Another incident occurred about this time which greatly raised Smith’s credit in all that country.  The Chicahomanians, who always were friendly traders, were great thieves.  One of them stole a Pistol, and two proper young fellows, brothers, known to be his confederates, were apprehended.  One of them was put in the dungeon and the other sent to recover the pistol within twelve hours, in default of which his brother would be hanged.  The President, pitying the wretched savage in the dungeon, sent him some victuals and charcoal for a fire.  “Ere midnight his brother returned with the pistol, but the poor savage in the dungeon was so smothered with the smoke he had made, and so piteously burnt, that we found him dead.  The other most lamentably bewailed his death, and broke forth in such bitter agonies, that the President, to quiet him, told him that if hereafter they would not steal, he would make him alive again; but he (Smith) little thought he could be recovered.”  Nevertheless, by a liberal use of aqua vitae and vinegar the Indian was brought again to life, but “so drunk and affrighted that he seemed lunatic, the which as much tormented and grieved the other as before to see him dead.”  Upon further promise of good behavior Smith promised to bring the Indian out of this malady also, and so laid him by a fire to sleep.  In the morning the savage had recovered his perfect senses, his wounds were dressed, and the brothers with presents of copper were sent away well contented.  This was spread among the savages for a miracle, that Smith could make a man alive that was dead.  He narrates a second incident which served to give the Indians a wholesome fear of the whites:  “Another ingenious savage of Powhatan having gotten a great bag of powder and the back of an armour at Werowocomoco, amongst a many of his companions, to show his extraordinary skill, he did dry it on the back as he had seen the soldiers at Jamestown.  But he dried it so long, they peeping over it to see his skill, it took fire, and blew him to death, and one or two more, and the rest so scorched they had little pleasure any more to meddle with gunpowder.”

“These and many other such pretty incidents,” says Smith, “so amazed and affrighted Powhatan and his people that from all parts they desired peace;” stolen articles were returned, thieves sent to Jamestown for punishment, and the whole country became as free for the whites as for the Indians.

And now ensued, in the spring of 1609, a prosperous period of three months, the longest season of quiet the colony had enjoyed, but only a respite from greater disasters.  The friendship of the Indians and the temporary subordination of the settlers we must attribute to Smith’s vigor, shrewdness, and spirit of industry.  It was much easier to manage the Indian’s than the idle and vicious men that composed the majority of the settlement.