Transcriber's Notes:

Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been left as in the original. A complete [list] of corrections follows the text. Other notes are also at the end of the file.

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HISTORY

OF THE

COLONY AND ANCIENT DOMINION

OF

VIRGINIA.

BY

CHARLES CAMPBELL.

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO.

1860.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
CHARLES CAMPBELL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern
District of Virginia.

PREFACE.

Although Virginia must be content with a secondary and unpretending rank in the general department of history, yet in the abundance and the interest of her historical materials, she may, without presumption, claim pre-eminence among the Anglo-American colonies. While developing the rich resources with which nature has so munificently endowed her, she ought not to neglect her past, which teaches so many useful lessons, and carries with it so many proud recollections. Her documentary history, lying, much of it, scattered and fragmentary, in part slumbering in the dusty oblivion of Transatlantic archives, ought to be collected with pious care, and embalmed in the perpetuity of print.

The work now presented to the reader will be found to be written in conformity with the following maxim of Lord Bacon: "It is the office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon, to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment."

I avail myself of this occasion to express my acknowledgments to Hugh B. Grigsby, Esq., (who has contributed so much to the illustration of Virginia history by his own writings,) for many valuable suggestions, and for having undergone the trouble of revising a large part of the manuscript of this work.

Petersburg, Va., September 2d, 1859.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.

HISTORY OF THE COLONY

AND

ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.

CHAPTER I.

1492-1591.

Early Voyages of Discovery—Sir Humphrey Gilbert—Walter Raleigh—Expedition of Amadas and Barlow—They land on Wocokon Island—Return to England—The New Country named Virginia—Grenville's Expedition—Colony of Roanoke—Lane, Governor—The Colony abandoned—Tobacco—Grenville returns to Virginia—Leaves a small Colony at Roanoke—Sir Walter Raleigh sends out another Expedition—City of Raleigh chartered—White, Governor—Roanoke found deserted—Virginia Dare, first Child born in the Colony—White returns for Supplies—The Armada—Raleigh assigns the Colony to a Company—White returns to Virginia—Finds the Colony extinct—Death of Sir Richard Grenville—Gosnold's Voyage to New England.

The discoveries attributed by legendary story to Madoc, the Welsh prince, have afforded a theme for the creations of poetry; those of the Northmen of Iceland, better authenticated, still engage the dim researches of antiquarian curiosity. To Columbus belongs the glory of having made the first certain discovery of the New World, in the year 1492; but it was the good fortune of the Cabots to be the first who actually reached the main land. In 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian merchant, who had become a resident of Bristol in England, with his son Sebastian, a native of that city, having obtained a patent from Henry the Seventh, sailed under his flag and discovered the main continent of America, amid the inhospitable rigors of the wintry North. It was subsequent to this that Columbus, in his third voyage, set his foot on the main land of the South. In the following year, Sebastian Cabot again crossed the Atlantic, and coasted from the fifty-eighth degree of north latitude, along the shores of the United States, perhaps as far as to the southern boundary of Maryland. Portuguese, French, and Spanish navigators now visited North America.

Dreadful circumstances attended the foundation of the ancient St. Augustine. The blood of six hundred French Protestant refugees has sanctified the ground at the mouth of St. John's River, where they were murdered "not as Frenchmen, but as heretics," by the ruthless Adelantado of Florida, Pedro Menendez, in the year 1565.

In the summer of the ensuing year he sent a captain, with thirty soldiers and two Dominican monks, "to the bay of Santa Maria, which is in the latitude of thirty-seven degrees," together with the Indian brother of the cacique, or chief of Axacan, (who had been taken thence by the Dominicans, and baptized at Mexico, by the name of the Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco,) to settle there, and undertake the conversion of the natives. But this expedition sailed to Spain instead of landing.

This region of Axacan comprised the lower part of the present State of North Carolina. The Spanish sound of the word is very near that of Wocokon, the name of the place, according to its English pronunciation, where the colony sent out by Raleigh subsequently landed.[18:A]

In the year 1570 Father Segura and other Jesuit missionaries, accompanied by Don Luis, visited Axacan, but were treacherously cut off by him. In the same year, or the following, the Spaniards repaired to the place of their murder and avenged their death.[18:B]

