The Indians appeared to be friendly, and often came to look
on curiously at these strange doings. And Wingfield thought them
so gentle and kindly that he would not allow the men to build any
fortifications except a sort of screen of interwoven boughs.
Besides building houses one of the colonists' first cares was
to provide themselves with a church. But indeed it was one of the
quaintest churches ever known. An old sail was stretched beneath
a group of trees to give shelter from the burning sun. And to make
a pulpit a plank of wood was nailed between two trees which grew
near together. And here good Master Hunt preached twice every
Sunday while the men sat on felled trunks reverently listening to
his long sermons.
While the houses were being built Smith, with some twenty others,
was sent to explore the country. They sailed up the river and found
the Indians to all appearance friendly. But they found no gold
or precious stones, and could hear nothing of a passage to the
Pacific Ocean which they had been told to seek. So they returned
to Jamestown. Arriving here they found that the day before the
Indians had attacked the settlement and that one Englishman lay
slain and seventeen injured.
This was a bitter disappointment to Wingfield who had trusted in
the friendliness of the Indians. But at length he was persuaded to
allow fortifications to be built.
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