ed that they had been well used
in their absence. By these returns Mr. Wingfield was convinced that the
Indians were not cannibals, as Smith believed.

On the 10th of September Mr. Wingfield was deposed from the presidency
and the Council, and Captain John Ratcliffe was elected President.
Concerning the deposition there has been much dispute; but the accounts
of it by Captain Smith and his friends, so long accepted as the truth,
must be modified by Mr. Wingfield's "Discourse of Virginia," more
recently come to light, which is, in a sense, a defense of his conduct.

In his "True Relation" Captain Smith is content to say that "Captain
Wingfield, having ordered the affairs in such sort that he was hated
of them all, in which respect he was with one accord deposed from the
presidency."

In the "General Historie" the charges against him, which we have already
quoted, are extended, and a new one is added, that is, a purpose of
deserting the colony in the pinnace: "the rest seeing the President's
projects to escape these miseries in our pinnace by flight (who all this
time had neither felt want nor sickness), so moved our dead spirits we
deposed him."

In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sickness and death, it
was inevitable that extreme dissatisfaction should be felt with the
responsible head. Wingfield was accused of keeping the best of the
supplies to himself. The commonalty may have believed this. Smith
himself must have known that the supplies were limited, but have been
willing to take advantage of this charge to depose the President, who
was clearly in many ways incompetent for his trying position. It appears
by Mr. Wingfield's statement that the supply left with the colony was
very scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeks and a half,
and prudence in the distribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport's
return, was a necessity. Whether Wingfield used the delicacies himself
is a question which cannot be settled. In his defense, in all we read
of him, except that written by Smith and his friends, he seems to be
a temperate and just man, little qualified to control the bold spirits
about him.

As early as July, "in his sickness time, the President did easily
fortell his own deposing from his command," so much did he differ from
the Council in the management of the colony. Under date of September 7th
he says that the Council demanded a larger allowance for themselves and
for some of the sick, their