In this the dusky warrior, whose friendship Newport considered of great importance to the colony, was humored, and the banks of the Potomac witnessed a quaint ceremony, the significance of which the chief actor must have been totally unable to understand. On Newport’s arrival in London, early in 1609, with Smith’s unsatisfactory replies to the communications of his employers, it was resolved entirely to alter the character of the administration of the colony. A new charter was asked for and obtained from the king; a governor, Lord De La Warre, whose power was to be absolute, was appointed, with a number of officials with high-sounding titles under him. Five hundred emigrants joined his standard, and early in May the whole party, with the exception of the governor himself, who was to follow shortly afterward, set sail from England in an imposing fleet of nine vessels. But a violent storm off the Bermudas wrought terrible havoc among the ships――two were totally wrecked, and seven only reached Virginia. These seven contained but the more reckless of the emigrants, “gentlemen” who had dissipated their fortunes at home; and while they added greatly to the difficulties of Smith, all those of the original expedition, who were worthy of the great task before them, were struggling for dear life on the shores of the uninhabited but fruitful island on which they had been cast. For a year, Smith struggled on; for a year, those who would have brought fresh life to Virginia sustained each other’s courage by working hard with heads and hands, until they succeeded in building, out of the wreck of their own, two new vessels, in which they again embarked for their western home. Could Smith but have held out until this wonderful feat was accomplished, he might yet have seen the end attained for which he had so long and patiently labored; but he was disabled in an explosion of gunpowder, and obliged to return to England to obtain proper surgical treatment, shortly before Sir Thomas Gates, who was to act as Lord De la Warre’s deputy till his arrival, set sail from the Bermudas. With Smith’s departure from Virginia, all the evils he had suppressed with a strong hand cropped up anew. The Indians were roused to fury by raids and oppression; the ground was left untilled, and soon a “starving time” began, which reduced the emigrants from one hundred and ninety to sixty. These sixty――a gaunt and crime-stained crew, huddled together in ruined huts, a prey to disease and misery――came forth to meet Sir Thomas Gates and his hardy followers, entreating with tears and cries to be taken away from the land where they had endured such horrors.