Campfire Girls' Lake Camp; or, Searching for New Adventures

by Irene Elliott Benson; Stella M. Francis

Captain Newport had sailed for England several months before for food and supplies, but could not be expected back for a long time to come. He left one of the smaller boats for the use of the colonists, and Wingfield and another plotted to seize it and sail to the Mother Country. When they tried to do so, however, the others were so indignant that they not only stopped them, but turned them out of the Council, and chose John Ratcliffe as President. He was little better than Wingfield, and the settlers now compelled Smith to take charge of the colony.

The Captain quickly proved his worth. He gave the people to understand that every well man must choose whether to work or starve. He would have no idlers, and he set the example by toiling as hard as the best of them. On his return from an expedition down the river, where he forced a surly tribe to trade corn with him, he arrived just as Wingfield and his friend, who had again seized the pinnace, were about to sail. Smith opened fire on them with a cannon, and would have sunk the craft had they not surrendered. Their action was so base that they were tried by jury. The life of Wingfield was spared, but all authority was taken from him; while his companion, as the greater offender of the two, was condemned to death and shot.

With the coming of cool weather a great improvement took place in the health of the colonists. Disease abated, and on the appearance of frost all fever disappeared. Those who had been ill rapidly regained their health. The river abounded with fish and fowl, and the yellowing corn could be made into bread. For the first time the future looked bright, even though so many had died. Other immigrants were sure to arrive ere long, and were believed even then to be on their way across the ocean.

How prone are we to forget favors done to us! No man of colonial times earned a heavier debt of gratitude than Captain John Smith of Virginia, and yet, when things improved, those whom he had been the means of saving complained because he had not done more. He gave up the Presidency as the best means of teaching the people his value to them.

Of course, you know that Christopher Columbus died under the belief that, instead of discovering a continent, he had simply found the eastern shore of India. The belief was held by nearly everybody during more than a century that followed, that America was only a narrow strip of land, beyond which stretched the "South Sea." They thought that by sailing up any of the large streams they would reach that vast body of water. When Captain Henry Hudson passed up the noble river, named for him, in 1609, he expected to keep on till his little ship entered the South Sea. It was because of this universal belief that England, in granting land to most of her colonists, made the western boundary the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, which I need not remind you was discovered by Balboa in 1512.

Thus it was that the colony which settled Jamestown was ordered to hunt for the South Sea. Captain Smith was reproached in Council for not carrying out this royal command, and because of such neglect his surly associates declared that the whole enterprise was a failure. I have often wondered whether the sensible Captain had any faith in this wild dream. Be that as it may, he replied to the fault-finding by declaring he would set out at once in quest of the missing sea. I cannot help thinking that when he was stung into making this answer, he was led to do so by his disgust with affairs at home, but more by his love of adventure. He must have felt that it would be a great relief to get away from the quarrelling people, who would learn his worth during his absence, while he would gain an experience for which he longed.

If you will glance at your map once more you will notice that a large tributary empties into the James River from the north, about ten miles west of Jamestown. It is the Chickahominy, and its sources are well to the westward in the direction of the mountains which form the most romantic section of Virginia.

It was on a clear, cold day, early in December, that Smith started on his eventful voyage in a barge propelled by a crew of half a dozen sturdy men, besides two friendly Indians. As he meant to ascend the river, as far as possible, he trailed a smaller boat behind the barge-the same that he used when he went ashore to learn the meaning of the signal fire on the southern bank of the James. This craft promised to be useful when he had gone as far as the barge could go, while it could also be turned to account by himself in hunting for game that would be scared away by sight of the larger boat, whose advance could not be as well hidden as the smaller one.

The barge, as it was called, was provided with a sail, which must prove of great help for a part of the time at least, while the small half-cabin at the stern gave sleeping room for the "shift" when off duty. There were plenty of blankets, though the size of the craft allowed no use of a fire as a means of warmth. There were three row-locks on each side, to be called into play when the wind was not favorable, besides the numerous times when they would have to use the poles with which to push the boat through the water. A scant supply of "pone," or corn bread, and venison was brought, but the main reliance of the party was upon the fish that were to be taken from the stream, and the fowl and game that could be shot along shore or in the woods.

When the barge left Jamestown not a flake of snow was to be seen anywhere, though winter had begun, and the climate in that section is sometimes severe. A strong breeze was blowing from the eastward, and the craft moved easily forward without calling the oars into use. Most of the course of the Chickahominy is through a swampy section, choked by fallen trees, where navigation is difficult. Captain Smith had sailed for a few miles above its mouth some weeks before, but the region was unknown to him. Because of this fact it was the more pleasing, for, as you know, the prospect of stirring adventure was one which he was never able to resist. During his stay in Virginia he explored so many waters in the neighborhood of Chesapeake Bay, that the distance covered was equal to the breadth of the Atlantic between Liverpool and New York.