around them.
He marked out places whereon log dwellings should be placed, in such
manner that when the houses had been set up, they would form a square,
and, as I heard him tell Master Hunt, it was his intention to have all
the buildings surrounded by a palisade in which should be many gates.
Thus, when all was finished, he would have a fort-like village, wherein
the people could rest without fear of what the savages might be able to
do.
By the time such work was well under way, and our gentlemen laboring as
honest men should, after learning that it was necessary so to do unless
they were willing to go hungry, Captain Smith set about adding to our
store of food, for it was not to be supposed that we could depend for
any length of time upon what the Indians might give us, and the winter
would be long.
TRAPPING TURKEYS
The wild turkeys had appeared in the forest in great numbers, but few
had been killed by our people because of the savages, many of whom were
not to be trusted, even though the chiefs of three tribes professed to
be friendly. It was this fact which had prevented us from doing much in
the way of hunting.
Now that we were in such stress for food, and since all had turned
laborers, whether willingly or no, much in the way of provisions was
needed. Captain Smith set about taking the turkeys as he did about most
other matters, which is to say, that it was done in a thorough manner.
Instead of being forced to spend at least one charge of powder for each
fowl killed, he proposed that we trap them, and showed how it might be
done, according to his belief.
Four men were told off to do the work, and they were kept busy cutting
saplings and trimming them down until there was nothing left save poles
from fifteen to twenty feet long. Then, with these poles laid one above
the other, a square pen was made, and at the top was a thatching of
branches, so that no fowl larger than a pigeon might go through.
From one side of this trap, or turkey pen, was dug a ditch perhaps two
feet deep, and the same in width, running straightway into the thicket
where the turkeys were in the custom of roosting, for a distance of
twenty feet or more. This ditch was carried underneath the side of the
pen, where was an opening hardly more than large enough for one turkey
to pass through. Corn was scattered along the whole length of the ditch,
and thus was the trap set.
The turkeys, on finding the trail of corn, wo
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