Book Description

Excerpt from Half-Forgotten Romances of American History It was winter in Virginia, A. D. 1607. Gone were the Italian blue skies of the spring and summer which had charmed the Jamestown settlers when the ships Godspeed, Susan Constant and the Discovery sailed up the Powhatan River, rechristened by the voyagers the "James" in honor of the King of England. The dogwood, wild cherry, crab apple, mulberry and persimmon trees had lost their blooms, but here and there through grim, white woods gleamed the red of the holly tree. On giant oaks clustered the white berry of the mistletoe, a strange reminder to the Englishmen of the Druid faith of their forefathers. In the Indian village, Werowocomoco, on the York River, lived the mighty Powhatan, chief of the region. The village was situated about three miles above the present Yorktown, where the lion of England surrendered in later years to the lion's cub, America. It was one of three capital villages of the Powhatan confederation of Indians. The others were Orapakes, on the Chickahominy River, near Powhatan, and Powhatan, near the present site of the city of Richmond. Werowocomoco was composed of 25 or 30 wigwams or houses built of saplings. These were planted at regular distances like posts, then bent over and tied together in the middle. The houses were built up by skillful application of barks and grasses adroitly interwoven. Their shape was either oblong or circular. Sixty stalwart warriors guarded the sacred person of Powhatan. Powhatan's domestic relations are quaintly put: "He had a multiplicity of women." It is apparent that Powhatan, in common with other royalties, followed King Solomon's practical advice and brought upon himself marital trouble by adding rather than reducing possibilities in the number of wives. Powhatan, however, had one kingly prerogative lesser mortals lack in these more progressive days. If he tired of a wife, he gave her away to a friend as a token of royal favor. Such an improvement on the modern divorce court! T. R. would have rejoiced in Powhatan's family. He had twenty sons and twelve daughters. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.