Richard of Jamestown | Page 6

do.
During four days more he spent all the hours of sunshine, and the

greater portion of the night, in my bed, closely covered so that the
sailors might not see him, and then came the discovery, when he was
dragged out with many a blow and harsh word to give an account of
himself. I fear it would have gone harder still with Nathaniel, if I had
not happened to be there at that very moment.
As it was, I went directly to Captain John Smith, my master, telling him
all Nathaniel's story, and asking if the lad had not shown himself made
of the proper stuff to be counted on as one of the adventurers.
Although hoping to succeed in my pleading, I was surprised when the
captain gave a quick consent to number the lad among those who were
to go into the new land of Virginia, and was even astonished when his
name was written down among others as if he had been pledged to the
voyage in due form.
But for the sickness of Master Hunt, and the fear we had lest he should
die, Nathaniel and I might have made exceeding merry while we lay at
anchor in the Downs, for food was plentiful; there was little of work to
be done, and we lads could have passed the time skylarking with such
of the sailors as were disposed to sport, except orders had been given
that no undue noise be made on deck.

WE MAKE SAIL AGAIN
It seemed to me almost as if we spent an entire lifetime within sight of
the country we were minded to leave behind us, and indeed six weeks,
with no change of scene, and while one is held to the narrow limits of a
ship, is an exceeding long time.
However, as I have heard Captain Smith say again and again,
everything comes to him who waits, and so also came that day when
the winds were favoring; when Captain Newport, the admiral of our
fleet, gave the word to make sail, and we sped softly away from
England's shores, little dreaming of that time of suffering, of sickness,
and of sadness which was before us.
To Nathaniel and me, who had never strayed far from London town,
and knew no more of the sea than might have been gained in a
boatman's wherry, the ocean was exceeding unkind, and for eight and
forty hours did we lie in that narrow bed, believing death was very near
at hand.
There is no reason why I should make any attempt at describing the

sickness which was upon us, for I have since heard that it comes to all
who go out on the sea for the first time. When we recovered, it was
suddenly, like as a flower lifts up its head after a refreshing shower that
has pelted it to the ground.
I would I might set down here all which came to us during the voyage,
for it was filled with wondrous happenings; but because I would tell of
what we did in the land of Virginia, I must be sparing of words now.

THE FIRST ISLAND
It is to be remembered that our fleet left London on the twentieth day of
December, and, as I have since heard Captain Smith read from the
pages which he wrote concerning the voyage, it was on the twenty-third
of March that we were come to the island of Martinique, where for the
first time Nathaniel Peacock and I saw living savages.
When we were come to anchor, they paddled out to our ships in frail
boats called canoes, bringing many kinds of most delicious fruits,
which we bought for such trumpery things as glass beads and
ornaments of copper.
It was while we lay off this island that we saw a whale attacked and
killed by a thresher and a swordfish, which was a wondrous sight.
And now was a most wicked deed done by those who claimed to be in
command of our company, for they declared that my master had laid a
plot with some of the men in each vessel of the fleet, whereby the
principal members of the company were to be murdered, to the end that
Captain Smith might set himself up as king after we were come to the
new world.
All this was untrue, as I knew full well, having aided him in such work
as a real clerk would have done, and had there been a plot, I must have
found some inkling of it in one of the many papers I read aloud to him,
or copied down on other sheets that the work of the quill might be more
pleasing to the eye.
Besides that, I had