Bloodroot

CHAPTER 1

July 1609

Ihad fought this time more bitterly than before with my master of Exeter. He struck me once too often with his whip and, being a young man of almost twenty years, I was seized with a blind rage. I jerked the whip out of his hand, wrapped it around his shriveled neck, and started to haul him up on one of the crossbeams of his shop, but his choking and gagging brought my senses back, and I let him fall to the floor where he cursed me and swore that he would have me thrown in prison that very hour. My rage returned, and I kicked him until he lay unconscious at my feet like a heap of dirty rags.

I left his shop and the city of Exeter without stopping to gather my few belongings, and started out for the city of Plymouth where I had a friend who would shelter me until I could find new employment.

It was well after dark when I arrived in Plymouth and found my friend, Richard, busy packing his chests. He seemed extremely pleased, not just at my arrival but in what he called his future prospect in Virginia.

How wonderful, how prophetic, that you have arrived at this hour! God himself must have guided you, my friend. I tell you truly, Matthew. It is a new promised land, a new Canaan, he said to me while packing away his books in a smaller chest. We are the ones chosen to leave this vile and sinful land. Virginia will be our new Paradise, where men can live the way their Creator intended: in goodness and charity.

I had always known Richard to be a dreamer, but this, going to a wilderness like Virginia? I wondered if he had not lost his senses from too much reading and studying.

I have heard of this place called Virginia, Richard, and I have heard that it is inhabited by naked savages who think nothing of bashing a man’s brains out or of eating their own people. And I have heard that this place is often as cold as it is here in England and as hot as it is in Spain, and that the air is filled with many sicknesses.

Rumors, gossip, exaggerations! Richard said, pulling a pamphlet out of his book chest and thrusting it at me. Read this, he said, excited. It was written by one of the London Company’s own members who has himself been to Virginia many times.

I read through the pamphlet and returned it to him.

It truly does sound like Paradise, Richard, but perhaps it sounds too good.

But it was written and published with the consent of the London Company. What reason would they have to lie about it? What profit would there be? Surely, they would be found out if they were not telling the truth.

I admit that what you say makes sense, but I don’t want to leave England. I am not the scholar that you are. Vice and corruption do not offend me the way they do you.

Then think of it this way. You are in need of employment. You have broken the terms of your apprenticeship by running away. You have assaulted your master. Good God, Matthew, you could go to prison for many years. And if you survive that, what would you do?

His reasoning was sound. The very thought of prison stunned me into silence, and as long as I remained in England, my old master, Dorn, would not rest until he saw me behind bars. I was swept by a feeling of danger. I realized then how important my freedom was to me and how precious was my life. Few survive more than three years in the King’s prison.

Come with me, Matthew. Virginia will be our new kingdom. It will be our chance to begin the world over again, the way it should be, a place full of love and happiness. As for the savages, they are only children in a Garden of Eden, waiting for the light of Christianity. You see, Matthew, he moved closer to my face, his breathing short, his eyes dancing with excitement, this is our opportunity to do what is right.

I turned away, hoping the gesture would calm his passion.

Do you have any ale? I asked.

He stood up at once, erect as if I had slapped him across the face.

I do not need ale now, Matthew. I have discovered that God’s own purest water is enough for me. My only interest now is in food and drink for the spirit.

Well, if you don’t mind, Richard, I would like a tankard of good ale and some food for my body.

I have some bread and sausage newly purchased today.

Thank you, my friend, but I would like to find a tavern and think on what you have proposed.

The tavern was crowded with men like myself, on the move, without prospects, men on the watch for opportunity. I spotted a sailor seated with several other men at a corner table. The sailor was using tobacco, as were most of the men in the place, but he was smoking it in an unusual pipe, a short thing made out of dark clay, brightly painted and with a large bird’s feather fixed at the end.

I went over to them and asked if I could join their table. The sailor wanted to know for what purpose, and I explained that I was thinking of planting in Virginia and that from the look of his pipe, he was a man who might be acquainted with those parts. He laughed aloud, and I could see in the dim light of the candles that he had only a few teeth, and those were stained and crooked, and that his left eye was as white as marble.

