in to us,
stating that it had not yet been decided by the other members of the
Council whether Captain Smith should be allowed to take part in the
affairs, as the London Company had decided, or whether he should be sent
home for judgment when the fleet returned. But meanwhile he was to have
his liberty.

Then it was that Master Hunt, talking like the true man he ever showed
himself to be, advised Captain Smith to do in all things, so far as the
other members of the Council permitted, as if nothing had gone awry,
claiming that before we had been many days in this land, those who had
brought charges against him would fail of making them good.

Had I been the one thus so grievously injured, the whole company might
have shipwrecked themselves before I would have raised a hand, all of
which goes to show that I had not learned to rule my temper.

Captain Smith, however, agreed with all Master Hunt said, and then it
was that I was sent forward once more. My master went on deck for the
first time since we had left Martinique, walking to and fro swiftly, as
if it pleased him to have command of his legs once more.

If Master Hunt and Master Wingfield had been able to bring the others
around to their way of thinking, Captain Smith would have taken his
rightful place in the Council without delay. Instead of which, however,
he remained on board the ship idle, when there was much that he could
have done better than any other, from the day on which we came in
sight of Virginia, which was the fifteenth day of April, until the
twenty-sixth day of June.

During all this time, those of the Council who were his enemies claimed
that they could prove he had laid plans to murder all the chief men,
and take his place as king; but yet they did not do so, and my master
refused to hold any parley with them, except that he claimed he was
innocent of all wrong in thought or in act.

When the others of the fleet set off to spy out the land, my master
remained aboard the ship, still being a prisoner, except so far that he
wore no fetters, and I would not have left him save he had commanded me
sharply, for at that time, so sore was his heart, that even a lad like
me could now and then say some word which might have in it somewhat of
cheer.

During this time that Captain Smith was with the company and yet not
numbered as one of them, the other gentlemen explored the country,
and more than once was Nathaniel Peacock allowed to accompany them,