Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/69

 INTRODUCTION. 39 with a supply of provisions, of instruments chap. 4 of husbandry, and with a re-enforcement of I607T one hundred and twenty persons, consisting of Newport ^ x arrives many gentlemen, a few labourers, and several ^ h ti ^ nal refiners, goldsmiths and jewellers. I3&? The joy of the colony, on receiving this ac- cession of force, and supply of provisions, was extreme. But the influence of Smith disap- peared with the danger which had produced it, and was succeeded by an improvident relax- ation of discipline, productive of the most pernicious consequences. Among the unwise practices which were tolerated, an indiscrimi- nate traffic with the natives was permitted, in the course of which some obtained for their commodities much better bargains than others, which inspired those who had been most hardly dealt by, and who thought themselves cheated, with resentment against the English generally, and a consequent thirst for revenge. h About this time a glittering earth, mistaken by the colonists for gold dust, was found in a small stream of water near Jamestown. All that raging thirst for gold, which accompanied the first Europeans who visited the American continent, sejyiied re- excited by this incident. Mr. Stith, in his history of Virginia, describ- ing the frenzy of the moment, says, " there was no thought, no discourse, no hope and no Stith.