The other two men looked at me suspiciously.

Aye, lad, sit down, the sailor shouted. He slapped the bench next to him with a gnarled hand. I will tell you all you wish to know about that heathen land, but me throat be hot and wishes to be cooled by the sweet elixir of this fine tavern’s ale.

I waved for the barmaid and ordered four tankards, a deed which would considerably reduce my finances.

Now, the sailor said, leaning back against the tavern’s wall and drawing smoke from his pipe. Why would a lad such as yourself, a young gentleman, if I’m any judge of men, wish to go to such a place?

I am a carpenter, sir, I said, trying to appear older than my years, and work is not easy to find in England these days. I have heard that certain worthy gentlemen of these parts have set out to build a town in that land and would most likely have need of a man of my trade.

The sailor nodded, and then, seeing the barmaid coming with both of her arms full of tankards, smiled happily. Almost as soon as our maid had sat the tankard before him, he buried his face in it for a long time. The other two men followed his example. I watched their Adam’s apples work in unison as they gulped down the ale.

Aye, yes, the sailor said, finally setting his drink before him and wiping the foam from his beard with the back of his hand. They do have need of men with your skill in Virginia. They have need of every man they can get.

The sailor laughed heartily and so did the other two men.

And God knows, he continued, there is timber enough to build not only a town but a hundred cities the size of London. There is hardly a square yard where a good-sized tree does not grow. But for every man cutting a tree there be four and sometimes six to guard him against the bloody, throat-cutting savages. And often that is not enough, for there must be a hundred savages to every one Englishman. Nay, I say even a thousand savages to one of our men. What is wanting in Virginia is an English army, and not the merchants and gentlemen who are presently there. By God, as much as I despise those popish swine of Spain, I’ll say one thing good for them, they know how to plant a colony. None of this cowardly, weak-bellied, hands-off policy toward the savages for them.

The sailor leaned closer to me. If you want to find your fortune in Virginia, my lad, first learn to fight.

But that is true enough for any man, said one of the other men.

Aye, it’s true enough, but in Virginia it is always your life you’re fighting for. There is scarce any law even among our own men and none among the savages, save the hatchet and the arrow. But for a man who can use a sword and a musket, Virginia is a vast, rich land waiting to be claimed. You could be a king, my lad.

Or at least a lord, the other man said.

They all laughed good-naturedly, not meaning to offend.

Sir, said I to the sailor, you are certainly a fighting man yourself. Why have you not claimed your share of this new land?

He laughed again, spitting some ale on his beard.

True enough. I’ve done my share of fighting, but it was never for myself. It was always some quarrel between princes, and you see how I am rewarded. He pointed to his dead eye. Fighting is for young men such as yourself. We old men stand aside and pick at the spoils and tell everyone how glorious it all was when it is over.

Will your ship be taking the planters to Virginia? I asked.

"Aye, that she will. Diamond is her name, and a good ship she is too, the luckiest ship that I ever served on. But I will not be aboard her. The sea has taken her toll of me. I am off to my little cottage in old North Devon, there to live happily among my sheep and cows and look out upon the sea from my window."

There was much laughter at the sailor’s table after this. I ordered ale to be brought to our table until I had spent my last shilling. I listened with more than common interest as the sailor told stories of the foreign lands he had seen and the many strange wonders in these far-off places. But my thoughts were on Virginia, which during the course of the evening, began to be more favorable than the punishment and starvation that were sure to be mine if I remained in England.

In the early hours of the morning, I took my leave of the sailor and his friends with much good cheer and happy farewells and walked, half-dazed with ale and thoughts of Virginia, back to Richard’s room. I woke him from a sound sleep and said that I would go with him and that he must arrange passage for me.

He wanted to know how much money I had, and I confessed that it was all in the hands of the tavern keeper. Richard opened the chest where he had packed his clothes, dug out his purse and checked its contents.

There is just enough for passage for us both, he said triumphantly.

Richard, I’ll pay you back as soon as I can.

