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diff --git a/old/rchjm10h.htm b/old/rchjm10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..445ffc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rchjm10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4162 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 97"> +<title>RICHARD OF JAMESTOWN</title> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard of Jamestown, by James Otis +#2 in our series by James Otis + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Richard of Jamestown + A Story of the Virginia Colony + +Author: James Otis + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7465] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 4, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD OF JAMESTOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Robb + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>RICHARD OF JAMESTOWN</h1> +<br><br> +<h2>by James Otis.</h2> +<br><br> + +<h3><a href="#FOREWORD">FOREWORD</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#WHO_I_AM">WHO I AM</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH COMES TO LONDON">CAPTAIN JOHN +SMITH COMES TO LONDON</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_PLANS_OF_TH">THE PLANS OF THE LONDON +COMPANY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_VESSELS_OF">THE VESSELS OF THE FLEET</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#HOW_I_EARNED_MY">HOW I EARNED MY PASSAGE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#NATHANIEL_S_STO">NATHANIEL'S STORY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#WE_MAKE_SAIL_AG">WE MAKE SAIL AGAIN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_FIRST_ISLAN">THE FIRST ISLAND</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_SMITH_A">CAPTAIN SMITH A PRISONER</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#I_ATTEND_MY_MAS">I ATTEND MY MASTER</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#SEVERAL_ISLANDS">SEVERAL ISLANDS VISITED</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_VARIETY_OF_WI">A VARIETY OF WILD GAME</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_TEMPEST">THE TEMPEST</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_NEW_COUNTRY">THE NEW COUNTRY SIGHTED</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_LEADER_NOT">THE LEADER NOT KNOWN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#ARRIVAL_AT_CHES">ARRIVAL AT CHESAPEAKE BAY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#AN_ATTACK_BY_TH">AN ATTACK BY THE SAVAGES</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#READING_THE_LON">READING THE LONDON COMPANY'S +ORDERS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#EXPLORING_THE_C">EXPLORING THE COUNTRY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_PEOPLE_LAND">THE PEOPLE LAND FROM THE +SHIPS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_SMITH_P">CAPTAIN SMITH PROVEN +INNOCENT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#WE_WHO_WERE_LEF">WE WHO WERE LEFT BEHIND</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#BAKING_BREAD_WI">BAKING BREAD WITHOUT +OVENS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#AN_UNEQUAL_DIVI">AN UNEQUAL DIVISION OF +LABOR</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#BUILDING_A_HOUS">BUILDING A HOUSE OF LOGS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#KEEPING_HOUSE">KEEPING HOUSE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#LACK_OF_CLEANLI">LACK OF CLEANLINESS IN THE +VILLAGE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAVE_HOMES">CAVE HOMES</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_GOLDEN_FEVE">THE GOLDEN FEVER</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#DUCKS_AND_OYSTE">DUCKS AND OYSTERS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#ROASTING_OYSTER">ROASTING OYSTERS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#LEARNING_TO_COO">LEARNING TO COOK OTHER +THINGS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_SWEET_POTAT">THE SWEET POTATO ROOT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_TOUCH_OF_HOME">A TOUCH OF HOMESICKNESS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#MASTER_HUNT_S_P">MASTER HUNT'S PREACHING</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#NEGLECTING_TO_P">NEGLECTING TO PROVIDE FOR THE +FUTURE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#SURPRISED_BY_SA">SURPRISED BY SAVAGES</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#STRENGTHENING_T">STRENGTHENING THE FORT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_TIME_OF_SICKN">A TIME OF SICKNESS AND +DEATH</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_SMITH_G">CAPTAIN SMITH GAINS +AUTHORITY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#DISAGREEABLE_ME">DISAGREEABLE MEASURES OF +DISCIPLINE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#SIGNS_OF_REBELL">SIGNS OF REBELLION</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_SECOND_PROC">THE SECOND PROCLAMATION</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#BUILDING_A_FORT">BUILDING A FORTIFIED +VILLAGE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#TRAPPING_TURKEY">TRAPPING TURKEYS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_CRUDE_KIND_OF">A CRUDE KIND OF CHIMNEY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#COOKING_A_TURKE">COOKING A TURKEY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CANDLES_OR_RUSH">CANDLES OR RUSHLIGHTS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_VISIT_OF_PO">THE VISIT OF POCAHONTAS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_KENDALL">CAPTAIN KENDALL'S PLOT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_DEATH_OF_CA">THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN +KENDALL</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN SMITH'S EXPEDITION AND RETURN">CAPTAIN +SMITH'S EXPEDITION AND RETURN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#AN_EXCITING_ADV">AN EXCITING ADVENTURE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#TAKEN_BEFORE_PO">TAKEN BEFORE POWHATAN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#POCAHONTAS_BEGS">POCAHONTAS BEGS FOR SMITH'S +LIFE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_EFFECT_OF_C">THE EFFECT OF CAPTAIN SMITH'S +RETURN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_NEW_CHURCH">A NEW CHURCH</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN">CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S +RETURN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#GOLD_SEEKERS">GOLD SEEKERS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_WORTHLESS_CAR">A WORTHLESS CARGO</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_CONDITION_O">THE CONDITION OF THE +COLONY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#TOBACCO">TOBACCO</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPT NEWPORT">CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#MASTER_HUNT_BRI">MASTER HUNT BRINGS GREAT +NEWS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_NEWPORT">CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S +INSTRUCTIONS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_STORY_OF_RO">THE STORY OF ROANOKE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_CROWNING_OF">THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#PREPARING_FOR_T">PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#STEALING_THE_CO">STEALING THE COMPANY'S +GOODS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#WHAT_THE_THIEVI">WHAT THE THIEVING LED TO</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#FEAR_OF_FAMINE">FEAR OF FAMINE IN A LAND OF +PLENTY</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_UNHEALTHFUL">THE UNHEALTHFUL LOCATION</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#GATHERING_OYSTE">GATHERING OYSTERS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#PREPARING_STURG">PREPARING STURGEON FOR +FOOD</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#TURPENTINE_AND">TURPENTINE AND TAR</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_MAKING_OF_C">THE MAKING OF CLAPBOARDS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#PROVIDING_FOR_T">PROVIDING FOR THE +CHILDREN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#DREAMS_OF_THE_F">DREAMS OF THE FUTURE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#A_PLAGUE_OF_RAT">A PLAGUE OF RATS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#TREACHERY_DURIN">TREACHERY DURING CAPTAIN SMITH'S +ABSENCE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN SMITH'S SPEECH">CAPTAIN SMITH'S +SPEECH</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_NEW_LAWS">THE NEW LAWS</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_ACCIDENT">THE ACCIDENT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#CAPTAIN_SMITH_S">CAPTAIN SMITH'S DEPARTURE</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_STARVING">THE "STARVING TIME"</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#OUR_COURAGE_GIV">OUR COURAGE GIVES OUT</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#ABANDONING_JAME">ABANDONING JAMESTOWN</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#LORD_DE_LA_WARR">LORD DE LA WARR'S ARRIVAL</a></h3> + +<h3><a href="#THE_YOUNG_PLANT">THE YOUNG PLANTERS</a></h3> + +<h1><a name="FOREWORD"></a>FOREWORD</h1> + +<p>The purpose of this series of stories is to show the children, +and even those who have already taken up the study of history, +the home life of the colonists with whom they meet in their +books. To this end every effort has been made to avoid anything +savoring of romance, and to deal only with facts, so far as that +is possible, while describing the daily life of those people who +conquered the wilderness whether for conscience sake or for +gain.</p> + +<p>That the stories may appeal more directly to the children, +they are told from the viewpoint of a child, and purport to have +been related by a child. Should any criticism be made regarding +the seeming neglect to mention important historical facts, the +answer would be that these books are not sent out as histories -- +although it is believed that they will awaken a desire to learn +more of the building of the nation -- and only such incidents as +would be particularly noted by a child are used.</p> + +<p>Surely it is entertaining as well as instructive for young +people to read of the toil and privations in the homes of those +who came into a new world to build up a country for themselves, +and such homely facts are not to be found in the real histories +of our land.</p> + +<p>JAMES OTIS.</p> + +<h1><a name="WHO_I_AM"></a>WHO I AM</h1> + +<p>Yes, my name is Richard Mutton. Sounds rather queer, doesn't +it? The lads in London town used to vex me sorely by calling, +"Baa, baa, black sheep," whenever I passed them, and yet he who +will may find the name Richard Mutton written in the list of +those who were sent to Virginia, in the new world, by the London +Company, on the nineteenth day of December, in the year of Our +Lord, 1606.</p> + +<p>Whosoever may chance to read what I am here setting down, +will, perhaps, ask how it happened that a lad only ten years of +age was allowed to sail for that new world in company with such a +band of adventurous men as headed the enterprise.</p> + +<p>Therefore it is that I must tell a certain portion of the +story of my life, for the better understanding of how I came to +be in this fair, wild, savage beset land of Virginia.</p> + +<p>Yet I was not the only boy who sailed in the Susan Constant, +as you may see by turning to the list of names, which is under +the care, even to this day, of the London Company, for there you +will find written in clerkly hand the names Samuel Collier, +Nathaniel Peacock, James Brumfield, and Richard Mutton. Nathaniel +Peacock has declared more than once that my name comes last in +the company at the very end of all, because I was not a full +grown mutton; but only large enough to be called a sheep's tail, +and therefore should be hung on behind, as is shown by the +list.</p> + +<p>The reason of my being in this country of Virginia at so young +an age, is directly concerned with that brave soldier and +wondrous adventurer, Captain John Smith, of whom I make no doubt +the people in this new world, when the land has been covered with +towns and villages, will come to know right well, for of a truth +he is a wonderful man. In the sixth month of Grace, 1606, I Was +living as best I might in that great city of London, which is as +much a wilderness of houses, as this country is a wilderness of +trees. My father was a soldier of fortune, which means that he +stood ready to do battle in behalf of whatsoever nation he +believed was in the right, or, perhaps, on the side of those +people who would pay him the most money for risking his life.</p> + +<p>He had fought with the Dutch soldiers under command of one +Captain Miles Standish, an Englishman of renown among men of +arms, and had been killed. My mother died less than a week before +the news was brought that my father had been shot to death. Not +then fully understanding how great a disaster it is to a young +lad when he loses father or mother, and how yet more sad is his +lot when he has lost both parents, I made shift to live as best I +might with a sore heart; but yet not so sore as if I had known +the full extent of the misfortune which had overtaken me.</p> + +<p>At first it was an easy matter for me to get food at the home +of this lad, or of that, among my acquaintances, sleeping +wherever night overtook me; but, finally, when mayhap three +months had gone by, my welcome was worn threadbare, and I was +told by more than one, that a hulking lad of ten years should +have more pride than to beg his way from door to door.</p> + +<p>It is with shame I here set down the fact, that many weeks +passed before I came to understand, in ever so slight a degree, +what a milksop I must be, thus eating the bread of idleness when +I should have won the right, by labor, to a livelihood in this +world.</p> + +<p>This last thought had just begun to take root in my heart when +Nathaniel Peacock, whose mother had been a good friend of mine +during a certain time after I was made an orphan, and I, heard +that a remarkably brave soldier was in the city of London, making +ready to go into the new world, with the intent to build there a +town for the king.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH COMES TO LONDON"></a>CAPTAIN JOHN +SMITH COMES TO LONDON</h1> + +<p>This man was no other than Captain John Smith, who, although +at this time not above six and twenty years of age, had already +served in the French, in the Dutch, and in the Transylvanian +armies, where he had met and overcome many dangers.</p> + +<p>He had been robbed and beaten and thrown into the sea because +of not believing in the religion of the men who attacked him; he +had been a slave among the Turks; he had fought, one after +another, three of the bravest in the Turkish army, and had cut +off the head of each in turn.</p> + +<p>Can it be wondered at that Nathaniel Peacock and I were filled +to overflowing with admiration for this wonderful soldier, or +that we desired above all things to see him?</p> + +<p>We loitered about the streets of London town from daylight +until night had come again, hoping to feast our eyes upon this +same John Smith, who was to us one of the wonders of the world, +because in so short a time he had made his name as a soldier +famous in all countries, and yet we saw him not.</p> + +<p>We had searched London town over and over for mayhap a full +month, doing nothing else save hunt for the man whose life had +been so filled with adventure, and each time we returned home, +Mistress Peacock reproached me with being an idle good for +nothing, and Nathaniel but little better.</p> + +<p>I believe it was her harsh words which caused to spring up in +my heart a desire to venture into the new world, where it was +said gold could be found in abundance, and even the smallest lad +might pick up whatsoever of wealth he desired, if so be his heart +was strong enough to brave the journey across the great +ocean.</p> + +<p>The more I thought of what could be found in that land, which +was called Virginia, the stronger grew my desire, until the time +came when it was a fixed purpose in my mind, and not until then +did I breathe to Nathaniel a word of that which had been growing +within me.</p> + +<p>He took fire straightway I spoke of what it might be possible +for us lads to do, and declared that whether his mother were +willing or no, he would brave all the dangers of that terrible +journey overseas, if so be we found an opportunity. To him it +seemed a simple matter that, having once found a ship which was +to sail for the far off land, we might hide ourselves within her, +having gathered sufficient of food to keep us alive during the +journey. But how this last might be done, his plans had not been +made.</p> + +<p>Lest I should set down too many words, and therefore bring +upon myself the charge of being one who can work with his tongue +better than with his hands, I will pass over all that which +Nathaniel and I did during the long time we roamed the streets, +in the hope of coming face to face with Captain Smith.</p> + +<p>It is enough if I set it down at once that we finally +succeeded in our purpose, having come upon him one certain +morning on Cheapside, when there was a fight on among some +apprentices, and the way so blocked that neither he nor any other +could pass through the street, until the quarrelsome fellows were +done playing upon each other's heads with sticks and stones.</p> + +<p>It seemed much as if fortune had at last consented to smile +upon us, for we were standing directly in front of the great +man.</p> + +<p>I know not how it chanced that I, a lad whose apparel was far +from being either cleanly or whole, should have dared to raise my +voice in speech with one who was said to have talked even with a +king. Yet so I did, coming without many words to that matter +which had been growing these many days in my mind, and mayhap it +was the very suddenness of the words that caught his fancy.</p> + +<p>"Nathaniel Peacock and I are minded to go with you into that +new world, Captain John Smith, if so be you permit us," I said, +"and there we will serve you with honesty and industry."</p> + +<p>There was a smile come upon his face as I spoke, and he looked +down upon Nathaniel and me, who were wedged among that throng +which watched the apprentices quarrel, until we were like to be +squeezed flat, and said in what I took to be a friendly tone:</p> + +<p>"So, my master, you would journey into Virginia with the hope +of making yourself rich, and you not out from under your mother's +apron as yet?"</p> + +<p>"I have no mother to wear an apron, Captain Smith, nor father +to say I may go there or shall come here; but yet would serve you +as keenly as might any man, save mayhap my strength, which will +increase, be not so great as would be found in those older."</p> + +<p>Whether this valiant soldier was pleased with my words, or if +in good truth boys were needed in the enterprise, I cannot say; +but certain it is he spoke me fairly, writing down upon a piece +of paper, which he tore from his tablets, the name of the street +in which he had lodgings, and asking, as he handed it to me, if I +could read.</p> + +<p>Now it was that I gave silent thanks, because of what had +seemed to me a hardship when my mother forced me to spend so many +hours each day in learning to use a quill, until I was able to +write a clerkly hand.</p> + +<p>It seemed to please this great soldier that I could do what +few of the lads in that day had been taught to master, and, +without further ado, he said to me boldly:</p> + +<p>"You shall journey into Virginia with me, an' it please you, +lad. What is more, I will take upon myself the charge of +outfitting you, and time shall tell whether you have enough of +manliness in you to repay me the cost."</p> + +<p>Then it was that Nathaniel raised his voice; but the captain +gave him no satisfaction, declaring it was the duty of a true lad +to stand by his mother, and that he would lend his aid to none +who had a home, and in it those who cared for him.</p> + +<p>I could have talked with this brave soldier until the night +had come, and would never have wearied of asking concerning what +might be found in that new world of Virginia; but it so chanced +that when the business was thus far advanced, the apprentices +were done with striving to break each other's heads, and Captain +Smith, bidding me come to his house next morning, went his +way.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_PLANS_OF_TH"></a>THE PLANS OF THE LONDON +COMPANY</h1> + +<p>Then it was that Nathaniel declared he also would go on the +voyage to Virginia, whether it pleased Captain Smith or no, and +I, who should have set my face against his running away from +home, spoke no word to oppose him, because it would please me to +have him as comrade.</p> + +<p>After this I went more than once to the house where Captain +Smith lodged, and learned very much concerning what it was +proposed to do toward building a town in the new world.</p> + +<p>Both Nathaniel and I had believed it was the king who counted +to send all these people overseas; but I learned from my new +master that a company of London merchants was in charge of the +enterprise, these merchants believing much profit might come to +them in the way of getting gold.</p> + +<p>The whole business was to be under the control of Captain +Bartholomew Gosnold, who, it was said, had already made one +voyage to the new world, and had brought back word that it was a +goodly place in which to settle and to build up towns. The one +chosen to act as admiral of the fleet, for there were to be three +ships instead of one, as I had fancied, was Captain Christopher +Newport, a man who had no little fame as a seaman.</p> + +<p>In due time, as the preparations for the voyage were being +forwarded, I was sent by my master into lodgings at Blackwall, +just below London town, for the fleet lay nearby, and because it +was understood by those in charge of the adventure that I was in +Captain Smith's service, no hindrance was made to my going on +board the vessels.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_VESSELS_OF"></a>THE VESSELS OF THE FLEET</h1> + +<p>These were three in number, as I have already said: the +Constant, a ship of near to one hundred tons in size; the +Goodspeed, of forty tons, and the Discovery, which was a pinnace +of only twenty tons.</p> + +<p>And now, lest some who read what I have set down may not be +acquainted with the words used by seamen, let me explain that the +measurement of a vessel by tons, means that she will fill so much +space in the water. Now, in measuring a vessel, a ton is reckoned +as forty cubic feet of space, therefore when I say the Susan +Constant was one hundred tons in size, it is the same as if I had +set down that she would carry four thousand cubic feet of +cargo.