sted. The examination took place and resulted in his
full acquittal. So evident was the injustice of the president that he was
adjudged to pay to the accused two hundred pounds, which sum the generous
Smith immediately devoted to the store of the colony. Thus elevated to
his merited place in the council, he immediately devised and commenced
active schemes for the welfare of the settlers, and on June 15th Newport
left the colony, and set forth on his voyage of return to England.

Left to their own resources, the colonists began to look with gloomy
apprehension upon the prospect before them. While the ships remained,
they enjoyed sea-stores, which to them were real luxuries, but now they
had little whereupon to feast, except a miserable compound of wheat and
barley boiled with water, and even to the larger portion of this the
worms successfully laid claim. Crabs and oysters were sought with
indolent greediness, and this unwholesome fare, with the increasing heats
of the season, produced sickness, which preyed rapidly on their strength.
The rank vegetation of the country pleased the eye, but it was fatal to
the health. In ten days hardly ten settlers were able to stand. Before
the month of September fifty of their number were committed to the grave,
and among them we mark, with sorrow, the name of Bartholomew Gosnold. The
gallant seaman might have passed many years upon the stormy coasts of the
continent, but he sank among the first victims who risked their lives for
colonization.

To this scene of distress and appalling mortality the president Wingfield
lived in sumptuous indifference. His gluttony appropriated to itself the
best provisions the colony could afford--"oatmeal, sacke, oyle, aqua
vitae, beefe, egges, or whatnot"--and, in this intemperate feasting, it
seemed as though his valueless life were only spared that he might endure
the disgrace he so richly merited. Seeing the forlorn condition of the
settlement he attempted to seize the pinnace, which had been left for
their use by Newport, and make his escape to England. These outrages so
wrought upon the council that they instantly deposed him, expelled his
accomplice, Kendall, and elected Ratcliffe to the presidency. Thus their
body, consisting originally of seven, was reduced to three. Newport had
sailed, Gosnold was dead, Wingfield and Kendall were in disgraced
seclusion. Martin, Ratcliffe, and Smith alone remained. They seem to have
felt no desire to exercise t