For Indian fishing party, boat with white men and guns must have been an ominous sight

John Smith's Discovery Part 3: On to Fredericksburg Encounter at the falls • For Indian fishing party, boat with white men and guns must have been an ominous sight Historic preservation • Smith, Indian site preservation an elusive goal Online extra • Audio: Journal entry from Falmouth Part 2: Rappahannock Indians Rappahannocks attack • With cliffs and stands of neck-high marsh grass, it was a parfect spot for an ambush Rappahannock Tribe • A proud, sad history Maps • Indian villages (1608) • Virginia Indians (1607) Online extras • More photos from the Rappahannock • Audio: Journal entry from Tappahannock Part 1: Stingray Point Fantastic Voyage • In August 1608, Capt. John Smith sailed up the Rappahannock on a quest to help launch a nation. An explorer with a knack for politics • Jamestown savior understood his role Timeline • Timeline of early American events Online extras • Audio: Journal entry from Stingray Point • Sources & Web links

FISH SLUICE:A glimpse into the past, an inverted ‘V’ pattern is clearly visible at the falls of the Rappahannock River below the Falmouth Bridge. Indians placed rocks in the river hundreds—perhaps thousands—of years ago to funnel fish into handmade nets. The traps were probably there when Capt. John Smith's boat surprised Mannahoack Indians fishing in the vicinity.

Upstream, the subtle outline of a “V” begins to emerge from the pattern of rocks on the bottom. That shape is a look back in time—perhaps thousands of years—when American Indians piled boulders in the river to funnel fish into nets fashioned from saplings, bark and grasses cut from the riverbanks.

No one knows for sure when the rocks were placed in the river, but it’s likely that they were there in the summer of 1608 when Capt. John Smith’s boat neared its final destination here in its journey from Jamestown to explore the Rappahannock River.

Smith’s journal, “The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles,” describes the scene this way:

The next day wee sayled so high as our boat would float, there setting up crosses, and graving our names in the trees. Our sentinel saw an arrow fall by him, though we had ranged up and down more than an houre in digging in the earth, looking of stones, herbs and springs, not seeing where a [savage] could well hide himselfe.

Smith and his men en-countered what historians believe was probably a group of Mannahoack Indians who may have been fishing in the vicinity.

The situation quickly got more interesting:

There was about an hundred nimble Indians skipping from tree to tree, letting fly their arrows so fast as they could.

The English opened fire and the Indians fled, except for one bowman who was found on the bank, shot in the knee. The Indian, called Amoroleck, was tended to by the ship’s doctor. What he had to say about why the boat had been attacked was telling in this passage from Smith’s journal:

They heard we were a people come from under the world, to take their world from them.

Edward Wright Haile, author of “Jamestown Narratives” (RoundHouse), who lives on the Rappahannock on Occupacia Creek, believes the English didn’t stick around the falls for very long and didn’t venture far from the boat.

Smith’s map suggests that he may have stopped at Lauck’s Island and may even have ventured farther upriver.

Says Haile: “Don’t assume they could take a 30-foot barge over the rocks. He’d go up until he hit bottom and turn around. And at that point, the hostiles gathered in some numbers, and they were just as curious as the English were.” Smith’s barge was a sailboat which also had oars for rowing.

Rocks above the Falmouth Bridge would have blocked passage to all but the smallest boats. The natural barrier probably thwarted English explorers' journey upstream to find a passage to the Pacific.

It was a mid-August day, and no doubt a somber one for Smith’s crew. One of its members, Richard Fetherston, one of six “gentlemen” on board—the rest of the 12-man crew were soldiers—took ill and died just before the boat reached the falls.

Smith’s account has the man being buried at a wide spot on the river, dubbed Fetherston’s Bay.

Haile believes the spot could be a couple of miles downriver from Ruffin’s Pond, where Massaponax is today.

“It could be somewhere else. It’s everybody’s guess as to where Fetherston is,” Haile said.

After his adventure at the falls, Smith sailed downriver and added the title “peacemaker” to his résumé by settling a dispute be-tween the Rappahannocks and a neighboring tribe, the Moraughtacunds, over three stolen women. In a Solomon-like move, Smith obtained the women taken from the Rappahannocks by the Moraughtacunds. He gave one each to the tribes’ chiefs, and the third to his guide, Mosco.

Author Helen C. Rountree, in her book “Powhatan’s People, The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through Four Centuries,” says Smith’s gesture made an impression: “A tremendous feast followed the next day” with hundreds of revelers, “and everyone prom-ising to plant corn specifically for the English the next year.”

Smith sailed back down the Rappahannock, into the bay to explore more Tidewater rivers before heading back to Jamestown.

Margaret Huber, distinguished professor of anthropology at Mary Washington College, says that Smith and the Indians had similar goals.

“It’s ironic. I think they had a lot in common. The English idea of superiority and subordination was similar to the Powhatan one. There’s a mutual attempt to civilize but not a very friendly mutual attempt.”

Huber adds: “I don’t like John Smith very much, but he was obviously a very powerful man in the sense that he got things done. People thought he was wonderful up to the day he died, even though he had his detractors.”