</p> + +<p>That he who reads may know what I mean by a pinnace, as +differing from a ship, I can best make it plain by saying that +such a craft is an open boat, wherein may be used sails or oars, +and, as in the case of the Discovery, may have a deck over a +certain portion of her length. That our pinnace was a vessel able +to withstand such waves as would be met with in the ocean, can be +believed when you remember that she was one half the size of the +Goodspeed, which we counted a ship.</p> + +<h1><a name="HOW_I_EARNED_MY"></a>HOW I EARNED MY PASSAGE</h1> + +<p>Captain Smith, my master, found plenty of work for me during +the weeks before the fleet sailed. He had many matters to be set +down in writing, and because of my mother's care in teaching me +to use the quill, I was able, or so it seemed to me, to be of no +little aid to him in those busy days, when it was as if he must +do two or three things at the same time in order to bring his +business to an end. I learned during that time to care very +dearly for this valiant soldier, who could, when the fit was on +him, be as tender and kind as a girl, and again, when he was +crossed, as stern a man as one might find in all London town.</p> + +<p>Because of my labors, and it pleased me greatly that I could +do somewhat toward forwarding the adventure, I had no time in +which to search for my friend, Nathaniel Peacock, although I did +not cease to hope that he would try to find me.</p> + +<p>I had parted with him in the city, and he knew right well +where I was going; yet, so far as I could learn, he had never +come to Blackwall.</p> + +<p>I had no doubt but that I could find him in the city, and it +was in my mind, at the first opportunity, to seek him out, if for +no other reason than that we might part as comrades should, for +he had been a true friend to me when my heart was sore; but from +the moment the sailors began to put the cargo on board the Susan +Constant and the Goodspeed, I had no chance to wander around +Blackwall, let alone journeying to London.</p> + +<p>Then came the twentieth of December, when we were to set sail, +and great was the rejoicing among the people, who believed that +we would soon build up a city in the new world, which would be of +great wealth and advantage to those in England.</p> + +<p>I heard it said, although I myself was not on shore to see +what was done, that in all the churches prayers were made for our +safe journeying, and there was much marching to and fro of +soldiers, as if some great merrymaking were afoot.</p> + +<p>The shore was lined with people; booths were set up where +showmen displayed for pay many curious things, and food and +sweetmeats were on sale here and there, for so large a throng +stood in need of refreshment as well as amusement.</p> + +<p>It was a wondrous spectacle to see all these people nearby on +the shore, knowing they had come for no other purpose than to +look at us, and I took no little pride to myself because of being +numbered among the adventurers, even vainly fancying that many +wondered what part a boy could have in such an undertaking.</p> + +<p>Then we set sail, I watching in vain for a glimpse of +Nathaniel Peacock as the ships got under way. Finally, sadly +disappointed, and with the sickness of home already in my heart, +I went into the forward part of the ship, where was my sleeping +place, thinking that very shortly we should be tossing and +tumbling on the mighty waves of the ocean.</p> + +<p>In this I was mistaken, for the wind was contrary to our +purpose, and we lay in the Downs near six weeks, while Master +Hunt, the preacher, who had joined the company that he might +labor for the good of our souls; lay so nigh unto death in the +cabin of the Susan Constant, that I listened during all the +waking hours of the night, fearing to hear the tolling of the +ship's bell, which would tell that he had gone from among the +living.</p> + +<p>It was on the second night, after we were come to anchor in +the Downs awaiting a favorable wind, that I, having fallen asleep +while wishing Nathaniel Peacock might have been with us, was +awakened by the pressure of a cold hand upon my cheek. I was near +to crying aloud with fear, for the first thought that came was +that Master Hunt had gone from this world, and was summoning me; +but before the cry could escape my lips, I heard the whispered +words: "It is me, Nate Peacock!"</p> + +<p>It can well be guessed that I was sitting bolt upright in the +narrow bed, which sailors call a bunk, by the time this had been +said, and in the gloom of the seamen's living place I saw a head +close to mine.</p> + +<p>Not until I had passed my hands over the face could I believe +it was indeed my comrade, and it goes without saying that +straightway I insisted on knowing how he came there, when he +should have been in London town.</p> + +<p>I cannot set the story down as Nathaniel Peacock told it to me +on that night, because his words were many; but the tale ran much +like this:</p> + +<h1><a name="NATHANIEL_S_STO"></a>NATHANIEL'S STORY</h1> + +<p>When Captain John Smith had promised on Cheapside that I +should be one of the company of adventurers, because of such +labor as it might be possible for me to perform, and had refused +to listen to my comrade, Nathaniel, without acquainting me with +the fact, had made up his mind that he also would go into the new +world of Virginia.</p> + +<p>Fearing lest I would believe it my duty to tell Captain Smith +of his purpose, he kept far from me, doing whatsoever he might in +London town to earn as much as would provide him with food during +a certain time.</p> + +<p>In this he succeeded so far as then seemed necessary, and when +it was known that the fleet was nearly ready to make sail, he +came to Blackwall with all his belongings tied in his +doublet.</p> + +<p>To get on board the Susan Constant without attracting much +attention while she was being visited by so many curious people, +was not a hard task for Nathaniel Peacock, and three days before +the fleet was got under way, my comrade had hidden himself in the +very foremost part of the ship, where were stored the ropes and +chains.</p> + +<p>There he had remained until thirst, or hunger, drove him out, +on this night of which I am telling you, and he begged that I go +on deck, where were the scuttle butts, to get him a pannikin of +water.</p> + +<p>For those of you who may not know what a scuttle butt is, I +will explain that it is a large cask in which fresh water is kept +on shipboard. When Nathaniel's burning thirst had been soothed, +he began to fear that I might give information to Captain John +Smith concerning him; but after all that had been done in the way +of hiding himself, and remembering his suffering, I had not the +heart so to do.</p> + +<p>During four days more he spent all the hours of sunshine, and +the greater portion of the night, in my bed, closely covered so +that the sailors might not see him, and then came the discovery, +when he was dragged out with many a blow and harsh word to give +an account of himself. I fear it would have gone harder still +with Nathaniel, if I had not happened to be there at that very +moment.</p> + +<p>As it was, I went directly to Captain John Smith, my master, +telling him all Nathaniel's story, and asking if the lad had not +shown himself made of the proper stuff to be counted on as one of +the adventurers.</p> + +<p>Although hoping to succeed in my pleading, I was surprised +when the captain gave a quick consent to number the lad among +those who were to go into the new land of Virginia, and was even +astonished when his name was written down among others as if he +had been pledged to the voyage in due form.</p> + +<p>But for the sickness of Master Hunt, and the fear we had lest +he should die, Nathaniel and I might have made exceeding merry +while we lay at anchor in the Downs, for food was plentiful; +there was little of work to be done, and we lads could have +passed the time skylarking with such of the sailors as were +disposed to sport, except orders had been given that no undue +noise be made on deck.</p> + +<h1><a name="WE_MAKE_SAIL_AG"></a>WE MAKE SAIL AGAIN</h1> + +<p>It seemed to me almost as if we spent an entire lifetime +within sight of the country we were minded to leave behind us, +and indeed six weeks, with no change of scene, and while one is +held to the narrow limits of a ship, is an exceeding long +time.</p> + +<p>However, as I have heard Captain Smith say again and again, +everything comes to him who waits, and so also came that day when +the winds were favoring; when Captain Newport, the admiral of our +fleet, gave the word to make sail, and we sped softly away from +England's shores, little dreaming of that time of suffering, of +sickness, and of sadness which was before us.</p> + +<p>To Nathaniel and me, who had never strayed far from London +town, and knew no more of the sea than might have been gained in +a boatman's wherry, the ocean was exceeding unkind, and for eight +and forty hours did we lie in that narrow bed, believing death +was very near at hand.</p> + +<p>There is no reason why I should make any attempt at describing +the sickness which was upon us, for I have since heard that it +comes to all who go out on the sea for the first time. When we +recovered, it was suddenly, like as a flower lifts up its head +after a refreshing shower that has pelted it to the ground.</p> + +<p>I would I might set down here all which came to us during the +voyage, for it was filled with wondrous happenings; but because I +would tell of what we did in the land of Virginia, I must be +sparing of words now.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_FIRST_ISLAN"></a>THE FIRST ISLAND</h1> + +<p>It is to be remembered that our fleet left London on the +twentieth day of December, and, as I have since heard Captain +Smith read from the pages which he wrote concerning the voyage, +it was on the twenty-third of March that we were come to the +island of Martinique, where for the first time Nathaniel Peacock +and I saw living savages.</p> + +<p>When we were come to anchor, they paddled out to our ships in +frail boats called canoes, bringing many kinds of most delicious +fruits, which we bought for such trumpery things as glass beads +and ornaments of copper.</p> + +<p>It was while we lay off this island that we saw a whale +attacked and killed by a thresher and a swordfish, which was a +wondrous sight.</p> + +<p>And now was a most wicked deed done by those who claimed to be +in command of our company, for they declared that my master had +laid a plot with some of the men in each vessel of the fleet, +whereby the principal members of the company were to be murdered, +to the end that Captain Smith might set himself up as king after +we were come to the new world.</p> + +<p>All this was untrue, as I knew full well, having aided him in +such work as a real clerk would have done, and had there been a +plot, I must have found some inkling of it in one of the many +papers I read aloud to him, or copied down on other sheets that +the work of the quill might be more pleasing to the eye.</p> + +<p>Besides that, I had been with the captain a goodly portion of +the time while the ships were being made ready for the voyage, +and if he had harbored so much of wickedness, surely must some +word of it have come to me, who sat or stood near at hand, +listening attentively whenever he had speech with others of the +company of adventurers.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_SMITH_A"></a>CAPTAIN SMITH A PRISONER</h1> + +<p>When the voyage was begun, and the captain no longer had need +of me, I was sent into the forward part of the ship to live, as +has already been set down, and therefore it was I knew nothing of +what was being done in the great cabin, where the leaders of the +company were quartered, until after my master was made a +prisoner. Then it was told me by the seaman who had been called +by Captain Kendall, as if it was feared my master, being such a +great soldier, might strive to harm those who miscalled him a +traitor to that which he had sworn.</p> + +<p>It seems, so the seaman said, that Captain John Martin was the +one who made the charges against my master, on the night after we +set sail from Martinique, when all the chief men of the company +were met in the great cabin, and he declared that, when it was +possible to do so, meaning after we had come to the land of +Virginia, witnesses should be brought from the other ships to +prove the wicked intent. Then it was that Captain George Kendall +declared my master must be kept a close prisoner until the matter +could be disposed of, and all the others, save Captain +Bartholomew Gosnold, agreeing, heavy irons were put upon him. He +was shut up in his sleeping place, having made no outcry nor +attempt to do any harm, save that he declared himself innocent of +wrong doing.</p> + +<p>But for Captain Gosnold and Master Hunt, the preacher, I +should not have been permitted to go in and learn if I might do +anything for his comfort. The other leaders declared that my +master was a dangerous man, who should not be allowed to have +speech with any person save themselves, lest he send some message +to those who were said to be concerned with him in the plot.</p> + +<h1><a name="I_ATTEND_MY_MAS"></a>I ATTEND MY MASTER</h1> + +<p>Master Hunt spoke up right manfully in behalf of Captain +Smith, with the result that I was given free entrance to that +small room which had been made his prison, save that I must at +all times leave the door open, so those who were in the great +cabin could hear if I was charged with any message to the +seamen.</p> + +<p>My eyes were filled with tears when my master told me that he +had no thought save that of benefiting those who were with him in +the adventure, and that he would not lend his countenance to any +wicked plot.</p> + +<p>I begged him to understand that I knew right well he would do +no manner of wrong to any man, and asked the privilege of being +with him all the time, to serve him when he could not serve +himself because of the irons that fettered his legs.</p> + +<p>And so it was that I had opportunity to do that which made my +master as true a friend as ever lad had, for in the later days +when we were come to Virginia and beset by savages more cruel +than wild beasts, he ventured his own life again and again to +save mine, which was so worthless as compared with his.</p> + +<p>Only that I might tell how the voyage progressed, did I go on +deck, or have speech with Nathaniel Peacock, and only through me +did my master know when we were come to this island or that, +together with what was to be seen in such places.</p> + +<h1><a name="SEVERAL_ISLANDS"></a>SEVERAL ISLANDS VISITED</h1> + +<p>Therefore it was that when, on the next day after he was made +a prisoner, we were come to anchor off that island which the +savages called Gaudaloupe, and Nathaniel had been permitted to go +on shore in one of the boats, I could tell my master of the +wondrous waters which were found there.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel told me that water spouted up out of the earth so +hot, that when Captain Newport threw into it a piece of pork tied +to a rope, the meat was cooked in half an hour, even as if it had +been over a roaring hot fire.</p> + +<p>After that we passed many islands, the names of which I could +not discover, until we came to anchor within half a musket shot +from the shore of that land which is known as Nevis. Here we lay +six days, and the chief men of the company went on shore for +sport and to hunt, save always either Captain Martin or Captain +Kendall, who remained on board to watch the poor prisoner, while +he, my master, lay in his narrow bed sweltering under the great +heat.</p> + +<p>During all this while, the seamen and our gentlemen got much +profit and sport from hunting and fishing, adding in no small +degree to our store of food. Had Captain Smith not been kept from +going on shore by the wickedness of those who were jealous +because of his great fame as a soldier, I dare venture to say our +stay at this island of Nevis would have been far more to our +advantage.</p> + +<p>From this place we went to what Master Hunt told me were the +Virgin islands, and here the men went ashore again to hunt; but +my master, speaking no harsh words against those who were +wronging him, lay in the small, stinging hot room, unable to get +for himself even a cup of water, though I took good care he +should not suffer from lack of kindly care.</p> + +<p>Then on a certain day we sailed past that land which Captain +Gosnold told me was Porto Rico, and next morning came to anchor +off the island of Mona, where the seamen were sent ashore to get +fresh water, for our supply was running low.</p> + +<p>Captain Newport, and many of the other gentlemen, went on +shore to hunt, and so great was the heat that Master Edward +Brookes fell down dead, one of the sailors telling Nathaniel that +the poor man's fat was melted until he could no longer live; but +Captain Smith, who knows more concerning such matters than all +this company rolled into one, save I might except Master Hunt, +declared that the fat of a live person does not melt, however +great the heat. It is the sun shining too fiercely on one's head +that brings about death, and thus it was that Master Brookes +died.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_VARIETY_OF_WI"></a>A VARIETY OF WILD GAME</h1> + +<p>Our gentlemen who had the heart to make prisoner of so honest, +upright a man as my master, did not cease their sport because of +what had befallen Master Brookes, but continued at the hunting +until they had brought down two wild boars and also an animal +fashioned like unto nothing I had ever seen before. It was +something after the manner of a serpent, but speckled on the +stomach as is a toad, and Captain Smith believed the true name of +it to be Iguana, the like of which he says that he has often seen +in other countries and that its flesh makes very good eating.</p> + +<p>If any one save Captain Smith had said this, I should have +found it hard to believe him, and as it was I was glad my belief +was not put to the test. Two days afterward we were come to an +island which Master Hunt says is known to seamen as Monica, and +there it was that Nathaniel went on shore in one of the boats, +coming back at night to tell me a most wondrous story.</p> + +<p>He declared that the birds and their eggs were so plentiful +that the whole island was covered with them; that one could not +set down his foot, save upon eggs, or birds sitting on their +nests, some of which could hardly be driven away even with blows, +and when they rose in the air, the noise made by their wings was +so great as to deafen a person.</p> + +<p>Our seamen loaded two boats full of the eggs in three hours, +and all in the fleet feasted for several days on such as had not +yet been spoiled by the warmth of the birds' bodies.</p> + +<p>It was on the next day that we left behind us those islands +which Captain Smith told me were the West Indies, and the seaman +who stood at the helm when I came on deck to get water for my +master, said we were steering a northerly course, which would +soon bring us to the land of Virginia.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_TEMPEST"></a>THE TEMPEST</h1> + +<p>On that very night, however, such a tempest of wind and of +rain came upon us that I was not the only one who believed the +Susan Constant must be crushed like an eggshell under the great +mountains of water which at times rolled completely over her, so +flooding the decks that but few could venture out to do +whatsoever of work was needed to keep the ship afloat. After this +fierce tempest, when the Lord permitted that even our pinnace +should ride in safety, it was believed that we were come near to +the new world, and by day and by night the seamen stood at the +rail, throwing the lead every few minutes in order to discover if +we were venturing into shoal water.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I used to stand by watching them, and wishing +that we might be allowed to throw the line, but never quite +getting up our courage to say so, knowing full well we should +probably make a tangle of it.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_NEW_COUNTRY"></a>THE NEW COUNTRY SIGHTED</h1> + +<p>As Master George Percy has set down in the writings which I +have copied for him since we came to Virginia, it was on the +twenty-sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord 1607, at about +four o'clock in the morning, when we were come within sight of +that land where were to be built homes, not only for our company +of one hundred and five, counting the boys, but for all who +should come after us.</p> + +<p>It was while the ship lay off the land, her decks crowded with +our company who fain would get the first clear view of that +country in which they were to live, if the savages permitted, +that I asked my master who among the gentlemen of the cabin was +the leader in this adventure.</p> + +<p>To my surprise, he told me that it was not yet known. The +London Company had made an election of those among the gentlemen +who should form the new government, and had written down the +names, together with instructions as to what should be done; but +this writing was enclosed in a box which was not to be opened +until we had come to the end of our voyage.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_LEADER_NOT"></a>THE LEADER NOT KNOWN</h1> + +<p>There could be no doubt but that Captain Kendall and Captain +Martin both believed that when the will of the London Company was +made known, it would be found they stood in high command; but +there was in my heart a great hope that my master might have been +named. Yet when I put the matter to him in so many words, he +treated the matter lightly, saying it could hardly be, else they +had not dared to treat him thus shamefully.</p> + +<p>However, it was soon to be known, if the commands of the +London Company were obeyed, for now we had come to this new land +of Virginia, and the time was near at hand when would be opened +the box containing the names of those who were to be officers in +the town we hoped soon to build.</p> + +<p>As for myself, I was so excited it seemed impossible to remain +quiet many seconds in one place, and I fear that my duties, which +consisted only in waiting upon the prisoner, my master, were +sadly neglected because of the anxiety in my mind to know who the +merchants in London had named as rulers of the settlement about +to be made in the new world.</p> + +<p>One would have believed from Captain Smith's manner that he +had no concern whatsoever as to the result of all this wickedness +and scheming, for it was neither more nor less than such, as I +looked at the matter, on the part of Captain Kendall and Captain +Martin.