With Newport sailing back to England for supplies and more colonists, and Wingfield uncertain about what to do, it was Smith who saved the colony. He initiated a series of
trading missions that secured vital food supplies. On one of
these he was captured by Opechancanough, one of
Wahunsunacock’s younger brothers, and was brought
before the king at Werowocomoco. He was the first
Englishman to meet Wahunsunacock, and it was at this
initial meeting that according to some accounts Smith’s life was saved only at the intervention of Wahunsunacock’s
young daughter Pocahontas. Freed on January 2, 1608,Smith returned to Jamestown, which was stil perilously low
on food, until the timely return of Newport from England later
on the same day.