Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/56

 landing on Jamestown Island, he was informed by Opechancanough that a salt sea was to be found within four or five days&#8217; journey of the Falls. This statement was confirmed by Powhatan, who declared that some asserted that it was five days&#8217;, some six, some eight days&#8217; journey from the Falls to the place where the salt waters, dashing in the fury of great storms against the boulders, among which the river had its fountain, had often caused that stream to be brackish in its flavor. Powhatan gave a description of the dress worn by the inhabitants of these countries towards the setting sun, and the ships in which they travelled, showing that they belonged to civilized nations. An Indian prisoner of Powhatan, who was probably one of the tribe of Monacans, occupying the territory above the Falls, also reported the presence of a salt sea in the West. It might be supposed, at first, that the same spirit which, perhaps, led Smith to suppress, in his earliest account of his captivity, all allusion to the attempt of his captors to beat out his brains, also