</p> + +<p>Here we were in sight of the new world, at a place where we +were to live all the remainder of our lives, and he a prisoner in +chains; but yet never a word of complaint came from his lips.</p> + +<h1><a name="ARRIVAL_AT_CHES"></a>ARRIVAL AT CHESAPEAKE BAY</h1> + +<p>When the day had fully dawned, and the fleet stood in toward +the noble bay, between two capes, which were afterward named Cape +Henry and Cape Comfort, Captain Smith directed me to go on deck, +in order to keep him informed of what might be happening.</p> + +<p>He told me there was no question in his mind but that we were +come to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, where it had been agreed +with the London merchants we were to go on shore.</p> + +<p>Standing at the head of the companionway, but not venturing +out on deck lest I should be sent to some other part of the ship, +and thus be unable to give my master the information which he +desired, I looked out upon what seemed to me the most goodly land +that could be found in all the wide world.</p> + +<p>Trees there were of size fit for masts to the king's ships; +flowers bordered the shore until there were seemingly great waves +of this color, or of that, as far as eye could reach, and set +within this dazzling array of green and gold, and of red and +yellow, was a great sea, which Captain Smith said was called the +Chesapeake Bay.</p> + +<p>We entered for some distance, mayhap three or four miles, +before coming to anchor, and then Master Wingfield, Captain +Gosnold, and Captain Newport went on shore with a party of +thirty, made up of seamen and gentlemen, and my master, who had +not so much as stretched his legs since we sailed from +Martinique, was left in his narrow cabin with none but me to care +for him!</p> + +<p>I had thought they would open the box containing the +instructions from London, before doing anything else; but Captain +Smith was of the mind that such business could wait until they +had explored sufficiently to find a place where the new town +might be built.</p> + +<p>It was a long, weary, anxious day for me. The party had left +the ship in the morning, remaining absent until nightfall, and at +least four or five times every hour did I run up from the cabin +to gaze shoreward in the hope of seeing them return, for I was +most eager to have the business pushed forward, and to know +whether my master's enemies were given, by the London Company, +permission to do whatsoever they pleased.</p> + +<h1><a name="AN_ATTACK_BY_TH"></a>AN ATTACK BY THE SAVAGES</h1> + +<p>Just after sunset, and before the darkness of night closed in, +those who had been on shore came back very hurriedly and in +disorder, bringing with them in the foremost boat, two wounded +men.</p> + +<p>"They have had a battle with some one, Master," I reported, +before yet the boats were come alongside, and for the first time +that day did Captain Smith appear to be deeply concerned. I heard +him say as if to himself, not intending that the words should +reach me:</p> + +<p>"Lack of caution in dealing with the savages is like to cost +us dearly."</p> + +<p>Half an hour later I heard all the story from Nathaniel +Peacock, who had believed himself fortunate when he was allowed +to accompany the party on shore.</p> + +<p>According to his account, the company from the fleet roamed +over much of the land during the day, finding fair meadows and +goodly trees, with streams of fresh water here and there +bespeaking fish in abundance.</p> + +<p>Nothing was seen or heard to disturb our people until the +signal had been given for all to go on board the boats, that they +might return to the ships, and then it was that a number of +naked, brown men, creeping upon their hands and knees like +animals, with bows and arrows held between their teeth, came out +suddenly from amid the foliage to the number, as Nathaniel +declared, of not less than an hundred.</p> + +<p>While the white men stood dismayed, awaiting some order from +those who chose to call themselves leaders, the savages shot a +multitude of arrows into the midst of the company, wounding +Captain Gabriel Archer in both his hands, and dangerously hurting +one of the seamen.</p> + +<p>Captain Gosnold gave command for the firearms to be +discharged, whereupon the savages disappeared suddenly, and +without delay our people returned to the fleet.</p> + +<h1><a name="READING_THE_LON"></a>READING THE LONDON COMPANY'S +ORDERS</h1> + +<p>An hour later, when those who had just come from the shore had +been refreshed with food, I noted with much of anxiety that all +the gentlemen of the company, not only such as belonged on board +the Susan Constant, but those from the Speedwell, gathered in the +great cabin of our ship, and, looking out ever so cautiously, +while the door of Captain Smith's room was ajar, I saw them +gather around the big table on which, as if it were something of +greatest value, was placed a box made of some dark colored +wood.</p> + +<p>It was Master Hunt who opened this, and, taking out a paper, +he read in a voice so loud that even my master, as he lay in his +narrow bed, could hear the names of those who were chosen by the +London Company to form the Council for the government of the new +land of Virginia.</p> + +<p>These are the names as he read them: Bartholomew Gosnold, +Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Smith, John +Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall.</p> + +<p>My heart seemingly leaped into my throat with triumph when I +thus heard the name of my master among those who were to stand as +leaders of the company, and so excited had I become that that +which Master Hunt read from the remainder of the paper failed to +attract my attention.</p> + +<p>I learned afterward, however, that among the rules governing +the actions of this Council, was one that a President should be +chosen each year, and that matters of moment were to be +determined by vote of the Council, in which the President might +cast two ballots.</p> + +<p>It was when Master Hunt ceased reading that I believed my +master would be set free without delay, for of a verity he had +the same right to take part in the deliberations as any other, +since it was the will of the London Company that he should be one +of the leaders; but much to my surprise nothing of the kind was +done. Captain Kendall, seeing the door of my master's room +slightly open, arose from the table and closed it, as if he were +about to say something which should not be heard by Captain +Smith.</p> + +<p>I would have opened the door again, but that my master bade me +leave it closed, and when an hour or more had passed, Master Hunt +came in to us, stating that it had not yet been decided by the +other members of the Council whether Captain Smith should be +allowed to take part in the affairs, as the London Company had +decided, or whether he should be sent home for judgment when the +fleet returned. But meanwhile he was to have his liberty.</p> + +<p>Then it was that Master Hunt, talking like the true man he +ever showed himself to be, advised Captain Smith to do in all +things, so far as the other members of the Council permitted, as +if nothing had gone awry, claiming that before we had been many +days in this land, those who had brought charges against him +would fail of making them good.</p> + +<p>Had I been the one thus so grievously injured, the whole +company might have shipwrecked themselves before I would have +raised a hand, all of which goes to show that I had not learned +to rule my temper.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith, however, agreed with all Master Hunt said, and +then it was that I was sent forward once more. My master went on +deck for the first time since we had left Martinique, walking to +and fro swiftly, as if it pleased him to have command of his legs +once more.</p> + +<p>If Master Hunt and Master Wingfield had been able to bring the +others around to their way of thinking, Captain Smith would have +taken his rightful place in the Council without delay. Instead of +which, however, he remained on board the ship idle, when there +was much that he could have done better than any other, from the +day on which we came in sight of Virginia, which was the +fifteenth day of April, until the twenty-sixth day of June.</p> + +<p>During all this time, those of the Council who were his +enemies claimed that they could prove he had laid plans to murder +all the chief men, and take his place as king; but yet they did +not do so, and my master refused to hold any parley with them, +except that he claimed he was innocent of all wrong in thought or +in act.</p> + +<p>When the others of the fleet set off to spy out the land, my +master remained aboard the ship, still being a prisoner, except +so far that he wore no fetters, and I would not have left him +save he had commanded me sharply, for at that time, so sore was +his heart, that even a lad like me could now and then say some +word which might have in it somewhat of cheer.</p> + +<p>During this time that Captain Smith was with the company and +yet not numbered as one of them, the other gentlemen explored the +country, and more than once was Nathaniel Peacock allowed to +accompany them, therefore did I hear much which otherwise would +not have been told me.</p> + +<p>And what happened during these two months when the gentlemen +were much the same as quarreling among themselves, I shall set +down in as few words as possible, to the end that I may the +sooner come to that story of our life in the new village, which +some called James Fort, and others James Town, after King James +of England.</p> + +<h1><a name="EXPLORING_THE_C"></a>EXPLORING THE COUNTRY</h1> + +<p>When the shallop had been taken out of the hold of the Susan +Constant, and put together by the Carpenters, our people explored +the shores of the bay and the broad streams running into it, +meeting with savages here and there, and holding some little +converse with them. A few were found to be friendly, while others +appeared to think we were stealing their land by thus coming +among them.</p> + +<p>One of the most friendly of the savages, so Nathaniel said, +having shown by making marks on the ground with his foot that he +wished to tell our people about the country, and having been +given a pen and paper, drew a map of the river with great care, +putting in the islands and waterfalls and mountains that our men +would come to, and afterward he even brought food to our people +such as wheat and little sweet nuts and berries.</p> + +<p>I myself would have been pleased to go on shore and see these +strange people, but not being able to do so save at the cost of +leaving my master, I can only repeat some of the curious things +which Nathaniel Peacock told me. It must be known that there was +more than one nation, or tribe, of savages in this new land of +Virginia, and each had its king or chief, who was called the +werowance. I might set down the names of these tribes, and yet it +would be so much labor lost, because they are more like fanciful +than real words. As, for example, there were the Paspaheghes, +whose werowance was seemingly more friendly to our people than +were the others.</p> + +<p>Again, there were the Rapahannas, who wore the legs of birds +through holes in their ears, and had all the hair on the right +side of their heads shaven closely.</p> + +<p>It gives them much pleasure to dance, so Nathaniel said, he +having seen them jumping around more like so many wolves, rather +than human beings, for the space of half an hour, shouting and +singing all the while.</p> + +<p>All the Indians smoked an herb called tobacco, which grows +abundantly in this land, and I have Nathaniel's word for it that +one savage had a tobacco pipe nearly a yard long, with the device +of a deer carved at the great end of it big enough to dash out +one's brains with.</p> + +<p>There is very much more which might be said about these +savages that would be of interest; but I am minded now to leave +such stories for others to tell, and come to the day when Captain +Newport was ready to sail with the Susan Constant and the +Goodspeed back to England, for his share in the adventure was +only to bring us over from England, after which he had agreed to +return.</p> + +<p>The pinnace was to be left behind for the use of us who +remained in the strange land. Before this time, meaning the +thirteenth day of May, the members of the Council had decided +upon the place where we were to build our village. It was to be +in the country of the Paspahegh Indians, at a certain spot near +the shore where the water runs so deep that our ships can lie +moored to the trees in six fathoms.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_PEOPLE_LAND"></a>THE PEOPLE LAND FROM THE +SHIPS</h1> + +<p>Then it was that all the people went on shore, some to set up +the tents of cloth which we had brought with us to serve as +shelters before houses could be built; others to lay out a fort, +which it was needed should be made as early as possible because +of the savages, and yet a certain other number being told off to +stand guard against the brown men, who had already shown that +they could be most dangerous enemies.</p> + +<p>My master went ashore, as a matter of course, with the others, +I sticking close to his side; but neither of us taking any part +in the work which had been begun, because the charges of +wickedness were still hanging over his head.</p> + +<p>Had Captain Smith been allowed a voice in the Council, certain +it is he never would have chosen this place in which to make the +town, for he pointed out to me that the land lay so low that when +the river was at its height the dampness must be great, and, +therefore, exceeding unhealthful, while there was back of it such +an extent of forest, as made it most difficult to defend, in case +the savages came against us.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith aided me in building for ourselves a hut in +front of an overhanging rock, with the branches of trees. It was +a poor shelter at the best; but he declared it would serve us +until such time as he was given his rightful place among the +people, or had been sent back a prisoner to England.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_SMITH_P"></a>CAPTAIN SMITH PROVEN +INNOCENT</h1> + +<p>This served us as a living place for many days, or until my +master was come into his own, as he did before the fort was +finished, when, on one certain morning, he demanded of the other +members of the Council that they put him on trial to learn +whether the charges could be proven or not, and this was done on +the day before Captain Newport was to take the ships back to +England.</p> + +<p>There is little need for me to say that Captain Kendall's +stories of the plot, in which he said my master was concerned, +came to naught. There were none to prove that he had ever spoken +of such a matter, and the result of the trial was that they gave +him his rightful place at the head of the company. Before many +months were passed, all came to know that but for him the white +people in Jamestown would have come to their deaths.</p> + +<h1><a name="WE_WHO_WERE_LEF"></a>WE WHO WERE LEFT BEHIND</h1> + +<p>It was on the fifteenth day of June when the ships sailed out +of the Chesapeake Bay, leaving on the banks of the river we +called the James, a hundred men and boys, all told, to hold their +lives and their liberty against thousands upon thousands of naked +savages, who had already shown that they desired to be enemies +rather than friends. Even in the eyes of a boy, it was an odd +company to battle with the savages and the wilderness, for the +greater number were those who called themselves gentlemen, and +who believed it beneath their station to do any labor whatsoever, +therefore did it seem to me that this new town would be burdened +sorely with so many drones.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt, the preacher, could in good truth call himself a +gentleman, and yet I myself saw him, within two hours after we +were landed, nailing a piece of timber between two trees that he +might stretch a square of sailcloth over it, thus making what +served as the first church in the country of Virginia. Yet +Captain Smith has said again and again, that the discourses of +Master Hunt under that poor shelter of cloth, were, to his mind, +more like the real praising of God, than any he had ever heard in +the costly buildings of the old world.</p> + +<p>For the better understanding of certain things which happened +to us after we had begun to build the village of Jamestown, it +should be remembered that of all the savages in the country +roundabout, the most friendly were those who lived in the same +settlement with Powhatan, who was, so Captain Smith said, the +true head and king of all the Indians in Virginia.</p> + +<h1><a name="BAKING_BREAD_WI"></a>BAKING BREAD WITHOUT OVENS</h1> + +<p>It was in this town of Powhatan's that I discovered how to +bake bread without an oven or other fire than what might be built +on the open ground, and it was well I had my eyes open at that +time, otherwise Captain Smith and I had gone supperless to bed +again and again, for there were many days when our stomachs cried +painfully because of emptiness.</p> + +<p>While my master was talking with the king, Powhatan, on +matters concerning affairs at Jamestown, I saw an Indian girl, +whose name I afterward came to know was Pocahontas, making bread, +and observed her carefully. She had white meal, but whether of +barley, or the wheat called Indian corn, or Guinny wheat I could +not say, and this she mixed into a paste with hot water; making +it of such thickness that it could easily be rolled into little +balls or cakes.</p> + +<p>After the mixture had been thus shaped, she dropped the balls +into a pot of boiling water, letting them stay there until well +soaked, when she laid them on a smooth stone in front of the fire +until they had hardened and browned like unto bread that has been +cooked in the oven.</p> + +<p>But I have set myself to the task of telling how we of +Jamestown lived during that time when my master was much the same +as the head of the government, and it is not well to begin the +story with bread making.</p> + +<h1><a name="AN_UNEQUAL_DIVI"></a>AN UNEQUAL DIVISION OF +LABOR</h1> + +<p>First I must explain upon what terms these people, the greater +number of whom called themselves gentlemen, and therefore claimed +to be ashamed to labor with their hands, had come together under +control of those merchants in London, who were known as the +London Company.</p> + +<p>No person in the town of James was allowed to own any land +except as he had his share of the whole. Every one was expected +to work for the good of the village, and whatsoever of crops was +raised, belonged to all the people. It was not permitted that the +more industrious should plant the land and claim that which grew +under their toil.</p> + +<p>Ours was supposed to be one big family, with each laboring to +help the others at the same time he helped himself, and the +result was that those who worked only a single hour each day, had +as much of the general stores as he who remained in the field +from morning until night.</p> + +<p>Although my master had agreed to this plan before the fleet +sailed from England, he soon came to understand that it was not +the best for a new land, where it was needed that each person +should labor to the utmost of his powers.</p> + +<p>The London Company had provided a certain number of tents made +of cloth, which were supposed to be enough to give shelter to all +the people, and yet, because those who had charge of the matter +had made a mistake, through ignorance or for the sake of gain, +there were no more than would provide for the members of the +Council, who appeared to think they should be lodged in better +fashion than those who were not in authority.</p> + +<p>My master could well have laid claim to one of these cloth +houses; but because of the charges which had been made against +him by Captain Kendall and Captain Martin, the sting of which yet +remained, he chose to live by himself. Thus it was that he and I +threw up the roof of branches concerning which I have spoken; but +it was only to shelter us until better could be built.</p> + +<h1><a name="BUILDING_A_HOUS"></a>BUILDING A HOUSE OF LOGS</h1> + +<p>While the others were hunting here and there for the gold +which it had been said could be picked up in Virginia as one +gathers acorns in the old world, Captain Smith set about making a +house of logs such as would protect him from the storms of winter +as well as from the summer sun.</p> + +<p>This he did by laying four logs on the ground in the form of a +square, and so cutting notches in the ends of each that when it +was placed on the top of another, and at right angles with it, +the hewn portions would interlock, one with the other, holding +all firmly in place. On top of these, other huge tree trunks were +laid with the same notching of the ends. It was a vast amount of +labor, thus to roll up the heavy logs in the form of a square +until a pen or box had been made as high as a man's head, and +then over that was built a roof of logs fastened together with +wooden pins, or pegs, for iron nails were all too scarce and +costly to be used for such purpose.</p> + +<p>When the house had been built thus far, the roof was formed of +no more than four or five logs on which a thatching of grass was +to be laid later, and the ends, in what might be called the "peak +of the roof," were open to the weather. Then it was that roughly +hewn planks, or logs split into three or four strips, called +puncheons, were pegged with wooden nails on the sides, or ends, +where doors or windows were to be made.</p> + +<p>Then the space inside this framework was sawed out, and behold +you had a doorway, or the opening for a window, to be filled in +afterward as time and material with which to work might +permit.</p> + +<p>After this had been done, the ends under the roof were covered +with yet more logs, sawn to the proper length and pegged +together, until, save for the crevices between the timbers, the +whole gave protection against the weather.</p> + +<p>Then came the work of thatching the roof, which was done by +the branches of trees, dried grass, or bark. My master put on +first a layer of branches from which the leaves had been +stripped, and over that we laid coarse grass to the depth of six +or eight inches, binding the same down with small saplings +running from one side to the other, to the number of ten on each +slope of the roof. To me was given the task of closing up the +crevices between the logs with mud and grass mixed, and this I +did the better because Nathaniel Peacock worked with me, doing +his full share of the labor.