Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/79

 INTRODUCTION. 49 themselves in absolute need of the support and chap, it. direction of Smith. These were readily af- 1609. forded until a melancholy accident deprived the colony of the aid of a man whose talents had, more than once, rescued it from that desperate condition into which folly and vice had plunged it. Returning from a visit to the detachment stationed at the falls of James' river, his powder bag, while he was sleeping in the boat, took fire, and in the explosion he was so severely wounded as to be confined to his bed, and thereby rendered absolutely incapable of per- forming the active duties which his station so indispensably required. Being unable tog^g^ obtain the aid of a surgeon in the colony, he determined to return to England, for which place he embarked about the beginning of October. At his departure, the colony consisted of^^f about five hundred inhabitants. They were furnished with three ships, seven boats, com- modities ready for trade, ten weeks provision in the public stores, six mares and a horse, a large stock of hogs and poultry, with some sheep and goats, utensils for agriculture, nets for fishing, one hundred trained and expert soldiers well acquainted with the Indians, their language, and habitations; twenty-four pieces of ordnance, and three hundred muskets, with VOL. I. H