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uts; berries; now and then a little fish; they that had starch in these extremities made no small use of it; yea; even the very skinnes of our horses。  Nay; so great was our famine; that a salvage we slew and buried; the poorer sort took him up again and eat him; and so did divers one another boyled; and stewed with roots and herbs。  And one amongst the rest did kill his wife; poudered her and had eaten part of her before it was knowne; for which he was executed; as he well deserved; now whether she was better roasted; boyled; or carbonaded; I know not; but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of。 This was that time; which still to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say and scarce to be believed what we endured; but the occasion was our owne; for want of providence; industrie and government; and not the barreness and defect of the country as is generally supposed。〃

This playful allusion to powdered wife; and speculation as to how she was best cooked; is the first instance we have been able to find of what is called 〃American humor;〃 and Captain Smith has the honor of being the first of the 〃American humorists〃 who have handled subjects of this kind with such pleasing gayety。

It is to be noticed that this horrible story of cannibalism and wife… eating appears in Smith's 〃General Historie〃 of 1624; without a word of contradiction or explanation; although the company as early as 1610 had taken pains to get at the facts; and Smith must have seen their 〃Declaration;〃 which supposes the story was started by enemies of the colony。  Some reported they saw it; some that Captain Smith said so; and some that one Beadle; the lieutenant of Captain Davis; did relate it。  In 〃A True Declaration of the State of the Colonie in Virginia;〃 published by the advice and direction of the Council of Virginia; London; 1610; we read:

〃But to clear all doubt; Sir Thomas Yates thus relateth the tragedie:

〃There was one of the company who mortally hated his wife; and therefore secretly killed her; then cut her in pieces and hid her in divers parts of his house: when the woman was missing; the man suspected; his house searched; and parts of her mangled body were discovered; to excuse himself he said that his wife died; that he hid her to satisfie his hunger; and that he fed daily upon her。  Upon this his house was again searched; when they found a good quantitie of meale; oatmeale; beanes and pease。  Hee therefore was arraigned; confessed the murder; and was burned for his horrible villainy。〃

This same 〃True Declaration;〃 which singularly enough does not mention the name of Captain Smith; who was so prominent an actor in Virginia during the period to which it relates; confirms all that Smith said as to the character of the colonists; especially the new supply which landed in the eight vessels with Ratcliffe and Archer。 〃Every man overvalueing his own strength would be a commander; every man underprizing another's value; denied to be commanded。〃  They were negligent and improvident。  〃Every man sharked for his present bootie; but was altogether careless of succeeding penurie。〃  To idleness and faction was joined treason。  About thirty 〃unhallowed creatures;〃 in the winter of 1610; some five months before the arrival of Captain Gates; seized upon the ship Swallow; which had been prepared to trade with the Indians; and having obtained corn conspired together and made a league to become pirates; dreaming of mountains of gold and happy robberies。  By this desertion they weakened the colony; which waited for their return with the provisions; and they made implacable enemies of the Indians by their violence。  〃These are that scum of men;〃 which; after roving the seas and failing in their piracy; joined themselves to other pirates they found on the sea; or returned to England; bound by a mutual oath to discredit the land; and swore they were drawn away by famine。  〃These are they that roared at the tragicall historie of the man eating up his dead wife in Virginia〃〃scandalous reports of a viperous generation。〃

If further evidence were wanting; we have it in 〃The New Life of Virginia;〃 published by authority of the Council; London; 1612。  This is the second part of the 〃Nova Britannia;〃 published in London; 1609。  Both are prefaced by an epistle to Sir Thomas Smith; one of the Council and treasurer; signed 〃R。 I。〃  Neither document contains any allusion to Captain John Smith; or the part he played in Virginia。  The 〃New Life of Virginia;〃 after speaking of the tempest which drove Sir Thomas Gates on Bermuda; and the landing of the eight ships at Jamestown; says: 〃By which means the body of the plantation was now augmented with such numbers of irregular persons that it soon became as so many members without a head; who as they were bad and evil affected for the most part before they went hence; so now being landed and wanting restraint; they displayed their condition in all kinds of looseness; those chief and wisest guides among them (whereof there were not many) did nothing but bitterly contend who should be first to command the rest; the common sort; as is ever seen in such cases grew factious and disordered out of measure; in so much as the poor colony seemed (like the Colledge of English fugitives in Rome) as a hostile camp within itself; in which distemper that envious man stept in; sowing plentiful tares in the hearts of all; which grew to such speedy confusion; that in few months ambition; sloth and idleness had devoured the fruit of former labours; planting and sowing were clean given over; the houses decayed; the church fell to ruin; the store was spent; the cattle consumed; our people starved; and the Indians by wrongs and injuries made our enemies。。。。 As for those wicked Impes that put themselves a shipboard; not knowing otherwise how to live in England; or those ungratious sons that daily vexed their fathers hearts at home; and were therefore thrust upon the voyage; which either writing thence; or being returned back to cover their own leudnes; do fill mens ears with false reports of their miserable and perilous life in Virginia; let the imputation of misery be to their idleness; and the blood that was spilt upon their own heads that caused it。〃

Sir Thomas Gates affirmed that after his first coming there he had seen some of them eat their fish raw rather than go a stone's cast to fetch wood and dress it。

The colony was in such extremity in May; 1610; that it would have been extinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas。  These gallant gentlemen; with one hundred and fifty souls; had been wrecked on the Bermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July。  The terrors of the hurricane which dispersed the fleet; and this shipwreck; were much dwelt upon by the writers of the time; and the Bermudas became a sort of enchanted islands; or realms of the imagination。  For three nights; and three days that were as black as the nights; the water logged Sea Venture was scarcely kept afloat by bailing。  We have a vivid picture of the stanch Somers sitting upon the poop of the ship; where he sat three days and three nights together; without much meat and little or no sleep; conning the ship to keep her as upright as he could; until he happily descried land。 The ship went ashore and was wedged into the rocks so fast that it held together till all were got ashore; and a good part of the goods and provisions; and the tackling and iron of the ship necessary for the building and furnishing of a new ship。

This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous life on the island and final deliverance was due to the noble Somers; or Sommers; after whom the Bermudas were long called 〃Sommers Isles;〃 which was gradually corrupted into 〃The Summer Isles。〃  These islands of Bermuda had ever been accounted an enchanted pile of rocks and a desert inhabitation for devils; which the navigator and mariner avoided as Scylla and Charybdis; or the devil himself。  But this shipwrecked company found it the most delightful country in the world; the climate was enchanting; delicious fruits abounded; the waters swarmed with fish; some of them big enough to nearly drag the fishers into the sea; while whales could be heard spouting and nosing about the rocks at night; birds fat and tame and willing to be eaten covered all the bushes; and such droves of wild hogs covered the island that the slaughter of them for months seemed not to diminish their number。  The friendly disposition of the birds seemed most to impress the writer of the 〃True Declaration of Virginia。〃  He remembers how the ravens fed Elias in the brook Cedron; 〃so God provided for our disconsolate people in the midst of the sea by foules; but with an admirable difference; unto Elias the ravens brought meat; unto our men the foules brought (themselves) for meate: for when they whistled; or made any strange noyse; the foules would come and sit on their shoulders; they would suffer themselves to be taken and weighed by our men; who would make choice of the fairest and fattest and let flie the leane and lightest; an accident 'the chronicler exclaims'; I take it 'and everybody will take it'; that cannot be paralleled by any Hi

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