</p> + +<h1><a name="KEEPING_HOUSE"></a>KEEPING HOUSE</h1> + +<p>When we came ashore from the ships, no one claimed Nathaniel +as servant, and he, burning to be in my company, asked Captain +Smith's permission to enter his employ. My master replied that it +had not been in his mind there should be servants and lords in +this new world of Virginia, where one was supposed to be on the +same footing as another; but if Nathaniel were minded to live +under the same roof with us, and would cheerfully perform his +full share of the labor, it might be as he desired.</p> + +<p>Because our house was the first to be put up in the new +village, and, being made of logs, was by far the best shelter, +even in comparison with the tents of cloth, Nathaniel and I +decided that it should be the most homelike, if indeed that could +be compassed where were no women to keep things cleanly. I am in +doubt as to whether Captain Smith, great traveler and brave +adventurer though he was, had even realized that with only men to +perform the household duties, there would be much lack of +comfort.</p> + +<p>The floor of the house was only the bare earth beaten down +hard. We lads made brooms, by tying the twigs of trees to a +stick, which was not what might be called a good makeshift, and +yet with such we kept the inside of our home far more cleanly +than were some of the tents.</p> + +<h1><a name="LACK_OF_CLEANLI"></a>LACK OF CLEANLINESS IN THE +VILLAGE</h1> + +<p>There were many who believed, because there were no women in +our midst, we should spare our labor in the way of keeping +cleanly, and before we had been in the new village a week, the +floors of many of the dwellings were littered with dirt of +various kinds, until that which should have been a home, looked +more like a place in which swine are kept.</p> + +<p>From the very first day we came ashore, good Master Hunt went +about urging that great effort be made to keep the houses, and +the paths around them, cleanly, saying that unless we did so, +there was like to be a sickness come among us. With some his +preaching did good, but by far the greater number, and these +chiefly to be found among the self called gentlemen, gave no +heed.</p> + +<p>It was as if these lazy ones delighted in filth. Again and +again have I seen one or another throw the scrapings of the +trencher bowls just outside the door of the tent or hut, where +those who came or went must of a necessity tread upon them, and +one need not struggle hard to realize what soon was the condition +of the village.</p> + +<p>After a heavy shower many of the paths were covered ankle deep +with filth of all kinds, and when the sun shone warm and bright, +the stench was too horrible to be described by ordinary +words.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAVE_HOMES"></a>CAVE HOMES</h1> + +<p>There were other kinds of homes, and quite a number of them, +that were made neither of cloth nor of logs. These were holes dug +in the side of small hillocks until a sleeping room had been +made, when the front part was covered with brush or logs, built +outward from the hill to form a kitchen.</p> + +<p>During a storm these cave homes were damp, often times +actually muddy, and those who slept therein were but inviting the +mortal sickness that came all too soon among us, until it was as +if the Angel of Death had taken possession of Jamestown.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith said everything he could to persuade these +people, who were content to live in a hole in the ground, that +they were little better than beasts of the field.</p> + +<p>But so long as the foolish ones continued to believe this new +world was much the same as filled with gold and silver, so long +they wasted their time searching.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_GOLDEN_FEVE"></a>THE GOLDEN FEVER</h1> + +<p>But for this golden fever, which attacked the gentlemen more +fiercely than it did the common people, the story of Jamestown +would not have been one of disaster brought about by willful +heedlessness and stupidity.</p> + +<p>Again and again did Captain Smith urge that crops be planted, +while it was yet time, in order that there might be food at hand +when the winter came; but he had not yet been allowed to take his +place in the Council, and those who had the thirst for gold +strong upon them, taunted him with the fact that he had no right +to raise his voice above the meanest of the company. They refused +to listen when he would have spoken with them as a friend, and +laughed him to scorn when he begged that they take heed to their +own lives.</p> + +<p>I cannot understand why our people were so crazy. Even though +Nathaniel and I were but lads, with no experience of adventure +such as was before us, we could realize that unless a man plants +he may not reap, and because we had been hungry many a time in +London town, we knew full well that when the season had passed +there was like to be a famine among us.</p> + +<p>I can well understand, now that I am a man grown, why our +people were so careless regarding the future, for everywhere +around us was food in plenty. Huge flocks of wild swans circled +above our heads, trumpeting the warning that winter would come +before gold could be found. Wild geese, cleaving the air in wedge +shaped line, honked harshly that the season for gathering stores +of food was passing, while at times, on a dull morning, it was as +if the waters of the bay were covered completely with ducks of +many kinds.</p> + +<h1><a name="DUCKS_AND_OYSTE"></a>DUCKS AND OYSTERS</h1> + +<p>I have heard Captain Smith say more than once, that he had +seen flocks of ducks a full mile wide and five or six miles long, +wherein canvasbacks, mallard, widgeon, redheads, dottrel, +sheldrake, and teal swam wing to wing, actually crowding each +other. When such flocks rose in the air, the noise made by their +wings was like unto the roaring of a tempest at sea.</p> + +<p>Then there was bed after bed of oysters, many of which were +uncovered at ebb tide, when a hungry man might stand and eat his +fill of shellfish, never one of them less than six inches long, +and many twice that size. It is little wonder that the gold +crazed men refused to listen while my master warned them that the +day might come when they would be hungry to the verge of +starvation.</p> + +<p>Now perhaps you will like to hear how we two lads, bred in +London town, with never a care as to how our food had been +cooked, so that we had enough with which to fill our stomachs, +made shift to prepare meals that could be eaten by Captain Smith, +for so we did after taking counsel with the girl Pocahontas from +Powhatan's village.</p> + +<h1><a name="ROASTING_OYSTER"></a>ROASTING OYSTERS</h1> + +<p>In the first place, the shell fish called oysters are readily +cooked, or may be eaten raw with great satisfaction. I know not +what our people of Virginia would have done without them, and yet +it was only by chance or accident that we came to learn how +nourishing they are.</p> + +<p>A company of our gentlemen had set off to explore the country +very shortly after we came ashore from the fleet, and while going +through that portion of the forest which borders upon the bay, +happened upon four savages who were cooking something over the +fire.</p> + +<p>The Indians ran away in alarm, and, on coming up to discover +what the brown men had which was good to eat, the explorers found +a large number of oysters roasting on the coals. Through +curiosity, one of our gentlemen tasted of the fish, and, much to +his surprise, found it very agreeable to the stomach.</p> + +<p>Before telling his companions the result of his experiment, he +ate all the oysters that had been cooked, which were more than +two dozen large ones, and then, instead of exploring the land any +further on that day, our gentlemen spent their time gathering and +roasting the very agreeable fish.</p> + +<p>As a matter of course, the news of this discovery spread +throughout the settlement, and straightway every person was +eating oysters; but they soon tired of them, hankering after +wheat of some kind.</p> + +<p>Among those who served some of the gentlemen even as Nathaniel +and I aimed to serve Captain Smith, was James Brumfield, a lazy, +shiftless lad near to seventeen years old. Being hungry, and not +inclined to build a fire, because it would be necessary to gather +fuel, he ventured to taste of a raw oyster. Finding it pleasant +to the mouth, he actually gorged himself until sickness put an +end to the gluttonous meal.</p> + +<p>It can thus be seen that even though Nathaniel and I had never +been apprenticed to a cook, it was not difficult for us to serve +our master with oysters roasted or raw, laid on that which +answered in the stead of a table, in their own shells.</p> + +<h1><a name="LEARNING_TO_COO"></a>LEARNING TO COOK OTHER +THINGS</h1> + +<p>Then again the Indian girl had shown us how to boil beans, +peas, Indian corn, and pumpkins together, making a kind of +porridge which is most pleasant, and affords a welcome change +from oysters; but the great drawback is that we are not able to +come at the various things needed for the making of it, except +when our gentlemen have been fortunate in trading with the brown +men, which is not often.</p> + +<p>This Indian corn, pounded and boiled until soft, is a dish +Captain Smith eats of with an appetite, provided it is well +salted, and one does not need to be a king's cook in order to +make it ready for the table. The pounding is the hardest and most +difficult portion of the task, for the kernels are exceeding +flinty, and fly off at a great distance when struck a glancing +blow.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I have brought inside our house a large, flat +rock, on which we pound the corn, and one of us is kept busy +picking up the grains that fly here and there as if possessed of +an evil spirit. Newsamp is the name which the savages give to +this cooking of wheat.</p> + +<p>I have an idea that when we get a mill for grinding, it will +be possible to break the kernels easily and quickly between the +millstones, without crushing a goodly portion of them to +meal.</p> + +<p>When the Indian corn is young, that is to say, before it has +grown hard, the ears as plucked from the stalks may be roasted +before the coals with great profit, and when we would give our +master something unusually pleasing, Nathaniel and I go abroad in +search of the gardens made by the savages, where we may get, by +bargaining, a supply of roasting ears.</p> + +<p>With a trencher of porridge, and a dozen roasting ears, +together with a half score of the bread balls such as I have +already written about, Captain Smith can satisfy his hunger with +great pleasure, and then it is that he declares he has the most +comfortable home in all Virginia, thanks to his "houseboys," as +he is pleased to call us.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_SWEET_POTAT"></a>THE SWEET POTATO ROOT</h1> + +<p>The Indians have roots, which some of our gentlemen call sweet +potatoes, which are by no means unpleasant to the taste, the only +difficulty being that we cannot get any great quantity of them. +Our master declares that when we make a garden, this root shall +be the first thing planted, and after it has ripened, we will +have some cooked every day.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I have no trouble in preparing the root, for it +may be roasted in the ashes, boiled into a pudding which should +be well salted, or mixed with the meal of Indian corn and made +into a kind of sweet cake.</p> + +<p>However, we lads have not had good success in baking this last +dish, because of the ashes which fly out of the fire when the +wind blows ever so slightly. Captain Smith declares that he would +rather have the ashes without the meal and sweet potato, if +indeed he must eat any, but of course when he speaks thus, it is +only in the way of making sport.</p> + +<p>Captain Kendall, who, because he has made two voyages to the +Indies, believes himself a wondrously wise man, says that he who +eats sweet potatoes at least once each day will not live above +seven years, and he who eats them twice every day will become +blind, after which all his teeth will drop out.</p> + +<p>Because of this prediction, many of our gentlemen are not +willing even so much as to taste of the root, but Captain Smith +says that wise men may grow fat where fools starve, therefore he +gathers up all the sweet potatoes which the others have thrown +away, for they please him exceeding well.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_TOUCH_OF_HOME"></a>A TOUCH OF HOMESICKNESS</h1> + +<p>There is no need for me to say that it makes both Nathaniel +and me glad to be praised by our master, because we keep the +house cleanly and strive to serve the food in such a manner as +not to offend the eye; but we would willingly dispense with such +welcome words if thereby it would be possible to see a woman +messing around the place.</p> + +<p>Strive as boys may, they cannot attend to household matters as +do girls or women, who have been brought into the world knowing +how to perform such tasks, and it is more homelike to see them +around.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I often picture to each other what this village +of Jamestown would be if in each camp, cave, or log hut a woman +was in command, and ever when we talk thus comes into my heart a +sickness for the old homes of England, even though after my +mother died there was none for me; but yet it would do me a world +of good even to look upon a housewife. A most friendly gentleman +is Master Hunt, and even though he is so far above me in station, +I never fail of getting a kindly greeting when I am so fortunate +as to meet him. He comes often to see Captain Smith, for the two +talk long and earnestly over the matter of the Council, and at +such times it is as if he went out of his way to give me a good +word.</p> + +<h1><a name="MASTER_HUNT_S_P"></a>MASTER HUNT'S PREACHING</h1> + +<p>Therefore it is that I go to hear him preach whenever the +people are summoned to a meeting beneath the square of canvas in +the wood, and more than once I have heard from him that which has +taken the sickness for home out of my heart. Our people are not +inclined to listen to him in great numbers, however. I have never +seen above twenty at one time, the others being busy in the +search for gold, or trying to decide among themselves as to how +it may best be found.</p> + +<p>More than once have I heard Master Hunt say, while talking +privately with my master, that there would be greater hope for +this village of ours if we had more laborers and less gentlemen, +for in a new land it is only work that can win in the battle +against the savages and the wilderness.</p> + +<p>Four carpenters, one blacksmith, two bricklayers, a mason, a +sailor, a barber, a tailor, and a drummer make up the list of +skilled workmen, if, indeed, one who can do nothing save drum may +be called a laborer. To these may be added twelve serving men and +four boys. All the others are gentlemen, or, as Master Hunt puts +it, drones expecting to live through the mercy of God whom they +turn their backs upon.</p> + +<h1><a name="NEGLECTING_TO_P"></a>NEGLECTING TO PROVIDE FOR THE +FUTURE</h1> + +<p>The one thing which seemed most surprising to us lads, after +Captain Smith had called it to our notice, was that these people, +who knew there could be no question but that the winter would +find them in Jamestown, when there could be neither roasting +ears, peas, beans, nor fowls of the air to be come at, made no +provision for a harvest.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith, not being allowed to raise his voice in the +Council, could only speak as one whose words have little weight, +since he was not in authority; but he lost no opportunity of +telling these gold seekers that only those who sowed might reap, +and unless seed was put into the ground, there would be no crops +to serve as food during the winter.</p> + +<p>Even Master Wingfield, the President of the Council, refused +to listen when my master would have spoken to him as a friend. He +gave more heed to exploring the land, than to what might be our +fate in the future. He would not even allow the gentlemen to make +such a fort as might withstand an assault by the savages, seeming +to think it of more importance to know what was to be found on +the banks of this river or of that, than to guard against those +brown people who daily gave token of being unfriendly.</p> + +<p>The serving men and laborers were employed in making +clapboards that we might have a cargo with which to fill one of +Captain Newport's ships when he returned from England, according +to the plans of the London Company. The gentlemen roamed here or +there, seeking the yellow metal which had much the same as caused +a madness among them; and, save in the case of Master Hunt and +Captain Smith, none planted even the smallest garden.</p> + +<h1><a name="SURPRISED_BY_SA"></a>SURPRISED BY SAVAGES</h1> + +<p>The fort, as it was called, had been built only of the +branches of trees, and might easily have been overrun by savages +bent on doing us harm.</p> + +<p>It was while Master Wingfield, with thirty of the gentlemen, +was gone to visit Powhatan's village, and the others were hunting +for gold, leaving only my master and the preacher to look after +the serving men and the laborers, that upward of an hundred naked +savages suddenly came down upon us, counting to make an end of +all who were in the town.</p> + +<p>It was a most fearsome sight to see the brown men, their +bodies painted with many colors, carrying bows and arrows, dash +out from among the trees bent on taking our lives, and for what +seemed a very long while our people ran here and there like ants +whose nest has been broken in upon.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith gave no heed to his own safety; but shouted for +all to take refuge in our house of logs, while Master Hunt did +what he might to aid in the defence; yet, because there had been +no exercise at arms, nor training, that each should know what was +his part at such a time, seventeen of the people were wounded, +some grievously, and one boy, James Brumfield of whom I have +already spoken, was killed by an arrow piercing his eye.</p> + +<h1><a name="STRENGTHENING_T"></a>STRENGTHENING THE FORT</h1> + +<p>Next day, when Master Wingfield and his following came in, +none the better for having gone to Powhatan's village, all +understood that it would have been wiser had they listened to my +master when he counseled them to take exercise at arms, and +straightway all the men were set about making a fort with a +palisade, which last is the name for a fence built of logs set on +end, side by side, in the ground, and rising so high that the +enemy may not climb over it. This work took all the time of the +laborers until the summer was gone, and in the meanwhile the +gentlemen made use of the stores left us by the fleet, until +there remained no more than one half pint of wheat to each man +for a day's food.</p> + +<p>The savages strove by day and by night to murder us, till it +was no longer safe to go in search of oysters or wildfowl, and +from wheat which had lain so long in the holds of the ships that +nearly every grain in it had a worm, did we get our only +nourishment.</p> + +<p>The labor of building the palisade was most grievous, and it +was not within the power of man to continue it while eating such +food; therefore the sickness came upon us, when it was as if all +had been condemned to die.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_TIME_OF_SICKN"></a>A TIME OF SICKNESS AND +DEATH</h1> + +<p>The first who went out from among us, was John Asbie, on the +sixth of August. Three days later George Flowers followed him. On +the tenth of the same month William Bruster, one of the +gentlemen, died of a wound given by the savages while he was +searching for gold, and two others laid down their lives within +the next eight and forty hours.</p> + +<p>Then the deaths came rapidly, gentlemen as well as serving men +or laborers, until near eighty of our company were either in the +grave, or unable to move out of such shelters as served as +houses.</p> + +<p>A great fear came upon all, save that my master held his head +as high as ever, and went here and there with Master Hunt to do +what he might toward soothing the sick and comforting the +dying.</p> + +<p>It was on the twentieth day of August when Captain Bartholomew +Gosnold, one of the Council, died, and then Master Wingfield +forgot all else save his own safety. More than one in our village +declared that he was making ready the pinnace that he might run +away from us, as if the Angel of Death could be escaped from by +flight.</p> + +<p>It was starvation brought about by sheer neglect, together +with lying upon the bare ground and drinking of the river water, +which by this time was very muddy, that had brought us to such a +pass.</p> + +<p>Save for the king, Powhatan, and some few of the other savages +in authority, we must all have died; but when there were only +five in all our company able to stand without aid, God touched +the hearts of these Indians. They, who had lately been trying to +kill us, suddenly came to do what they might toward saving our +lives after a full half of the company were in the grave.</p> + +<p>They brought food such as was needed to nourish us, and within +a short time the greater number of us who were left alive, could +go about, but only with difficulty. It was a time of terror, of +suffering, and of close acquaintance with death such as I cannot +set down in words, for even at this late day the thought of what +we then endured chills my heart.</p> + +<p>When we had been restored to health and strength, and were no +longer hungry, thanks to those who had been our bitter enemies, +the chief men of the village began to realize that my master had +not only given good advice on all occasions, but stood among them +bravely when the President of the Council was making preparations +to run away.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_SMITH_G"></a>CAPTAIN SMITH GAINS +AUTHORITY</h1> + +<p>There was but little idle talk made by the members of the +Council in deciding that Master Wingfield should be deprived of +his office, and Master Ratcliffe set in his place. Captain Smith +was called upon to take his proper position in the government, +and, what was more, to him they gave the direction of all matters +outside the town, which was much the same as putting him in +authority over even the President himself.</p> + +<p>It was greatly to my pleasure that Captain Smith lost no time +in exercising the power which had been given him. Nor was he at +all gentle in dealing with those men who disdained to soil their +hands by working, yet were willing to spend one day, and every +day, searching for gold, without raising a finger toward adding +to the general store, but at the same time claiming the right to +have so much of food as would not only satisfy their hunger, but +minister to their gluttony.