Nor had the sickness ended, nor
dissensions. Less than fifty men were all that held together England and
America--a frayed cord, the last strands of which might presently part . . . .
Then up the river comes Christopher Newport in the Francis and John, to be
followed some weeks later by the Phoenix. Here is new life--stores for the
settlers and a hundred new Virginians! How certain, at any rate, is the
exchange of talk of home and hair-raising stories of this wilderness
between the old colonists and the new! And certain is the relief and the
renewed hopes. Mourning turns to joy. Even a conflagration that presently
destroys the major part of the town can not blast that felicity.
Again Newport and Smith and others went out to explore the country. They
went over to Werowocomoco and talked with Powhatan. He told them things
which they construed to mean that the South Sea was near at hand, and they
marked this down as good news for the home Council--still impatient for
gold and Cathay. On their return to Jamestown they found under way new and
stouter houses. The Indians were again friendly; they brought venison and
turkeys and corn. Smith says that every few days came Pocahontas and
attendant women bringing food.
Spring came again with the dogwood and the honeysuckle and the
strawberries, the gay, returning birds, the barred and striped and mottled
serpents. The colony was one year old. Back to England sailed the Francis
and John and the Phoenix, carrying home Edward-Maria Wingfield, who has
wearied of Virginia and will return no more.
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