On Sunday, June 21st, they took the communion lovingly together.
That evening Captain Newport gave a farewell supper on board hisvessel. The 22d he sailed in the Susan Constant for England,carrying specimens of the woods and minerals, and made the shortpassage of five weeks. Dudley Carleton, in a letter to JohnChamberlain dated Aug. 18, 1607, writes "that Captain Newport hasarrived without gold or silver, and that the adventurers, cumbered bythe presence of the natives, have fortified themselves at a placecalled Jamestown." The colony left numbered one hundred and four.
The good harmony of the colony did not last. There were otherreasons why the settlement was unprosperous. The supply of wholesomeprovisions was inadequate. The situation of the town near theChickahominy swamps was not conducive to health, and althoughPowhatan had sent to make peace with them, and they also made aleague of amity with the chiefs Paspahegh and Tapahanagh, theyevidently had little freedom of movement beyond sight of their guns.
Percy says they were very bare and scant of victuals, and in wars anddangers with the savages.
Smith says in his "True Relation," which was written on the spot, andis much less embittered than his "General Historie," that they werein good health and content when Newport departed, but this did notlong continue, for President Wingfield and Captain Gosnold, with themost of the Council, were so discontented with each other thatnothing was done with discretion, and no business transacted withwisdom. This he charges upon the "hard-dealing of the President,"the rest of the Council being diversely affected through hisaudacious command. "Captain Martin, though honest, was weak andsick; Smith was in disgrace through the malice of others; and Godsent famine and sickness, so that the living were scarce able to burythe dead. Our want of sufficient good food, and continual watching,four or five each night, at three bulwarks, being the chief cause;only of sturgeon we had great store, whereon we would so greedilysurfeit, as it cost many their lives; the sack, Aquavite, and otherpreservations of our health being kept in the President's hands, forhis own diet and his few associates."In his "General Historie," written many years later, Smith enlargesthis indictment with some touches of humor characteristic of him. Hesays:
"Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten daysscarce ten amongst us could either go, or well stand, such extremeweakness and sicknes oppressed us. And thereat none need marvaile ifthey consider the cause and reason, which was this: whilst the shipsstayed, our allowance was somewhat bettered, by a daily proportion ofBisket, which the sailors would pilfer to sell, give, or exchangewith us for money, Saxefras, furres, or love. But when theydeparted, there remained neither taverne, beere-house, nor place ofreliefe, but the common Kettell. Had we beene as free from allsinnes as gluttony, and drunkennesse, we might have been canonizedfor Saints. But our President would never have been admitted, foringrissing to his private, Oatmeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitz, Beef,Egges, or what not, but the Kettell: that indeed he allowed equallyto be distributed, and that was half a pint of wheat, and as muchbarley boyled with water for a man a day, and this being fryed sometwenty-six weeks in the ship's hold, contained as many wormes asgraines; so that we might truly call it rather so much bran thancorrne, our drinke was water, our lodgings Castles in the ayre; withthis lodging and dyet, our extreme toile in bearing and plantingPallisadoes, so strained and bruised us, and our continual labour inthe extremitie of the heat had so weakened us, as were causesufficient to have made us miserable in our native countrey, or anyother place in the world."Affairs grew worse. The sufferings of this colony in the summerequaled that of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in the winter and spring.