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I heard our master talking over the matter with +the preacher, on the night the Council had given him full charge +of everything save the dealings which might be had later with the +London Company, therefore it was that we knew there would be +different doings on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Greatly did we rejoice thereat, for Jamestown had become as +slovenly and ill kempt a village as ever the sun shone upon.</p> + +<p>Now it must be set down that these gentlemen of ours, when not +searching for gold, were wont to play at bowls in the lanes and +paths, that they might have amusement while the others were +working, and woe betide the serving man or laborer, who by +accident interfered with their sports.</p> + +<p>On this day, after the conversation with Master Hunt, all was +changed. Captain Smith began his duties as guardian and director +of the village by causing it to be proclaimed through the mouth +of Nicholas Skot, our drummer, that there would be no more +playing at bowls in the streets of Jamestown while it was +necessary that very much work should be performed, and this +spoken notice also stated, that whosoever dared to disobey the +command should straightway be clapped into the stocks.</p> + +<h1><a name="DISAGREEABLE_ME"></a>DISAGREEABLE MEASURES OF +DISCIPLINE</h1> + +<p>Lest there should be any question as to whether my master +intended to carry out this threat or no, William Laxon, one of +the carpenters, was forthwith set to work building stocks in +front of the tent where lived Master Ratcliffe, the new President +of the Council. Nor was this the only change disagreeable to our +gentlemen, which Captain Smith brought about. No sooner had +Nicholas Skot proclaimed the order that whosoever played at bowls +should be set in the stocks, than he was commanded to turn about +and announce with all the strength of his lungs, so that every +one in the village might hear and understand, that those who +would not work should not have whatsoever to eat.</p> + +<p>Verily this was a hard blow to the gentlemen of our company, +who prided themselves upon never having done with their hands +that which was useful. One would have thought my master had made +this rule for his own particular pleasure, for straightway those +of the gentlemen who could least hold their tempers in check, +gathered in the tent which Master Wingfield had taken for his +own, and there agreed among themselves that if Captain Smith +persisted in such brutal rule, they would overturn all the +authority in the town, and end by setting the Captain himself in +the stocks which William Laxon was then making. It so chanced +that Master Hunt overheard these threats at the time they were +made, and, like a true friend and good citizen, reported the same +to Captain Smith.</p> + +<p>Whereupon my master chose a certain number from among those of +the gentlemen who had become convinced that sharp measures were +necessary if we of Jamestown would live throughout the winter, +commanding that they make careful search of every tent, cave, hut +or house in the village, taking therefrom all that was eatable, +and storing it in the log house which had been put up for the +common use.</p> + +<p>Then he appointed Kellam Throgmorton, a gentleman who was well +able to hold his own against any who might attempt to oppose him, +to the office of guardian of the food, giving strict orders that +nothing whatsoever which could be eaten, should be given to those +who did not present good proof of having done a full day's +labor.</p> + +<p>Of course the people who lay sick were excused from such +order, and Master Hunt was chosen to make up a list of those who +must be fed, yet who were not able to work by reason of +illness.</p> + +<h1><a name="SIGNS_OF_REBELL"></a>SIGNS OF REBELLION</h1> + +<p>Now it can well be understood that such measures as these +caused no little in the way of rebellion, and during the two +hours Nicholas Skot cried the proclamation through the streets +and lanes of the village, the gentlemen who had determined to +resist Captain Smith were in a fine state of ferment.</p> + +<p>It was as if a company of crazy men had been suddenly let +loose among us. Not content with plotting secretly against my +master, they must needs swagger about, advising others to join +them in their rebellion, and everywhere could be heard oaths and +threats, in such language as was like to cause honest men's hair +to stand on end.</p> + +<p>For a short time Nathaniel Peacock and I actually trembled +with fear, believing the house of logs would be pulled down over +our heads, for no less than a dozen of the so called gentlemen +were raging and storming outside; but disturbing Captain Smith +not one whit. He sat there, furbishing his matchlock as if having +nothing better with which to occupy the time; but, as can well be +fancied, drinking in every word of mutiny which was uttered.</p> + +<p>Then, as if he would saunter out for a stroll, the captain +left the house, which was much the same as inviting these +disorderly ones to attack him; but they lacked the courage, for +he went to the fort without being molested.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_SECOND_PROC"></a>THE SECOND PROCLAMATION</h1> + +<p>It seemed to me as if no more than half an hour had passed +before Nicholas Skot was making another proclamation, and this +time to the effect that whosoever, after that moment, was heard +uttering profane words, should have a can full of cold water +poured down his sleeve.</p> + +<p>On hearing this, the unruly ones laughed in derision and +straightway began to shout forth such a volley of oaths as I had +never heard during a drunken brawl in the streets of London.</p> + +<p>It was not long, however, that they were thus allowed to shame +decent people. Down from the fort came Captain Smith, with six +stout men behind him, and in a twinkling there was as hot a fight +within twenty paces of Master Ratcliffe's tent, as could be well +imagined.</p> + +<p>And the result of it all was, much to the satisfaction of +Nathaniel and myself, that every one of these men who had amused +themselves by uttering the vilest of oaths, had a full can of the +coldest water that could be procured, poured down the sleeve of +his doublet.</p> + +<p>The method of doing it was comical, if one could forget how +serious was the situation. Two of my master's followers would +pounce upon the fellow who was making the air blue with oaths, +and, throwing him to the ground, hold him there firmly while the +third raised his arm and carefully poured the water down the +sleeve.</p> + +<p>Now you may fancy that this was not very harsh treatment; but +I afterward heard those who had been thus punished, say that they +would choose five or six stout lashes on their backs, rather than +take again such a dose as was dealt out on that day after John +Smith was made captain and commander, or whatsoever you choose to +call his office, in the village of Jamestown.</p> + +<h1><a name="BUILDING_A_FORT"></a>BUILDING A FORTIFIED +VILLAGE</h1> + +<p>There is little need for me to say that these were not the +only reforms which my master brought about, after having waited +long enough for our lazy gentlemen to understand that unless they +set their hands to labor they could not eat from the general +store.</p> + +<p>He straightway set these idle ones to work building houses, +declaring that if the sickness which had come among us was to be +checked, our people must no longer sleep upon the ground, or in +caves where the moisture gathered all around them.</p> + +<p>He marked out places whereon log dwellings should be placed, +in such manner that when the houses had been set up, they would +form a square, and, as I heard him tell Master Hunt, it was his +intention to have all the buildings surrounded by a palisade in +which should be many gates.</p> + +<p>Thus, when all was finished, he would have a fort-like +village, wherein the people could rest without fear of what the +savages might be able to do.</p> + +<p>By the time such work was well under way, and our gentlemen +laboring as honest men should, after learning that it was +necessary so to do unless they were willing to go hungry, Captain +Smith set about adding to our store of food, for it was not to be +supposed that we could depend for any length of time upon what +the Indians might give us, and the winter would be long.</p> + +<h1><a name="TRAPPING_TURKEY"></a>TRAPPING TURKEYS</h1> + +<p>The wild turkeys had appeared in the forest in great numbers, +but few had been killed by our people because of the savages, +many of whom were not to be trusted, even though the chiefs of +three tribes professed to be friendly. It was this fact which had +prevented us from doing much in the way of hunting.</p> + +<p>Now that we were in such stress for food, and since all had +turned laborers, whether willingly or no, much in the way of +provisions was needed. Captain Smith set about taking the turkeys +as he did about most other matters, which is to say, that it was +done in a thorough manner.</p> + +<p>Instead of being forced to spend at least one charge of powder +for each fowl killed, he proposed that we trap them, and showed +how it might be done, according to his belief.</p> + +<p>Four men were told off to do the work, and they were kept busy +cutting saplings and trimming them down until there was nothing +left save poles from fifteen to twenty feet long. Then, with +these poles laid one above the other, a square pen was made, and +at the top was a thatching of branches, so that no fowl larger +than a pigeon might go through.</p> + +<p>From one side of this trap, or turkey pen, was dug a ditch +perhaps two feet deep, and the same in width, running straightway +into the thicket where the turkeys were in the custom of +roosting, for a distance of twenty feet or more. This ditch was +carried underneath the side of the pen, where was an opening +hardly more than large enough for one turkey to pass through. +Corn was scattered along the whole length of the ditch, and thus +was the trap set.</p> + +<p>The turkeys, on finding the trail of corn, would follow +hurriedly along, like the gluttons they are, with the idea of +coming upon a larger hoard, and thus pass through into the pen. +Once inside they were trapped securely, for the wild turkey holds +his head so high that he can never see the way out through a hole +which is at a level with his feet.</p> + +<p>It was a most ingenious contrivance, and on the first morning +after it had been set at night, we had fifty plump fellows +securely caged, when it was only necessary to enter the trap by +crawling through the top, and kill them at our leisure.</p> + +<p>It may be asked how we made shift to cook such a thing as a +turkey, other than by boiling it in a kettle, and this can be +told in very few words, for it was a simple matter after once you +had become accustomed to it.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_CRUDE_KIND_OF"></a>A CRUDE KIND OF CHIMNEY</h1> + +<p>First you must know, however, that when our houses of logs had +been built, we had nothing with which to make a chimney such as +one finds in London. We had no bricks, and although, mayhap, flat +rocks might have been found enough for two or three, there was no +mortar in the whole land of Virginia with which to fasten them +together.</p> + +<p>Therefore it was we were forced to build a chimney of logs, +laying it up on the outside much as we had the house, but +plentifully besmearing it with mud on the inside, and chinking +the crevices with moss and clay.</p> + +<p>When this had been done, a hole was cut for the smoke, +directly through the side of the house. The danger of setting the +building on fire was great; but we strove to guard against it so +much as possible by plastering a layer of mud over the wood, and +by keeping careful watch when we had a roaring fire. Oftentimes +were we forced to stop in the task of cooking, take all the +vessels from the coals, and throw water upon the blazing +logs.</p> + +<p>The chimney was a rude affair, of course, and perhaps if we +had had women among us, they would have claimed that no cooking +could be done, when all the utensils were placed directly on the +burning wood, or hung above it with chains fastened to the top of +the fireplace; but when lads like Nathaniel and me, who had never +had any experience in cooking with proper tools, set about the +task, it did not seem difficult, for we were accustomed to +nothing else.</p> + +<h1><a name="COOKING_A_TURKE"></a>COOKING A TURKEY</h1> + +<p>And this is how we could roast a turkey: after drawing the +entrails from the bird, we filled him full of chinquapin nuts, +which grow profusely in this land, and are, perhaps, of some +relation to the chestnut. An oaken stick, sufficiently long to +reach from one side of the fireplace to the other, and trimmed +with knives until it was no larger around than the ramrod of a +matchlock, forms our spit, and this we thrust through the body of +the bird from end to end. A pile of rocks on either side of the +fireplace, at a proper distance from the burning wood, serves as +rests for the ends of the wooden spit, and when thus placed the +bird will be cooked in front of the fire, if whosoever is +attending to the labor turns the carcass from time to time, so +that each portion may receive an equal amount of heat.</p> + +<p>I am not pretending to say that this is a skillful method of +cooking; but if you had been with us in Jamestown, and were as +hungry as we often were, a wild turkey filled with chinquapin +nuts, and roasted in such fashion, would make a very agreeable +dinner.</p> + +<p>We were put to it for a table; but yet a sort of shelf made +from a plank roughly split out of the trunk of a tree, and +furnished with two legs on either end, was not as awkward as one +may fancy, for we had no chairs on which to sit while eating; but +squatted on the ground, and this low bench served our purpose as +well as a better piece of furniture would have done.</p> + +<p>When the captain was at home, he carved the bird with his +hunting knife, and one such fowl would fill the largest trencher +bowl we had among us.</p> + +<p>Nor could we be overly nice while eating, and since we had no +napkins on which to wipe our fingers, a plentiful supply of water +was necessary to cleanse one's hands, for these wild turkeys are +overly fat in the months of September and October, and he who +holds as much of the cooked flesh in his hand as is needed for a +hearty dinner, squeezes therefrom a considerable amount in the +way of grease.</p> + +<p>We were better off for vessels in which to put our food, than +in many other respects, for we had of trencher bowls an +abundance, and the London Company had outfitted us with ware of +iron, or of brass, or of copper, until our poor table seemed +laden with an exceeding rich store.</p> + +<h1><a name="CANDLES_OR_RUSH"></a>CANDLES OR RUSHLIGHTS</h1> + +<p>To provide lights for ourselves, now that the evenings were +grown longer, was a much more difficult task than to cook without +proper conveniences, for it cost considerable labor. We had our +choice between the candle wood, as the pitch pine is called, or +rushlights, which last are made by stripping the outer bark from +common rushes, thus leaving the pith bare; then dipping these in +tallow, or grease, and allowing them to harden. In such manner +did we get makeshifts for candles, neither pleasing to the eye +nor affording very much in the way of light; yet they served in a +certain degree to dispel the darkness when by reason of storm we +were shut in the dwellings, and made the inside of the house very +nearly cheerful in appearance.</p> + +<p>To get the tallow or grease with which to make these +rushlights, we saved the fat of the deer, or the bear, or even a +portion of the grease from turkeys, and, having gathered +sufficient for the candle making, mixed them all in one pot for +melting.</p> + +<p>The task of gathering the candle wood was more pleasing, and +yet oftentimes had in it more of work, for it was the knots of +the trees which gave the better light, and we might readily +fasten them upon an iron skewer, or rod, which was driven into +the side of the house for such purpose.</p> + +<p>Some of our people, who were too lazy to search for knots, +split the wood into small sticks, each about the size of a goose +quill, and, standing three or four in a vessel filled with sand, +gained as much in the way of light as might be had from one pine +knot.</p> + +<p>Of course, those who were overly particular, would find fault +with the smoke from this candle wood, and complain of the tar +which oozed from it; but one who lives in the wilderness must not +expect to have all the luxuries that can be procured in +London.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_VISIT_OF_PO"></a>THE VISIT OF POCAHONTAS</h1> + +<p>We had a visitor from the village of Powhatan very soon after +Captain Smith took command of Jamestown to such an extent that +the gentlemen were forced to work and to speak without oaths, +through fear of getting too much cold water inside the sleeves of +their doublets.</p> + +<p>This visitor was the same Indian girl I had seen making bread, +and quite by chance our house was the first she looked into, +which caused me much pride, for I believed she was attracted to +it because it was more cleanly than many of the others.</p> + +<p>We were all at home when she came, being about to partake of +the noonday meal, which was neither more nor less than a big +turkey weighing more than two score pounds, and roasted to a +brownness which would cause a hungry person's mouth to water.</p> + +<p>Although she who had halted to look in at our door was only a +girl, Captain Smith treated her as if she were the greatest lady +in the world, himself leading her inside to his own place at the +trencher board, while she, in noways shy, began to help herself +to the fattest pieces of meat, thereby besmearing herself with +grease until there was enough running down her chin to have made +no less than two rushlights, so Nathaniel Peacock declared.</p> + +<p>Of course, being a savage, she could not speak in our +language, but the master, who had studied diligently since coming +to this world of Virginia to learn the speech of the Indians, +made shift to get from her some little information, she being the +daughter of Powhatan, the king concerning whom I have already set +down many things.</p> + +<p>At first Captain Smith was of the belief that she had come on +some errand; but after much questioning, more by signs than +words, it came out, as we understood the matter, that the girl +was in Jamestown for no other purpose than to see what we white +people were like.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith was minded that she should be satisfied, so far +as her curiosity was concerned, for when the dinner had come to +an end, and I had given this king's daughter some dry, sweet +grass on which to wipe her hands and mouth, he conducted her +around the village, allowing that she look in upon the tents and +houses at her pleasure.</p> + +<p>She stayed with us until the sun was within an hour of +setting, and then darted off into the forest as does a startled +pheasant, stopping for a single minute when she had got among the +trees, to wave her hand, as if bidding us goodbye, or in plain +mischief.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_KENDALL"></a>CAPTAIN KENDALL'S PLOT</h1> + +<p>It is not possible my memory will serve me to tell of all that +was done by us in Jamestown after we were come to our senses +through the efforts of my master; but the killing of Captain +Kendall is one of the many terrible happenings in Virginia, which +will never be forgotten so long as I shall live.</p> + +<p>After our people were relieved from the famine through the +gifts from the Indians and the coming of wild fowl, Captain Smith +set about making some plans to provide us with food during the +winter, and to that end he set off in the shallop to trade with +the savages, taking with him six men. He had a goodly store of +beads and trinkets with which to make payment for what he might +be able to buy, for these brown men are overly fond of what among +English people would be little more than toys.</p> + +<p>While he was gone, Master Wingfield and Captain Kendall were +much together, for both were in a certain way under disgrace +since the plot with which they charged my master had been shown +to have been of their own evil imaginings. They at once set about +making friends with some of the serving men, and this in itself +was so strange that Nathaniel and I kept our eyes and ears open +wide to discover the cause.</p> + +<p>It was not many days before we came to know that there was a +plan on foot, laid by these two men who should have been working +for the good of the colony instead of to further their own base +ends, to seize upon our pinnace, which lay moored to the shore, +and to sail in her to England.</p> + +<p>How that would have advantaged them I cannot even so much as +guess; but certain it was that they carried on board the pinnace +a great store of wild fowl, which had been cooked with much +labor, and had filled two casks with water, as if believing such +amount would serve to save them from thirst during the long +voyage.</p> + +<p>These wicked ones had hardly gone on board the vessel when +Captain Smith came home in the shallop, which was loaded deep +with Indian corn he had bought from the savages, and, seeing the +pinnace being got under way, had little trouble in guessing what +was afoot.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_DEATH_OF_CA"></a>THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN +KENDALL</h1> + +<p>If ever a man moved swiftly, and with purpose, it was our +master when he thus came to understand what Master Wingfield and +Captain Kendall would do. He was on shore before those in the +pinnace could hoist the sails, and, calling upon all who remained +true to the London Company to give him aid, had three of our +small cannon, which were already loaded with shot, aimed at the +crew of mutineers.</p> + +<p>Five men, each with a matchlock in his hand, stood ready to +fire upon those who would at the same time desert and steal from +us, and Captain Smith gave the order for Captain Kendall and +Master Wingfield to come on shore without delay.</p> + +<p>For reply Captain Kendall discharged his firearm, hoping to +kill my master, and then those on the bank emptied their +matchlocks with such effect that Captain Kendall was killed by +the first volley, causing Master Wingfield to scuttle on shore in +a twinkling lest he suffer a like fate.</p> + +<p>The whole bloody business was at an end in less than a quarter +hour; but the effect of it was not so soon wiped away, for from +that time each man had suspicion of his neighbor, fearing lest +another attempt be made to take from us the pinnace, which we +looked upon as an ark of refuge, in case the savages should come +against us in such numbers that they could not be resisted.