Captain Fleet's Story

I had best set down here what I afterward heard concerning this same Captain Henry Fleet, who, because of his acquaintance with the Indians, and owing to certain business transactions he had had with the man who later caused us of Maryland so much trouble, became of considerable importance during a time in our Province of Maryland.

It seemed, so the story went, that this man had been captured by the Indians a long distance inland on the river Potomac, as early as the year 1621. Why he was there I am not able to learn; but most like he had been one of Captain John Smith's company, and, being a willful man, had strayed away in search of adventure rather than serve under so masterful a leader as was Smith.

However that may be, he was taken prisoner by the Indians, and with them remained near to four years, by which time he had learned the language of his captors, and become acquainted with the country.

He was finally looked upon as a friend rather than as a prisoner, and on making known his desire to visit the settlement of Virginia, permission was readily given.

From that colony he found opportunity to sail to England, where he succeeded in persuading a merchant, one William Cloberry, to fit him out as a trader, and since then, with the pinnaces provided by Master Cloberry, has had no little intercourse with the Englishmen of Kent Island, who afterward gave us so much trouble, as I shall tell you presently.

When Captain Fleet had become satisfied that our Governor Calvert had no thought of interfering with his trading among the Indians, at least for the time being, he at once took upon himself the duties of guide and guardian, and it must be confessed that through his good offices we of Lord Baltimore's company gained a friendly footing with the savages far sooner than might have been possible under any other circumstances.