Don’t worry yourself, Matthew. We will not need money in Virginia. Come, he said, pulling on his shirt and britches. "I am sick of the waiting. The Diamond is at the dock now and will be sailing not many hours from now. Help me with my chests, Matthew. We will be the first on the wharf, and I will arrange passage for you with the Captain."

I had never before seen Richard in such a haste. We placed his book chest on top of his clothes chest and together we bore them, with much effort, through the streets of Plymouth to the dock where our ship was still secured. Richard was correct. So far as I could determine, we were the only passengers yet to arrive. There were a few drunken sailors lying around the wharf, some sleeping, some yelling at phantoms in the night. I waited, sitting on a low group of pilings, while Richard went aboard the ship to speak with the Captain.

Except for the few shouting sailors, it was a strangely quiet night. The ship, with her fresh burden of supplies, rode in the still water like a majestic swan, asleep. The city of Plymouth seemed devoid of its human inhabitants and as empty and useless as a beach with no shells. The many scents of spring filled the air, and even dulled the occasional wave of putrefied stench from the harbor.

I lost myself in the sound of the water lapping up against the pilings and, for a terrible few moments, felt the old fears that I had known in childhood filling my breast. The fear that one morning I would wake up and find all those I knew gone, dead perhaps, leaving me completely alone. It was an icy feeling that started from the inside, as though I had drunk cold water too fast.

That fear had come true for me a few years ago, shortly after I had been apprenticed to Master Dorn. It remained for me the clearest memory for many years—the messenger riding up to Mr. Beanie’s shop and informing me that my parents had died in the fire of their house, and that I would be required by the solicitor to sign various papers regarding the remainder of their estate.

While I was about this sad business, I renewed my acquaintance with Richard, who was the only friend from my childhood and who had recently returned from Oxford to seek employment as a tutor. His friendship had guided me through those black moments when I felt that the very world must soon come to an end.

Richard returned from the ship shortly and said that the Captain would like to speak with me before giving his permission.

What does he want?

I don’t know, he said; this with a clear note of desperation in his voice. He seems a fair man. His name is King, Captain William King. He is sailing as vice-Admiral of the fleet. We also have on board the illustrious Captain John Ratcliffe, apparently to resume his position as Governor of the colony and take it away from Captain Smith. We are among experienced men, Matthew. It is surely a good thing. Please go and speak with him. He took the money. He only wants to see you himself, I’m sure.

Richard patted me on the shoulder, and I walked slowly onto the ship and to the Captain’s cabin. The door swung open, throwing the dim light of a lamp in my face.

Enter, the Captain said.

He was a man not as big as I am, but from his eyes and manner I could see that he more than made up for his lack of size by force of character. His beard and mustache were light red, and he walked with a hard step, solidly planting his feet wherever they fell. His voice was strong, having battled with the ocean winds for many years. His clothes were wrinkled from having slept in them too often.

So, you want to go to Virginia? he said, and continued without giving me a chance to answer. Your friend says that you are a carpenter?

He stopped and looked directly at me, demanding the truth.

Well, sir, I served four years to a master carpenter of Exeter.

But you didn’t complete your apprenticeship?

No, sir, but I know as much as any master about the skill, and—

I’m sure you do, lad—quarreled with your master, did you?

Yes, sir.

Did you kill him?

No, sir.

So you ran away?

Yes, sir.

The Captain laughed mightily and flopped down in his chair.

God’s wounds! It reminds me of my own youth, when I was apprenticed to a fishmonger of London. What a hard man he was. How I prayed many a time for God or some worthy soul to strike him dead. But, like most hard men, he only grew stronger. The time came when he proposed to beat me, and I hit him beside the face with one of his cold codfish. I liked it so much that I used it like a club and beat him until nothing was left of the cod but bloody strings of meat.

The Captain laughed until his face glowed as red as his beard. He went into a coughing fit, and when that had subsided, he said, Those fools in Virginia have need of your skill more than they realize. You may sail with us if you like. One more will not make a difference. But take care and do not go near my mariners. They’re a base lot, and some had as soon stick a dagger in you as not.

I thanked the Captain for his courtesy and started to leave.

