Historian Afred A. Cave's account of this incident is as follows, with the last line addressing OP's question:

"In November, Powhatan sent two of his children and three white youths to Jamestown with a gift of venison and a promise to sell the colony grain. However, when Percy dispatched John Ratcliffe to his village to trade, Powhatan first cheated him, using false-bottom baskets that contained very little corn, then, when Ratcliffe protested, had him seized and 'bound unto a tree naked with a fire before, and by women his flesh was scraped from his bones with mussel shells and, before his face, thrown into the fire.’ Of the party that accompanied Ratcliffe, by one estimate two-thirds, or some 33 men, were also killed, some when they entered Indian houses expecting food or entertainment, others shot with arrows as they tried to carry the baskets of corn to their ships. Young Henry Spelman, who had earlier been sent to live among the Powhatans to learn their language, related that before the trading began, Powhatan had ordered him and a young Dutchman of whom he was also fond to take refuge in another village so he would be out of harm’s way. The killing of Ratcliffe and his men thus appears to have been premeditated, probably in revenge for earlier English insults and assaults.” – from Lethal Encounters (Cave, 2011; p. 72).

Anthropologist Helen C. Rountree wrote that while normal criminals were given a quick execution, those who were (quoting John Smith) "notorious enemy or Trespasser" were given a long, painful and 'honorable' death. (The Powhatan Indians of Virginia (1989; p.117).

George Percy wrote that Ratcliffe had been careless in protecting himself and his men by releasing the son and daughter of Powhatan (not Pocahontas), who they could have held as hostages until they were safely departed.

The original account by George Percy with its idiosyncratic spelling is below (A Trewe Relacyon from Virtual Jamestown):

"Butt haveinge noe expectacyon of Reliefe to come in so short A Tyme I sentt Capteyne RATLIEFE to POWHATAN to Pcure victewalls and corne by the way of comerce and trade the wch the subtell owlde foxe att firste made good semblanse of Althoughe his intente was otherwayes onely wayteinge A fitteinge tyme for their destruction As after planely appered. The wch was Pbly ocasyoned by Capte: RATLIEFES creduletie for Haveinge POWHATANS sonne and dowghter Aboard his pinesse freely suffred them to depte ageine on shoare whome if he had deteyned mighte have bene A Sufficyentt pledge for his saffety And after nott kepeinge A Pper and fitteinge Courte of Guarde butt suffreinge his men by towe and thre and small Numbers in A Company to straggle into the Salvages howses when the Slye owlde kinge espyed A fitteinge Tyme Cutt them all of onely surprysed Capte: RATLIEFE Alyve who he caused to be bownd unto a tree naked wth a fyer before And by woemen his fleshe was skraped from his bones wth mussell shelles and befre his face throwne into the fyre. And so for want of circumspection miserably Pished."