It was not until Smith was placed in charge of the affairs of the Colony that a successful attempt was made by the Englishmen to plant Indian corn.[1] Previous to 1609 they had been absolutely dependent on the capricious and treacherous aborigines for a precarious supply of grain when the stock from England was exhausted. The few small fields which they had been able to sow in wheat had not produced a large quantity. The mass of the settlers, wishing to return to England, were anxious that these experiments in agriculture should fail, and as soon as the hope of finding gold proved to be untenable, they sought to disperse all the agricultural implements upon which the people must rely for a permanent subsistence. In introducing the culture of maize among the colonists, Smith was only giving an additional proof of his sound practical judgment. It is obvious that
- ↑ When Newport and his company were returning from the Falls of the Powhatan in the spring in which the colonists arrived in Virginia, they stopped for awhile at Arrahattock. While there, it is stated that the Indians showed the English “the growing of their corne and the manner of setting it.” See Relatyon of the Discovery of Our River, p. xlviii. Francis Perkins, who reached Jamestown in the First Supply (January 4, 1607, O. S.), writing in the following March (28th, 1608) declares that Powhatan “has sent us some of his people that they may teach us how to sow the grain of this Country.” If this occurred after the arrival of Perkins, it was mere instruction, as maize would have been planted to no purpose previous to March 28th, the date of the letter in which he refers to the act of Powhatan. It seems unlikely that the settlers were tutored by the Indians in the course of 1607, as they had not been long in Virginia before they were stricken with a terrible epidemic, which disabled those who did not perish from working in the ground. Up to ten days before this epidemic they had been at war with the savages. The letter of Perkins will be found in Brown’s Genesis of the United States, p. 173. See p. 175 for the reference. If the colonists had already been instructed by the Indians as to the proper manner of planting maize, it would not have been necessary for Smith in the following year (1609) to rely upon the knowledge of his two captives, Kemps and Tassore: “They taught us,” it is stated in Smith’s History, p. 155, “how to order and plant our fields.”
