LIVING HISTORY
16
RICK CRARY
For a time, the castaways lived on saw palmetto berries, which Dickinson
described as tasting like rotten cheese steeped in tobacco juice.
As November approached, the windy nights were growing
colder. Inside the Indians’ thatched dwellings, heaps of bugs
crawled over everyone at will. Clouds of mosquitoes and
sand flies tortured tKem too.
7Ke\ tried to subsist on a diet of Salmetto berries. $t Àrst
they spit them out, because, as Dickinson said, they tasted
like “rotten cheese steeped in tobacco.” But weeks of hunger
must have changed their taste buds, because they later stole
a whole bag of berries when they got the chance. Fortunately
for the Dickinsons’ baby, Indian women suckled him
frequently. The child became the only castaway who was
cheerful and healthy. The rest of the group felt pressed beneat
K biblical aictions tKat tooN tKem to tKe edge of Kuman
endurance. After weeks of torment, it was a miracle that old
Barrow was still alive. Daily he wondered when they might
be slaughtered. And then an October hurricane slapped them
with a storm surge that nearly drowned them once again.
PERILOUS RESCUE
There were other English castaways being held in the
Indian town, marked for execution. They had sailed in the
same convoy from Jamaica on a ship named Bristol. Indians
observed the way the Dickinson party conversed with them,
which made many natives suspect they might be English too.
But the old gray-haired Casseekey believed the group from
the Reformation were Spanish amigos, as they had claimed.
Unbeknownst to the castaways, he sent Indian runners up
the coast to report to the governor in St. Augustine. But then
the Indians down in Hoe-Bay revealed that the captives were
only pretending to be Spaniards. The Casseekey was not
pleased to learn he had been tricked. Just in time, however,
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