It is not well for me to dwell upon our parting with the master whom we
had served more than two years, and who had ever been the most friendly
friend and the most manly man one could ask to meet.
Our hearts were sore, when, after having done what little we might
toward carrying him on board the ship, we came back to his house, which
he had said in the presence of witnesses should be ours, and there took
up our lives with Master Hunt.
But for that good man's prayers, on this first night we would have
abandoned ourselves entirely to grief; but he devoted his time to
soothing us, showing why we had no right to do other than continue in
the course on which we had been started by the man who was gone from us,
until it was, to my mind at least, as if I should be doing some grievous
wrong to my master, if I failed to carry on the work while he was away,
as it would have been done had I known we were to see him again within
the week.
With Captain Smith gone, perhaps to his death; with half a dozen men who
claimed the right to stand at the head of the government until Lord De
la Warr should come; and with the savages menacing us on every hand,
sore indeed was our plight.
With so many in the town, for there were now four hundred and ninety
persons, and while the savages, because of having been so sorely
wronged, were in arms against us, it was no longer possible to go abroad
for food, and as the winter came on we were put to it even in that land
of plenty, for enough to keep ourselves alive.