ETURN

Until winter was come we had food in plenty, for one could hardly send
a charge of shot toward the river without bringing down swans, ducks,
or cranes, while from the savages we got sufficient for our daily wants,
meal made from the corn, pumpkins, peas, and beans.

But this did not cause Captain Smith to give over trying to buy from
the Indians a store of corn for the winter, and shortly after Captain
Kendall's death, he set off with nine white men and two Indian guides in
a barge, counting to go as far as the head of the Chickahominy River.

This time twenty-two long, dreary days went by without his return, and
we mourned him as dead, believing the savages had murdered him.

The discontented ones were in high glee because of thinking the man who
had forced them to do that which they should, had gone out from their
world forever, and we two lads were plunged in deepest grief, for in all
the great land of Virginia, Captain Smith was our only true friend.

Then arrived that day when he suddenly appeared before us, having
come to no harm, and as Master Hunt lifted up his hands in a prayer of
thanksgiving because the man who was so sadly needed in Jamestown had
returned, I fell on my knees, understanding for the first time in my
life how good God could be to us in that wilderness.

I would that I might describe the scene in our house that night, when
Master Hunt was come to hear what all knew would be a story of wildest
adventure, for it went without saying that my master never would have
remained so long absent from Jamestown had it been within his power to
return sooner.

AN EXCITING ADVENTURE

We waited to hear the tale until he had refreshed himself after the long
journey, and then what Captain Smith told us was like unto this, as I
remember it:

After leaving the village, he had sailed up the river until there was no
longer water enough to float the barge, when, with two white men and
the two Indians, he embarked in a canoe, continuing the voyage for a
distance of twelve miles or more. There, in the wilderness, they made
ready to spend the night, and with one of the savage guides my master
went on shore on an island to shoot some wild fowls for supper. He had
traveled a short distance from the boat, when he heard cries of the
savages in the distance, and, looking back, saw that one of the men had
been taken prisoner, while the other was fighting for his life.

At almost the very minute when