In 1573 Pedro Menendez Morquez, Governor of Florida, explored the Bay of Santa Maria, "which is three leagues wide, and is entered toward the northwest. In the bay are many rivers and harbors on both sides, in which vessels may anchor. Within its entrance on the south the depth is from nine to thirteen fathoms, (about five feet nine inches English,) and on the north side from five to seven; at two leagues from it in the sea, the depth is the same on the north and the south, but there is more sand within. In the channel there are from nine to thirteen fathoms; in the bay fifteen, ten, and six fathoms; and in some places the bottom cannot be reached with the lead." Barcia describes the voyage of Morquez from Santa Helena "to the Bay of Santa Maria, in the latitude of thirty-seven degrees and a half,"[19:A] and makes particular mention of the shoal running out from what is now Cape Lookout, and that near Cape Hatteras, the latitude and distances given leaving no doubt but that the Bay of Santa Maria is the same with the Chesapeake.[19:B] Ten years will probably include the period of these early Spanish visits to Axacan and the Chesapeake; and these explorations appear to have been unknown to the English, and Spain made no claim on account of them. Had she set forth any title to Virginia, Gondomar would not have failed to urge it, and James the First would have been, probably, ready to recognize it.

In the year 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained from Queen Elizabeth letters patent, authorizing him to discover and colonize remote heathen countries unpossessed by any Christian prince. After one or two unsuccessful expeditions, Sir Humphrey again set sail in 1583, from Plymouth, with a fleet of five small vessels. The largest of these, the bark Raleigh, was compelled in two days to abandon the expedition, on account of an infectious disease that broke out among the crew.

After Cabot's discovery, for many years the vessels of various flags had frequented the northern part of America for the purpose of fishing, and when Sir Humphrey reached St. John's Harbor, the thirty-six fishing vessels found there at first refused him admittance; but upon his exhibiting the queen's commission they submitted. He then entered the harbor, landed, and took formal possession of the country for the crown of England.

As far as time would admit, some survey of the country was made, the principal object of which was the discovery of mines and minerals; and the admiral listened with credulity to the promises of silver. The company being dispersed abroad, some were taken sick and died; some hid themselves in the woods, and others cut one of the vessels out of the harbor and carried her off. At length the admiral, having collected as many of his men as could be found, and ordered one of his vessels to remain and take off the sick, set sail with three vessels, intending to visit Cape Breton and the Isle of Sable; but one of his vessels being lost on a sand-bank, he determined to return to England. The Squirrel, in which he had embarked for the survey of the coast, was very small and heavily laden, yet this intrepid navigator persisted in remaining on board of her, notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of his friends in the other and larger vessel, the Hind; in reply to which, he declared, that he would not desert his little crew on the homeward voyage, after having with them passed through so many storms and perils. And after proceeding three hundred leagues, the little bark, with the admiral and all her crew, was lost in a storm. When last seen by the company of the Hind, Sir Humphrey, although surrounded by imminent perils, was seated composedly on the deck with a book in his hand, and as often as they approached within hearing was heard to exclaim: "Be of good cheer, my friends; it is as near to heaven by sea as by land." At midnight the lights of the little vessel suddenly disappeared, and she was seen no more. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was descended from an ancient family in Devonshire; his father was Otho Gilbert, Esq., of Greenway, and his mother, Catharine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, of Modbury. He was educated at Oxford, and became distinguished for courage, learning, and enterprise. Appointed colonel in Ireland, he displayed singular energy and address. In the year 1571 he was a member of the House of Commons from Compton, his native place. He strenuously defended the queen's prerogative against the charge of monopoly, alleged by a Puritan member against an exclusive grant made to some merchants. He was the author of several publications on cosmography and navigation. Having attracted the attention of the queen in his boyhood, she at length knighted him, and gave him one of her maids of honor in marriage. When he was preparing for his voyage she sent him a golden anchor with a large pearl at the peak, which he ever after prized as a singular honor. Raleigh accompanied this present, which was sent through his hands with this letter: "I have sent you a token from her majesty—an anchor guided by a lady, as you see; and farther, her highness willed me to send you word that she wished you as great hap and safety to your ship as if herself were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as of that which she tendereth. Farther, she commandeth that you leave your picture with me."

