t it
soon fell into the hands of the seditious malecontents. Provisions
growing scarce, West and Ratcliffe embarked in small vessels to procure
corn. Ratcliffe, inveigled by Powhatan, was slain with thirty of his
companions, two only escaping, of whom one, a boy, Henry Spilman, a
young gentleman well descended, was rescued by Pocahontas, and he
afterwards lived for many years among the Patawomekes, acquired their
language, and often proved serviceable as an interpreter for his
countrymen. He was slain by the savages, on the banks of the Potomac, in
1622. The loss of Captain Smith was soon felt by the colonists: they
were now continually exposed to the arrow and the tomahawk; the common
store was consumed by the commanders and the savages; swords and guns
were bartered with the Indians for food; and within six months after
Smith's departure the number of English in Virginia was reduced from
five hundred to sixty men, women, and children. These found themselves
in a starving condition, subsisting on roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts,
berries, and fish. Starch became an article of diet, and even dogs,
cats, rats, snakes, toadstools, and the skins of horses. The body of an
Indian was disinterred and eaten; nay, at last, the colonists preyed on
the dead bodies of each other. It was even alleged that a husband
murdered his wife for a cannibal repast; upon his trial, however, it
appeared that the cannibalism was feigned, to palliate the murder. He
was put to death--being burned according to law. This was long
afterwards remembered as "the starving time." Sir Thomas Smith,
treasurer of the Virginia Company, was bitterly denounced by the
sufferers for neglecting to send out the necessary supplies. The
happiest day that many of them expected ever to see, was when the
Indians had killed a mare, the people wishing, while the carcass was
boiling, "that Sir Thomas was upon her back in the kettle." It seemed to
them as if the Earl of Salisbury's threat of abandoning the colony to
its fate, was now to be actually carried into effect; but it is to be
recollected that a large portion of ample supplies, that had been sent
out from England for the colony, had been lost by storm and shipwreck.

It has before been mentioned, that toward the end of July, 1609, in a
violent tempest, the Sea-Venture, with Newport, Gates, and Somers, and
one hundred and fifty souls, had been separated from the rest of the
fleet. Racked by the fury of the sea, she sp