Before September forty-one were buried, says Wingfield; fifty, saysSmith in one statement, and forty-six in another; Percy gives a listof twenty-four who died in August and September. Late in AugustWingfield said, "Sickness had not now left us seven able men in ourtown." "As yet," writes Smith in September, "we had no houses tocover us, our tents were rotten, and our cabins worse than nought."Percy gives a doleful picture of the wretchedness of the colony: "Ourmen were destroyed with cruel sickness, as swellings, fluxes,burning-fevers, and by wars, and some departed suddenly, but for themost part they died of mere famine.... We watched every three nights,lying on the cold bare ground what weather soever came, worked allthe next day, which brought our men to be most feeble wretches, ourfood was but a small can of barley, sod in water to five men a day,our drink but cold water taken out of the river, which was at theflood very salt, at a low tide full of shrimp and filth, which wasthe destruction of many of our men. Thus we lived for the space offive months in this miserable distress, but having five able men toman our bulwarks upon any occasion. If it had not pleased God to puta terror in the savage hearts, we had all perished by those wild andcruel Pagans, being in that weak state as we were: our men night andday groaning in every comer of the fort, most pitiful to hear. Ifthere were any conscience in men, it would make their hearts to bleedto hear the pitiful murmurings and outcries of our sick men, withoutrelief, every night and day, for the space of six weeks: somedeparting out of the world; many times three or four in a night; inthe morning their bodies trailed out of their cabins, like dogs, tobe buried. In this sort did I see the mortality of divers of ourpeople."A severe loss to the colony was the death on the 22d of August ofCaptain Bartholomew Gosnold, one of the Council, a brave andadventurous mariner, and, says Wingfield, a "worthy and religiousgentleman." He was honorably buried, "having all the ordnance in thefort shot off with many volleys of small shot." If the Indians hadknown that those volleys signified the mortality of their comrades,the colony would no doubt have been cut off entirely. It is amelancholy picture, this disheartened and half-famished band of menquarreling among themselves; the occupation of the half-dozen ablemen was nursing the sick and digging graves. We anticipate here bysaying, on the authority of a contemporary manuscript in the StatePaper office, that when Captain Newport arrived with the first supplyin January, 1608, "he found the colony consisting of no more thanforty persons; of those, ten only able men."After the death of Gosnold, Captain Kendall was deposed from theCouncil and put in prison for sowing discord between the Presidentand Council, says Wingfield; for heinous matters which were provedagainst him, says Percy; for "divers reasons," says Smith, whosympathized with his dislike of Wingfield. The colony was in verylow estate at this time, and was only saved from famine by theprovidential good-will of the Indians, who brought them corn halfripe, and presently meat and fruit in abundance.
On the 7th of September the chief Paspahegh gave a token of peace byreturning a white boy who had run away from camp, and other runawayswere returned by other chiefs, who reported that they had been wellused in their absence. By these returns Mr. Wingfield was convincedthat the Indians were not cannibals, as Smith believed.
On the 10th of September Mr. Wingfield was deposed from thepresidency and the Council, and Captain John Ratcliffe was electedPresident. Concerning the deposition there has been much dispute;but the accounts of it by Captain Smith and his friends, so longaccepted as the truth, must be modified by Mr. Wingfield's "Discourseof Virginia," more recently come to light, which is, in a sense, adefense of his conduct.
In his "True Relation" Captain Smith is content to say that "CaptainWingfield, having ordered the affairs in such sort that he was hatedof them all, in which respect he was with one accord deposed from thepresidency."In the "General Historie" the charges against him, which we havealready quoted, are extended, and a new one is added, that is, apurpose of deserting the colony in the pinnace: "the rest seeing thePresident's projects to escape these miseries in our pinnace byflight (who all this time had neither felt want nor sickness), somoved our dead spirits we deposed him."In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sickness and death, it wasinevitable that extreme dissatisfaction should be felt with theresponsible head. Wingfield was accused of keeping the best of thesupplies to himself. The commonalty may have believed this. Smithhimself must have known that the supplies were limited, but have beenwilling to take advantage of this charge to depose the President, whowas clearly in many ways incompetent for his trying position. Itappears by Mr. Wingfield's statement that the supply left with thecolony was very scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeksand a half, and prudence in the distribution of it, in theuncertainty of Newport's return, was a necessity. Whether Wingfieldused the delicacies himself is a question which cannot be settled.
In his defense, in all we read of him, except that written by Smithand his friends, he seems to be a temperate and just man, littlequalified to control the bold spirits about him.
As early as July, "in his sickness time, the President did easilyfortell his own deposing from his command," so much did he differfrom the Council in the management of the colony. Under date ofSeptember 7th he says that the Council demanded a larger allowancefor themselves and for some of the sick, their favorites, which hedeclined to give without their warrants as councilors. CaptainMartin of the Council was till then ignorant that only store forthirteen and a half weeks was in the hands of the Cape Merchant, ortreasurer, who was at that time Mr. Thomas Studley. Upon arepresentation to the Council of the lowness of the stores, and thelength of time that must elapse before the harvest of grain, theydeclined to enlarge the allowance, and even ordered that every mealof fish or flesh should excuse the allowance of porridge. Mr.
