consent of Captain Martin; great blame and imputation was laid upon me by them for the loss of our two men which the Indians slew:  insomuch that they purposed to depose me, but in the midst of my miseries, it pleased God to send Captain Newport, who arriving there the same night, so tripled our joy, as for a while those plots against me were deferred, though with much malice against me, which Captain Newport in short time did plainly see.”  In his “Map of Virginia,” the Oxford tract of 1612, Smith does not allude to this; but in the “General Historie” it had assumed a different aspect in his mind, for at the time of writing that he was the irresistible hero, and remembered himself as always nearly omnipotent in Virginia.  Therefore, instead of expressions of gratitude to Newport we read this:  “Now in Jamestown they were all in combustion, the strongest preparing once more to run away with the pinnace; which with the hazard of his life, with Sakre, falcon and musket shot, Smith forced now the third time to stay or sink.  Some no better than they should be, had plotted to put him to death by the Levitical law, for the lives of Robinson and Emry, pretending that the fault was his, that led them to their ends; but he quickly took such order with such Lawyers, that he laid them by the heels till he sent some of them prisoners to England.”

Clearly Captain Smith had no authority to send anybody prisoner to England.  When Newport returned, April 10th, Wingfield and Archer went with him.  Wingfield no doubt desired to return.  Archer was so insolent, seditious, and libelous that he only escaped the halter by the interposition of Newport.  The colony was willing to spare both these men, and probably Newport it was who decided they should go.  As one of the Council, Smith would undoubtedly favor their going.  He says in the “General Historie”:  “We not having any use of parliaments, plaises, petitions, admirals, recorders, interpreters, chronologers, courts of plea, or justices of peace, sent Master Wingfield and Captain Archer home with him, that had engrossed all those titles, to seek some better place of employment.”  Mr. Wingfield never returned.  Captain Archer returned in 1609, with the expedition of Gates and Somers, as master of one of the ships.

Newport had arrived with the first supply on the 8th of January, 1608.  The day before, according to Wingfield, a fire occurred which destroyed nearly all the town, with the clothing and provisions.  According to Smith, who is probably correct in this, the fire did not occur till five or six days after the arrival of the ship.  The date is uncertain, and some doubt is also thrown upon the date of the arrival of the ship.  It was on the day of Smith’s return from captivity:  and that captivity lasted about four weeks if the return was January 8th, for he started on the expedition December 10th.  Smith subsequently speaks of his captivity lasting six or seven weeks.

In his “General Historie” Smith says the fire happened after the return of the expedition of Newport, Smith, and Scrivener to the Pamunkey:  “Good Master Hunt, our Preacher, lost all his library, and all he had but the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard him repine at his loss.”  This excellent and devoted man is the only one of these first pioneers of whom everybody speaks well, and he deserved all affection and respect.