Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 by John H. Elliott Read Free Book Online

River, a surprise raid on the fort at Jamestown left two English dead, and a dozen or more wounded. The English ships retaliated by bombarding Indian villages along the waterfront.52 The establishment of a working relationship with the inhabitants was clearly considerably more complicated than the London sponsors of the expedition had envisaged.
    The situation facing the settlers looks, at first sight, like a miniature version of that which faced Cortes in Mexico. The territory on which they had established themselves, known as Tsenacommacah, was dominated by an `emperor', Powhatan, with whom Newport engaged in an exchange of presents when they first met near the Powhatan falls. For the last quarter of a century Powhatan had been building up his power, and through warfare and cunning had established his paramountcy over the numerous Algonquian-speaking tribes of the region. His `empire' seems to have been the nearest equivalent in North America to the Aztec empire far to the south,53 although in populousness and wealth it did not begin to rival that of Montezuma. During the sixteenth century the diseases which the Spaniards had brought with them from Europe had spread northwards, ravaging the Indian tribes in the coastal regions, and leaving in their wake a sparsely settled population.54 Where Montezuma's empire in central America had a population estimated at anything from five to twenty-five millions when Cortes first set foot on Mexican soil, that of Powhatan consisted in 1607 of some thirteen to fifteen thousand." The differences in size and density of the indigenous population would profoundly affect the subsequent character of the two colonial worlds.
    Powhatan, however, outwitted the white intruders, as Montezuma did not. Described by Captain John Smith as `a tall, well proportioned man, with a sour look', he could not compete in grandeur with Montezuma, but none the less lived in a style which impressed the English. `About his person ordinarily attendeth a guard of 40 or 50 of the tallest men his country doth afford. Every night upon the 4 quarters of his house are 4 sentinels each standing from other a flight shoot, and at every half hour one from the Corps du garde cloth hollow, unto whom every sentinel loth answer round from his stand; if any fail, they presently send forth an officer that heateth him extremely. S6 Powhatan was quick to see possible advantages to himself in the presence of these foreign intruders. He could make use of the goods that the English brought with them, and especially their much coveted copper, to reinforce his own position in the region by increasing the dependence of the lesser chieftains on him. The English, with their muskets, would also be valuable military allies against the enemies of the Powhatan Confederacy, the Monacan and the Chesapeake. Since, if they wanted to stay, they would be dependent on his people for their supplies of food, he was well placed to reduce them to the status of another subject tribe. The exchange of presents with Newport when the two men met at the falls duly ratified a military alliance with the English against his enemies."
    The English, for their part, were playing the same game, hoping to turn Powhatan and his people into tributaries who would work for them to keep the infant colony supplied with food. But there were problems about how to achieve this. William Strachey would later quote Sir Thomas Gates to the effect that `there was never any invasion, conquest, or far off plantation that had success without some party in the place itself or near it. Witness all the conquests made in those parts of the world, and all that the Spaniards have performed in America. 15' Resentment among rival tribes at Powhatan's dominance might in theory have made this possible, but in practice Powhatan was so much in control of the local scene that there proved to be only limited scope for the leaders of the new colony to follow Cortes's example and play off one tribal