The Mystery Remains Unsolved

All work in the town ceased, and men gathered here and there in little companies awaiting some word from our leaders concerning the dreadful deed, questioning, meanwhile, as to who among us could have been so wicked.

At first they were inclined to charge the deed upon the savages, even though William Smith was the one among us who had ever been most friendly with the brown people.

Then came the knowledge of his having been killed by a bullet, and we knew that our Yaocomico Indians had no firearms, save such as were useless, and, speculate as they might, the people could make no guess as to who was the murderer.

Nor were the governor and our gentlemen any more successful. There was nothing nearabout the body which gave any dew as to how the deed had been wrought, and when all that remained of William Smith was brought from the point, to be buried on the land which we called the chapel lot, where the church was being built, the mystery was as black as ever.

Two days later, however, there was brought to the governor a will which had been made by William Smith within a year after we came to this Province of Maryland, in which he directed what should be done with his belongings, and stated that "if he should die suddenly, and the cause be not directly known, speedy inquiry be made, and that Nick and Marks, Irishmen at Piny Neck, be questioned as suspicious persons."

Now it would seem as if this which William Smith had written down when he must have had the fear of a violent death on his mind, would lead our people up to the discovery of the murderer, and straightway were the two Irishmen of whom he had spoken, taken into custody.

But the stories they told concerning what had been done by them during the day of the murder, were such as could not be disproven, and despite all the efforts of our people, nothing was ever learned concerning the dastardly deed.