When the council was constituted, Edward Maria Wingfield was elected
president--a man who always proved an inveterate enemy to Smith, and who
speedily attracted the hatred even of his accomplices by his rapacity,
his cowardice, and his selfish extravagance. Smith demanded a trial, but
the council feared to trust their wretched charge to an impartial jury,
and pretended, in mercy to him, to keep him under suspension. But their
own incompetence soon brought his talents into demand. He accompanied
Newport upon an exploring voyage up the river, and ascended to the
residence of King Powhatan, a few miles below the falls, and not far from
the spot now occupied by the city of Richmond. The royal seat consisted
of twelve small houses, pleasantly placed on the north bank of the river,
and immediately in front of three verdant islets. His Indian majesty
received them with becoming hospitality, though his profound
dissimulation corresponded but too well with the treacherous designs of
his followers. He had long ruled with sovereign sway among the most
powerful tribes of Virginia, who had been successively subdued by his
arms, and he now regarded with distrust the event of men whom his
experience taught him to fear and his injuries to detest.
On their return to Jamestown they found that, during their absence, the
Indians had made an attack upon the settlement, had slain one boy, and
wounded seventeen men.
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