mouth of the Rappahannock, Smith intended to explore that river, but as the tide ebbed, their barge grounded on a bar. While waiting for the tide to come in, Smith amused himself by spearing with his sword the fish lying in the shallow water among the reeds. He caught many fish, among them a stingaree, which gave him a wound which made him so extremely sick that his party expected him to die. In a few hours he felt better, but was so far from well that he concluded to goto Jamestown. The party arrived there on the 21st of July. They found many of the colonists sick, and as their chronicler wrote: "All unable to doe any thing but complaine of the pride and unreasonable needlesse crueltie of the silly President, that had riotously consumed the store; and to fullfill his follies about building him an unnecessary pallace for his pleasure in the woods had brought them all to that misery."
