Visiting the Indians

I had hoped we would go out of the river and sail farther into the bay; but this was not Governor Calvert's purpose, for he steered directly up the Potomac, or the St. Gregory's, whichever you choose to call it, and before we had well left our mooring-place, was it possible to see the savages on either side the stream running to and fro, as if in alarm. But when our little fleet advanced, they disappeared amid the foliage.

We continued on until we arrived at an Indian village in which were two or three hundred people, mayhap; and here Governor Calvert and Father Altham, with only four men to work at the oars, went on shore alone, trusting, by so coming unattended, the Indians would understand that their intent was peace and good-will.

The Dove  lay so near the bank of the stream that it was possible for us who were on board her to hear very much of what was said by the governor and the priest, when, without showing any fear whatsoever, although the savages stood in threatening attitudes, they stepped out of the boat.

"We have come as friends," Governor Calvert said, and then, to my great surprise, I heard one of the brown-skinned men reply to him in English, whereupon, like a silly, I asked John how it could be that these savages spoke in the same tongue as white men. The explanation was simple, and my face flushed with shame as I realized there was no reason why I should ask the question, for surely these Indians had not lived so far from the settlement of Jamestown but that they would have visited it, and Captain John Smith, so it was said, had been far afoot in either direction, therefore we were by no means the first white men they had seen, nor the only ones who were then among them, as we learned very shortly.

Well, there was no little talk between Governor Calvert and the Indians, after which Father Altham much the same as preached a sermon to the people, saying that we had come to live among them as brothers, and to tell them of Christ.

He spoke a long time, and, when he was done, the head man said in his own language, which was repeated in English by some of those standing near

"It is good. We will use one table. My people shall hunt for my brother, and all things shall be in common between us."