Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fort
should be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed and
exercised. The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, and it
was unsafe for any to venture beyond the fort.
Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President Wingfield's management.
Captain Newport says: “There being among the gentlemen and all the
company a murmur and grudge against certain proceedings and inconvenient
courses [Newport] put up a petition to the Council for reformation.” The
Council heeded this petition, and urged to amity by Captain Newport,
the company vowed faithful love to each other and obedience to the
superiors. On the 10th of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the Council.
In his “General Historie,” not published till 1624, he says: “Many were
the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious)
spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher Mr. Hunt,
reconciled them and caused Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council.”
The next day they all partook of the holy communion.
In order to understand this quarrel, which was not by any means appeased
by this truce, and to determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it,
it is necessary to examine all the witnesses. Smith is unrestrained
in his expression of his contempt for Wingfield. But in the diary of
Wingfield we find no accusation against Smith at this date. Wingfield
says that Captain Newport before he departed asked him how he thought
himself settled in the government, and that he replied “that no
disturbance could endanger him or the colony, but it must be wrought
either by Captain Gosnold or Mr. Archer, for the one was strong with
friends and followers and could if he would; and the other was troubled
with an ambitious spirit and would if he could.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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