[An excerpt from
JAMESTOWN: THE NOVEL.]
With their sails neatly furled and their tall masts swaying
gently against the clouds, the four little vessels looked like some species of
giant spiked sea turtles floating lazily together in the sun. It was quiet
aboard the ships, and many of the passengers, wearied by their early morning
leave-taking, had lain down to rest or doze. There was nothing to do until
dark, when the tide turned and they could move on downriver to the sea. They
would stop briefly to pick up the men with Captain Davis at Point Comfort, and
then chart their course for Newfoundland. Above them, a few curious gulls from
Chesapeake Bay flapped about, and some came to rest in the ships’ riggings.
It was William Strachey, lounging about on the f’oc’sle of
the Deliverance, who first sighted the longboat.
“A ship! There’s a ship!”
Strachey’s shout roused a couple of crew members who had
been taking their ease in the shadow of the great cabin. It also roused Thomas
Gates, who bounded out of his quarters as if he had been shot out by a cannon.
“The devil you say! Where?” Gates clambered up the ladder to where Strachey and
the two sailors were now standing and pointing. The approaching vessel was barely
more than a speck on the horizon, where the wide James River opened even wider
to empty into the Chesapeake Bay. At such a distance, the vessel was impossible
to identify. . . .
Who would be sailing upriver
to Jamestown? Captain Davis had left a light guard at Point Comfort, but those
men knew the pinnaces were coming down.
There was no need for
anyone to come upriver.
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