e sped softly away from England's shores, little
dreaming of that time of suffering, of sickness, and of sadness which
was before us.

To Nathaniel and me, who had never strayed far from London town, and
knew no more of the sea than might have been gained in a boatman's
wherry, the ocean was exceeding unkind, and for eight and forty hours
did we lie in that narrow bed, believing death was very near at hand.

There is no reason why I should make any attempt at describing the
sickness which was upon us, for I have since heard that it comes to
all who go out on the sea for the first time. When we recovered, it was
suddenly, like as a flower lifts up its head after a refreshing shower
that has pelted it to the ground.

I would I might set down here all which came to us during the voyage,
for it was filled with wondrous happenings; but because I would tell of
what we did in the land of Virginia, I must be sparing of words now.

THE FIRST ISLAND

It is to be remembered that our fleet left London on the twentieth day
of December, and, as I have since heard Captain Smith read from the
pages which he wrote concerning the voyage, it was on the twenty-third
of March that we were come to the island of Martinique, where for the
first time Nathaniel Peacock and I saw living savages.

When we were come to anchor, they paddled out to our ships in frail
boats called canoes, bringing many kinds of most delicious fruits,
which we bought for such trumpery things as glass beads and ornaments of
copper.

It was while we lay off this island that we saw a whale attacked and
killed by a thresher and a swordfish, which was a wondrous sight.

And now was a most wicked deed done by those who claimed to be in
command of our company, for they declared that my master had laid a plot
with some of the men in each vessel of the fleet, whereby the principal
members of the company were to be murdered, to the end that Captain
Smith might set himself up as king after we were come to the new world.

All this was untrue, as I knew full well, having aided him in such work
as a real clerk would have done, and had there been a plot, I must have
found some inkling of it in one of the many papers I read aloud to him,
or copied down on other sheets that the work of the quill might be more
pleasing to the eye.

Besides that, I had been with the captain a goodly portion of the time
while the ships were being made ready for the voyage, and if he had