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN SMITH'S EXPEDITION AND RETURN"></a>CAPTAIN +SMITH'S EXPEDITION AND RETURN</h1> + +<p>Until winter was come we had food in plenty, for one could +hardly send a charge of shot toward the river without bringing +down swans, ducks, or cranes, while from the savages we got +sufficient for our daily wants, meal made from the corn, +pumpkins, peas, and beans.</p> + +<p>But this did not cause Captain Smith to give over trying to +buy from the Indians a store of corn for the winter, and shortly +after Captain Kendall's death, he set off with nine white men and +two Indian guides in a barge, counting to go as far as the head +of the Chickahominy River.</p> + +<p>This time twenty-two long, dreary days went by without his +return, and we mourned him as dead, believing the savages had +murdered him.</p> + +<p>The discontented ones were in high glee because of thinking +the man who had forced them to do that which they should, had +gone out from their world forever, and we two lads were plunged +in deepest grief, for in all the great land of Virginia, Captain +Smith was our only true friend.</p> + +<p>Then arrived that day when he suddenly appeared before us, +having come to no harm, and as Master Hunt lifted up his hands in +a prayer of thanksgiving because the man who was so sadly needed +in Jamestown had returned, I fell on my knees, understanding for +the first time in my life how good God could be to us in that +wilderness.</p> + +<p>I would that I might describe the scene in our house that +night, when Master Hunt was come to hear what all knew would be a +story of wildest adventure, for it went without saying that my +master never would have remained so long absent from Jamestown +had it been within his power to return sooner.</p> + +<h1><a name="AN_EXCITING_ADV"></a>AN EXCITING ADVENTURE</h1> + +<p>We waited to hear the tale until he had refreshed himself +after the long journey, and then what Captain Smith told us was +like unto this, as I remember it:</p> + +<p>After leaving the village, he had sailed up the river until +there was no longer water enough to float the barge, when, with +two white men and the two Indians, he embarked in a canoe, +continuing the voyage for a distance of twelve miles or more. +There, in the wilderness, they made ready to spend the night, and +with one of the savage guides my master went on shore on an +island to shoot some wild fowls for supper. He had traveled a +short distance from the boat, when he heard cries of the savages +in the distance, and, looking back, saw that one of the men had +been taken prisoner, while the other was fighting for his +life.</p> + +<p>At almost the very minute when he saw this terrible thing, he +was suddenly beset by more than two hundred yelling, dancing +savages, who were sweeping down upon him as if believing he was +in their power beyond any chance. The Indian guide, who appeared +to be terribly frightened, although it might have been that he +was in the plot to murder my master, would have run away; but +that Captain Smith held him fast while he fired one of his +pistols to keep the enemy in check.</p> + +<p>Understanding that he must do battle for his life, my master +first took the precaution to bind the Indian guide to his left +arm, by means of his belt, in such fashion that the fellow would +serve as a shield against the shower of arrows the savages were +sending through the air.</p> + +<p>Protected in this manner, Captain Smith fought bravely, as he +always does, and had succeeded in killing two of the Indians with +his matchlock, when suddenly he sank knee deep into a mire. It +seems that he had been retreating toward the canoe, hoping to get +on board her where would be some chance for shelter, and was so +engaged with the savages in front of him as to give little heed +to his steps.</p> + +<p>Once he was held prisoner by the mud, the enemy quickly +surrounded him, and he could do no better than surrender. Instead +of treating him cruelly, as might have been expected, these brown +men carried him from village to village, as if exhibiting some +strange animal.</p> + +<h1><a name="TAKEN_BEFORE_PO"></a>TAKEN BEFORE POWHATAN</h1> + +<p>When he was first made captive, the Indians found his compass, +and were stricken with wonder, because, however the instrument +might be turned, the needle always pointed in the same direction. +The glass which protected the needle caused even more amazement, +and, believing him to be a magician, they took him to +Powhatan.</p> + +<p>After many days of traveling, the savages were come with their +prisoner to Powhatan's village, where Captain Smith was held +close prisoner in one of the huts, being fairly well treated and +fed in abundance, until the king, who had been out with a hunting +party, came home.</p> + +<p>Twice while he was thus captive did Captain Smith see the girl +Pocahontas, who had visited him in Jamestown; but she gave no +especial heed to him, save as a child who was minded to be +amused, until on the day when some of the savages gave him to +understand that he was to be killed for having come into this +land of theirs, and also for having shot to death some of their +tribe.</p> + +<p>When he was led out of Powhatan's tent of skins, with his feet +and hands bound, he had no hope of being able to save his own +life, for there was no longer any chance for him to struggle +against those who had him in their power.</p> + +<h1><a name="POCAHONTAS_BEGS"></a>POCAHONTAS BEGS FOR SMITH'S +LIFE</h1> + +<p>He was forced down on the earth, with his head upon a great +rock, while two half naked savages came forward with heavy stones +bound to wooden handles, with which to beat out his brains, and +these weapons were already raised to strike, when the girl +Pocahontas ran forward, throwing herself upon my master, as she +asked that Powhatan give him to her.</p> + +<p>Now, as we afterward came to know, it is the custom among +savages, that when one of their women begs for the life of a +prisoner, to grant the prayer, and so it was done in this case, +else we had never seen my master again.</p> + +<p>It is also the custom, when a prisoner has thus been given to +one who begged for his life, that the captive shall always be +held as slave by her; but Pocahontas desired only to let him go +back to Jamestown. Then it was she told her father how she had +been treated when visiting us, and Powhatan, after keeping +Captain Smith prisoner until he could tell of what he had seen in +other countries of the world, set him free.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_EFFECT_OF_C"></a>THE EFFECT OF CAPTAIN SMITH'S +RETURN</h1> + +<p>It was well for us of Jamestown that my master returned just +when he did, for already had our gentlemen, believing him dead, +refused longer to work, and even neglected the hunting, when game +of all kinds was so plentiful. They had spent the time roaming +around searching for gold, until we were once more in need of +food.</p> + +<p>The sickness had come among us again, and of all our company, +which numbered an hundred when Captain Newport sailed for +England, only thirty-eight remained alive.</p> + +<p>Within four and twenty hours after Captain Smith came back, +matters had so far mended that every man who could move about at +will, was working for the common good, although from that time, +until Captain Newport came again, we had much of suffering.</p> + +<p>With the coming of winter Nathaniel and I were put to it to do +our work in anything like a seemly manner. What with the making +of candles, or of rushlights; tanning deer hides in such fashion +as Captain Smith had taught us; mending his doublets of leather, +as well as our own; keeping the house and ground around it fairly +clean, in addition to cooking meals which might tempt the +appetite of our master, we were busy from sunrise to sunset.</p> + +<p>Nor were we without our reward. On rare occasions Captain +Smith would commend us for attending to our duties in better +fashion than he had fancied lads would ever be able to do, and +very often did Master Hunt whisper words of praise in our ears, +saying again and again that he would there were in his house two +boys like us.</p> + +<p>This you may be sure was more of payment than we had a +reasonable right to expect, for certain it is that even at our +best the work was but fairly done, as it ever must be when there +are houseboys instead of housewives at home.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt had a serving man, William Rods, and he was not +one well fitted to do a woman's work, for in addition to being +clumsy, even at the expense of breaking now and then a wooden +trencher bowl, he had no thought that cleanliness was, as the +preacher often told us, next to godliness.</p> + +<p>It was he, and such as he, that caused Captain Smith and those +others of the Council who were minded to work for the common +good, very much of trouble.</p> + +<p>The rule, as laid down by my master, was that those living in +a dwelling should keep cleanly the land roundabout the outside +for a space of five yards, and yet again and again have I seen +William Rods throw the refuse from the table just outside the +door, meaning to take it away at a future time, and always +forgetting so to do until reminded by some one in authority.</p> + +<p>However, it is not for me to speak of such trifling things as +these, although had you heard Captain Smith and Master Hunt in +conversation, you would not have set them down as being of little +importance. Those two claimed that only by strict regard to +cleanliness, both of person and house, would it be possible for +us, when another summer came, to ward off that sickness which had +already carried away so many of our company.</p> + +<p>After Captain Smith had brought matters to rights in the +village, setting this company of men to building more houses, and +that company to hewing down trees for firewood, which would be +needed when the winter had come, Master Hunt made mention of a +matter which I knew must have been very near his heart many a +day.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_NEW_CHURCH"></a>A NEW CHURCH</h1> + +<p>During all the time we had been on shore, the only church in +Jamestown was the shelter beneath that square of canvas which he +himself had put up. When it stormed, he had called such of the +people as were inclined to worship into one or another of the +houses; but now he asked that a log building be put together, +while it was yet so warm that the men could work out of doors +without suffering, and to this, much to my pleasure, for I had an +exceedingly friendly feeling toward Master Hunt, Captain Smith +agreed.</p> + +<p>Therefore it was that when the storms of October came, Master +Hunt had a place in which to receive those whom he would lead to +a better life, and I believe that all our people, the men who +were careless regarding the future life, and those who followed +the preacher's teachings, felt the better in mind because there +was at last in our village a place which would be used for no +other purpose than that of leading us into, and helping us to +remain in, the straight path.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN"></a>CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S +RETURN</h1> + +<p>It was at the beginning of the new year, two days after my +master was set free by the savages, that Captain Newport came +back to us, this time in the ship John and Francis, and with him +were fifty men who had been sent to join our colony.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for us there were but few gentlemen among them, +therefore did the work of building the village go on much more +rapidly, because there were laborers in plenty.</p> + +<p>A larger building, which was called the fort, and would indeed +have been a safe place for refuge had the savages made an attack, +was but just completed at the beginning of the third month, +meaning March.</p> + +<p>There Captain Smith had stored the supply of provisions and +seed brought in the John and Francis, and we were already saying +to ourselves that by the close of the summer we should reap a +bountiful harvest.</p> + +<p>All these plans and hopes went for naught, however, for on a +certain night -- and no man can say how it happened, save him who +was the careless one -- fire fastened upon the inside of the +fort, having so much headway when it was discovered, that our +people could do little toward checking it.</p> + +<p>The flames burst out through the roof, which was thatched with +dried grass, as were all the houses in the town, and leaped from +one building to another until it seemed as if the entire village +would be destroyed.</p> + +<p>It is true that even the palisade, which was near to forty +feet distant from the fort, was seized upon by the flames, and a +goodly portion of that which had cost us so much labor was +entirely destroyed.</p> + +<p>Out of all our houses only four remained standing when the +flames had died away. The seed which we had counted on for +reaping a harvest, the store of provisions, and a large amount of +clothing and other necessaries, were thus consumed.</p> + +<p>Good Master Hunt lost all his books, in fact, everything he +owned save the clothes upon his back, and yet never once did I, +who was with him very much, for he came to live at our house +while the village was being rebuilt, hear him utter one word of +complaint, or of sorrow.</p> + +<h1><a name="GOLD_SEEKERS"></a>GOLD SEEKERS</h1> + +<p>It was while all the people, gentlemen as well as laborers, +were doing their, best to repair the loss, and to put Jamestown +into such shape that we might be able to withstand an attack from +the savages, if so be they made one, that even a worse misfortune +than the fire came upon us.</p> + +<p>Some of those whom Captain Newport had lately brought to +Virginia, while roaming along the shores of the river in order to +learn what this new land was like, came upon a spot where the +waters had washed the earth away for a distance of five or six +feet, leaving exposed to view a vast amount of sand, so yellow +and so heavy that straightway the foolish ones believed they were +come upon that gold which our people had been seeking almost from +the very day we first landed.</p> + +<p>From this moment there was no talk of anything save the wealth +which would come to us and the London Company.</p> + +<p>Even Captain Newport was persuaded that this sand was gold, +and straightway nearly every person in the village was hard at +work digging and carrying it in baskets on board the John and +Francis as carefully as if each grain counted for a guinea.</p> + +<p>Of all the people of Jamestown, Captain Smith and Master Hunt +were the only ones who refused to believe the golden dream. They +held themselves aloof from this mad race to gather up the yellow +sand, and strove earnestly to persuade the others that it would +be a simple matter to prove by fire whether this supposed +treasure were metal.</p> + +<p>In the center of the village, where all might see him, Master +Hunt set a pannikin, in which was a pint or more of the sand, +over a roaring fire which he kept burning not less than two +hours.</p> + +<p>When he was done, the sand remained the same as before, which, +so he and my master claimed, was good proof that our people of +Jamestown were, in truth, making fools of themselves, as they had +many a time before since we came into this land of Virginia.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_WORTHLESS_CAR"></a>A WORTHLESS CARGO</h1> + +<p>When we should have been striving to build up the town once +more, we spent all our time loading the ship with this worthless +cargo, and indeed I felt the better in my mind when finally +Captain Newport set sail, the John and Francis loaded deeply with +sand, because of believing that we were come to an end of hearing +about treasure which lay at hand ready for whosoever would carry +it away.</p> + +<p>In this, however, I was disappointed. Although there was no +longer any reason for our people to labor at what was called the +gold mine, since there was no ship at hand in which to put the +sand, they still talked, hour by hour, of the day when all the +men in Virginia would go back to England richer than kings.</p> + +<p>Because of such thoughts was it well nigh impossible to force +them to labor once more. Yet Captain Smith and Master Hunt did +all they could, even going so far as to threaten bodily harm if +the people did not rebuild the storehouse, plant such seed as had +been saved from the flames, and replace those portions of the +palisade which had been burned.</p> + +<p>It was while our people were thus working half heartedly, that +Captain Nelson arrived in the ship Phoenix, having been so long +delayed on the voyage, because of tempests and contrary winds, +that his passengers and crew had eaten nearly all the stores +which the London Company sent over for our benefit, and bringing +seventy more mouths to be fed.</p> + +<p>Save that she brought to us skilled workmen, the coming of the +Phoenix did not advantage us greatly, while there were added to +our number, seventy men, and of oatmeal, pickled beef and pork, +as much as would serve for, perhaps, three or four weeks.</p> + +<p>Through her, however, as Master Hunt said in my hearing, came +some little good, for on seeing the yellow sand, Captain Nelson +declared without a question that it was worthless, and, being +accustomed to working in metal, speedily proved to our people who +were yet suffering with the gold fever, that there was nothing +whatsoever of value in it.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_CONDITION_O"></a>THE CONDITION OF THE +COLONY</h1> + +<p>That he might have something to carry back to England, and not +being minded to take on board a load of sand, Captain Nelson +asked that the Phoenix be laden with cedar logs and such +clapboards as our people had made. Therefore was it that we sent +to England the first cargo of value since having come to +Virginia.</p> + +<p>Among those who had come over in the Phoenix were workmen who +understood the making of turpentine, tar and soap ashes. There +was also a pipe maker, a gunsmith, and a number of other skilled +workmen, so that had the Council advanced the interest of the +colony one half as much as my master was doing, all would have +gone well with us in Jamestown.</p> + +<p>As it was, however, the President of the Council, so Master +Hunt has declared many times, and of a verity he would not bear +false witness, often countenanced the men in rebellion against my +master's orders, until, but for the preacher's example, we might +never have put into the earth our first seed.</p> + +<p>Because of lack of food, and it seems strange to say so when +there were of oysters near at hand more than a thousand men could +have eaten, and fish in the rivers without number, Captain Smith +set off once more in the pinnace to trade with the Indians, as +well as to explore further the bay and the river.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt lived in our house, while he was gone, therefore +Nathaniel and I were not idle, and though we had each had a dozen +pair of hands, we could have kept them properly employed, what +with making a garden for our own use, tending the plants, and +keeping house.</p> + +<h1><a name="TOBACCO"></a>TOBACCO</h1> + +<p>Just here I am minded to set down that which the girl +Pocahontas told us concerning the raising of tobacco, and it is +well she spent the time needed to instruct us, for since then I +have seen the people in this new world of Virginia getting more +money from the tobacco plant, than they could have gained even +though Captain Newport's yellow sand had been veritable gold.</p> + +<p>You must know that the seed of tobacco is even smaller than +grains of powder, and the Indians usually plant it in April. +Within a month it springs up, each tiny plant having two or four +leaves, and one month later it is transplanted in little +hillocks, set about the same distance apart as are our hills of +Indian corn.</p> + +<p>Two or three times during the season the plants have to be +hoed and weeded, while the sickly leaves, which peep out from the +body of the stock, must be plucked off.</p> + +<p>If the plant grows too fast, which is to say, if it is like to +get its full size before harvest time, the tops are cut to make +it more backward.</p> + +<p>About the middle of September it is reaped, stripped of its +leaves, and tied in small bunches; these are hung under a shelter +so that the dew may not come to them, until they are cured the +same as hay.</p> + +<p>Having thus been dried, and there must be no suspicion of +moisture about, else they will mold, the whole is packed into +hogsheads.</p> + +<p>I have lived to see the days go by since the girl Pocahontas +showed Nathaniel and me how to cultivate the weed, until the +greatest wealth which Virginia can produce comes from this same +tobacco, which, Master Hunt says, not only induces filthiness in +those who use it, but works grievous injury to the body.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPT NEWPORT"></a>CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN</h1> + +<p>When Captain Newport came back to Virginia, at about the time +we were gathering our scanty harvest, his dreams of sudden +wealth, through the digging of gold in Virginia, had burst as +does a bubble when one pricks it.</p> + +<p>He had not been more than four and twenty hours in England +before learning that his ship was laden only with valueless sand, +and, mayhap, if the London Company had not demanded that he +return to Virginia at once, with certain orders concerning us at +Jamestown, he might have been too much ashamed to show his face +among us again.</p> + +<p>My master had come in long since from trading with the +Indians, having had fairly good success at times, and again +failing utterly to gather food. The king Powhatan was grown so +lofty in his bearing, because of the honor some of our foolish +people had shown him, that it was well nigh impossible to pay the +price he asked, even in trinkets, for so small an amount as a +single peck of corn.</p> + +<p>However, that which Powhatan did or did not do, concerned me +very little when Captain Newport had arrived, for he brought with +him such tidings as made my heart rejoice, and caused Master Hunt +to say that now indeed would our village of Jamestown grow as it +should have grown had our leaders shown themselves of half as +much spirit as had my master.</p> + +<p>But for the greater things which followed Captain Newport's +arrival in September of the year 1608, I would have set it down +as of the utmost importance to us in Jamestown, that he brought +with him the first two women, other than the girl Pocahontas, who +had ever come into our town.</p> + +<p>These were Mistress Forest, and her maid, Anne Burras, and if +the king himself had so far done us the honor as to come, his +arrival would have caused no greater excitement.