vermine as doggs Catts Ratts and myce.... And now famin begineinge
to Looke gastely and pale in every face that notheinge was spared to
mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things wch seem incredible As to digge
up dead corpses outt of graves and to eate them.... And amongste the
reste this was moste Lamentable Thatt one of our Colline murdered his
wyfe Ripped the childe outt of her woambe and threw itt into the River
and after chopped the Mother in pieces and salted her for his foode.Of the original 220, the 100 who survived found that even their dreams
had turned into nightmares. Their suffering was for naught. Whatever prof-
its there might be were to be held in a lockup, and even the food, clothing,
and shelter promised were in default. All they had received was their pas-
sage to America. In short, whereas the allurement held out in London was a
modern garden of Eden, the colonists found themselves hungry, sick, and
abandoned.
When finally a new governor—a “high marshall”—arrived, he threw
himself into a desperate effort to save the colony. A veteran of England’s
savage wars in Europe, Sir Thomas Dale instituted draconian punishments
for shirkers and deserters. He was almost too late, since
dyvrs of his men beinge idile and not willeinge to take paynes did Runne
Away unto the Indyans many of them beinge taken againe SrThomas in
A moste severe mannor cawsed to be executed. Some he apointed to be
hanged Some burned Some to be broken upon wheles, others to be
staked and some to be shott to deathe all theis extreme and crewell tor-
tures he used and inflicted upon them To terrefy the reste for
Attempteinge the Lyke and some wch Robbed the store he cawsed them
to be bownd faste unto Trees and so starved them to deathe.Miserable though they were, they reacted against other intruders as the
Spanish had done. When a group sixty men from Jamestown sailed north
to fish, they surprised a French group who were setting up a base on the
Maine coast. The Jamestowners attacked, captured the Frenchmen, and
took some of them and two Jesuit priests back to Jamestown as prisoners.
Perhaps in part to divert discontent from his harsh measures at home,
110 THE BIRTH OF AMERICA