45. Captain Smith's cold-water cure.--But though the choppers worked,
they grumbled. They liked to see the chips fly and to hear the great
trees "thunder as they fell," but the axe-handles raised blisters
on their fingers. These blisters made the men swear, so that often
one would hear an oath for every stroke of the axe. Smith said the
swearing must be stopped. He had each man's oaths set down in a book.
When the day's work was done, every offender was called up; his oaths
were counted; then he was told to hold up his right hand, and a can
of cold water was poured down his sleeve for each oath. This new style
of water cure did wonders; in a short time not an oath was heard:
it was just chop, chop, chop, and the madder the men got, the more
the chips would fly.


46. Captain Smith meets with an accident and goes back to England;
his return to America; his death.--Captain Smith had not been
governor very long when he met with a terrible accident. He was out
in a boat, and a bag of gunpowder he had with him exploded. He was
so badly hurt that he had to go back to England to get proper treatment
for his wounds.

He returned to America a number of years later, explored the coast
north of Virginia, and gave it the name of New England, but he never
went back to Jamestown again. He died in London, and was buried in
a famous old church in that city.[8]

[Footnote 8: The church of St. Sepulchre: it is not very far from
St. Paul's Cathedral.]