Not daunted by the fate of his heroic kinsman, Raleigh adhered to the design of effecting a settlement in America, and being now high in the queen's favor, obtained letters patent for that purpose, dated March, 1584. Aided by some gentlemen and merchants, particularly by his gallant kinsman Sir Richard Grenville, and Mr. William Sanderson, who had married his niece, Raleigh succeeded in providing two small vessels. These were put under the command of Captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow. Barlow had already served with distinction under Raleigh in Ireland. The two vessels left the Thames in April, 1584, and pursuing the old circuitous route by the Canaries, reached the West Indies. After a short stay there they sailed north, and early in July, as they approached the coast of Florida, the mariners were regaled with the odors of flowers wafted from the fragrant shore. Amadas and Barlow, proceeding one hundred and twenty miles farther, landed on the Island of Wocokon, in the stormy region of Cape Hatteras, one of a long series of narrow, low, sandy islands—breakwaters apparently designed by nature to defend the mainland from the fury of the ocean. The English took possession of the country in the queen's name. The valleys were wooded with tall cedars, overrun with vines hung in graceful festoons, the grapes clustering in rich profusion on the ground and trailing in the murmuring surges of the sea. For two days no inhabitant was seen; on the third a canoe with three men approached, one of whom was readily persuaded to come on board, and some presents gained his confidence. Going away, he began to fish, and having loaded his canoe, returned, and dividing his cargo into two parts, signified that one was for the ship, the other for the pinnace. On the next day they were visited by some canoes, in which were forty or fifty men, among whom was Granganameo, the king's brother. The king Wingina himself lay at his chief town, six miles distant, confined by wounds received in a recent battle. At this town the English were hospitably entertained by Granganameo's wife. She was small, pretty, and bashful, clothed in a leathern mantle with the fur turned in; her long dark hair restrained by a band of white coral; strings of beads hung from her ears and reached to her waist. The manners of the natives were composed; their disposition seemed gentle; presents and traffic soon conciliated their good will. The country was called Wingandacoa.[22:A] The soil was productive; the air mild and salubrious; the forests abounded with a variety of sweet-smelling trees, and oaks superior in size to those of England. Fruits, melons, nuts, and esculent roots were observed; the woods were stocked with game, and the waters with innumerable fish and wild-fowl.

After having discovered the Island of Roanoke on Albemarle Sound, and explored as much of the interior as their time would permit, Amadas and Barlow sailed homeward, accompanied by two of the natives, Manteo and Wanchese. Queen Elizabeth, charmed with the glowing descriptions of the new country, which the enthusiastic adventurers gave her on their return, named it, in allusion to her own state of life, VIRGINIA. As hitherto all of North America as far as discovered was called Florida, so henceforth all that part of it lying between thirty-four and forty-five degrees of north latitude came to be styled Virginia, till gradually by different settlements it acquired different names.[22:B]

Raleigh was shortly after returned to Parliament from the County of Devon, and about the same time knighted. The queen granted him a patent to license the vending of wines throughout the kingdom. Such a monopoly was part of the arbitrary system of that day. Nor was Sir Walter unconscious of its injustice, for when, some years afterwards, a spirit of resistance to it showed itself in the House of Commons and a member was warmly inveighing against it, Sir Walter was observed to blush. He voted afterwards for the abolition of such monopolies, and no one could have made a more munificent use of such emoluments than he did in his efforts to effect the discovery and colonization of Virginia. He fitted out, in 1585, a fleet for that purpose, and entrusted the command to his relative, Sir Richard Grenville. This gallant officer, like Cervantes, shared in the famous battle of Lepanto, and after distinguishing himself by his conduct during the Irish rebellion, had become a conspicuous member of Parliament. He was accompanied by Thomas Cavendish, afterwards renowned as a circumnavigator of the globe; Thomas Hariot, a friend of Raleigh and a profound mathematician; and John Withe, an artist, whose pencil supplied materials for the illustration of the works of De Bry and Beverley. Late in June the fleet anchored at Wocokon, but that situation being too much exposed to the dangers of the sea, they proceeded through Ocracock Inlet to the Island of Roanoke, (at the mouth of Albemarle Sound,) which they selected as the seat of the colony. The colonists, one hundred and eight in number, were landed there. Manteo, who had returned with them, had already been sent from Wocokon to announce their arrival to his king, Wingina. Grenville, accompanied by Lane, Hariot, Cavendish and others, explored the coast for eighty miles southward, to the town of Secotan, in the present County of Craven, North Carolina. During this excursion the Indians, at a village called Aquascogoc, stole a silver cup, and a boat being dispatched to reclaim it, the terrified inhabitants fled to the woods, and the English, regardless alike of prudence and humanity, burned the town and destroyed the standing corn. Grenville in a short time re-embarked for England with a valuable cargo of furs, and on his voyage captured a rich Spanish prize.