Wingfield goes on to say: "Nor was the common store of oyle, vinegar,sack, and aquavite all spent, saving two gallons of each: the sackreserved for the Communion table, the rest for such extremities asmight fall upon us, which the President had only made known toCaptain Gosnold; of which course he liked well. The vessels wear,therefore, boonged upp. When Mr. Gosnold was dead, the President didacquaint the rest of the Council with the said remnant; but, Lord,how they then longed for to supp up that little remnant: for they hadnow emptied all their own bottles, and all other that they couldsmell out."Shortly after this the Council again importuned the President forsome better allowance for themselves and for the sick. He protestedhis impartiality, showed them that if the portions were distributedaccording to their request the colony would soon starve; he stilloffered to deliver what they pleased on their warrants, but would nothimself take the responsibility of distributing all the stores, andwhen he divined the reason of their impatience he besought them tobestow the presidency among themselves, and he would be content toobey as a private. Meantime the Indians were bringing in supplies ofcorn and meat, the men were so improved in health that thirty wereable to work, and provision for three weeks' bread was laid up.
Nevertheless, says Mr. Wingfield, the Council had fully plotted todepose him. Of the original seven there remained, besides Mr.
Wingfield, only three in the Council. Newport was in England,Gosnold was dead, and Kendall deposed. Mr. Wingfield charged thatthe three--Ratcliffe, Smith, and Martin--forsook the instructions ofhis Majesty, and set up a Triumvirate. At any rate, Wingfield wasforcibly deposed from the Council on the 10th of September. If theobject had been merely to depose him, there was an easier way, forWingfield was ready to resign. But it appears, by subsequentproceedings, that they wished to fasten upon him the charge ofembezzlement, the responsibility of the sufferings of the colony, andto mulct him in fines. He was arrested, and confined on the pinnace.
Mr. Ratcliffe was made President.
On the 11th of September Mr. Wingfield was brought before the Councilsitting as a court, and heard the charges against him. They were, asMr. Wingfield says, mostly frivolous trifles. According to hisreport they were these:
First, Mister President [Radcliffe] said that I had denied him apenny whitle, a chicken, a spoonful of beer, and served him with foulcorn; and with that pulled some grain out of a bag, showing it to thecompany.
Then starts up Mr. Smith and said that I had told him plainly how helied; and that I said, though we were equal here, yet if we were inEngland, he [I] would think scorn his man should be my companion.
Mr. Martin followed with: "He reported that I do slack the servicein the colony, and do nothing but tend my pot, spit, and oven; but hehath starved my son, and denied him a spoonful of beer. I havefriends in England shall be revenged on him, if ever he come inLondon."Voluminous charges were read against Mr. Wingfield by Mr. Archer, whohad been made by the Council, Recorder of Virginia, the author,according to Wingfield, of three several mutinies, as "alwayshatching of some mutiny in my time."Mr. Percy sent him word in his prison that witnesses were hired totestify against him by bribes of cakes and by threats. If Mr. Percy,who was a volunteer in this expedition, and a man of high character,did send this information, it shows that he sympathized with him, andthis is an important piece of testimony to his good character.
Wingfield saw no way of escape from the malice of his accusers, whosepurpose he suspected was to fine him fivefold for all the supplieswhose disposition he could not account for in writing: but he wasfinally allowed to appeal to the King for mercy, and recommitted tothe pinnace. In regard to the charge of embezzlement, Mr. Wingfieldadmitted that it was impossible to render a full account: he had nobill of items from the Cape Merchant when he received the stores, hehad used the stores for trade and gifts with the Indians; CaptainNewport had done the same in his expedition, without giving anymemorandum. Yet he averred that he never expended the value of thesepenny whittles [small pocket-knives] to his private use.
