request, and none dared to wear them save the
chiefs and their families. Having procured a further supply of corn at
this place, Newport and his party returned to Jamestown, which was now
destroyed by an accidental fire. Originating in the public storehouse,
the flames spread rapidly over the cabins, thatched with reeds,
consuming even the palisades, some eight or ten yards distant. Arms,
apparel, bedding, and much of their private provision, were consumed, as
was also a temporary church, which had been erected. "The minister,
Hunt, lost all his library, and all that he had but the clothes on his
back; yet none ever heard him repine at his loss. Upon any alarm he was
as ready for defence as any, and till he could not speak, he never
ceased to his utmost to animate us constantly to persist; whose soul,
questionless, is with God."[51:A] As no further mention is made of him
at Jamestown, it is probable that he did not live long after this fire.
Dr. Hawks, however, conjectures that he survived long enough to
officiate in the first marriage in Virginia, which took place in the
year 1608.[51:B] He appears to have resided in the County of Kent,
England, where, in January, 1594, he was appointed to the vicarage of
Reculver, which he resigned in 1602. But he probably still continued to
reside there, or to consider that his home, until he embarked for
Virginia, because when in the Downs, which are opposite to Kent, he was
only twenty miles "from his habitation." Of his appointment as chaplain
to the expedition, Wingfield, in his journal referred to before, gives
the following account: "For my first work, (which was to make a right
choice of a spiritual pastor,) I appeal to the remembrance of my Lord of
Canterbury's Grace, who gave me very gracious audience in my request.
And the world knoweth whom I took with me, truly a man, in my opinion,
not any way to be touched with the rebellious humor of a papist spirit,
nor blemished with the least suspicion of a factious schismatic." My
Lord of Canterbury was that persecuting prelate, Archbishop Bancroft,
who persecuted the Puritan dissenters till they desired to come over to
Virginia to get out of his reach, and which they were prohibited from
doing by a royal proclamation, issued at his instance. Rev. Robert Hunt,
by all the notices of him that are given, appears to have been a pious,
disinterested, resolute, and exemplary man.

When the English first settled at Jamestown, their place