Lane extended his discoveries to the northward, as far as the town of Chesapeakes, on Elizabeth River, near where Norfolk stands, and about one hundred and thirty miles from the Island of Roanoke. The Chowan River was also explored, and the Roanoke, then known below the falls as the Moratoc. Lane, although a good soldier, seems to have wanted some of the qualities indispensable in the founder of a new plantation. The Indians grew more hostile; conspiracies were entered into for the destruction of the whites, and the rash and bloody measures employed to defeat their machinations aggravated the mischief. The colonists, filled with alarm, became impatient to escape from a scene of so many privations and so much danger. Owing to a scarcity of provisions, Lane distributed the colonists at several places. At length Captain Stafford, who was stationed at Croatan, near Cape Lookout, descried twenty-three sail, which proved to be Sir Francis Drake's fleet. He was returning from a long cruise—belligerent, privateering, and exploratory—and, in obedience to the queen's orders, now visited the Colony of Virginia to render any necessary succor. Upon learning the condition of affairs, he agreed to furnish Lane with vessels and supplies sufficient to complete the discovery of the country and to insure a safe return home, should that alternative be found necessary. Just at this time a violent storm, raging for four days, dispersed and shattered the fleet, and drove out to sea the vessels that had been assigned to Lane. The tempest at length subsiding, Drake generously offered Lane another vessel with supplies. But the harbor not being of sufficient depth to admit the vessel, the governor, acquiescing in the unanimous desire of the colonists, requested permission for them all to embark in the fleet, and return to England. The request was granted; and thus ended the first actual settlement of the English in America.

During the year which the colony had passed at Roanoke, Withe had made drawings from nature illustrative of the appearance and habits of the natives; and Hariot had accurately observed the soil and productions of the country, and the manners and customs of the natives, an account of which he afterwards published, entitled, "A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia." He (Lane) and some others of the colonists learned from the Indians the use of a narcotic plant called by them uppowoc; by the English tobacco. The natives smoked it; sprinkled the dust of it on their fishing weirs, to make them fortunate; burned it in sacrifices to appease the anger of the gods, and scattered it in the air and on the water to allay the fury of the tempest. Lane carried some tobacco to England, supposed by Camden to have been the first ever introduced into that kingdom. Sir Walter Raleigh, by his example, soon rendered the use of this seductive leaf fashionable at court; and his tobacco-box and pipes were long preserved by the curiosity of antiquaries. It is related, that having offered Queen Elizabeth some tobacco to smoke, after two or three whiffs she was seized with a nausea, upon observing which some of the Earl of Leicester's faction whispered that Sir Walter had certainly poisoned her. But her majesty in a short while recovering, made the Countess of Nottingham and all her maids smoke a whole pipe out among them. It is also said that Sir Walter made a wager with the queen, that he could calculate the weight of the smoke evaporated from a pipeful of tobacco. This he easily won by weighing first the tobacco, and then the ashes, when the queen acknowledged that the difference must have gone off in smoke. Upon paying the wager, she gayly remarked, that "she had heard of many workers in the fire who had turned their gold into smoke, but that Sir Walter was the first that had turned his smoke into gold." Another familiar anecdote is, that a country servant of Raleigh's, bringing him a tankard of ale and nutmeg into his study as he was intently reading and smoking, was so alarmed at seeing clouds of smoke issuing from his master's mouth, that, throwing the ale into his face, he ran down stairs crying out that Sir Walter was on fire.

Sir Walter Raleigh never visited Virginia himself, although it has been so represented by several writers. Hariot's "Report of the new found land" was translated by a Frenchman[25:A] into Latin, and this translation refers to those "qui generosum D. Walterum Raleigh in eam regionem comitati sunt." The error of the translator in employing the words "comitati sunt," has been pointed out by Stith, and that error probably gave rise to the mistake which has been handed down from age to age, and is still prevalent. A few days after Drake's departure, a vessel arrived at Roanoke with supplies for the colony; but finding it abandoned, she set sail for England. Within a fortnight afterwards, Sir Richard Grenville, with three relief vessels fitted out principally by Raleigh, arrived off Virginia; and, unwilling that the English should lose possession of the country, he left fifteen men on the island, with provisions for two years. These repeated disappointments did not abate Raleigh's indomitable resolution. During the ensuing year he sent out a new expedition of three vessels to establish a colony chartered by the title of "The Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh in Virginia." John White was sent out as governor with twelve counsellors, and they were directed to plant themselves at the town of Chesapeakes, on Elizabeth River. Reaching Roanoke near the end of July, White found the colony deserted, the bones of a man scattered on the beach, the fort razed, and deer couching in the desolate houses or feeding on the rank vegetation which had overgrown the floor and crept up the walls. Raleigh's judicious order, instructing White to establish himself on the banks of Elizabeth River, was not carried into effect, owing to the refusal of Ferdinando, the naval-officer, to co-operate in exploring the country for that purpose.

One of the English having been slain by the savages, a party was dispatched to avenge his death, and by mistake unfortunately killed several of a friendly tribe. Manteo, by Raleigh's direction, was christened, and created Lord of Roanoke and Dassamonpeake. On the eighteenth of August, the governor's daughter, Eleanor, wife to Ananias Dare, one of the council, gave birth to a daughter, the first Christian child born in the country, and hence named Virginia. Dissensions soon arose among the settlers; and, although not in want of stores, some, disappointed in not finding the new country a paradise of indolent felicity, as they had fondly anticipated, demanded permission to return home; others vehemently opposed; at length all joined in requesting White to sail for England, and to return thence with supplies. To this he reluctantly consented; and setting sail in August, 1587, from Roanoke, where he left eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and eleven children, he arrived in England on the fifth of November.