There was a mutinous and riotous spirit on shore, and the Councilprofessed to think Wingfield's life was in danger. He says: "In allthese disorders was Mr. Archer a ringleader." Meantime the Indianscontinued to bring in supplies, and the Council traded up and downthe river for corn, and for this energy Mr. Wingfield gives credit to"Mr. Smith especially," "which relieved the colony well." To thereport that was brought him that he was charged with starving thecolony, he replies with some natural heat and a little show ofpetulance, that may be taken as an evidence of weakness, as well asof sincerity, and exhibiting the undignified nature of all thissquabbling:
"I did alwaises give every man his allowance faithfully, both ofcorne, oyle, aquivite, etc., as was by the counsell proportioned:
neyther was it bettered after my tyme, untill, towards th' end ofMarch, a bisket was allowed to every working man for his breakfast,by means of the provision brought us by Captn. Newport: as willappeare hereafter. It is further said, I did much banquit andryot. I never had but one squirrel roasted; whereof I gave partto Mr. Ratcliffe then sick: yet was that squirrel given me. I didnever heate a flesh pott but when the comon pott was so usedlikewise. Yet how often Mr. President's and the Counsellors' spittshave night and daye bene endaungered to break their backes-so, ladenwith swanns, geese, ducks, etc.! how many times their flesh pottshave swelled, many hungrie eies did behold, to their great longing:
and what great theeves and theeving thear hath been in the comonstoare since my tyme, I doubt not but is already made knowne to hisMajesty's Councell for Virginia."Poor Wingfield was not left at ease in his confinement. On the 17thhe was brought ashore to answer the charge of Jehu [John?] Robinsonthat he had with Robinson and others intended to run away with thepinnace to Newfoundland; and the charge by Mr. Smith that he hadaccused Smith of intending mutiny. To the first accuser the juryawarded one hundred pounds, and to the other two hundred poundsdamages, for slander. "Seeing their law so speedy and cheap," Mr.
Wingfield thought he would try to recover a copper kettle he had lentMr. Crofts, worth half its weight in gold. But Crofts swore thatWingfield had given it to him, and he lost his kettle: "I told Mr.
President I had not known the like law, and prayed they would be moresparing of law till we had more witt or wealthe." Another day theyobtained from Wingfield the key to his coffers, and took all hisaccounts, note-books, and "owne proper goods," which he could neverrecover. Thus was I made good prize on all sides.
During one of Smith's absences on the river President Ratcliffe didbeat James Read, the blacksmith. Wingfield says the Council werecontinually beating the men for their own pleasure. Read struckback.
For this he was condemned to be hanged; but "before he turned of thelather," he desired to speak privately with the President, andthereupon accused Mr. Kendall--who had been released from the pinnacewhen Wingfield was sent aboard--of mutiny. Read escaped. Kendallwas convicted of mutiny and shot to death. In arrest of judgment heobjected that the President had no authority to pronounce judgmentbecause his name was Sicklemore and not Ratcliffe. This was true,and Mr. Martin pronounced the sentence. In his "True Relation,"Smith agrees with this statement of the death of Kendall, and saysthat he was tried by a jury. It illustrates the general looseness ofthe "General Historie," written and compiled many years afterwards,that this transaction there appears as follows: "Wingfield andKendall being in disgrace, seeing all things at random in the absenceof Smith, the company's dislike of their President's weakness, andtheir small love to Martin's never-mending sickness, strengthenedthemselves with the sailors and other confederates to regain theirpower, control, and authority, or at least such meanes aboard thepinnace (being fitted to sail as Smith had appointed for trade) toalter her course and to goe for England. Smith unexpectedlyreturning had the plot discovered to him, much trouble he had toprevent it, till with store of sakre and musket-shot he forced themto stay or sink in the river, which action cost the life of CaptainKendall."In a following sentence he says: "The President [Ratcliffe] andCaptain Archer not long after intended also to have abandoned thecountry, which project also was curbed and suppressed by Smith."Smith was always suppressing attempts at flight, according to his ownstory, unconfirmed by any other writers. He had before accusedPresident Wingfield of a design to escape in the pinnace.
Communications were evidently exchanged with Mr. Wingfield on thepinnace, and the President was evidently ill at ease about him. Oneday he was summoned ashore, but declined to go, and requested aninterview with ten gentlemen. To those who came off to him he saidthat he had determined to go to England to make known the weakness ofthe colony, that he could not live under the laws and usurpations ofthe Triumvirate; however, if the President and Mr. Archer would go,he was willing to stay and take his fortune with the colony, or hewould contribute one hundred pounds towards taking the colony home.
