days and nights, and kept the ship steady in the waves till she
stranded, July 29, 1609, on one of the Bermuda Islands, where the
company, one hundred and fifty in number, landed in safety. They found
the island a beautiful place, full of wild hogs, which furnished them
an abundance of meat, to which they added turtles, wild fowl, and
various fruits. How to get away was the question, and though they had
not a nail they started promptly to build two small ships, the
_Patience_ and _Deliverance_, out of the cedar which covered the
country-side. May 10, 1610, they were ready to sail with the whole
party for Jamestown, which they reached without accident May 23.[13]

At Jamestown a sad sight met their view. The place looked like "some
ancient fortification" all in ruins; the palisades were down, the
gates were off their hinges, and the church and houses were in a state
of utter neglect and desolation. Out of the ruins tottered some sixty
wretches, looking more like ghosts than human beings, and they told a
story of suffering having hardly a parallel.[14]

The energetic Captain Argall, whose arrival at Jamestown has been
already noticed, temporarily relieved the destitution there, first by
supplies which he brought from England and afterwards by sturgeon
which he caught in the river.[15] August 11, 1609, four of the
storm-tossed ships of Gates's fleet entered Hampton Roads, and not
long after three others joined them. They set on land at Jamestown
about four hundred passengers, many of them ill with the London
plague; and as it was the sickly season in Virginia, and most of their
provisions were spoiled by rain and sea-water, their arrival simply
aggravated the situation.

To these troubles, grave enough of themselves, were added dissensions