Since you are here, he said, you can tell your friend that he can come aboard, but you and he are not to quarter among the stores. The best place is amidships.

I thanked the Captain again and hurried off the ship to tell Richard what had taken place. He was very pleased, and we immediately began loading his belongings aboard the ship.

Coarse, cloth bags stuffed with straw had been provided for our bedding. We found a good place on the first deck, in the middle part of the ship, next to the hull where we would be protected from the weather on all sides. At first the place between the decks seemed so small and cramped that I began to feel a shortness of breath, but as I lay on my rude bedding next to Richard, the whole space appeared to open up and become as vast as the sky itself, and before long I was sound asleep.

It seemed only an instant of time before we heard the tramping of feet over our heads and voices calling out. We crawled over to the hatch and up the ladder to the main deck. It was well into the morning, and the sailors were running about the ship, preparing her for departure. The passengers were crowded on the quay, waiting their turn to walk over the wood planks to the ship. Most had a few possessions stuffed into cloth sacks, which they carried over their shoulders or under their arms. Some, like me, had nothing at all. Still others, mostly gentlemen, had large chests which the sailors handled with contempt, crashing them down on the deck with many curses.

They were mostly city people with the marks of their trades on their hands and faces. Most looked very pale and worn. Some were laborers with hard bodies. They stood together, looking suspiciously at everything and everyone. The gentlemen, in their fine clothes, stood off to one side and chatted among themselves.

I looked to the stern of the ship and saw Captain King pacing like a lion on the high poop deck. Now and then he would go to the rail and shout something to his men.

When all were aboard, the Captain gave the order to cast off from the quay, at which time men in two long boats strained at their oars, pulling the great ship slowly away from our last touch with England. The sight of the wharf moving away from me caused a peculiar pain in my breast. For a moment, if Richard had not been standing beside me, I would have jumped from the ship and swam joyfully back to shore. Instead I waited, not moving, listening to the Captain give the orders to get the ship under sail, soothed somewhat by the chants of the sailors as they went about their work.

We glided gently into Plymouth Sound where the Captain brought her up beside a fleet of ships, six of the larger tonnages and two pinnaces. There we dropped anchor, and within an hour, Captain King, along with Captain Ratcliffe and his rowers, had set out in our ship’s long boat to meet Captain Christopher Newport, a well-known privateer and Master of the newly built flagship named the Sea Venture.

The Captain had not been gone but a few minutes when a quarrel broke out among some of the passengers as to where their places would be on the ship. One of them pulled a dagger on the other and made as if to stab him with it. But before he could advance two paces, one of the larger sailors jumped in among them, holding a fid in his right hand, and with it he knocked the dagger from the attacker’s hand. The attacker, then in a rage, started for the sailor who, without the slightest hesitation, struck him on the side of his head and rendered the man senseless for over a quarter of an hour.

This incident put a quick end to the dispute, and most of the passengers went about preparing their places on the ship in silence. By evening the Captain returned, much flushed with wine and, staggering about the deck, ordered the Master’s Mate into his cabin. After a short while, the Master’s Mate emerged from the cabin and ordered the sailor on watch to look for a signal from the Sea Venture for getting underway.

We were served a delicious, hot meal of stew, containing much meat and bread and green plants and herbs. It would be our last hot meal for some time. Beer was served liberally, and we drank until we began to feel bloated and sleepy. Richard and I crawled around and over some of the passengers until we reached our beds, and there, fell onto them and slept like two newborn infants.

I was awakened suddenly by a sharp blow to my shoulder, and further aroused from my drowsiness by the cries of those nearest me. The sound of rushing water could be heard clearly against the hull, and my shoulder was pressed hard against the ship’s heavy oak frame. Some passengers had slid, with their bedding, against the hull. After overcoming the surprise of it, they made their way back to their former places, crawling and sliding over other passengers like sheep bounding away from a charging wolf. To my surprise, Richard was still asleep and did not seem in any danger of rolling against the hull. I saw no need to wake him, so I made my way out of the ship onto the main deck.