"They did like none of my proffers, but made divers shott at uss inthe pynnasse." Thereupon he went ashore and had a conference.
On the 10th of December Captain Smith departed on his famousexpedition up the Chickahominy, during which the alleged Pocahontasepisode occurred. Mr. Wingfield's condensed account of this journeyand captivity we shall refer to hereafter. In Smith's absencePresident Ratcliffe, contrary to his oath, swore Mr. Archer one ofthe Council; and Archer was no sooner settled in authority than hesought to take Smith's life. The enmity of this man must be regardedas a long credit mark to Smith. Archer had him indicted upon achapter in Leviticus (they all wore a garb of piety) for the death oftwo men who were killed by the Indians on his expedition. "He hadhad his trials the same daie of his retourne," says Wingfield, "and Ibelieve his hanging the same, or the next daie, so speedy is our lawthere. But it pleased God to send Captain Newport unto us the sameevening, to our unspeakable comfort; whose arrivall saved Mr. Smyth'sleif and mine, because he took me out of the pynnasse, and gave meleave to lyve in the towne. Also by his comyng was prevented aparliament, which the newe counsailor, Mr. Recorder, intended thearto summon."Captain Newport's arrival was indeed opportune. He was the only oneof the Council whose character and authority seem to have beengenerally respected, the only one who could restore any sort ofharmony and curb the factious humors of the other leaders. Smithshould have all credit for his energy in procuring supplies, for hissagacity in dealing with the Indians, for better sense than most ofthe other colonists exhibited, and for more fidelity to the objectsof the plantation than most of them; but where ability to rule isclaimed for him, at this juncture we can but contrast the deferenceshown by all to Newport with the want of it given to Smith.
Newport's presence at once quelled all the uneasy spirits.
Newport's arrival, says Wingfield, "saved Mr Smith's life and mine."Smith's account of the episode is substantially the same. In his"True Relation" he says on his return to the fort "each man withtruest signs of joy they could express welcomed me, except Mr.
Archer, and some two or three of his, who was then in my absencesworn councilor, though not with the consent of Captain Martin; greatblame and imputation was laid upon me by them for the loss of our twomen which the Indians slew: insomuch that they purposed to depose me,but in the midst of my miseries, it pleased God to send CaptainNewport, who arriving there the same night, so tripled our joy, asfor a while those plots against me were deferred, though with muchmalice against me, which Captain Newport in short time did plainlysee." In his "Map of Virginia," the Oxford tract of 1612, Smith doesnot allude to this; but in the "General Historie" it had assumed adifferent aspect in his mind, for at the time of writing that he wasthe irresistible hero, and remembered himself as always nearlyomnipotent in Virginia. Therefore, instead of expressions ofgratitude to Newport we read this: "Now in Jamestown they were all incombustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with thepinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre, falcon andmusket shot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sink. Someno better than they should be, had plotted to put him to death by theLevitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending thatthe fault was his, that led them to their ends; but he quickly tooksuch order with such Lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till hesent some of them prisoners to England."Clearly Captain Smith had no authority to send anybody prisoner toEngland. When Newport returned, April 10th, Wingfield and Archerwent with him. Wingfield no doubt desired to return. Archer was soinsolent, seditious, and libelous that he only escaped the halter bythe interposition of Newport. The colony was willing to spare boththese men, and probably Newport it was who decided they should go.
As one of the Council, Smith would undoubtedly favor their going. Hesays in the "General Historie": "We not having any use ofparliaments, plaises, petitions, admirals, recorders, interpreters,chronologers, courts of plea, or justices of peace, sent MasterWingfield and Captain Archer home with him, that had engrossed allthose titles, to seek some better place of employment." Mr.
Wingfield never returned. Captain Archer returned in 1609, with theexpedition of Gates and Somers, as master of one of the ships.
Newport had arrived with the first supply on the 8th of January,1608. The day before, according to Wingfield, a fire occurred whichdestroyed nearly all the town, with the clothing and provisions.
