406 James L Naval Expeditions ? <8cc of the English, Book III.
1605. They grew pretty familiar with theseTheir trea- Savages ; Eut found, as others had doneposition ^ e ' ore them, that, amidst all their spe-' clous Shews of Friendship, they werevery treacherous, and sought every Op-portunity of betraying them. Or thisthey had one very evident Proof, whenthese Savages having invited them onShoar to traffics, had very near drawnthem into an A mbufh of near three Hun-dred Men armed, after their Manner,with Bows and Arrows; But they disco-vered their Treachery in Time, and es-caped the Snare. \
The Qualities of the main Land, asfar as they discovered it, they found su-perionr in Goodness to those of the 1 -siands, notwithstanding their Fruitful-ness: But what they seemed most tovalue themselves upon, among the Dis-coveries of this Voyage, was, that of aRiver, (c) which they prefer’d to anyA noble and p nown American River. They wenteonvement ^ W] -p n t ] ie j r Ships several Leagues,
and give this Account of it. Thht, asit runs up the Main, it keeps a goodBreadth for forty Miles together; Inmost Places a Mile, in some three Quar-ters, but never less than half a Milebroad. It flows sixteen or eighteenFoot, and at low Water, is from six toten Fathom’s deep. It has Abundanceof Harbours for Ships of all Burdens,and which will secure them better fromany Wind or Weather, than any knownin Europe. On both Sides, there are,at a small Distance from one another,many fine Coves, some of them capableof containing a Hundred Sail, wherethe Ground is soft Ooze, with a toughClay underneath, for Anchor-hold. Na-ture also has made several excellentPlaces, as Docks, to grave and careenShips of all Burdens, and secure themfrom all Winds. The neighbouringLand trends along, on both Sides, in asmooth Line, and, instead of Rocks andCliffs, are border’d with Green Grafsand tall Trees, Fir, Oak, and the like.The Ground, in a Word, is such, that,with very little Labour it might be con-
Hifiory os (c) This River is now called Conneclicut-Ri-Virginia. according to the Author of the New Hiftory
British Ef,i- °f Virginia ; But the Author of the Britip Em-pire in A- P' re in America, calls it the River of Pmuhatan,merica. Southward of the Bay of Chesapeak.
Purchas, . (d) Purchas, however, speaking of the Sa-
vages desiring a Man to ly on Shoar with them,fays, one Griffin, who was one of them, thatwere to be left in the Country, by their Agree-ment with the Lord Jrundel (if it should b$
verted into good Pasture, and in ma ny 1 605.Places it is naturally so. The Riveryields vast plenty of Fish, and is, per-haps, in every Respect, as delightful,as the best Rivers of Old, described bvthe Poets, have been. On both Sidesthere are various Branches of it, thatrun into the Main Land, which afforda very easy and convenient Transporta-tion of Goods from one Place to another.
Those who come to Pentecoji- Harbour(says my Author) will easily find thisRiver; But thisCompany seems to be the Thh Compa .first of Europeans, that ever was there; ny thesisFor they could not discover, in all their Euro P eanSPassage up this River, by any Signs Freds'whatsoever, that any had been before ‘ 'them.
The Company could all have cbear- return ‘fully sate down, upon the Banks of thisRiver, and have planted there ; Buttheir Commission now run otherwise,and they were obliged to leave the far-ther Discovery of this, and the Rest ofthe Country, ’till another Time. (d) TheCaptain, having, therefore, finish’d hisTraffics with the Savages, after aboutsix Weeks Stay in the River, and hav-ing laden his Ship with Skins, Furs,
Sassafras, Tobacco, &c. he set Sail forEngland, on the sixteenth of June, car-rying five Savages along with him, to-gether with their whole Estates of Bows,
Arrows and Canoes; And arrived atDartmouth, the eighteenth of July.
Rosier, in his Relation, observes The Man-that. these five Savages, (whom theycarried all alive to England, ) tho’ when brought tothey surprized them, and carried them Esl S land -by Force on Board, they made theirbest Resistance, yet, aster they sawthey were kindly used, shewed no Man-ner of Discontent at their Condition.
They found them tractable, loving, andwilling to oblige them in every Thing *
Never at Discord one among another,nor ever shewing any Sign of Anger :
And so kind, that whenever any Thinewas given to any one of them he wouldbe sure to distribute Part of it to everyone of the Rest, One of them was a
Saga mo,
thought needful or convenient) went wirh themin their Canoe, fsfr. By which it would seem asif they were not restrained by their Commission R 0 f5 er ’.ffrom leaving a Colony, if they had been inclinedto it: , Tho'. by the small Number of Persons,that went out with them, being in all but nineand twenty, they were not the best provided forsuch a Design. Roper says only this Owen Grif-fin, and one more, were to have been left there.
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