He found the kingdom wholly engrossed in taking measures of defence against the threatened invasion of the Spanish Armada, and Raleigh, Grenville, and Lane assisting Elizabeth in her council of war—a conjuncture most unpropitious to the interests of the infant colony. Raleigh, nevertheless, found time even in this portentous crisis of public affairs to dispatch White with supplies in two vessels. But these, running after prizes, encountered privateers, and, after a bloody engagement, one of them was so disabled and plundered that White was compelled to put back to England, while it was impossible to refit, owing to the urgency of more important matters. But, even after the destruction of the Armada, Sir Walter Raleigh found it impracticable to prosecute any further his favorite design of establishing a colony in Virginia; and in 1589 he formed a company of merchants and adventurers, and assigned to it his proprietary rights. This corporation included among its members Thomas Smith, a wealthy London merchant, afterwards knighted; and Richard Hakluyt, dean of Westminster, the compiler of a celebrated collection of voyages. He is said to have visited Virginia, and Stith gives it as his opinion that he must have come over in one of the last-mentioned abortive expeditions. Raleigh, at the time of making this assignment, gave a hundred pounds for propagating Christianity among the natives of Virginia. After experiencing a long series of vexations, difficulties, and disappointments, he had expended forty thousand pounds in fruitless efforts for planting a colony in Virginia. At length, disengaged from this enterprise, he indulged his martial genius, and bent all his energies against the colossal ambition of Spain, who now aspired to overshadow the world.

More than another year was suffered to elapse before White returned to search for the long-neglected colony. He had now been absent from it for three years, and felt the solicitude not only of a governor, but also of a parent. Upon his departure from Roanoke it had been concerted between him and the settlers, that if they should abandon that island for another seat, they should carve the name of the place to which they should remove on some conspicuous object; and if they should go away in distress, a cross should be carved above the name. Upon his arrival at Roanoke, White found not one of the colonists; the houses had been dismantled and a fort erected; goods had been buried in the earth, and in part disinterred and scattered; on a post within the fort the word CROATAN was carved, without a cross above it. The weather proving stormy, some of White's company were lost by the capsizing of a boat; the stock of provisions grew scanty; and no further search was then made. Raleigh, indeed, sent out parties in quest of them at five different times, the last in 1602, at his own charge; but not one of them made any search for the unfortunate colonists. None of them were ever found; and whether they perished by famine, or the Indian tomahawk, was left a subject of sad conjecture. The site of the colony was unfortunate, being difficult of access, and near the stormy Cape Hatteras, whose very name is synonymous with peril and shipwreck. Thus, after many nobly planned but unhappily executed expeditions, and enormous expense of treasure and life, the first plantation of Virginia became extinct.

In the year 1591 Sir Richard Grenville fell, in a bloody action with a Spanish fleet near the Azores. Mortally wounded, he was removed on board one of the enemy's ships, and in two days died. In the hour of his death he said, in the Spanish language, to those around him: "Here I, Richard Grenville, die with a joyous and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, religion, and honor, my soul willingly departing from this body, leaving behind the lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier is in his duty bound to do." His dying words may recall to mind the familiar verses of Campbell's Lochiel:—

"And leaving in death no blot on my name,
Look proudly to heaven for a death-bed of fame."

Sir Richard Grenville was, next to his kinsman, Sir Walter Raleigh, the principal person concerned in the first settlement of Virginia.

In 1602, the forty-third and last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, deviating from the usual oblique route by the Canaries and the West Indies, made a direct voyage in a small bark across the Atlantic, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay. It was on this occasion that Englishmen, for the first time, landed on the soil of New England. Gosnold returned to England in a short passage of five weeks. In these early voyages the heroism of the navigators is the more admirable when we advert to the extremely diminutive size of their vessels and the comparative imperfection of nautical science at that day. Encouraged by Gosnold's success, the mayor, aldermen, and merchants of Bristol sent out an expedition under Captain Pring, in the same direction, in 1603, the year of the accession of James I. to the throne. During the same year a bark was dispatched from London under Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, who fell in with the coast in latitude 37°, and, as some authors say, ran up into the Chesapeake Bay, where the captain and four of his men were slain by the Indians.

In 1605 Captain Weymouth came over under the auspices of Henry, Earl of Southampton, and Lord Thomas Arundel.