According to Smith, who is probably correct in this, the fire did notoccur till five or six days after the arrival of the ship. The dateis uncertain, and some doubt is also thrown upon the date of thearrival of the ship. It was on the day of Smith's return fromcaptivity: and that captivity lasted about four weeks if the returnwas January 8th, for he started on the expedition December 10th.
Smith subsequently speaks of his captivity lasting six or sevenweeks.
In his "General Historie" Smith says the fire happened after thereturn of the expedition of Newport, Smith, and Scrivener to thePamunkey: "Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his library, andall he had but the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard himrepine at his loss." This excellent and devoted man is the only oneof these first pioneers of whom everybody speaks well, and hedeserved all affection and respect.
One of the first labors of Newport was to erect a suitable church.
Services had been held under many disadvantages, which Smith depictsin his "Advertisements for Unexperienced Planters," published inLondon in 1631:
"When I first went to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang anawning (which is an old saile) to three or foure trees to shadow usfrom the Sunne, our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewedtrees, till we cut plankes, our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to twoneighboring trees, in foule weather we shifted into an old rottentent, for we had few better, and this came by the way of adventurefor me; this was our Church, till we built a homely thing like abarne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge and earth, sowas also the walls: the best of our houses of the like curiosity, butthe most part farre much worse workmanship, that could neither welldefend wind nor raine, yet we had daily Common Prayer morning andevening, every day two Sermons, and every three moneths the holyCommunion, till our Minister died, [Robert Hunt] but our Prayersdaily, with an Homily on Sundaies."It is due to Mr. Wingfield, who is about to disappear from Virginia,that something more in his defense against the charges of Smith andthe others should be given. It is not possible now to say how thesuspicion of his religious soundness arose, but there seems to havebeen a notion that he had papal tendencies. His grandfather, SirRichard Wingfield, was buried in Toledo, Spain. His father, ThomasMaria Wingfield, was christened by Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole.
These facts perhaps gave rise to the suspicion. He answers them withsome dignity and simplicity, and with a little querulousness:
"It is noised that I combyned with the Spanniards to the distruccionof the Collony; that I ame an atheist, because I carryed not a Biblewith me, and because I did forbid the preacher to preache; that Iaffected a kingdome; that I did hide of the comon provision in theground.
"I confesse I have alwayes admyred any noble vertue and prowesse, aswell in the Spanniards (as in other nations): but naturally I havealwayes distrusted and disliked their neighborhoode. I sorted manybookes in my house, to be sent up to me at my goeing to Virginia;amongst them a Bible. They were sent up in a trunk to London, withdivers fruite, conserves, and preserves, which I did sett in Mr.
Crofts his house in Ratcliff. In my beeing at Virginia, I didunderstand my trunk was thear broken up, much lost, my sweetmeateseaten at his table, some of my bookes which I missed to be seene inhis hands: and whether amongst them my Bible was so ymbeasiled ormislayed by my servants, and not sent me, I knowe not as yet.
"Two or three Sunday mornings, the Indians gave us allarums at ourtowne. By that tymes they weare answered, the place about us welldiscovered, and our devyne service ended, the daie was farr spent.
The preacher did aske me if it were my pleasure to have a sermon: heesaid hee was prepared for it. I made answere, that our men wereweary and hungry, and that he did see the time of the daie farr past(for at other tymes bee never made such question, but, the servicefinished he began his sermon); and that, if it pleased him, wee wouldspare him till some other tyme. I never failed to take such noatesby wrighting out of his doctrine as my capacity could comprehend,unless some raynie day hindred my endeavor. My mynde never swelledwith such ympossible mountebank humors as could make me affect anyother kingdome than the kingdom of heaven.
"As truly as God liveth, I gave an ould man, then the keeper of theprivate store, 2 glasses with sallet oyle which I brought with me outof England for my private stoare, and willed him to bury it in theground, for that I feared the great heate would spoile it.
Whatsoever was more, I did never consent unto or know of it, and astruly was it protested unto me, that all the remaynder beforemencioned of the oyle, wyne, &c., which the President receyved of mewhen I was deposed they themselves poored into their owne bellyes.
