There is little need for me to say that these were not the only reforms
which my master brought about, after having waited long enough for our
lazy gentlemen to understand that unless they set their hands to labor
they could not eat from the general store.
He straightway set these idle ones to work building houses, declaring
that if the sickness which had come among us was to be checked, our
people must no longer sleep upon the ground, or in caves where the
moisture gathered all around them.
He marked out places whereon log dwellings should be placed, in such
manner that when the houses had been set up, they would form a square,
and, as I heard him tell Master Hunt, it was his intention to have all
the buildings surrounded by a palisade in which should be many gates.
Thus, when all was finished, he would have a fort-like village, wherein
the people could rest without fear of what the savages might be able to
do.
By the time such work was well under way, and our gentlemen laboring as
honest men should, after learning that it was necessary so to do unless
they were willing to go hungry, Captain Smith set about adding to our
store of food, for it was not to be supposed that we could depend for
any length of time upon what the Indians might give us, and the winter
would be long.