Blood on the River

More colonists, including families with young children, arrive during the summer of 1609, and with them, more difficulty. Samuel is back in James Town, and he learns that Ann and John are expecting a baby while he finds it “strange to be living with Englishmen again” (187). Captain Archer and Captain Ratcliffe have also returned, and “[a]rguments flare up everyday” (188) as they try to take power away from Captain Smith. The new colonists do not trust Captain Smith and they dismiss his explanations of their “fragile peace” (189), preferring weapons over diplomacy. When two gentlemen colonists set fire to a native’s house and “[rob] the Indians’ temples” (190), Captain Smith learns that there have been conflicts between the new colonists and the natives, and he accuses the colonists of “trying to start an all-out war with the natives” (191). Captain Smith decides to set sail for the Powhatan villages whose “tribes these men have wronged” (191), and Samuel is glad to see that Captain Smith travels with trusted friends as well as the new settlers who have caused all the problems.

While away, Captain Smith has a terrible accident, one that was apparently “no one’s fault” (193), and his leg is badly burned. He returns to James Town a “fallen leader” (194), after having made peace with one tribe. A soldier that accompanied the captain on the peacemaking expedition feels sure that “[t]here has been too much killing on both sides” (194) and so the peace will not last. Captain Smith’s injuries are so severe that he feels “[t]hey have taken away my power” (195) and he plans to return to England with Richard. Samuel is released from his servant role and “apprenticed” (196) to the carpenter John Laydon, and Captain Smith tells Samuel that “the colony needs [him]” (196). As Captain Smith prepares for his trip back to England, tensions at James Town intensify, and Samuel feels “as though there is a noose closing in” (197) around the settlement. Ann has her baby, a girl named Virginia, and Samuel realizes that though he will soon lose Captain Smith and Richard, he has gained a “new family” (198) in the Laydons. When Virginia is a few weeks old, Samuel can hold her, and he feels a sense of “coming doom” (199) when he looks down at the baby holding his finger.

As Captain Smith prepares to leave for England, he gives Samuel two strings of valuable blue beads and some important words of wisdom, advising Samuel not to let his anger control him. Samuel accepts the advice, remembering the many times the captain himself transformed his own “anger into calm action” (201). Captain Smith shakes Samuel’s hand “as if I am his equal” (202), and the captain’s supporters all come out to pay their respects and say their goodbyes. Richard and Samuel banter in their usual way as they say goodbye to each other.

As the food supply dwindles, Captain Ratcliffe announces his decision to take 50 men to trade with the Indians. John Laydon and Samuel are sent to build cabins for a new fort at Point Comfort, where “we will be able to protect James Town from a Spanish invasion” (205) with 30 men. Samuel is optimistic about this move, as they will be close to the Warraskoyack village “where the people have become like my family” (205) as well as another friendly tribe’s village. Samuel’s positive frame of mind evaporates when he finds out that Ann and baby Virginia will not be sailing on the barge the next day and that they are staying behind in James Town. He tries to explain to Ann that she and the baby are less safe in James Town, but Ann wants the company and the help of the other women. In his anxiety over the lives of the woman and the baby he has grown to love, Samuel decides “to steal a baby” (208).

The next morning, Samuel takes baby Virginia for a walk before the boat leaves for Point Comfort. As he climbs into a canoe with the baby, he thinks of “the ruckus when Ann discovers Virginia missing” (210). Samuel and Virginia arrive to Point Comfort later that afternoon, after Samuel has fed the baby with sweetened water three times to calm her, and he puts her to bed before going out to wait for the barge. Ann arrives, full of rage, and both John and Ann threaten Samuel with punishment, and Captain Davies, who piloted the barge, “takes [Samuel] roughly by the arm” (212). Samuel is placed in shackles for his crime, “theft of the child Virginia” (213), and he finds out that his effort was for nothing as Ann and Virginia will sail back to James Town on the barge the following day. Shouts wake up Samuel the next morning, and he learns that the trading expedition was a trap and that the men “were attacked, their throats slit” (214) and that Captain Ratcliffe was “tortured to death” (214). The lock on Samuel’s door makes a noise, and he prepares himself for his punishment.

Some months later, in February of 1610, Samuel and Virginia play together. After Ann heard about the attack on the men, she asked “Captain Davies to retract my sentence” (216) and John agreed that Samuel “had meant well taking Virginia” (216). Samuel leaves the cabin he shares with the Laydon family, and though he misses Richard and Captain Smith, he feels happy thinking of Kainta living across the river in the Warraskoyack village. Samuel continues to feel a sense of “doom and dread, the fear that made me desperate enough to snatch baby Virginia away” (217), but he shifts his attention to the warmth and safety he feels at Point Comfort living with people he loves.

The people living at Point Comfort survived the winter of 1609-1610 comfortably, but in the spring, they learned of “the horror that befell James Town that winter” (219). Under Chief Powhatan’s orders, no tribes traded with the settlers and they killed anyone found outside of the fort. Starvation, death, and cannibalism ensued. One group of men managed to steal food from a native tribe as well as a ship and sailed back to England. An English ship led by Sir Thomas Gates, the new governor of James Town, finally arrived in the spring of 1610 after a nine-month delay, and several difficult years followed, all of which were marked by “revenge [that] bred revenge” (221).

In 1613, Pocahontas was captured and held hostage in exchange for supplies and “stolen English weapons and tools” (221), but the chief did not give in to the demands of her captors, so she remained a prisoner, eventually marrying an Englishman named John Rolfe. She eventually traveled to England, where she died. In 1619, Africans were first brought to the Virginia colony as either slaves or indentured servants. Samuel grew up to become the leader of one of the 11 towns that emerged out of the original James Town settlement. Eventually, Chief Powhatan’s prophecy came true, and “the Powhatan empire was destroyed” (224), and over the 100-year period between 1607 and 1707, “over 90 percent of Virginia’s native population was killed either in warfare or massacres or by the new diseases Europeans brought with them” (224).