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 that we were lads well fitted to live
in a new land like Virginia, and that if we would but remain with Master
Hunt, working out our time of apprenticeship, which would be but five
years longer, then might we find ourselves men of importance in the
colony. He doubted not, so he said, but that we would continue, after he
had gone, as we had while he was with us.
What could we lads do other than obey, when his commands were laid upon
us, even though our hearts were so sore that it seemed as if it would no
longer be possible to live when he had departed?
Even amid his suffering, when one might well have believed that he could
give no heed to anything save his own plight, he spoke to us of what we
should do for the bettering of our own condition. He promised that as
soon as he was come to London, and able to walk around, if so be God
permitted him to live, he would seek out Nathaniel's parents to tell
them that the lad who had run away from his home was rapidly making a
man of himself in Virginia, and would one day come back to gladden their
hearts.