them; they are childish. I have found and fought my way through the wildernesses of all four quarters of the globe, and am now hale and sound. It would be a shame for you to force me to return now, when we are scarce able to say where we have been, and have not yet heard of that we were sent to seek. Regain, therefore, your old spirits with which you set out, for return I will not until I have seen the Massawomeks, found Patawomek, or the head of this water which you conceit to be endless."
But the pitiful complaints of the sick men finally prevailed on Smith to turn the head of the barge southward when they left Bolus harbor. At their first landing to pass the night they killed a deer, which greatly bettered their fare and revived their spirits. The weather was now very pleasant.
Proceeding southward, the party soon came to the mouth of a river or estuary, seven miles broad, which the Indians called Patawomek. By this time the sick men were better and the others had recovered their spirits and were willing to explore this great river, so they sailed up it for days, finding no current to impede them. They found the Indians on its banks uniformly friendly. Though not of