"To the President's and Counsell's objections I saie that I doe knowecurtesey and civility became a governor. No penny whittle was askedme, but a knife, whereof I have none to spare The Indyans had longbefore stoallen my knife. Of chickins I never did eat but one, andthat in my sicknes. Mr. Ratcliff had before that time tasted Of 4 or5. I had by my owne huswiferie bred above 37, and the most part ofthem my owne poultrye; of all which, at my comyng awaie, I did notsee three living. I never denyed him (or any other) beare, when Ihad it. The corne was of the same which we all lived upon.
"Mr. Smyth, in the time of our hungar, had spread a rumor in theCollony, that I did feast myself and my servants out of the comonstoare, with entent (as I gathered) to have stirred the discontentedcompany against me. I told him privately, in Mr. Gosnold's tent,that indeede I had caused half a pint of pease to be sodden with apeese of pork, of my own provision, for a poore old man, which in asicknes (whereof he died) he much desired; and said, that if out ofhis malice he had given it out otherwise, that hee did tell a leye.
It was proved to his face, that he begged in Ireland like a rogue,without a lycence. To such I would not my nam should be acompanyon."The explanation about the Bible as a part of his baggage is a littlefar-fetched, and it is evident that that book was not his dailycompanion. Whether John Smith habitually carried one about with himwe are not informed. The whole passage quoted gives us a curiouspicture of the mind and of the habits of the time. This allusion toJohn Smith's begging is the only reference we can find to his havingbeen in Ireland. If he was there it must have been in that interimin his own narrative between his return from Morocco and his going toVirginia. He was likely enough to seek adventure there, as thehangers-on of the court in Raleigh's day occasionally did, andperhaps nothing occurred during his visit there that he cared tocelebrate. If he went to Ireland he probably got in straits there,for that was his usual luck.
Whatever is the truth about Mr. Wingfield's inefficiency andembezzlement of corn meal, Communion sack, and penny whittles, hisenemies had no respect for each other or concord among themselves.
It is Wingfield's testimony that Ratcliffe said he would not havebeen deposed if he had visited Ratcliffe during his sickness. Smithsaid that Wingfield would not have been deposed except for Archer;that the charges against him were frivolous. Yet, says Wingfield, "Ido believe him the first and only practiser in these practices," andhe attributed Smith's hostility to the fact that "his name wasmentioned in the intended and confessed mutiny by Galthrop." Nootherreference is made to this mutiny. Galthrop was one of those who diedin the previous August.
One of the best re-enforcements of the first supply was MatthewScrivener, who was appointed one of the Council. He was a sensibleman, and he and Smith worked together in harmony for some time. Theywere intent upon building up the colony. Everybody else in the campwas crazy about the prospect of gold: there was, says Smith, "notalk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, loadgold, such a bruit of gold that one mad fellow desired to be buriedin the sands, lest they should by their art make gold of his bones."He charges that Newport delayed his return to England on account ofthis gold fever, in order to load his vessel (which remained fourteenweeks when it might have sailed in fourteen days) with gold-dust.
Captain Martin seconded Newport in this; Smith protested against it;he thought Newport was no refiner, and it did torment him "to see allnecessary business neglected, to fraught such a drunken ship with somuch gilded durt." This was the famous load of gold that proved tobe iron pyrites.
In speaking of the exploration of the James River as far as the Fallsby Newport, Smith, and Percy, we have followed the statements ofPercy and the writer of Newport's discovery that they saw the greatPowhatan. There is much doubt of this. Smith in his "True Relation"does not say so; in his voyage up the Chickahominy he seems to haveseen Powhatan for the first time; and Wingfield speaks of Powhatan,on Smith's return from that voyage, as one "of whom before we had noknowledge." It is conjectured that the one seen at Powhatan's seatnear the Falls was a son of the "Emperor." It was partly theexaggeration of the times to magnify discoveries, and partly Englishlove of high titles, that attributed such titles as princes,emperors, and kings to the half-naked barbarians and petty chiefs ofVirginia.
In all the accounts of the colony at this period, no mention is madeof women, and it is not probable that any went over with the firstcolonists. The character of the men was not high. Many of them were"gentlemen" adventurers, turbulent spirits, who would not work, whowere much better fitted for piratical maraudings than the labor offounding a state. The historian must agree with the impressionconveyed by Smith, that it was poor material out of which to make acolony.