While they were out on the broad bay at night a sudden storm arose, and the barge was driven before a terrible gale, the waves sweeping over her, and the crew having to bail with all their might to keep from foundering. The frequent flashes of lightning illumined the black night, and by this light they were finally enabled to run into shelter at Point Comfort.
The next day the indefatigable Smith set off to explore the little bays of Nandsemond and Norfolk. This done, he had demonstrated beyond a doubt that there was no passage out of the Chesapeake into the South Sea, which passage the London Company was very anxious to have found, and which discovery was the principal object of all these explorations. A hostile encounter with the Nandsemond Indians ended in the two parties becoming good friends, and Smith loaded his barge with corn, obtained from the Nandsemonds by barter, and set sail for Jamestown.
Captain Smith, although of a very grave and serious disposition, showed his love of a practical joke by decking out the barge with pieces of colored cloth (brought along for barter), in imitation of Spanish flags. These being seen far down the river, the colony at Jamestown
