Stories of American Life and Adventure | Page 2

crossed the Mountains
Finding Gold in California
Descending the Grand Canyon
The-Man-that-draws-the-Handcart
The Lazy, Lucky Indian
Peter Petersen

The Greatest of Telescope Makers
Adventures in Alaska

STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE.

A WHITE BOY AMONG THE INDIANS.
Among the people that came to Virginia in 1609, two years after the
colony was planted, was a boy named Henry Spelman. He was the son
of a well-known man. He had been a bad and troublesome boy in
England, and his family sent him to Virginia, thinking that he might be
better in the new country. At least his friends thought he would not
trouble them so much when he was so far away.
Many hundreds of people came at the same time that Henry Spelman
did. Captain John Smith was then governor of the little colony. He was
puzzled to know how to feed all these people. As many of them were
troublesome, he was still more puzzled to know how to govern them.
In order not to have so many to feed, he sent some of them to live
among the Indians here and there. A chief called Little Powhatan asked
Smith to send some of his men to live with him. The Indians wanted to
get the white men to live among them, so as to learn to make the things
that the white men had. Captain Smith agreed to give the boy Henry
Spelman to Little Powhatan, if the chief would give him a place to
plant a new settlement.
Spelman staid awhile with the chief, and then he went back to the
English at Jamestown.
But when he came to Jamestown he was sorry that he had not staid
among the Indians. Captain John Smith had gone home to England.
George Percy was now governor of the English. They had very little
food to eat, and Spelman began to be afraid that he might starve to

death with the rest of them. Powhatan--not Little Powhatan, but the
great Powhatan, who was chief over all the other chiefs in the
neighborhood--sent a white man who was living with him to carry
some deer meat to Jamestown. When it came time for this white man to
go back, he asked that some of his countrymen might go to the Indian
country with him. The governor sent Spelman, who was glad enough to
go to the Indians again, because they had plenty of food to eat.
Three weeks after this, Powhatan sent Henry Spelman back to
Jamestown to say to the English, that if they would come to his country,
and bring him some copper, he would give them some corn for it. The
Indians at this time had no iron, and what little copper they had they
bought from other Indians, who probably got it from the copper mines
far away on Lake Superior.
The English greatly needed corn, so they took a boat and went up to the
Indian country with copper, in order to buy corn. They quarreled with
the Indians about the measurement of the corn. The Indians hid
themselves near the water, and, while the white men were carrying the
corn on their vessel, the Indians killed some of them. About this time,
seeing that the white men were so hungry, the Indians began to hope
that they would be able to drive them all out of the country.
Powhatan saved Spelman from being killed by the Indians; but, now
that the Indians were at war with the white men, who were shut up in
Jamestown without food, they wished to kill all the white people in the
country.
Spelman and a Dutchman, who also lived with Powhatan, began to be
afraid that he would not protect them any longer. So, when a chief of
the Potomac Indians visited Powhatan, and asked the Dutchman and
the boy to go to his country, they left Powhatan and went back with
them. Powhatan sent messengers after them, who killed the Dutchman.
Henry Spelman ran away into the woods. Powhatan's men followed
him, but the Potomacs got hold of Powhatan's men, and held them back
until Spelman could get away. The boy managed at last to get to the
country of the Potomac Indians.

It was very lucky for Spelman that he was among the Indians at this
time. Nearly all the white people in Jamestown were killed, or died of
hunger. Spelman lived among the Indians for years. During this time
more people came from England, and settled at Jamestown. A ship
from Jamestown came up into the Potomac River to trade. The captain
of the ship bought Spelman from the Indians. He was now a young man,
and, as he could speak both the Indian language and the English, he
was very useful in carrying on