TREACHERY DURING CAPTAIN SMITH'S ABSENCE
When Captain Smith set off in the pinnace in order to buy what might
serve us as seed, he found himself threatened by all the brown men
living near about the shores of the bay, as if they had suddenly
made up a plot to kill us, and never one of them would speak him
fairly. It was while my master was away that two Dutchmen, who came
over in the Phoenix and had gone with Captain Smith in the pinnace,
returned to Jamestown, saying to Captain Winne, who was in command
at the fort, that Captain Smith had use for more weapons because
of going into the country in the hope of finding Indians who would
supply him with corn.
Not doubting their story, the captain supplied them with what they
demanded, and, as was afterward learned, before leaving town that
night they stole many swords, pike heads, shot and powder, all of
which these Dutch thieves carried to Powhatan.
If these two had been the only white men who did us wrong, then
might our plight not have become so desperate; but many there
were, upwards of sixteen so Master Hunt declared, who from day to
day carried away secretly such weapons and tools, or powder and
shot, as they could come upon, thereby trusting to the word of the
savages that they might live with them in their villages always,
without doing any manner of work.
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