</p> + +<p>Every man and boy in the settlement pressed forward eager even +to touch the garments of these two women as they came ashore in +the ship's small boat, and I dare venture to say that we stared +at them, Nathaniel and I among the number, even as the savages +stared at us when first we landed.</p> + +<p>It would have been more to my satisfaction had there been two +maids, instead of only one and her mistress, for it was more than +likely servants could tell Nathaniel and me many things about our +care of the house, which a great lady would not well know. +Therefore, as I viewed the matter, we could well spare fine +women, so that we had maids who would understand of what we as +houseboys stood mostly in need.</p> + +<p>However, it was not with these women, who were only two among +seventy, that had come with Captain Newport on this his third +voyage, that I was most deeply concerned, and how I learned that +which pleased me so greatly shall be set down exactly as it +happened.</p> + +<h1><a name="MASTER_HUNT_BRI"></a>MASTER HUNT BRINGS GREAT +NEWS</h1> + +<p>I had been down at the landing place, feasting my eyes upon +the ship which had so lately come from the country I might never +see again, and was trying to cheer myself by working around the +house in the hope of pleasing Captain Smith, when Master Hunt +came in with a look upon his face such as I had not seen since +the sickness first came among us, and, without thinking to be +rude, I asked him if it was the arrival of the women which +pleased him so greatly.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing of such fanciful nature, Richard Mutton," the +good man replied with a smile, "though I must confess that it is +pleasing to see women with white faces, when our eyes have beheld +none save bearded men for so long a time. What think you has been +done in the Council this day, since Captain Newport had speech +with President Ratcliffe?"</p> + +<p>Verily I could not so much as guess what might have happened, +for those worshipful gentlemen were prone at times to behave more +like foolish children, than men upon whom the fate of a new +country depended, and I said to Master Hunt much of the same +purport.</p> + +<p>"They have elected your master, Captain John Smith, President +of the Council, Richard Mutton, and now for the first time will +matters in Jamestown progress as they should."</p> + +<p>"My master President of the Council at last!" I cried, and the +good preacher added:</p> + +<p>"So it is, lad, as I know full well, having just come from +there."</p> + +<p>"But how did they chance suddenly to gather their wits?" I +cried with a laugh, in which Master Hunt joined.</p> + +<p>"It was done after Captain Newport had speech with Master +Ratcliffe, and while I know nothing for a certainty, there is in +my mind a strong belief that he brought word from the London +Company for such an election to be made. At all events, it is +done, and now we shall see Jamestown increase in size, even as +she would have done from the first month we landed here had +Captain John Smith been at the head of affairs."</p> + +<p>The good preacher was so delighted with this change in the +government that he unfolded all his budget of news, forgetting +for the time being, most like, that he was not speaking to his +equal, and thus it was I learned what were Captain Newport's +instructions from the London Company.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_NEWPORT"></a>CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S +INSTRUCTIONS</h1> + +<p>He was ordered, if you please, not to return to England +without bringing back a lump of gold, exploring the passageway to +the South Sea, or finding some of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost +colony, of which I will tell you later.</p> + +<p>But whether he did the one or the other, he had been commanded +to crown as a king, Powhatan, and had brought with him mock +jewels and red robes for such a purpose.</p> + +<p>To find a lump of gold, after he had brought to England a +shipload of yellow sand!</p> + +<p>To crown Powhatan king, when, to our sorrow, he was already +showing himself far more of a king than was pleasing or well for +our town of James!</p> + +<p>Forgetting I was but a lad, and had no right to put blame on +the shoulders of my leaders and betters, or even to address +Master Hunt as if I were a man grown, I cried out against the +foolishness of those people in London for whom we were striving +to build up a city, saying very much that had better been left +unsaid, until the good preacher cried with a laugh:</p> + +<p>"We can forgive them almost anything, Dicky Mutton, since they +have made our Captain Smith the head of the government in this +land of Virginia."</p> + +<p>And now I will tell you, as Master Hunt told me, the story of +this lost colony of Roanoke, which the London Company had +commanded Captain Newport to find.</p> + +<p>You must know that English people had lived in this land of +Virginia before we came here in 1606, and while it does not +concern us of Jamestown, except as we are interested in knowing +the fate of our countrymen, it should be set down, lest we so far +forget as to say that those of us who have built this village are +the first settlers in the land.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_STORY_OF_RO"></a>THE STORY OF ROANOKE</h1> + +<p>Twenty-one years before we sailed from London, Sir Walter +Raleigh sent out a fleet of seven ships, carrying one hundred and +seven persons, to Virginia, and Master Ralph Lane was named as +the governor. They landed on Roanoke Island; but because the +Indians threatened them, and because just at that time when they +were most frightened, Sir Francis Drake came by with his fleet, +they all went home, not daring to stay any longer.</p> + +<p>Two years after that, which is to say nineteen years before we +of Jamestown came here, Sir Walter Raleigh sent over one hundred +and sixteen people, among whom were men, women and children, and +they also began to build a town on Roanoke Island.</p> + +<p>John White was their governor, and very shortly after they +came to Roanoke, his daughter, Mistress Ananias Dare, had a +little baby girl, the first white child to be born in the new +world, so they named her Virginia.</p> + +<p>Now these people, like ourselves, were soon sorely in need of +food, and they coaxed Governor John White to go back to England, +to get what would be needed until they could gather a +harvest.</p> + +<p>At the time he arrived at London, England was at war with the +Spanish people, and it was two years before he found a chance to +get back. When he finally arrived at Roanoke Island, there were +no signs of any of his people to be found, except that on the +tree was cut the word "Croatan," which is the name of an Indian +village on the island nearby.</p> + +<p>That was the last ever heard of all those hundred and sixteen +people. Five different times Sir Walter Raleigh sent out men for +the missing ones; but no traces could be found, not even at +Croatan, and no one knows whether they were killed by the +Indians, or wandered off into the wilderness where they were lost +forever.</p> + +<p>You can see by the story, that the London Company had set for +Captain Newport a very great task when they commanded him to do +what so many people had failed in before him.</p> + +<p>And now out of that story of the lost colony, as Master Hunt +told Nathaniel and me, grows another which also concerns us in +this new land of Virginia.</p> + +<p>You will remember I have said that Master Ralph Lane was the +governor of the first company of people who went to Roanoke +Island, and, afterward, getting discouraged, returned to England. +Now this Master Lane, and the other men who were with him, +learned from the Indians to smoke the weed called tobacco, and +carried quite a large amount of it home with them.</p> + +<p>Not only Sir Walter Raleigh, who knew Master Lane very well, +but many other people in England also learned to smoke, and +therefore it was that when we of Jamestown began to raise +tobacco, it found a more ready sale in London than any other +thing we could send over. Once this was known, our people gave +the greater portion of their time to cultivating the Indian +weed.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_CROWNING_OF"></a>THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN</h1> + +<p>Very nearly the first thing which my master did after having +been made President of the Council, was to obey the orders of the +London Company, by going with Captain Newport to Powhatan's +village in order to crown him like a king.</p> + +<p>This was not at all to the pleasure of the savage, who failed +of understanding what my master and Captain Newport meant, when +they wanted him to kneel down so they might put the crown upon +his head. If all the stories which I have heard regarding the +matter are true, they must have had quite a scrimmage before +succeeding in getting him into what they believed was a proper +position to receive the gifts of the London Company.</p> + +<p>Our people, so Master Hunt told me, were obliged to take him +by the shoulders and force him to his knees, after which they +clapped the crown on his head, and threw the red robe around his +shoulders in a mighty hurry lest he show fight and overcome +them.</p> + +<p>It was some time before Captain Smith could make him +understand that it was a great honor which was being done him, +but when he did get it through his head, he took off his old +moccasins and brought from the hut his raccoon skin coat, with +orders that my master and Captain Newport send them all to King +James in London, as a present from the great Powhatan of +Virginia.</p> + +<p>After this had been done, Captain Newport sailed up the James +River in search of the passage to the South Sea, and my master +set about putting Jamestown into proper order.</p> + +<h1><a name="PREPARING_FOR_T"></a>PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE</h1> + +<p>Once more Captain Smith made the rule that those who would not +work should not eat, and this time, with all the Council at his +back, together with such men as Captain Newport had just brought +with him, you can well fancy his orders were obeyed.</p> + +<p>In addition to the stocks which had been built, he had a +pillory set up, and those gentlemen who were not inclined to +labor with their hands as well as they might, were forced to +stand in it to their discomfort.</p> + +<p>The next thing which he did was to have a large, deep well +dug, so that we might have sweet water from it for drinking +purposes, rather than be forced to use that from the river, for +it was to his mind that through this muddy water did the sickness +come to us.</p> + +<p>When the winter was well begun, and Captain Newport ceased to +search for the South Sea passage, because of having come to the +falls of the James River, Captain Smith forced our people to +build twenty stout houses such as would serve to withstand an +attack from the savages, and again was the palisade stretched +from one to the other, until the village stood in the form of a +square.</p> + +<p>After the cold season had passed, some of the people were set +about shingling the church, and others were ordered to make +clapboards that we might have a cargo when Captain Newport +returned. It was the duty of some few to keep the streets and +lanes of the village clear of filth, lest we invite the sickness +again, and the remainder of the company were employed in planting +Indian corn, forty acres of which were seeded down.</p> + +<h1><a name="STEALING_THE_CO"></a>STEALING THE COMPANY'S +GOODS</h1> + +<p>If I have made it appear that during all this time we lived in +the most friendly manner with the savages, then have I blundered +in the setting down of that which happened.</p> + +<p>Although it shames one to write such things concerning those +who called themselves Englishmen, yet it must be said that the +savages were no longer in any degree friendly, and all because of +what our own people had done.</p> + +<p>From the time when Captain Smith had declared that he who +would not work should not eat, some of our fine gentlemen who +were willing to believe that labor was the greatest crime which +could be committed, began stealing from the common store iron and +copper goods of every kind which might be come at, in order to +trade with the savages for food they themselves were too lazy to +get otherwise.</p> + +<p>They even went so far, some of those who thought it more the +part of a man to wear silks than build himself a house, as to +steal matchlocks, pistols, and weapons of any kind, standing +ready to teach the savages how to use these things, if thereby +they were given so much additional in the way of food.</p> + +<p>As our numbers increased, by reason of the companies which +were brought over by Captain Newport and Captain Nelson, so did +the thievery become the more serious until on one day I heard +Master Hunt tell my master, that of forty axes which had been +brought ashore from the Phoenix and left outside the storehouse +during the night, but eight were remaining when morning came.</p> + +<h1><a name="WHAT_THE_THIEVI"></a>WHAT THE THIEVING LED TO</h1> + +<p>Now there was more of mischief to this than the crime of +stealing, or of indolence. The savages came to understand they +could drive hard bargains, and so increased the price of their +corn that Captain Smith set it down in his report to the London +Company, that the same amount of copper, or of beads, which had, +one year before, paid for five bushels of wheat, would, within a +week after Captain Newport came in search of the lost colony, pay +for no more than one peck.</p> + +<p>Nor was this the entire sum of the wrong done by our gentlemen +who stole rather than worked with their hands. The savages, grown +bold now that they had firearms and knew how to use them, no +longer had the same fear of white people as when Captain Smith, +single handed, was able to hold two hundred in check, and strove +to kill us of Jamestown whenever they found opportunity.</p> + +<p>On four different times did they plot to murder my master, +believing that when he had been done to death, it would be more +easy for them to kill off all in our town; but on each occasion, +so keen was his watchfulness, he outwitted them all.</p> + +<p>The putting of a crown on Powhatan's head, and bowing before +him as if he had been a real king, also did much mischief. It +caused that brown savage to believe we feared him, which was much +the same as inviting him to be less of a friend, until on a +certain day he boldly declared that one basket of his corn was +worth more than all our copper and beads, because he could eat +his corn, while our trinkets gave a hungry man no +satisfaction.</p> + +<p>And thus, by the wicked and unwise acts of our own people, did +we prepare the way for another time of famine and sickness.</p> + +<h1><a name="FEAR_OF_FAMINE"></a>FEAR OF FAMINE IN A LAND OF +PLENTY</h1> + +<p>However, I must set this much down as counting in our favor: +when we landed in this country we had three pigs, and a cock and +six hens, all of which we turned loose in the wilderness to shift +for themselves, giving shelter to such as came back to us when +winter was near at hand.</p> + +<p>Within two years we had of pigs more than sixty, in addition +to many which were yet running wild in the forest. Of hens and +cocks we had upward of five hundred, the greater number being +kept in pens to the end that we might profit by their eggs.</p> + +<p>I have heard Master Hunt declare more than once, that had we +followed Captain Smith's advice, giving all our labor to the +raising of crops, our storehouse would have been too small for +the food on hand, and we might have held ourselves free from the +whims of the savages, having corn to sell, rather than spending +near to half our time trying to buy.</p> + +<p>As Master Hunt said again and again when talking over the +situation with Captain Smith, it seemed strange even to us who +were there, that we could be looking forward to a famine, when in +the sea and on the land was food in abundance to feed half the +people in all this wide world.</p> + +<p>To show how readily one might get himself a dinner, if so be +his taste were not too nice, I have seen Captain Smith, when told +what we had in the larder for the next meal, go to the river with +only his naked sword, and there spear fish enough with the weapon +to provide us with as much as could be eaten in a full day. But +yet some of our gentlemen claimed that it was not good for their +blood to eat this food of the sea; others declared that oysters, +when partaken of regularly, were as poisonous as the sweet +potatoes which we bought of the Indians.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that day by day did we who were in the land of +plenty, overrun with that which would serve as food, fear that +another time of famine was nigh.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_UNHEALTHFUL"></a>THE UNHEALTHFUL LOCATION</h1> + +<p>I have often spoken of the unwillingness of some of our people +to labor; but Captain Smith, who is not overly eager to find +excuses for those who are indolent, has said that there was much +reason why many of our men hugged their cabins, counting it a +most arduous task to go even so far up the river as were the +oyster beds.</p> + +<p>He believes, and Master Hunt is of the same opinion, that this +town of ours has been built on that portion of the shore where +the people are most liable to sickness. The land is low lying, +almost on a level with the river; the country roundabout is made +up of swamps and bogs, and the air which comes to us at night is +filled with a fever, which causes those upon whom it fastens, +first to shake as if they were beset with bitterest cold, and +then again to burn as if likely to be reduced to ashes. Some call +it the ague, and others, the shakes; but whatsoever it may be, +there is nothing more distressing, or better calculated to hinder +a man from taking so much of exercise as is necessary for his +well being.</p> + +<h1><a name="GATHERING_OYSTE"></a>GATHERING OYSTERS</h1> + +<p>That Nathaniel and I may gather oysters without too great +labor of walking and carrying heavy burdens, Captain Smith has +bought from the savages a small boat made of the bark of birch +trees, stretched over a framework of splints, and sewn together +with the entrails of deer. On the seams, and wherever the water +might find entrance, it is well gummed with pitch taken from the +pine tree, and withal the lightest craft that can well be +made.</p> + +<p>Either Nathaniel or I can take this vessel, which the savages +call a canoe, on our shoulders, carrying it without difficulty, +and when the two of us are inside, resting upon our knees, for we +may not sit in it as in a ship's boat, we can send it along with +paddles at a rate so rapid as to cause one to think it moved by +magic.</p> + +<p>With this canoe Nathaniel and I may go to the oyster beds, and +in half an hour put on board as large a cargo of shellfish as she +will carry, in addition to our own weight, coming back in a short +time with as much food as would serve a dozen men for two +days.</p> + +<p>If these oysters could be kept fresh for any length of time, +then would we have a most valuable store near at hand; but, like +other fish, a few hours in the sun serves to spoil them.</p> + +<h1><a name="PREPARING_STURG"></a>PREPARING STURGEON FOR +FOOD</h1> + +<p>Of the fish called the sturgeon, we have more than can be +consumed by all our company; but one cannot endure the flavor day +after day, and therefore is it that we use it for food only when +we cannot get any other.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt has shown Nathaniel and me how we may prepare it +in such a manner as to change the flavor. It must first be dried +in the sun until so hard that it can be pounded to the fineness +of meal. This is then mixed with caviare, by which I mean the +eggs, or roe, of the sturgeon, with sorrel leaves, and with other +wholesome herbs. The whole is made into small balls, or cakes, +which are fried over the fire with a plentiful amount of fat.</p> + +<p>Such a dish serves us for either bread or meat, or for both on +a pinch, therefore if we lads are careful not to waste our time, +Captain Smith may never come without finding in the larder +something that can be eaten.</p> + +<h1><a name="TURPENTINE_AND"></a>TURPENTINE AND TAR</h1> + +<p>To us in Jamestown the making of anything which we may send +back to England for sale, is of such great importance that we are +more curious regarding the manner in which the work is done, than +would be others who are less eager to see piled up that which +will bring money to the people.</p> + +<p>Therefore it was that Nathaniel and I watched eagerly the +making of turpentine, and found it not unlike the method by which +the Indians gain sugar from maple trees. A strip of bark is taken +from the pine, perhaps eight or ten inches long, and at the lower +end of the wound thus made, a deep notch is cut in the wood.</p> + +<p>Into this the sap flows, and is scraped out as fast as the +cavity is filled. It is a labor in which all may join, and so +plentiful are the pine trees that if our people of Jamestown set +about making turpentine only, they might load four or five ships +in a year.</p> + +<p>From the making of tar much money can be earned, and it is a +simple process such as I believe I myself might compass, were it +not that I have sufficient of other work to occupy all my +time.</p> + +<p>The pine tree is cut into short pieces, even the roots being +used, for, if I mistake not, more tar may be had from the roots +than from the trunks of the tree. Our people here dig a hollow, +much like unto the shape of a funnel, on the side of a hill, or +bank, fill it in with the wood and the roots, and cover the whole +closely with turf.</p> + +<p>An iron pot is placed at the bottom of this hollow in the +earth, and a fire is built at the top of the pile. While the fuel +smolders, the tar stews out of the wood, falling into the iron +pot, and from there is put into whatsoever vessels may be most +convenient in which to carry it over seas.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_MAKING_OF_C"></a>THE MAKING OF CLAPBOARDS</h1> + +<p>There is far greater labor required in the making of +clapboards, and it is of a wearisome kind; but Captain Newport +declares that clapboards made of our Virginia cedar are far +better in quality than any to be found in England. Therefore it +is Captain Smith keeps as many men as he may, employed in this +work, which is more tiring than difficult.</p> + +<p>The trunks of the trees are cut into lengths of four feet, and +trimmed both as to branches and bark. An iron tool called a frow, +which is not unlike a butcher's cleaver, is then used to split +the log into thin strips, one edge of which is four or five times +thicker than the other.