For
the journey outward had been so long, the supply of food so scant,
that already it was giving out. And when Captain Newport sailed it
was plain that the colonists had not food enough to last fifteen
weeks.
Such food it was too! It consisted chiefly of worm-eaten grain. A
pint was served out daily for each man, and this boiled and made
into a sort of porridge formed their chief food. Their drink was
cold water. For tea and coffee were unknown in those days, and
beer they had none. To men used to the beer and beef of England
in plenty this indeed seemed meagre diet. "Had we been as free of
all sins as gluttony and drunkenness," says Smith, "we might have
been canonised as saints, our wheat having fried some twenty-six weeks
in the ship's hold, contained as many worms as grains, so that we
might truly call it rather so much bran than corn. Our drink was
water, our lodging castles in the air."
There was fish enough in the river, game enough in the woods. But
the birds and beasts were so wild, and the men so unskilful and
ignorant in ways of shooting and trapping, that they succeeded
in catching very little. Besides which there were few among the
colonists who had any idea of what work meant. More than half the
company were "gentlemen adventurers," dare devil, shiftless men who
had joined the expedition in search of excitement with no idea of
labouring with their hands.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149