If Smith picked up a guide at Opanient to lead him to the Pawtuxunt’s chief settlement and to guide his exploration up river, he would have stopped on his departure to return the guide to Opanient. Major international ship captains do the same thing today. They stop lower in the Bay to pick up a local ship pilot to lead their way up the shallow and deep waters of the Bay to Baltimore. As Smith had done with the Susquehanock and Toghwoghs, he promised to ally with the three chiefdoms of the Patuxent River and return the following year to revenge them. That following summer of 1609, Smith was involved with keeping his own colony alive and fed and did not have time nor cause to return up the Bay to keep his promise. But by 1616, an Englishman was living among the Pawtuxunt and was still present in 1621 when John Pory returned to meet with the Pawtuxunt. All promises aside, the Virginia English did not prove to be of much strategic value to the Pawtuxunt in their hostilities with the Massawomeck, until the Maryland English settled in St. Mary’s in 1634. The Pawtuxunts would have to continue to build their own forts and fight their own battles for the next 30 years.