He now saw fit to issue orders for the building of the long-needed fort, and the men were put to work cutting down palisades and bearing them to the appointed place. Few of them could be prevailed upon to work in their weakened condition, and of those who did many died from exhaustion.
The provisions of Wingfield were now nearly spent, and as he had no intention of sharing the lot of the colonists, he and his friends plotted to seize the pinnace and sail for the mother country.
One day John Laydon, returning from work on the fort, overheard the conspirators talking together behind a clump of bushes, and he immediately reported the matter to the Chaplain.
Hastily seeking out Captain Smith, Mr. Hunt repeated the story told him by Laydon.
“What shall we do, Smith? At all costs such an outrage must be prevented.”
“After evening prayer, when all of the men are together, I will disclose the plot,” replied the Captain.
When the clock struck four the idle and the industrious alike assembled under the stretched sail. There were the unsuspecting and the plotters sitting side by side, and as the priest looked upon them he could not keep the tremor out of his voice as he thought of the helplessness of some and the treachery of the others. When the last words of the blessing had been said, Captain Smith arose and told them of the plot. As he pictured the selfishness of Wingfield, his cruel treatment, and worst of all his intention of seizing the pinnace, the anger of the men rose to white heat.
“He shall not be President any longer!” cried one. Immediately the cry was taken up by the others, and Wingfield cringed in fear of his life. A vote was then taken to elect a new President. Surely Captain Smith would be chosen; but no, the seed of suspicion sown by Wingfield had taken root. The colonists were not yet ready to trust Captain Smith. Ratcliffe, the accomplice of Wingfield, was elected in his stead.