, 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