[Illustration: Map showing Jamestown.]

[Footnote 1: Chesapeake (Ches'a-peek).]


39. Smith's trial and what came of it; how the settlers lived; the
first English church; sickness; attempted desertion.--As soon as
Captain Smith landed, he demanded to be tried by a jury[2] of twelve
men. The trial took place. It was the first English court and the
first English jury that ever sat in America. The captain proved his
innocence and was set free. His chief accuser was condemned to pay
him a large sum of money for damages. Smith generously gave this money
to help the settlement.

As the weather was warm, the emigrants did not begin building log
cabins at once, but slept on the ground, sheltered by boughs of trees.
For a church they had an old tent, in which they met on Sunday. They
were all members of the Church of England, or the Episcopal Church,
and that tent was the first place of worship that we know of which
was opened by Englishmen in America.

When the hot weather came, many fell sick. Soon the whole settlement
was like a hospital. Sometimes three or four would die in one night.
Captain Smith, though not well himself, did everything he could for
those who needed his help.

When the sickness was over, some of the settlers were so discontented
that they determined to seize the only vessel there was at Jamestown
and go back to England. Captain Smith turned the cannon of the fort