fleet we of
Jamestown were told that the London Company had changed all the laws for
us in Virginia, and that Lord De la Warr, who sailed on the ship from
which nothing had been heard, was to be our governor.

From that hour did it seem as if all the men in Jamestown, save only
half a dozen, among whom were Captain Smith, Master Hunt and Master
Percy, strove their best to wreck the settlement.

Because Lord De la Warr, the new governor, had not arrived, many of the
new comers refused to obey my master, and they were so strong in numbers
that it was not possible for him to force them to his will.

Each man strove for himself, regardless of the sick, or of the women
and children. Some banded themselves together in companies, falling upon
such Indian villages as they could easily overcome, and murdered and
robbed until all the brown men of Virginia stood ready to shed the blood
of every white man who crossed their path.

Then came that which plunged Nathaniel and me into deepest grief.

THE ACCIDENT

Captain Smith had gone up the bay in the hope of soothing the trouble
among the savages, and, failing in this effort, was returning, having
got within four and twenty hours' journey of Jamestown, when the pinnace
was anchored for the night.

The boat's company lay down to sleep, and then came that accident, if
accident it may be called, the cause of which no man has ever been able
to explain to the satisfaction of Master Hunt or myself.

Captain Smith was asleep, with his powder bag by his side, when in some
manner it was set on fire, and the powder, exploding, tore the flesh
from his body and thighs for the space of nine or ten inches square,
even down to the bones.

In his agony, and being thus horribly aroused from sleep, hardly knowing
what he did, he plunged overboard as the quickest way to soothe the
pain. There he was like to have drowned but for Samuel White, who came
near to losing his own life in saving him.

He was brought back to the town on the day before the ships of the
fleet, which had brought so many quarrelsome people, were to sail for
England. With no surgeon to dress his wounds, what could he do but
depart in one of these ships with the poor hope of living in agony until
he arrived on the other side of the ocean.

Nathaniel and I would have gone with him, willing, because of his
friendship for us, to have served him so long as we lived. He refused to
listen to our prayers, insisting th