His hearers were envious of his account of the food and furs at Powhatan's long house, but did not praise his prowess in felling several Indians single-handed. If he was as clever as all this, why did he not look out for his companions? Three white men were missing, notice.
They unreasonably tried Smith for that, as if he could have helped it. He threw up his hands in despair for the lot of them.
III
GABRIEL ARCHER was now a member of the council, and since he was unfriendly to Smith, he summarily had him arrested and tried. He would have been executed the following day had not Newport arrived from England in the nick of time and saved him.
Newport was welcome to all because he brought in the first relief supply as well as new settlers to back them up in their weak situation. Careless newcomers were blamed, however, for the disastrous fire which broke out a few days after their landing, and which licked up shacks, tents and pitiful personal possessions.
Those who groaned over their plight, were rebuked by the meekness of the Reverend Robert Hunt, who had lost his library—which might have been the nucleus of culture in the colony. They remembered how he had not complained before when he was more ill than any of them had been on the ship coming over. Contritely they built a church for him even though the palisade was not immediately replaced. A store and storehouse went up too.
Fifty new houses improved on the former ones. These had cool roofs of bark, instead of thatch, a page out of the Indian book. Besides they had "country chimneys" where a man might warm himself in winter at ease, provided he had a gun handy. Bright Indian mats decorated the huts. A bell in the church signified when work should begin and when it should stop. Since there was but one skilled carpenter, the rebuilding of the settlement after the fire seemed remarkable. The colonists were not industrious enough to suit Smith, however, who planned a letter to the Company telling them to send lumber from England next time. That would be cheaper than paying these lazy aristocrats.