read aloud to him, or copied down on other sheets that the work of
the quill might be more pleasing to the eye.

Besides that, I had been with the captain a goodly portion of the
time while the ships were being made ready for the voyage, and if
he had harbored so much of wickedness, surely must some word of it
have come to me, who sat or stood near at hand, listening attentively
whenever he had speech with others of the company of adventurers.



CAPTAIN SMITH A PRISONER


When the voyage was begun, and the captain no longer had need of
me, I was sent into the forward part of the ship to live, as has
already been set down, and therefore it was I knew nothing of what
was being done in the great cabin, where the leaders of the company
were quartered, until after my master was made a prisoner. Then it
was told me by the seaman who had been called by Captain Kendall,
as if it was feared my master, being such a great soldier, might
strive to harm those who miscalled him a traitor to that which he
had sworn.

It seems, so the seaman said, that Captain John Martin was the one
who made the charges against my master, on the night after we set
sail from Martinique, when all the chief men of the company were
met in the great cabin, and he declared that, when it was possible
to do so, meaning after we had come to the land of Virginia, witnesses
should be brought from the other ships to prove the wicked intent.