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The English on landing pitched tents, but in the pleasant May weather soon found it more agreeable to lodge “Under bows of trees” until the log cabins they at once proceeded to build were ready for occupancy. An “old rotten Tent” was the first church in the American wilderness. The next step was to stretch an awning between the trunks of tree,s to nail a bar between two of these to serve as a reading desk, and here “the religious and courageous divine, Mr. Hunt” read the service morning and evening, preached twice on Sunday, and celebrated the Holy Communion at intervals of three months. When Lord Delaware came in 1610 (card no. 8) he fond at Jamestown a church 24 by 60 feet, the first permanent religious edifice erected by Englishmen in america, and the one in which Pocahontas was baptized and later married to John Rolfe. (Cards Nos. 9 and 10.) Subsequent suffering from malaria and the “burning fevers that destroyed them” would indicate that the location was most unsuitable and unwisely selected. (See cards Nos. 1 to 19.) |