FOOTNOTES:

[18:A] Memoir on the first discovery of the Chesapeake Bay. Communicated by Robert Greenhow, Esq., to the Virginia Historical Society, May, 1848, in Early Voyages to America, (edited by Conway Robinson, Esq., and published by the Society,) p. 486. Mr. Greenhow cites for authority the Ensayo Chronologico Para la Historia de la Florida of Barcia, (Cardenas.)

[18:B] MS. letter of John Gilmary Shea, Esq., author of "History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes of the United States," citing Barcia and Alegambe.

[19:A] "A 37 grados y medio." Alegambe says: "Axaca ab æquatore in Boream erecta 37°."

[19:B] In a map found in a rare work, in French, dated 1676, entitled "Tourbe Ardante," shown me by Townsend Ward, Esq., Librarian of Pennsylvania Hist. Society, the Chesapeake is called St. Mary's Bay.

[22:A] Wingan signifies "good."

[22:B] Smith's History of Virginia, i. 79. Stith's History of Virginia, 11.

[25:A] De Bry.

CHAPTER II.

1579-1604.

Early Life and Adventures of Captain John Smith—Born at Willoughby—At Thirteen Years of Age undertakes to go to Sea—At Fifteen Apprentice to a Merchant—Visits France—Studies the Military Art—Serves in the Low Countries—Repairs to Scotland—Returns to Willoughby—Studies and Exercises—Adventures in France—Embarks for Italy—Thrown into the Sea—His Escape—Joins the Austrians in the Wars with the Turks—His Gallantry—Combat with Three Turks—Made Prisoner at Rottenton—His Sufferings and Escape—Voyages and Travels—Returns to England.

In 1606 measures were taken in England for planting another colony; but preliminary to a relation of the settlement of Virginia proper, it is necessary to give some history of Captain John Smith, "the father of the colony." He was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579, being descended on his father's side from an ancient family of Crudley, in Lancashire; on his mother's, from the Rickands at Great Heck, in Yorkshire. After having been some time a scholar at the free schools of Alford and Louth, when aged thirteen, his mind being bent upon bold adventures, he sold his satchel, books, and all he had, intending to go privately to sea; but his father's death occurring just then prevented the execution of that scheme. Having some time before lost his mother, he was now left an orphan, with a competent hereditary estate, which, being too young to receive, he little regarded. At fifteen he was bound apprentice to Thomas Sendall, of Lynn, the greatest merchant of all those parts; but in a short time, disgusted with the monotony of that life, he quit it, and accompanied a son of Lord Willoughby to France. Within a month or six weeks, he was dismissed, his service being needless, with an allowance of money to take him back to England; but he determined not to return. At Paris, meeting with a Scottish gentleman, David Hume, he received from him an additional supply of money and letters, which might recommend him to the favor of James the Sixth of Scotland. Young Smith, proceeding to Rouen, and finding his money nearly all gone, made his way to Havre de Grace, and there began to learn the military art, during the reign of the warlike Henry the Fourth. From France the adventurer went to the Low Countries, where he served for four years under the standard of the patriot army against Spain, in the war that eventuated in their independence. Embarking thence for Scotland, with the letters of recommendation previously given to him, and after suffering shipwreck and illness, Smith at length reached Scotland, where he was hospitably entertained "by those honest Scots at Kipweth and Broxmouth," but finding himself without money or means to make himself a courtier, he returned to his native place, Willoughby. Here he soon grew weary of much company; and indulging a romantic taste, retired into a forest, and in its recesses, near a pretty brook, he built for himself a pavilion of boughs, where he studied Machiavel's Art of War, and Marcus Aurelius, and amused his leisure by riding, throwing the lance, and hunting. His principal food was venison, which he thus provided for himself, like Shakespeare, with but little regard for the game-laws; and whatever else he needed was brought to him by his servant. The country people wondered at the hermit; and his friends persuaded an Italian gentleman, rider to the Earl of Lincoln, to visit him in his retreat; and thus he was induced to return to the world, and after spending a short time with this new acquaintance at Tattersall's, Smith now repaired a second time to the Low Countries. Having made himself sufficiently master of horsemanship, and the use of arms and the rudiments of war, he resolved to go and try his fortunes against the Turks, having long witnessed with pain the spectacle of so many Christians engaged in slaughtering one another.

