essel returned with figs, pine-apples,
sugar-cane, plantain and paw-paw, which were all planted and rapidly
multiplied. This vessel also brought the first slaves into the colony,
an Indaian and a negro.

The company dispatched a small bark, called the Hopewell, with supplies
for the colony, under the command of Captain Powell. On his way he met a
Portuguese vessel homeward bound from Brazil, with a cargo of sugar,
and, as Smith adds, "liked the sugar and passengers so well" he made a
prize of her. Fearing to face Governor Tucker after this piratical act
he directed his course to the West Indies. On his arrival there he met a
French pirate, who pretended to have a warm regard for him, and invited
him, with his officers, to an entertainment. Suspecting nothing he
accepted the invitation, but no sooner had they been well seated at the
table than they were all seized and threated with instant death, unless
they surrendered their prize. This Powell was, of course, compelled to
do, and finding his provisions failing him he put the Portuguese crew on
shore and sailed for Bermuda, where he managed to excuse himself to the
Governor. Powell again went to the West Indies pirating, and in May he
arrived with three prizes, laden with meal, hides, and ammunition.
Tucker received him kindly and treated him with consideration, until he
had the goods in his own possession, when he reproached the Captain with
his piratical conduct and called him to account for his proceedings. The
unlucky buccaneer was, in the end, glad to escape to England, leaving
his prizes in the hands of the Governor.

The discipline and hard labor required of the people reduced them to a
condition but little better than that of slaves, and caused many to make
desperate efforts to escape from the islands. Five persons, neither of
whom were sailors, built a fishing boat for the Governor, and when
completed they borrowed a compass from their preacher, for whom they
left a farewell epistle. In this they reminded him how often he had
exhorted them to patience under ill-treatment, and had told them how
Providence would pay them, if man did not. They trusted, therefore, that
he would now practice what he had so often preached.

[Illustration: Reproduction of Smith's engraving, 1614, showing his coat
of arms with the three Turk heads.]

These brave men endured great hardships in their boat of three tons
during their rash voyage; but at the end of about forty-two days th