather them by the seashore to hang on their children's coats and stick in their children's caps."

The little company sailed for America. Up the coast they

went; between two points of land, which they named Cape Charles and Cape Henry in honor of the two sons of King

ENGLISH SOLDIER OF 1603

Sickness and other troubles

James; and up a river, which they named the

James River in honor of the king himself. On a peninsula which extended into the stream they decided to make their settlement. They called it Jamestown.

Everything was against the colony. They had thought more of defense than of good air, and they had settled where it was damp and unhealthy. The river water was not fit to drink. They had so scanty a supply of food that one pint of wormy

was all that could be allowed
to a man. Such a hot sum-
mer they had never known.
Fever broke out, and more
than half the company died.

Some of these troubles
might have been avoided if
the colonists had been a dif-
ferent kind of men, but half
of them had no idea how to
work with their hands. Some
had come to see what adven-
tures they might meet with,
some to search for gold, and

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

some with the hope of winning glory and a royal reward by finding the Northwest Passage. All these men needed houses, and there were but four carpenters in the party.

tures of John

Smith

With sickness and hunger and helplessness there would have been little hope for the colonists if there had not been among Early adventheir number one man, Captain John Smith, who knew what to do. He wrote the story of his life, and it is full of adventures almost as wonderful as those of Sindbad the Sailor. When he came to Virginia, he was only twenty-seven years of age, and in those twenty-seven years he had served as a soldier in three or four countries, and had been tossed into the sea as one whom a company of self-right

eous pilgrims thought would bring them bad luck. Three times he had engaged in single combat with a Turkish champion, while two armies watched the contest with delight. He was taken prisoner by the Turks

and made to wear a heavy iron collar. He escaped to Rus

SMITH DEFEATS THE TURKISH CHAMPION

(From a rare print. The crescent and cross above distinguish
the Turk from the Christian)

sia, and finally made his way back to England just in time to
join the Virginia expedition. His story is a strange one, but in
those days of wild adventures it was not impossible for such
things to come to pass.

Some of the Indians about Jamestown were hostile, others were inclined to be friendly. Smith contrived to compel the hostile tribes and persuade the friendly ones to sell the colonists corn. John Smith After a while he set out on an exploring trip up one of the rivers. Indians He was taken prisoner, but he showed the Indians his pocket

and the

compass, and they hardly dared to kill a man who had such a wonderful article; he might bring some terrible evil upon them. After much discussion, however, it was decided

to run the risk. His head was laid upon a stone, Pocahontas and the warriors were ready to strike, when Pocahontas, the little daughter of the chief, claimed the prisoner as hers, and his life was saved. This is the story that Smith tells, and there is no special reason for doubting it. It was not uncommon among the Indians for one of the tribe to rescue a prisoner in this way. The chief, Powhatan, was perhaps a little amused to see the child claiming the rights of a grown person; and then, too, he was half afraid to put the man to death, and it may be that he was glad to find a way to

A GENTLEMAN OF 1610

avoid it. Powhatan told Smith that he was now a mem、 ber of their tribe and might go back to his white friends whenever he chose.

On the day of Smith's return another shipload of men arrived from England, but they would do nothing except to search for gold. Before long some earth was found that was full of bright yellow grains of metal. "That is gold," they cried in delight, and the ship was sent back across the ocean with what proved to be worthless dirt. A third shipload of men came, but they were like the others, eager to search for gold, and with no idea of doing any work. John Smith was now governor of the colony, and he wrote to the London Company: "Send us but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and dig. gers up of trees' roots, rather than a thousand of such as we have."