Proceeding to St. Valery, in France, by collusion between the master of the vessel and some French gallants, his trunks were plundered there in the night, and he was forced to sell his cloak to pay for his passage. The other passengers expressed their indignation against this villany, and one of them, a French soldier, generously supplied his immediate necessities, and invited Smith to accompany him to his home in Normandy. Here he was kindly welcomed by his companion and the Prior of the ancient abbey of St. Stephen, (where repose the remains of William the Conqueror,) and others; and the story of his misfortunes reaching the ears of some noble lords and ladies, they replenished his purse; and he might have enjoyed their hospitality as long as he pleased, but this suited not his restless, energetic and independent spirit. Wandering now from port to port in quest of a man-of-war, he experienced some extraordinary turns of fortune. Passing one day through a forest, his money being spent, worn out with distress of mind, and cold, he threw himself on the ground, at the side of a fountain of water, under a tree, scarce hoping ever to rise again. A farmer finding him in this condition, relieved his necessities, and enabled him to pursue his journey. Not long afterwards, meeting in a grove one of the gallants who had robbed him, without a word on either side, they drew their swords, and fought in view of the inmates of a neighboring antique ruinous tower. In a short while the Frenchman fell, and, making confessions and excuses, Smith, although himself wounded, spared his life. Directing his course now to the residence of "the Earl of Ployer," with whom he had become acquainted while in the French service, he was by him better refurnished than ever.

After visiting many parts of France and Navarre, he came to Marseilles, where he embarked for Italy, in a vessel carrying a motley crowd of pilgrims of divers nations, bound for Rome. The winds proving unfavorable, the vessel was obliged to put in at Toulon, and sailing thence the weather grew so stormy that they anchored close to the Isle of St. Mary, opposite Nice, in Savoy. Here the unfeeling provincials and superstitious pilgrims showered imprecations on Smith's head, stigmatizing him as a Huguenot, and his nation as all pirates, and Queen Elizabeth as a heretic; and, protesting that they should never have fair weather as long as he was on board, they cast him into the sea to propitiate heaven. However, he swam to the Islet of St. Mary, which he found inhabited by a few cattle and goats. On the next day he was taken up by a privateering French ship, the captain of which, named La Roche, proving to be a neighbor and friend of the Earl of Ployer, entertained him kindly. With him, Smith visited Alexandria in Egypt, Scanderoon, the Archipelago, and coast of Greece. At the mouth of the Adriatic Sea, a Venetian argosy, richly laden, was captured and plundered, after a desperate action, in which Smith appears to have participated. He landed in Piedmont with five hundred sequins and a box of jewels, worth about as much more—his share of the prize. Embarking for Leghorn, he travelled in Italy, and here met with his friends, Lord Willoughby and his brother, both severely wounded in a recent bloody fray. Going to Rome, Smith surveyed the wonders of the Imperial City, and saw the Pope, with the cardinals, ascend the holy staircase, and say mass in the Church of St. John de Lateran. Leaving Rome, he made the tour of Italy, and embarking at Venice, crossed over to the wild regions of Albania and Dalmatia. Passing through sterile Sclavonia, he found his way to Gratz, in Styria, the residence of the Archduke Ferdinand, afterwards Emperor of Germany. Here he met with an Englishman and an Irish Jesuit, by whose assistance he was enabled to join a regiment of artillery, commanded by Count Meldritch, whom he accompanied to Vienna, and thence to the seat of war. At this time, 1601, there was a bloody war going on between Germany and the Turks, and the latter had gained many signal advantages, and the Crescent, flushed with victory, was rapidly encroaching upon the confines of Christendom. Canissia having just fallen, it was at the siege of Olympach, beleaguered by the Turks, that Smith first had an opportunity of displaying the resources of his military genius, for which he was put in command of two hundred and fifty horse.

That siege being raised, after some interval of suspended hostilities, the Christian forces, in their turn, besieged Stowle Wessenburg, which soon fell into their hands. Mahomet the Third, hearing of this disaster, dispatched a formidable army to retrieve or avenge it; and in the bloody battle that ensued on the plains of Girke, Smith had a horse shot under him, and was badly wounded. At the siege of Regal he encountered and slew, in a tournament, three several Turkish champions, Turbashaw, Grualgo, and Bonny Mulgro. For these exploits he was honored with a triumphal procession, in which the three Turks' heads were borne on lances. A horse richly caparisoned was presented to him, with a cimeter and belt worth three hundred ducats; and he was promoted to the rank of major.

