Draft Interpretive Plan Join the adventure! - Captain John Smith ...

conversion to Christianity, as well as information about the country that might be useful
and goods that were worth trading for or taking by force.
Powhatan, the paramount chief of numerous tribes near Jamestown, probably considered
the Englishmen nuisances who might nonetheless prove helpful in countering hostile
tribes and supplying useful trade goods, assuming that they survived or remained in his
territory long enough to serve his purposes. (The Native peoples here, as well as
elsewhere along the East Coast, had seen other Europeans come and go.) Initially,
Powhatan gave the English newcomers hospitality and attempted to incorporate them into
his political domain (polity). His people guided them through the woods and up the
rivers and streams. They answered the strangers’ questions, drew maps for them in the
sand, and gave them feasts. They brought venison and corn to Jamestown and even took
some of them into their towns and homes during the winter. Powhatan’s careful
calculations about the English and—probably—whether to kill them or feed them were
made in an environment in which such decisions could affect the perception of his power,
shift his alliances with other polities, and literally result in either death or prosperity for
his people.
The English traveled throughout the Bay and encountered both conflict and cooperation
with various Chesapeake Bay tribes. They established alliances, and in some instances,
they disrupted long-established networks of trade and politics through a variety of
exploits. Some of the Englishmen who regularly interacted with the native peoples
developed a greater understanding of them. Clearly, the English settlers would not have
survived without the assistance of the Chesapeake peoples, and Smith would not have
accomplished his mission without their aid.
Smith’s Explorations
In exploring the Chesapeake Bay, Captain John Smith was following Company
instructions to locate a quicker and easier route (a “Northwest Passage”) to the riches of
the Orient, seek valuable minerals, identify fish and wildlife, study the forests for useful
timber, locate good ports, and learn about the native peoples’ towns and numbers of
warriors.
“There is but one entraunce by sea into this country, and
that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay…Within is a
country that may have the perogative over the most
pleasant places of Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, for
large and pleasant navigable rivers…Here are
mountains, hils, plaines, alley, rivers, and brookes all
running most pleasantly into a faire Bay compassed but
for the mouth with fruitful and delightsome land.” -
Captain John Smith, Description of Virginia, 1612
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