Now I swear solemnly that
you shall not only gather for yourselves the fruits which the earth
doth yield, but for those who are sick. Every one that gathers not
each day as much as I do, shall on the next day be set beyond the
river, forever banished from the fort, to live or starve as God
wills."
This caused the lazy ones to bestir themselves for the time, and
perhaps all might have gone well with us had not the London Company
sent out nine more vessels, in which were five hundred persons,
to join us people in Jamestown. One of the ships, as we afterward
learned, was wrecked in a hurricane; seven arrived safely, and the
ninth vessel we had not heard from.
All these people had expected to find food in plenty, servants
to wait upon them, and everything furnished to hand without being
obliged to raise a finger in their own behalf. What was yet worse,
they had among them many men who believed they were to be made
officers of the government.
THE NEW LAWS
Now you must understand that with the coming of this fleet we of
Jamestown were told that the London Company had changed all the
laws for us in Virginia, and that Lord De la Warr, who sailed on
the ship from which nothing had been heard, was to be our governor.
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