</p> + +<p>You will understand better the method by picturing to yourself +the end of a round log which has been stood upright for +convenience of the workmen. Now, if you place a frow in such a +position that it will split the thicknesses of an inch or less +from the outer side, you will find that the point of the +instrument, which is at the heart of the tree, must come in such +manner as to make the splint very thin on the inner edge. The +frow is driven through the wood by a wooden mallet, to the end +that the sides of the clapboard may be fairly smooth.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt has told me that if we were to put on board a ship +the size of the John and Francis, as many clapboards as she could +swim under, the value of the cargo would be no less than five +hundred pounds, and they would have a ready sale in London, or in +other English ports.</p> + +<h1><a name="PROVIDING_FOR_T"></a>PROVIDING FOR THE CHILDREN</h1> + +<p>And now before I am come to the most terrible time in the +history of our town of James, let me set down that which the +London Company has decreed, for it is of great importance to all +those who, like Nathaniel and me, came over into this land of +Virginia before they were men and women grown.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt has written the facts out fairly, to the end that +I may understand them well, he having had the information from +Captain Newport, for it was the last decree made by the London +Company before the John and Francis sailed.</p> + +<p>I must say, however, that the reason why this decree, or +order, whichever it may be called, has been made, was to the end +that men and women, who had large families of children, might be +induced to join us here in Jamestown, as if we had not already +mouths enough to feed.</p> + +<p>The Council of the Company has decided to allow the use of +twenty-five acres of land for each and every child that comes +into Virginia, and all who are now here, or may come to live at +the expense of the Company, are to be educated in some good trade +or profession, in order that they may be able to support +themselves when they have come to the age of four and twenty +years, or have served the time of their apprenticeship, which is +to be no less than seven years.</p> + +<p>It is further decreed that all of those children when they +become of age or marry, whichever shall happen first, are to have +freely given and made over to them fifty acres of land apiece, +which same shall be in Virginia within the limits of the English +plantation. But, these children must be placed as apprentices +under honest and good masters within the grant made to the London +Company, and shall serve for seven years, or until they come to +the age of twenty-four, during which time their masters must +bring them up in some trade or business.</p> + +<h1><a name="DREAMS_OF_THE_F"></a>DREAMS OF THE FUTURE</h1> + +<p>On hearing this, the question came into my mind as to whether +Nathaniel and I could be called apprentices, inasmuch as we were +only houseboys, according to the name Captain Smith gave us.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt declared that being apprentices to care for the +family, was of as much service as if we were learned in the trade +of making tar, clapboards, or of building ships, and he assured +me that if peradventure he was living when we had been in this +land of Virginia seven years, it should be his duty to see to it +that we were given our fifty acres of land apiece.</p> + +<p>Thus understanding that we might ourselves in turn one day +become planters, Nathaniel and I had much to say, one with the +other, concerning what should be done in the future. We decided +that when the time came for us to have the land set off to our +own use, we would strive that the two lots of fifty acres each be +in one piece. Then would we set about raising tobacco, as the +Indian girl Pocahontas taught us, and who can say that we might +not come to be of some consequence, even as are Captain Smith and +Master Hunt, in this new world.</p> + +<h1><a name="A_PLAGUE_OF_RAT"></a>A PLAGUE OF RATS</h1> + +<p>And now am I come to the spring of 1609, when befell us that +disaster which marked the beginning of the time of suffering, of +trouble, and of danger which was so near to wiping out the +settlement of Jamestown that the people had already started on +their way to England.</p> + +<p>The day had come when we should put into the ground our Indian +corn that a harvest might follow. The supply, which was to be +used as seed, had been stored in casks and piled up in the big +house wherein were kept our goods.</p> + +<p>When those who had been chosen to do the planting went for the +seed, it was found to have been destroyed by rats, and not only +the corn, but many other things which were in the storehouse, had +been eaten by the same animals.</p> + +<p>Master Hunt maintained, and Captain Smith was of the same +opinion, that when the Phoenix was unloaded, the rats came ashore +from her, finding lodging in that building which represented the +vital spot of our town.</p> + +<p>Howsoever the pests came there, certain it was we should reap +no harvest that year, unless the savages became more friendly +than they had lately shown themselves, and as to this we speedily +learned.</p> + +<h1><a name="TREACHERY_DURIN"></a>TREACHERY DURING CAPTAIN +SMITH'S ABSENCE</h1> + +<p>When Captain Smith set off in the pinnace in order to buy what +might serve us as seed, he found himself threatened by all the +brown men living near about the shores of the bay, as if they had +suddenly made up a plot to kill us, and never one of them would +speak him fairly. It was while my master was away that two +Dutchmen, who came over in the Phoenix and had gone with Captain +Smith in the pinnace, returned to Jamestown, saying to Captain +Winne, who was in command at the fort, that Captain Smith had use +for more weapons because of going into the country in the hope of +finding Indians who would supply him with corn.</p> + +<p>Not doubting their story, the captain supplied them with what +they demanded, and, as was afterward learned, before leaving town +that night they stole many swords, pike heads, shot and powder, +all of which these Dutch thieves carried to Powhatan.</p> + +<p>If these two had been the only white men who did us wrong, +then might our plight not have become so desperate; but many +there were, upwards of sixteen so Master Hunt declared, who from +day to day carried away secretly such weapons and tools, or +powder and shot, as they could come upon, thereby trusting to the +word of the savages that they might live with them in their +villages always, without doing any manner of work.</p> + +<p>Others sold kettles, hoes, or even swords and guns, that they +might buy fruit, or corn, or meat from the Indians without doing +so much of labor as was necessary in order to gather these things +for themselves.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN SMITH'S SPEECH"></a>CAPTAIN SMITH'S +SPEECH</h1> + +<p>Jamestown was a scene of turmoil and confusion when Captain +Smith came back from his journey having on board only two baskets +of corn for seed. After understanding what had been done by the +idle ones during his absence, he called all the people together +and said unto them, speaking earnestly, as if pleading for his +very life:</p> + +<p>"Never did I believe white men who were come together in a new +world, and should stand shoulder to shoulder against all the +enemies that surround them, could be so reckless and malicious. +It is vain to hope for more help from Powhatan, and the time has +come when I will no longer bear with you in your idleness; but +punish severely if you do not set about the work which must be +done, without further plotting. You cannot deny but that I have +risked my life many a time in order to save yours, when, if you +had been allowed to go your own way, all would have starved. Now +I swear solemnly that you shall not only gather for yourselves +the fruits which the earth doth yield, but for those who are +sick. Every one that gathers not each day as much as I do, shall +on the next day be set beyond the river, forever banished from +the fort, to live or starve as God wills."</p> + +<p>This caused the lazy ones to bestir themselves for the time, +and perhaps all might have gone well with us had not the London +Company sent out nine more vessels, in which were five hundred +persons, to join us people in Jamestown. One of the ships, as we +afterward learned, was wrecked in a hurricane; seven arrived +safely, and the ninth vessel we had not heard from.</p> + +<p>All these people had expected to find food in plenty, servants +to wait upon them, and everything furnished to hand without being +obliged to raise a finger in their own behalf. What was yet +worse, they had among them many men who believed they were to be +made officers of the government.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_NEW_LAWS"></a>THE NEW LAWS</h1> + +<p>Now you must understand that with the coming of this fleet we +of Jamestown were told that the London Company had changed all +the laws for us in Virginia, and that Lord De la Warr, who sailed +on the ship from which nothing had been heard, was to be our +governor.</p> + +<p>From that hour did it seem as if all the men in Jamestown, +save only half a dozen, among whom were Captain Smith, Master +Hunt and Master Percy, strove their best to wreck the +settlement.</p> + +<p>Because Lord De la Warr, the new governor, had not arrived, +many of the new comers refused to obey my master, and they were +so strong in numbers that it was not possible for him to force +them to his will.</p> + +<p>Each man strove for himself, regardless of the sick, or of the +women and children. Some banded themselves together in companies, +falling upon such Indian villages as they could easily overcome, +and murdered and robbed until all the brown men of Virginia stood +ready to shed the blood of every white man who crossed their +path.</p> + +<p>Then came that which plunged Nathaniel and me into deepest +grief.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_ACCIDENT"></a>THE ACCIDENT</h1> + +<p>Captain Smith had gone up the bay in the hope of soothing the +trouble among the savages, and, failing in this effort, was +returning, having got within four and twenty hours' journey of +Jamestown, when the pinnace was anchored for the night.</p> + +<p>The boat's company lay down to sleep, and then came that +accident, if accident it may be called, the cause of which no man +has ever been able to explain to the satisfaction of Master Hunt +or myself.</p> + +<p>Captain Smith was asleep, with his powder bag by his side, +when in some manner it was set on fire, and the powder, +exploding, tore the flesh from his body and thighs for the space +of nine or ten inches square, even down to the bones.</p> + +<p>In his agony, and being thus horribly aroused from sleep, +hardly knowing what he did, he plunged overboard as the quickest +way to soothe the pain. There he was like to have drowned but for +Samuel White, who came near to losing his own life in saving +him.</p> + +<p>He was brought back to the town on the day before the ships of +the fleet, which had brought so many quarrelsome people, were to +sail for England. With no surgeon to dress his wounds, what could +he do but depart in one of these ships with the poor hope of +living in agony until he arrived on the other side of the +ocean.</p> + +<p>Nathaniel and I would have gone with him, willing, because of +his friendship for us, to have served him so long as we lived. He +refused to listen to our prayers, insisting that we were lads +well fitted to live in a new land like Virginia, and that if we +would but remain with Master Hunt, working out our time of +apprenticeship, which would be but five years longer, then might +we find ourselves men of importance in the colony. He doubted +not, so he said, but that we would continue, after he had gone, +as we had while he was with us.</p> + +<p>What could we lads do other than obey, when his commands were +laid upon us, even though our hearts were so sore that it seemed +as if it would no longer be possible to live when he had +departed?</p> + +<p>Even amid his suffering, when one might well have believed +that he could give no heed to anything save his own plight, he +spoke to us of what we should do for the bettering of our own +condition. He promised that as soon as he was come to London, and +able to walk around, if so be God permitted him to live, he would +seek out Nathaniel's parents to tell them that the lad who had +run away from his home was rapidly making a man of himself in +Virginia, and would one day come back to gladden their +hearts.</p> + +<h1><a name="CAPTAIN_SMITH_S"></a>CAPTAIN SMITH'S DEPARTURE</h1> + +<p>It is not well for me to dwell upon our parting with the +master whom we had served more than two years, and who had ever +been the most friendly friend and the most manly man one could +ask to meet.</p> + +<p>Our hearts were sore, when, after having done what little we +might toward carrying him on board the ship, we came back to his +house, which he had said in the presence of witnesses should be +ours, and there took up our lives with Master Hunt.</p> + +<p>But for that good man's prayers, on this first night we would +have abandoned ourselves entirely to grief; but he devoted his +time to soothing us, showing why we had no right to do other than +continue in the course on which we had been started by the man +who was gone from us, until it was, to my mind at least, as if I +should be doing some grievous wrong to my master, if I failed to +carry on the work while he was away, as it would have been done +had I known we were to see him again within the week.</p> + +<p>With Captain Smith gone, perhaps to his death; with half a +dozen men who claimed the right to stand at the head of the +government until Lord De la Warr should come; and with the +savages menacing us on every hand, sore indeed was our +plight.</p> + +<p>With so many in the town, for there were now four hundred and +ninety persons, and while the savages, because of having been so +sorely wronged, were in arms against us, it was no longer +possible to go abroad for food, and as the winter came on we were +put to it even in that land of plenty, for enough to keep +ourselves alive.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_STARVING"></a>THE "STARVING TIME"</h1> + +<p>We came to know what starvation meant during that winter, and +were I to set down here all of the suffering, of the hunger +weakness, and of the selfishness we saw during the six months +after Captain Smith sailed for home, there would not be days +enough left in my life to complete the tale.</p> + +<p>As I look back on it now, it seems more like some wonderful +dream than a reality, wherein men strove with women and children +for food to keep life in their own worthless bodies.</p> + +<p>It is enough if I say that of the four hundred and ninety +persons whom Captain Smith left behind him, there were, in the +month of May of the year 1610, but fifty-eight left alive. That +God should have spared among those, Nathaniel Peacock and myself, +is something which passeth understanding, for verily there were +scores of better than we whose lives would have advantaged +Jamestown more than ours ever can, who died and were buried as +best they could be by the few who had sufficient strength +remaining to dig the graves.</p> + +<p>I set it down in all truth that, through God's mercy, our +lives were saved by Master Hunt, for he counseled us wisely as to +the care we should take of our bodies when our stomachs were +crying out for food, and it was he who showed us how we might +prepare this herb or the bark from that tree for the sustaining +of life, when we had nothing else to put into our mouths.</p> + +<p>We had forgotten that Lord De la Warr was the new governor; we +had heard nothing of the ship in which it was said Sir Thomas +Gates and Sir George Somers had sailed. We were come to that pass +where we cared neither for governor nor nobleman. We strove only +to keep within our bodies the life which had become painful.</p> + +<p>Then it was, when the few of us who yet lived, feared each +moment lest the savages would put an end to us, that we saw +sailing up into the bay two small ships, and I doubt if there was +any among us who did not fall upon his knees and give thanks +aloud to God for the help which had come at the very moment when +it had seemed that we were past all aid.</p> + +<h1><a name="OUR_COURAGE_GIV"></a>OUR COURAGE GIVES OUT</h1> + +<p>But our time of rejoicing was short. Although these two ships +were brought by Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, having in +them not less than one hundred and fifty men, they did not have +among them food sufficient to provide for the wants of our +company until another harvest should come.</p> + +<p>The vessel in which these new comers had sailed was, as I have +said, wrecked in a hurricane near the Bermuda Isles, where, after +much labor, they had contrived to build these two small +ships.</p> + +<p>It needed not that we, who of all our people in Jamestown +remained alive, should tell the story of what we had suffered, +for that could be read on our faces.</p> + +<p>Neither was it required that these new comers should study +long in order to decide upon the course to be pursued, for the +answer to all their speculations could be found in the empty +storehouse, and in the numberless graves 'twixt there and the +river bank.</p> + +<p>Of provisions, they had so much as might serve for a voyage to +England, if peradventure the winds were favorable; and ere the +ships had been at anchor four and twenty hours, it was resolved +that we should abandon this town of James, which we had hoped +might one day grow into a city fair to look upon.</p> + +<p>An attempt to build up a nation in this new land of Virginia, +of which ours was the third, had cost of money and of blood more +than man could well set down, and now, after all this brave +effort on the part of such men as Captain Smith, Master Hunt and +Master Percy, it was to go for naught.</p> + +<p>Once more were the savages to hold undisputed possession of +the land which they claimed as their own.</p> + +<h1><a name="ABANDONING_JAME"></a>ABANDONING JAMESTOWN</h1> + +<p>Now even though Nathaniel Peacock and I had known more of +suffering and of sorrow, than of pleasure, in Jamestown, our +hearts were sore at leaving it.</p> + +<p>It seemed to me as if we were running contrary to that which +my master would have commanded, and there were tears in my eyes, +of which I was not ashamed, when Nathaniel and I, hand in hand, +followed Master Hunt out of the house we had helped to build.</p> + +<p>Those who had come from the shipwreck amid the Bermudas, were +rejoicing because they had failed to arrive in time to share with +us the starvation and the sickness, therefore to them this +turning back upon the enterprise was but a piece of good fortune. +Yet were they silent and sad, understanding our sorrow.</p> + +<p>It was the eighth day of June, in the year 1610, when we set +sail from Jamestown, believing we were done with the new world +forever, and yet within less than three hours was all our grief +changed to rejoicing, all our sorrow to thankfulness.</p> + +<h1><a name="LORD_DE_LA_WARR"></a>LORD DE LA WARR'S ARRIVAL</h1> + +<p>At the mouth of the river, sailing toward us bravely as if +having come from some glorious victory, were three ships laden +with men, and, as we afterward came to know, an ample store of +provisions.</p> + +<p>It was Lord De la Warr who had come to take up his +governorship, and verily he was arrived in the very point of +time, for had he been delayed four and twenty hours, we would +have been on the ocean, where was little likelihood of seeing +him.</p> + +<p>It needs not I should say that our ships were turned back, and +before nightfall Master Hunt was sitting in Captain Smith's +house, with Nathaniel Peacock and me cooking for him such a +dinner as we three had not known these six months past.</p> + +<p>I have finished my story of Jamestown, having set myself to +tell only of what was done there while we were with Captain John +Smith.</p> + +<p>And it is well I should bring this story to an end here, for +if I make any attempt at telling what came to Nathaniel Peacock +and myself after that, then am I like to keep on until he who has +begun to read will lay down the story because of weariness.</p> + +<p>For the satisfaction of myself, and the better pleasing of +Nathaniel Peacock, however, I will add, concerning our two +selves, that we remained in the land of Virginia until our time +of apprenticeship was ended, and then it was, that Master Hunt +did for us as Captain Smith had promised to do.</p> + +<h1><a name="THE_YOUNG_PLANT"></a>THE YOUNG PLANTERS</h1> + +<p>We found ourselves, in the year 1614, the owners of an hundred +acres of land which Nathaniel and I had chosen some distance back +from the river, so that we might stand in no danger of the +shaking sickness, and built ourselves a house like unto the one +we had helped make for Captain Smith.</p> + +<p>With the coming of Lord De la Warr all things were changed. +The governing of the people was done as my old master, who never +saw Virginia again, I grieve to say, would have had it. We became +a law abiding people, save when a few hotheads stirred up trouble +and got the worst of it.</p> + +<p>When Nathaniel Peacock and I settled down as planters on our +own account, there were eleven villages in the land of Virginia, +and, living in them, more than four thousand men, women, and +children.</p> + +<p>It was no longer a country over which the savages ruled +without check, though sad to relate, the brown men of the land +shed the blood of white men like water, ere they were driven out +from among us.</p> + +<p>It is well I set down here at the end, that but for Captain +John Smith and Master Hunt, Nathaniel Peacock and I might have +remained in London to become worthless vagabonds, whereas we +stand today free men, planters who are fairly well respected +among our fellows; and I hope, as well as believe, that no man +within this land of Virginia can say that he was ever wronged or +made sorrowful by Nathaniel Peacock or Richard of Jamestown.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Richard of Jamestown, by James Otis + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD OF JAMESTOWN *** + +This file should be named rchjm10h.htm or rchjm10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, rchjm11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, rchjm10ah.htm + +Produced by Martin Robb + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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