ound them, cleanly, saying that unless we did so, there was like to be
a sickness come among us. With some his preaching did good, but by far
the greater number, and these chiefly to be found among the self called
gentlemen, gave no heed.

It was as if these lazy ones delighted in filth. Again and again have
I seen one or another throw the scrapings of the trencher bowls just
outside the door of the tent or hut, where those who came or went
must of a necessity tread upon them, and one need not struggle hard to
realize what soon was the condition of the village.

After a heavy shower many of the paths were covered ankle deep with
filth of all kinds, and when the sun shone warm and bright, the stench
was too horrible to be described by ordinary words.

CAVE HOMES

There were other kinds of homes, and quite a number of them, that were
made neither of cloth nor of logs. These were holes dug in the side of
small hillocks until a sleeping room had been made, when the front part
was covered with brush or logs, built outward from the hill to form a
kitchen.

During a storm these cave homes were damp, often times actually muddy,
and those who slept therein were but inviting the mortal sickness that
came all too soon among us, until it was as if the Angel of Death had
taken possession of Jamestown.

Captain Smith said everything he could to persuade these people, who
were content to live in a hole in the ground, that they were little
better than beasts of the field.

But so long as the foolish ones continued to believe this new world was
much the same as filled with gold and silver, so long they wasted their
time searching.

THE GOLDEN FEVER

But for this golden fever, which attacked the gentlemen more fiercely
than it did the common people, the story of Jamestown would not
have been one of disaster brought about by willful heedlessness and
stupidity.

Again and again did Captain Smith urge that crops be planted, while it
was yet time, in order that there might be food at hand when the winter
came; but he had not yet been allowed to take his place in the Council,
and those who had the thirst for gold strong upon them, taunted him with
the fact that he had no right to raise his voice above the meanest of
the company. They refused to listen when he would have spoken with them
as a friend, and laughed him to scorn when he begged that they take heed
to their own lives.

I cannot understand why our peopl