because many of them had for years lived dissipated and reckless lives. From the incompetence of the rest of the council Smith had to bear the brunt of everything. When he was at the settlement he was constantly urging the lazy fellows, who had never before done a day's manual labor, to the rude toil, always taking the heavy end of every task himself. Much of the time he was away, striving to get corn from the Indians. Returning from one of these expeditions, he found Wingfield and Kendall, another of the council, with some others, about to desert with the pinnace, a little vessel of twenty tons which had been left for the use of the colonists. Smith promptly fired upon them with cannon and muskets, killing Kendall and forcing the others to return or be sunk in the river. With the approach of winter the rivers were swarming with wild geese and ducks, which, with the Indian corn, gave the colonists good fare. Not satisfied, the council began to tax Smith with being slow to discover the head of the Chickahominy River. What they wanted with the head of that river it is hard to tell; but Smith, to satisfy them, set out to find it. Venturing too far alone, he was captured by the Indians and
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