He was in charge of what for North America was quite a
large empire. But he had many enemies and lacked the
overwhelming centralized political control of the Incas.
Wahunsunacock decided to see what the intentions of the
English were, initially sending messengers saying that he
desired friendly relations with them.
As the winter of 1607 closed in, the settlers in
Jamestown began to run low on food, and the appointed
leader of the colony’s ruling council, Edward Marie
Wingfield, dithered indecisively. The situation was rescued
by Captain John Smith. Smith, whose writings provide one
of our main sources of information about the early
development of the colony, was a larger-than-life character.
Born in England, in rural Lincolnshire, he disregarded his
father’s desires for him to go into business and instead
became a soldier of fortune. He first fought with English
armies in the Netherlands, after which he joined Austrian
forces serving in Hungary fighting against the armies of the
Ottoman Empire. Captured in Romania, he was sold as a
slave and put to work as a field hand. He managed one day
to overcome his master and, stealing his clothes and his
horse, escape back into Austrian territory. Smith had got
himself into trouble on the voyage to Virginia and was
imprisoned on the Susan Constant for mutiny after defying
the orders of Wingfield. When the ships reached the New
World, the plan was to put him on trial. To the immense
horror of Wingfield, Newport, and other elite colonists,
however, when they opened their sealed orders, they
discovered that the Virginia Company had nominated
Smith to be a member of the ruling council that was to
govern Jamestown.
With Newport sailing back to England for supplies and
more colonists, and Wingfield uncertain about what to do, it
was Smith who saved the colony. He initiated a series of
trading missions that secured vital food supplies. On one of
these he was captured by Opechancanough, one of
Wahunsunacock’s younger brothers, and was brought
before the king at Werowocomoco. He was the first
Englishman to meet Wahunsunacock, and it was at this
initial meeting that according to some accounts Smith’s life
was saved only at the intervention of Wahunsunacock’s
young daughter Pocahontas. Freed on January 2, 1608,