gly together. That
evening Captain Newport gave a farewell supper on board his vessel. The
22d he sailed in the Susan Constant for England, carrying specimens of
the woods and minerals, and made the short passage of five weeks. Dudley
Carleton, in a letter to John Chamberlain dated Aug. 18, 1607, writes
"that Captain Newport has arrived without gold or silver, and that the
adventurers, cumbered by the presence of the natives, have fortified
themselves at a place called Jamestown." The colony left numbered one
hundred and four.
The good harmony of the colony did not last. There were other reasons
why the settlement was unprosperous. The supply of wholesome provisions
was inadequate. The situation of the town near the Chickahominy swamps
was not conducive to health, and although Powhatan had sent to make
peace with them, and they also made a league of amity with the chiefs
Paspahegh and Tapahanagh, they evidently had little freedom of movement
beyond sight of their guns. Percy says they were very bare and scant of
victuals, and in wars and dangers with the savages.
Smith says in his "True Relation," which was written on the spot, and is
much less embittered than his "General Historie," that they were in
good health and content when Newport departed, but this did not long
continue, for President Wingfield and Captain Gosnold, with the most of
the Council, were so discontented with each other that nothing was done
with discretion, and no business transacted with wisdom. This he charges
upon the "hard-dealing of the President," the rest of the Council being
diversely affected through his audacious command. "Captain Martin,
though honest, was weak and sick; Smith was in disgrace through the
malice of others; and God sent famine and sickness, so that the living
were scarce able to bury the 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 greedily surfeit, as it cost many their lives; the sack, Aquavite,
and other preservations of our health being kept in the President's
hands, for his own diet and his few associates."
In his "General Historie," written many years later, Smith enlarges this
indictment with some touches of humor characteristic of him. He says:
"Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days
scarce ten amongst us could either go, or well stand, such e
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