CAPTAIN NEWPORT'S INSTRUCTIONS
He was ordered, if you please, not to return to England without
bringing back a lump of gold, exploring the passageway to the South
Sea, or finding some of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony, of which
I will tell you later.
But whether he did the one or the other, he had been commanded to
crown as a king, Powhatan, and had brought with him mock jewels
and red robes for such a purpose.
To find a lump of gold, after he had brought to England a shipload
of yellow sand!
To crown Powhatan king, when, to our sorrow, he was already showing
himself far more of a king than was pleasing or well for our town
of James!
Forgetting I was but a lad, and had no right to put blame on the
shoulders of my leaders and betters, or even to address Master
Hunt as if I were a man grown, I cried out against the foolishness
of those people in London for whom we were striving to build up a
city, saying very much that had better been left unsaid, until the
good preacher cried with a laugh:
"We can forgive them almost anything, Dicky Mutton, since they have
made our Captain Smith the head of the government in this land of
Virginia.
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