His Excellency sat in his long parlour among a mass of books and papers and saddle-bags, and glared at me from beneath lowering brows.

The man was sore harassed by the King's Government on one side and the Virginian Council on the other, and he treated every stranger as a foe.
"What do you seek from me ?" he shouted.

"If it is some merchants' squabble, you can save your breath, for I am sick of the Shylocks." I said, very politely, that I was a stranger not half a year arrived in the country, but that I had been using my eyes, and wished to submit my views to his consideration.
"Go to the Council," he rasped; "go to that silken fool, His Majesty's Attorney.

My politics are not those of the leather-jaws that prate in this land." "That is why I came to you," I said.
Then without more ado I gave him my notions on the defence of the colony, for from what I had learned I judged that would interest him most.

He heard me with unexpected patience.
"Well, now, supposing you are right?
I don't deny it.