Richard of Jamestown - James Otis |
It is not possible my memory will serve me to tell of all that was done by us in Jamestown after we were come to our senses through the efforts of my master; but the killing of Captain Kendall is one of the many terrible happenings in Virginia, which will never be forgotten so long as I shall live.
After our people were relieved from the famine through the gifts from the Indians and the coming of wild fowl, Captain Smith set about making some plans to provide us with food during the winter, and to that end he set off in the shallop to trade with the savages, taking with him six men. He had a goodly store of beads and trinkets with which to make payment for what he might be able to buy, for these brown men are overly fond of what among English people would be little more than toys.
While he was gone, Master Wingfield and Captain Kendall were much together, for both were in a certain way under disgrace since the plot with which they charged my master had been shown to have been of their own evil imaginings. They at once set about making friends with some of the serving men, and this in itself was so strange that Nathaniel and I kept our eyes and ears open wide to discover the cause.
It was not many days before we came to know that there was a plan on foot, laid by these two men who should have been working for the good of the colony instead of to further their own base ends, to seize upon our pinnace, which lay moored to the shore, and to sail in her to England.
How that would have advantaged them I cannot even so much as guess; but certain it was that they carried on board the pinnace a great store of wild fowl, which had been cooked with much labor, and had filled two casks with water, as if believing such amount would serve to save them from thirst during the long voyage.
These wicked ones had hardly gone on board the vessel when Captain Smith came home in the shallop, which was loaded deep with Indian corn he had bought from the savages, and, seeing the pinnace being got under way, had little trouble in guessing what was afoot.