intoxication from her lips. The sun had appeared above the mountains when Pocahontas returned through the woods.

In the early part of the year 1612, two more ships arrived from England with men and provisions. They found the colony much distressed for want of grain; they had no leader to stimulate them to industry by his example, and, relapsing into indolence, had neglected the cultivation of the earth. The provision brought them by the ships was not sufficient for them to subsist on long; and Powhatan, who was still at variance with the colony, refused them a supply.*

In this critical situation of affairs, Captain Argall, who commanded one of the ships, devised an expedient to bring Powhatan to a compliance with their demands. His prolific brain was big with a stratagem, which, however unjustifiable, met with the concurrence of the Colonists. He knew the affection which Powhatan bore for his daughter Pocahontas, and was deteṛmined to seize her.

* The distress of the Colonists appears ludicrous, when we search for the cause of the effect. It was a spirit of forming Utopian schemes of government, which heaped on them such calamities. It was agreed that no man should have any personal property in land or grain, but that every one should labour for, and be maintained by the public stock. The natural consequence was, that every man consumed as much of the public stock as he could come at, and contributed nothing to it by his labour, but what he could not avoid. Hinc ille lachrymą!

Argall, having unloaded his vessel at the fort, sailed up the Potomac, under pretence of trading with the Indians who inhabited its banks. But he had been informed that Pocahontas was on a visit to Japazaws, King of Potomac, and his real motive was to gain over the savage by presents, and make him the instrument of putting Pocabontas into his power.

Japazaws had his price. For the promised reward of a copper-kettle, of which this savage had become enamoured, he prevailed on Pocahontas to accompany him and his Queen in a visit on board the ship; when Argall detained the betrayed girl, and conveyed her, with some corn he had purchased, in triumph to the fort.

Rolfe was not sorry for the stratagem that brought Pocahontas to the fort. He had exposed himself to the most imminent danger by a midnight expedition to the neighbourhood of Werowocomoco, where his Indian beauty had promised to meet him in an unfrequented grove; and he would have been inevitably scalped by a party of the enemy, had not Nantaquas, whose friendship the lover had diligently cultivated, interposed his kind offices, and not only restrained the arms of. his savage companions, but conducted him out of danger.

Pocahontas now put herself under the protection of Rolfe, who, by his tender, but respectful conduct, soothed her mind to tranquillity; while the Colonists, influenced by other passions, re

newed their importunities upon Powhatan, demanding a supply of provisions in ransom for his child.

Powhatan, in solicitude for his daughter, and being informed that a formidable reinforcement of men and ammunition had arrived at the fort, not only complied with the terms of the ransom, but proposed to enter into an alliance with the Colonists.

It was Nantaquas who came to the fort with provisions to ransom his sister. Rolfe availed himself of the occasion to contrive a private interview with them, and propose himself in unequivocal terms as a husband to Pocahontas. The amiable girl was flattered by the preference of the young and accomplished European. Nantaquas urged the suit ; and when Rolfe took the hand of Pocahontas, and with a look of inexpressible anxiety and tenderness repeated his proposal, the lovely Indian was melted to softness, and with blushing timidity consented to become his wife.

The ransom being paid, Pocahontas was now at liberty to return to Werowocomoco. But Hymen was not to be cheated of his prerogative; neither Rolfe nor Pocahontas were willing ever more to separate; and Nantaquas was dispatched to obtain the consent of Powhatan.

Powhatan did not withhold his consent; but adhering to the resolution he had made never to put himself into the power of the whites, he

sent Opitchapan, the uncle of Pocahontas, with his son Nantaquas, to witness the marriage.

Rolfe was now happy in the arms of Pocahontas; nor did satiety necessarily follow from fruition. The Indian bride discovered in every question an eagerness of knowledge; and the elegant attainments of the husband, énabled him to cultivate the wild paradise of her mind. Rolfe found in Pocahontas that companion of his solitude for which he had so long sighed ; and as she reclined her head on his shoulder before the door, and either made interrogations respecting Europe, or exchanged with him the glance of intelligence and affection, his eyes sparkled with fondness, and he caught her with transport to his breast.

Rolfe had brought with him into the woods of America, a mind not inductile to wit and humour, but more often abstracted in the recollection of sentiment. When not employed at the fort, he indulged the impulse of his mind for composition, and wrote as the moment urged him, in prose or song. Of his poetical productions I shall submit one to my readers.

Within Powhatan's calm retreat,
Repos'd beneath the woodland glade,

I envy not the gaudy great,

Gay dance by night, or masquerade.

Far other thoughts.my breast possess,
The joys that from reflection come;
The bland discourse, the soft caress

Of her who makes this cot a dome.

Then why exchange my sylvan seat,
Impervious to unhallow'd feet,

For crowds that ruder passions know,
To me inelegant and low?

In the year 1616, several ships arrived at the Colony, from different parts of England; and Rolfe being, by the death of his father, come to the inheritance of an estate in Middlesex, he embarked with his Indian bride in a vessel for Plymouth. Pocahontas had presented him with a son; and their infant offspring accompanied them across the Atlantic.

It was on the 12th of June, 1616, that Mr. Rolfe arrived at Plymouth with Pocahontas. He immediately proceeded with her to London, where she was introduced at Court to James I. who, tenacious of his prerogative, was inflamed with indignation that one of his subjects should aspire to an alliance with royal blood. The haughty Monarch would not suffer Rolfe to be admitted to his presence; and when he received Pocabontas, his looks rebuked her for descending from the dignity of a King's daughter, to take up with a man of no title or family. The Ladies of the Court were, however, charmed with the unaffected sweetness of her manners; and spared no caresses nor presents to sooth her to complacency.

At length Captain Smith advanced to salute Pocahontas; at whose unexpected appearance,