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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




RICHARD OF JAMESTOWN
by James Otis.



FOREWORD


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.

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.

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.

JAMES OTIS.



WHO I AM


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH COMES TO LONDON


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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

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:

"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?"

"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."

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.

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.

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:

"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."

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.

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.



THE PLANS OF THE LONDON COMPANY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE VESSELS OF THE FLEET


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.

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.

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.



HOW I EARNED MY PASSAGE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!"

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.

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.

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:



NATHANIEL'S STORY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



WE MAKE SAIL AGAIN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE FIRST ISLAND


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH A PRISONER


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.

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.

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.



I ATTEND MY MASTER


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



SEVERAL ISLANDS VISITED


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



A VARIETY OF WILD GAME


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE TEMPEST


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.

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.



THE NEW COUNTRY SIGHTED


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.

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.

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.



THE LEADER NOT KNOWN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



ARRIVAL AT CHESAPEAKE BAY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.



AN ATTACK BY THE SAVAGES


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.

"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:

"Lack of caution in dealing with the savages is like to cost us
dearly."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Captain Gosnold gave command for the firearms to be discharged,
whereupon the savages disappeared suddenly, and without delay our
people returned to the fleet.



READING THE LONDON COMPANY'S ORDERS


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.

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.

These are the names as he read them: Bartholomew Gosnold, Edward
Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Smith, John Ratcliffe, John
Martin and George Kendall.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



EXPLORING THE COUNTRY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE PEOPLE LAND FROM THE SHIPS


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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH PROVEN INNOCENT


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.

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.



WE WHO WERE LEFT BEHIND


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.

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.

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.



BAKING BREAD WITHOUT OVENS


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.

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.

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.

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.



AN UNEQUAL DIVISION OF LABOR


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



BUILDING A HOUSE OF LOGS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



KEEPING HOUSE


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.

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.

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.



LACK OF CLEANLINESS IN THE VILLAGE


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.

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.

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.

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.



CAVE HOMES


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.

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.

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.

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.



THE GOLDEN FEVER


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.

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.

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.

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.



DUCKS AND OYSTERS


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.

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.

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.



ROASTING OYSTERS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



LEARNING TO COOK OTHER THINGS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE SWEET POTATO ROOT


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



A TOUCH OF HOMESICKNESS


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.

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.

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.



MASTER HUNT'S PREACHING


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.

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.

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.



NEGLECTING TO PROVIDE FOR THE FUTURE


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.

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.

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.

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.



SURPRISED BY SAVAGES


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.

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.

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.

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.



STRENGTHENING THE FORT


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.

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.

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.



A TIME OF SICKNESS AND DEATH


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH GAINS AUTHORITY


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.

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.

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.

Greatly did we rejoice thereat, for Jamestown had become as slovenly
and ill kempt a village as ever the sun shone upon.

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.

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.



DISAGREEABLE MEASURES OF DISCIPLINE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



SIGNS OF REBELLION


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.

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.

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.

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.



THE SECOND PROCLAMATION


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



BUILDING A FORTIFIED VILLAGE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



TRAPPING TURKEYS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



A CRUDE KIND OF CHIMNEY


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.

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.

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.

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.



COOKING A TURKEY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



CANDLES OR RUSHLIGHTS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE VISIT OF POCAHONTAS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN KENDALL'S PLOT


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN KENDALL


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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH'S EXPEDITION AND RETURN


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.

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.

This time twenty-two long, dreary days went by without his return,
and we mourned him as dead, believing the savages had murdered him.

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.

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.

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.



AN EXCITING ADVENTURE


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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



TAKEN BEFORE POWHATAN


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.

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.

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.

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.



POCAHONTAS BEGS FOR SMITH'S LIFE


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.

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.

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.



THE EFFECT OF CAPTAIN SMITH'S RETURN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



A NEW CHURCH


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.

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.



CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



GOLD SEEKERS


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.

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.

From this moment there was no talk of anything save the wealth
which would come to us and the London Company.

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.

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.

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.

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.



A WORTHLESS CARGO


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE CONDITION OF THE COLONY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



TOBACCO


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Having thus been dried, and there must be no suspicion of moisture
about, else they will mold, the whole is packed into hogsheads.

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.



CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S RETURN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



MASTER HUNT BRINGS GREAT NEWS


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.

"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?"

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.

"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."

"My master President of the Council at last!" I cried, and the good
preacher added:

"So it is, lad, as I know full well, having just come from there."

"But how did they chance suddenly to gather their wits?" I cried
with a laugh, in which Master Hunt joined.

"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."

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.



CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S INSTRUCTIONS


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.

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.

To find a lump of gold, after he had brought to England a shipload
of yellow sand!

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!

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:

"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."

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.

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.



THE STORY OF ROANOKE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



STEALING THE COMPANY'S GOODS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



WHAT THE THIEVING LED TO


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.

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.

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.

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.

And thus, by the wicked and unwise acts of our own people, did we
prepare the way for another time of famine and sickness.



FEAR OF FAMINE IN A LAND OF PLENTY


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE UNHEALTHFUL LOCATION


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.

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.



GATHERING OYSTERS


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.

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.

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.

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.



PREPARING STURGEON FOR FOOD


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.

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.

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.



TURPENTINE AND TAR


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE MAKING OF CLAPBOARDS


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.

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.

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.

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.



PROVIDING FOR THE CHILDREN


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



DREAMS OF THE FUTURE


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.

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.

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.



A PLAGUE OF RATS


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



TREACHERY DURING CAPTAIN SMITH'S ABSENCE


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.

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.

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.

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH'S SPEECH


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:

"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."

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.

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.



THE NEW LAWS


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.

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.

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.

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.

Then came that which plunged Nathaniel and me into deepest grief.



THE ACCIDENT


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.



CAPTAIN SMITH'S DEPARTURE


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE "STARVING TIME"


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



OUR COURAGE GIVES OUT


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Once more were the savages to hold undisputed possession of the
land which they claimed as their own.



ABANDONING JAMESTOWN


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.

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.

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.

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.



LORD DE LA WARR'S ARRIVAL


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.



THE YOUNG PLANTERS


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.

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.

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.

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.






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