CHAPTER XXI
After the departure of Captain Smith the colony went back to its old habits of laziness and mutiny. In August four of the nine vessels sent out from England arrived with the dreaded plague on board. Then did death outstrip the Indian. Fever-stricken victims by the hundred lay dead and dying, and the bodies of the dead were dug up and eaten by the starving.
Captain George Percy, ill and feeble, tried vainly to stem the rising tide of disaster, but no mortal hand could prevent the Starving Time setting its fangs in the bodies of the remaining colonists. When the wrecked voyagers who had been on the ill-fated Sea Venture arrived from the island of Bermuda there were only sixty gaunt, wild-eyed settlers to greet them. Among these living skeletons were George Percy, John Laydon, his wife Anne, and Adam Clotworthy.
Desolation and death, famine and plague! No heart was courageous enough to brave them.
“Home! Take us home from this place of pestilence,” begged the stricken ones. “Not one happy day have we ever enjoyed here.”
Brave Admiral Somers listened to their pleadings. Jamestown was to be abandoned to its savage owners again. Not a tear was shed as they sailed away from the ruinous settlement.
“Home to England, where I can see again the brimming cups of sack and haunch of roasted beef,” came in a low whisper from the emaciated Adam, lying upon the deck of the Patience. “John, do you think I will ever live to get there?”
They had proceeded but a few miles down the James when they were met by a boat rowed at full speed.
“Stop, turn back! Lord De La Warre, Governor of Jamestown, is lying at Point Comfort, and commands your return,” cried Captain Brewster. “He has full store of provisions and all things needful.”