held prisoner six or seven weeks. By his courage and address he not only saved his life, but was enabled to obtain his freedom and greatly enhance his reputation and influence among the savages, much to the advantage of the colony. He had just returned from this captivity when the ship returned from England. On his return he found that things had gone very badly in his absence.
"And now, Captain Newport," said Smith in conclusion, "what sort of fellows have you brought us this time? Good, stout, honest laborers and mechanics, or, like the first lot, jail-birds and gentlemen, most of the latter little more honest and a good deal more lazy than the former?"
"Not what I could wish, I must confess," said Newport. "I fear too many of them are unruly gallants packed off by their relatives to escape ill destinies at home."
And so, to the misfortune of the colony, they were.
Among the seventy passengers streaming across that improvised bridge from the ship to the shore, eager to press foot upon the soil of the new world, was one who will soon become the central figure of this narrative. His name
