Communications were evidently exchanged with Mr. Wingfield on the pinnace, and the President was evidently ill at ease about him.  One day he was summoned ashore, but declined to go, and requested an interview with ten gentlemen.  To those who came off to him he said that he had determined to go to England to make known the weakness of the colony, that he could not live under the laws and usurpations of the Triumvirate; however, if the President and Mr. Archer would go, he was willing to stay and take his fortune with the colony, or he would contribute one hundred pounds towards taking the colony home.  “They did like none of my proffers, but made divers shott at uss in the pynnasse.”  Thereupon he went ashore and had a conference.

On the 10th of December Captain Smith departed on his famous expedition up the Chickahominy, during which the alleged Pocahontas episode occurred.  Mr. Wingfield’s condensed account of this journey and captivity we shall refer to hereafter.  In Smith’s absence President Ratcliffe, contrary to his oath, swore Mr. Archer one of the Council; and Archer was no sooner settled in authority than he sought to take Smith’s life.  The enmity of this man must be regarded as a long credit mark to Smith.  Archer had him indicted upon a chapter in Leviticus (they all wore a garb of piety) for the death of two men who were killed by the Indians on his expedition.  “He had had his trials the same daie of his retourne,” says Wingfield, “and I believe his hanging the same, or the next daie, so speedy is our law there.  But it pleased God to send Captain Newport unto us the same evening, to our unspeakable comfort; whose arrivall saved Mr. Smyth’s leif and mine, because he took me out of the pynnasse, and gave me leave to lyve in the towne.  Also by his comyng was prevented a parliament, which the newe counsailor, Mr. Recorder, intended thear to summon.”

Captain Newport’s arrival was indeed opportune.  He was the only one of the Council whose character and authority seem to have been generally respected, the only one who could restore any sort of harmony and curb the factious humors of the other leaders.  Smith should have all credit for his energy in procuring supplies, for his sagacity in dealing with the Indians, for better sense than most of the other colonists exhibited, and for more fidelity to the objects of the plantation than most of them; but where ability to rule is claimed for him, at this juncture we can but contrast the deference shown by all to Newport with the want of it given to Smith.  Newport’s presence at once quelled all the uneasy spirits.

Newport’s arrival, says Wingfield, “saved Mr Smith’s life and mine.”  Smith’s account of the episode is substantially the same.  In his “True Relation” he says on his return to the fort “each man with truest signs of joy they could express welcomed me, except Mr. Archer, and some two or three of his, who was then in my absence sworn councilor, though not with the