On the 7th of September the chief Paspahegh gave a token of peace by returning a white boy who had run away from camp, and other runaways were returned by other chiefs, who reported that they had been well used in their absence.  By these returns Mr. Wingfield was convinced that the Indians were not cannibals, as Smith believed.

On the 10th of September Mr. Wingfield was deposed from the presidency and the Council, and Captain John Ratcliffe was elected President.  Concerning the deposition there has been much dispute; but the accounts of it by Captain Smith and his friends, so long accepted as the truth, must be modified by Mr. Wingfield’s “Discourse of Virginia,” more recently come to light, which is, in a sense, a defense of his conduct.

In his “True Relation” Captain Smith is content to say that “Captain Wingfield, having ordered the affairs in such sort that he was hated of them all, in which respect he was with one accord deposed from the presidency.”

In the “General Historie” the charges against him, which we have already quoted, are extended, and a new one is added, that is, a purpose of deserting the colony in the pinnace:  “the rest seeing the President’s projects to escape these miseries in our pinnace by flight (who all this time had neither felt want nor sickness), so moved our dead spirits we deposed him.”

In the scarcity of food and the deplorable sickness and death, it was inevitable that extreme dissatisfaction should be felt with the responsible head.  Wingfield was accused of keeping the best of the supplies to himself.  The commonalty may have believed this.  Smith himself must have known that the supplies were limited, but have been willing to take advantage of this charge to depose the President, who was clearly in many ways incompetent for his trying position.  It appears by Mr. Wingfield’s statement that the supply left with the colony was very scant, a store that would only last thirteen weeks and a half, and prudence in the distribution of it, in the uncertainty of Newport’s return, was a necessity.  Whether Wingfield used the delicacies himself is a question which cannot be settled.  In his defense, in all we read of him, except that written by Smith and his friends, he seems to be a temperate and just man, little qualified to control the bold spirits about him.

As early as July, “in his sickness time, the President did easily fortell his own deposing from his command,” so much did he differ from the Council in the management of the colony.  Under date of September 7th he says that the Council demanded a larger allowance for themselves and for some of the sick, their favorites, which he declined to give without their warrants as councilors.  Captain Martin of the Council was till then ignorant that only store for thirteen and a half weeks was in the hands of the Cape Merchant, or treasurer, who was at that time Mr. Thomas Studley.  Upon a representation to the Council of the lowness of the stores, and the