It was growing well light, although the sun was still down. The ship was crashing through the water under full sail, and it seemed that all around, the ships sailing with us were bobbing and leaping over the sea as though all had taken wing and were flying at top speed for Virginia. Behind our fleet lay the rocky coast of Devon, and ahead of us, open green sea.

The wind was blustering and blowing from the southwest, and as we bore away down the channel, the heel of the ship eased, and the pitching became less violent. The ship no longer burst through the waves but seemed to join with them, rising gently as the seas rolled in from our stern and we nestled down into the troughs as they rolled ahead of us.

I walked on unsteady legs to the ship’s bulwark and, holding onto the shrouds, watched the shore of England slowly recede. It occurred to me for the first time since I had decided on this adventure that I might never see England again; and though I had certainly suffered more there than necessary, it was still a home where the language and customs were known to me. I had never been abroad before this, not even to France or Holland. Now, through the uncertainty of fate, I found myself truly bound for an unknown land that might as well be one of the spheres of Heaven. I turned away. There was only one direction for me to look now, and that was to the sea.

It was about this time that several passengers came on deck and promptly ran to the bulwark, there to vomit and gasp as though they were dying. They were soon followed by many others until the whole bulwark was lined with people from stem to stern, all heaving and praying to God for relief. This, of course, was an occasion for much fun and joking among the sailors, some of whom added to the passengers’ misery by eating hunks of roasted meat or bread.

Richard also took his turn at the bulwark and I, at moments, began to feel a stirring uneasiness in my bowels. But, after a day or so, the uneasiness passed, as it did for most of the passengers, and we all settled down in our own spaces, such as they could be with 150 souls living as close to one another as if they all shared the same bed.

Yet there was little in the way of abuse toward the women. I suppose those who would commit such a crime knew that they had no chance of being undetected and would be instantly punished by being cast overboard. Almost every day a quarrel broke out among the men passengers, but nothing ever came of it—no blows were struck, only harsh words from men being too long in close quarters.

I seldom ever saw the gentlemen of our company since they occupied the cabin under the Captain’s cabin, and they seldom ventured out into the sun and salty ocean spray.

Richard spent much time with his books, reading Cicero and Pliny the Younger and making a vain attempt to write the texts into English from the Latin. He worked using the top of his chests as a table. I was concerned for his eyesight and advised him to do his work on deck, but he was afraid that he would be in the way of sailing the vessel, so I went to the Captain and asked if Richard could come on deck with his work. The Captain refused my request but said that he would try to procure a place for him in the gentlemen’s cabin where there would be more light.

In a short time, the Captain hailed for me to come to his place of watch next to the binnacle. I did and was told that the gentlemen had no objection so long as Richard pursued his work and did not sleep or eat or remain in their area after he had finished his noble and scholarly endeavors.

I quickly informed Richard of the Captain’s arrangements, but he did not seem overly pleased. I told him that it would not be wise to offend the Captain and the other gentlemen on board.

He looked at me strangely and said that he was quite content to do his studying among these good people. But since you went to such a great deal of trouble for my sake, I will not offend you or the Captain.

I preferred spending as much time on deck as I could, even in foul weather. The sight of those other eight ships sailing in company with us like a gaggle of great birds was always a happy one for me. The sea became a pure, sky blue and contained many strange and unexpected things. Once, a large sea turtle, with crusty barnacles and other sea growth on his back, surfaced near our ship. The sailors tried to capture him with a barbed lance, since turtle meat is considered a tasty delicacy among them, but failed. The turtle was too old and wise to be caught this way.

Late one afternoon we espied a group of whales near the bow of the ship. I could hear their blowing nearly a half a league off and see their water-spouts shooting up into the air, higher than any fountain that I had ever seen. The whales stayed with us well into the night, and their blowing and hissing began to worry the superstitious sailors.

I began to suspect the sailors had reason for their fears when one passenger after another died of the yellow fever and more from an unknown sickness. It was rumored that The London Plague was among us, but because I had never seen one of its victims, I could not be sure.

At the end of four or five weeks, we reached a place in the sea where masses of sea growth the color of amber floated together in great fields, sometimes as far as the eye could