Like Archer’s “Relatyon,” Smith’s Map conceives of Virginia Indians as an autonomous kingdom. The book is divided into several parts, including a list of phrases in English and Algonquian, a map of Tsenacomoco, and Smith’s descriptions of the Virginia landscape and the government and religion of the Indians. The centerpiece of the book, and the section that has received the most attention from scholars, is the map, which is bound into the book as a foldout page (see Figure 2). In many ways, the map dominates the volume, in terms of both its massive size and its level of detail. It is bewilderingly complete, containing hundreds of place-names in transliterated Algonquian. Many of these are identified by a key in the upper right-hand corner as “Kings howses,” or seats of government. Indeed, the map presents the New World as virtually swarming with Native power, with around two dozen separate locations marked as seats of indigenous kings. Taken in at a glance, the map suggests Native dominance of American geography.
The map leaves no uncertainty about who commands this kingdom. Powhatan is depicted sitting in “state” in an inset in the upper left-hand corner, with the word “Powhatans” snaking downward across the rivers and their many polities. In the opposite corner stands a figure identified as one of the “Sasquesahanugh,” a group of neighboring Indians to the north. The corner detail of Powhatan in state was adapted from Theodor de Bry’s The Tombe of their Werowans or Cheiff Lordes (1588).61 The appropriation of an image of a tomb to depict Powhatan hints at some of the arguments that will appear later in the book. While Powhatan clearly reigns supreme, he is also boxed in, surrounded by plumes of smoke and crowded by underlings. His figure stands in stark contrast to that of the Susquehannock, who stands astride the landscape itself and is described on the map as representing “a Gyant like people.”62 The suggestion, conveyed in visual form, is that Powhatan operates behind closed doors. While he controls the landscape, he does so from a covert position, not through the kind of open or transparent diplomacy that would inspire trust.
Figure 2. Foldout map from John Smith’s A Map of Virginia (1612). Smith’s map depicts a New World dominated by Powhatan power. Courtesy of The Newberry Library.
Smith’s “Description,” which follows the foldout, delves into the smoke-shadowed workings of Powhatan’s government. Smith begins conventionally enough, sketching out the landscape and discoursing on the natural commodities that make Virginia a profitable site for settlement. But this promotional language soon shifts into a discourse on the Indians and their “manner of … governement.” Smith uses the language of political economy when describing the Indians. “The forme of their Common wealth is a monarchicall governement,” he states, “one as Emperour ruleth over many kings or governours.” And though barbaric, Powhatan is similar to an expansion-minded European prince. “Their chiefe ruler is called Powhatan, and taketh his name of the principall place of dwelling called Powhatan,” Smith writes. Like his European counterparts, Powhatan has several claims to power. “Some countries he hath which have been his ancestors, and came unto him by inheritance.” Others, however, “have beene his severall conquests.” Smith depicts all of these holdings, inherited or conquered, as a peaceful realm, subject to the sovereignty of Powhatan. “Although the countrie people be very barbarous, yet have they amongst them such governement, as that their Magistrats for good commanding, and their people for du subjection, and obeying, excell many places that would be counted very civill.”63 While the people may be unusual in appearance, in their government they more resemble Europeans than savages.
While Powhatan’s kingdom appears orderly, however, there is a darker reality just below the surface. What holds this commonwealth together, Smith reports, is fear of Powhatan’s tyranny. Here, the Powhatan of the smoky room makes his appearance. “It is strange to see with what great feare and adoration all these people doe obay this Powhatan,” Smith writes. “What he commandeth they dare not disobey in the least thing.”64 Powhatan is depicted imposing severe penalties on disloyal subjects, executing them or expelling them from his lands. Smith does not describe these exercises of power because he is concerned for Powhatan’s victims. Rather, he is interested in their implications for English conquest. While Powhatan’s terrifying command creates domestic order, it leads to a volatile political situation abroad. Smith’s description of Powhatan’s foreign affairs includes a catalogue of the “many enimies” that encircle his empire.65 This observation aligns Smith’s own views with the strategy recently expressed in the “Instructions” to Gates. The suggestion, subtly conveyed, is that the English can undermine Powhatan by making treaties with tribes that oppose him.
While war is the order of the day among the Powhatans, the reality of New World combat differs radically from what European readers might expect. War is not separate from diplomacy, but is itself a diplomatic tactic, a way of pressuring other parties for favorable terms. When engaging with foreign leaders, Smith continues, the Powhatans do not hesitate to employ “Stratagems, trecheries, or surprisals.”66 Most prominent is a military tactic Smith calls “Ambuscado.” Ambuscado, or ambush, was not a Powhatan word or concept. In early modern military theory, the term described the use of surprise or deception to gain a military advantage. Smith likely encountered the concept during his military training in the Netherlands, where he had served before traveling to Virginia. In The Theorike and Practike of Moderne Warres (1598), Robert Barrett defined “Ambuscado” as “a Spanish word” that “signifieth any troupe or company of soldiers either foot or horse, lodged secretly in some covert, as in woods, hollow wayes, behind bankes, or such like.” It could also mean “to entrappe the enemy secretly attending his comming.”67 Many authorities depicted ambuscado as a violation of natural law.68 The term was frequently associated with the military tactics of Turks and Ottomans.69 It was also associated with the Irish, who were viewed by Elizabethan military commanders as unfair fighters.70 In his Map, Smith employs the concept in a similar way. Powhatan’s acts of ambush stand in violation of the laws of war and expose the Native king to lawful conquest by invaders. But Smith also adapts the concept of ambuscado to his own purposes. Powhatan’s lawless acts encourage his subjects to make alliances with the colonists, and give the English legal clearance to launch ambushes of their own.
According to Smith, ambush is universal in Virginia. Americans are virtually built for surprise attack. “They are very strong, of an able body and full of agilitie,” he writes, “able to endure to lie in the woods under a tree by the fire, in the worst of winter, or in the weedes and grasse, in Ambuscado in the Sommer.”71 Ambushing is not only part of war, however. It is also a tactic Powhatan uses to surprise ostensible allies at treaty negotiations. Smith relates a cautionary