silver that even the cautious Smith was half deceived and had gathered some of it to send to England for assay. Morton pronounced it mica, and Smith said with a sigh: "Well, it may be. I would we had some with us who knew a mine from spar."
As the tide was beginning to ebb, the party, to take advantage of it, started down the river that evening. Smith saw some Indians painted with some substance which, as he said, "made them look like blackamoors dusted over with silver." They told him where they got it, and he went to find the "mine." About thirty miles below the rapids a small but navigable river which the Indians called the Quijough empties into the Patawomek. The party rowed as far as they could get the boat up this river. Then Smith with six men set out on foot, leaving Ralph Morton with the other men in charge of the boat. The deposit of matchqueon, as the Indians called the mineral, was seven or eight miles from where Smith left the boat. In due time he returned with a considerable quantity of the stuff, which he thought was antimony, but Ralph believed it to be plumbago.
Proceeding down the river and bay to the
