ground, and it was well I had my eyes open at that time, otherwise
Captain Smith and I had gone supperless to bed again and again, for
there were many days when our stomachs cried painfully because of
emptiness.

While my master was talking with the king, Powhatan, on matters
concerning affairs at Jamestown, I saw an Indian girl, whose name I
afterward came to know was Pocahontas, making bread, and observed her
carefully. She had white meal, but whether of barley, or the wheat
called Indian corn, or Guinny wheat I could not say, and this she mixed
into a paste with hot water; making it of such thickness that it could
easily be rolled into little balls or cakes.

After the mixture had been thus shaped, she dropped the balls into a pot
of boiling water, letting them stay there until well soaked, when she
laid them on a smooth stone in front of the fire until they had hardened
and browned like unto bread that has been cooked in the oven.

But I have set myself to the task of telling how we of Jamestown lived
during that time when my master was much the same as the head of the
government, and it is not well to begin the story with bread making.

AN UNEQUAL DIVISION OF LABOR

First I must explain upon what terms these people, the greater number of
whom called themselves gentlemen, and therefore claimed to be ashamed
to labor with their hands, had come together under control of those
merchants in London, who were known as the London Company.

No person in the town of James was allowed to own any land except as he
had his share of the whole. Every one was expected to work for the good
of the village, and whatsoever of crops was raised, belonged to all the
people. It was not permitted that the more industrious should plant the
land and claim that which grew under their toil.

Ours was supposed to be one big family, with each laboring to help the
others at the same time he helped himself, and the result was that
those who worked only a single hour each day, had as much of the general
stores as he who remained in the field from morning until night.

Although my master had agreed to this plan before the fleet sailed from
England, he soon came to understand that it was not the best for a new
land, where it was needed that each person should labor to the utmost of
his powers.

The London Company had provided a certain number of tents made of cloth,
which were supposed to be enough to give shelter to all the people