In the bloody battle of Rottenton, he was wounded and made prisoner. With such of the prisoners as escaped massacre, he was sold into slavery at Axiopolis, and fell into the hands of the Bashaw Bogall, who sent him, by way of Adrianople, to Constantinople, a present to his youthful mistress, Charatza Tragabigzanda. Captivated with her prisoner, she treated him tenderly; and to prevent his being sold again, sent him to remain for a time with her brother, the Tymour Bashaw of Nalbritz, in Tartary, who occupied a stone castle near the Sea of Azof. Immediately on Smith's arrival, his head was shaved, an iron collar riveted on his neck, and he was clothed in hair-cloth. Here long he suffered cruel bondage; at length one day, while threshing in a barn, the Bashaw having beaten and reviled him, he turned and slew him on the spot, with the threshing bat; then put on his clothes, hid his body in the straw, filled a sack with corn, closed the doors, mounted the Bashaw's horse, and rode off. After wandering for some days, he fell in with a highway, and observing that the roads leading toward Russia were indicated by a cross, he followed that sign, and in sixteen days reached Ecopolis, a Russian frontier post on the Don. The governor there took off his irons, and he was kindly treated by him and his wife, the lady Callamata. Traversing Russia and Poland, he returned to Transylvania in December, 1603, where he met many friends, and enjoyed so much happiness that nothing less than his desire to revisit his native country could have torn him away.

Proceeding through Hungary, Moravia, and Bohemia, he went to Leipsic, where he found Prince Sigismund, who gave him fifteen hundred golden ducats to repair his losses. Travelling through Germany, France, and Spain, from Gibraltar he sailed for Tangier, in Africa, and to the City of Morocco. Taking passage in a French man-of-war, he was present in a terrible sea-fight with two Spanish ships; and after touching at Santa Cruz, Cape Goa, and Mogadore, he finally returned to England in 1604.[34:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[34:A] "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith," in his History of Virginia. Hillard's Life of Smith, in Sparks' American Biography. Simms' Life of Smith.

CHAPTER III.

1606-1608.

Gosnold, Smith, and others set on foot another Expedition—James I. issues Letters Patent—Instructions for Government of the Colony—Charter granted to London Company for First Colony of Virginia—Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer—Government of the Colony—Three Vessels under Newport sail for Virginia—The Voyage—Enter Chesapeake Bay—Ascend the James River—The English entertained by the Chief of the Quiqoughcohanocks—Landing at Jamestown—Wingfield, President—Smith excluded from the Council—Newport and Smith explore the James to the Falls—Powhatan—Jamestown assaulted by Indians—Smith's Voyages up the Chickahominy—Murmurs against him—Again explores the Chickahominy—Made prisoner—Carried captive through the country—Taken to Werowocomoco—Rescued by Pocahontas—Returns to Jamestown—Fire there—Rev. Mr. Hunt—Rage for Gold-hunting—Newport visits Powhatan—Newport's Departure—Affairs at Jamestown.

Bartholomew Gosnold was the prime mover, and Captain John Smith the chief actor, in the settlement of Virginia. Gosnold, who had already, in 1602, made a voyage to the northern parts of Virginia, afterwards called New England, for many years fruitlessly labored to set on foot an expedition for effecting an actual settlement. At length he was reinforced in his efforts by Captain Smith; Edward Maria Wingfield, a merchant; Robert Hunt, a clergyman, and others; and by their united exertions certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, became interested in the project, and King James the First, who, as has been before mentioned, had, in 1603, succeeded Elizabeth, was induced to lend it his countenance. April 10th, 1606, letters patent were issued, authorizing the establishment of two colonies in Virginia and other parts of America. All the country from 34° to 45° of north latitude, then known as Virginia, was divided into two colonies, the First or Southern, and the Second or Northern.

The plantation of the Southern colony was intrusted to Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, knights; Richard Hackluyt, clerk, prebendary of Westminster; Edward Maria Wingfield, and others, mostly resident in London. This company was authorized to plant a colony wherever they might choose between 34° and 41° of north latitude; and the king vested in them a right of property in the land extending along the sea-coast fifty statute miles on each side of the place of their first plantation, and reaching into the interior one hundred miles from the sea-coast, together with all islands within one hundred miles of their shores. The Second, or Northern colony of Virginia, was in like manner intrusted to Thomas Hanham, and others, mostly residents of Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth. These were authorized to plant a colony wherever they might choose between 38° and 45° of north latitude, and he gave to them a territory of similar limits and extent to that given to the first colony. He provided, however, that the plantation of whichever of the said two colonies should be last effected, should not be within one hundred miles of the other that might be first established. The company of the Southern colony came to be distinguished as the London company, and the other as the Plymouth company. But eventually these names were dropped; and the name of Virginia, which had been at first common to the two colonies, was appropriated to the Southern colony only; while the Northern colony was now called New England.[36:A]

In the charter granted to Sir Thomas Gates and his associates, it was provided that the colony should have a council of its own, subject to a superior council in England. The subordinate council was authorized to search for and dig mines, coin money, carry over adventurers, and repel intruders. The president and council were authorized to levy duties on foreign commodities; the colonists were invested with all the rights and privileges of English subjects, and the lands granted to settlers in free and common soccage.[36:B]

On the 20th of November, 1606, instructions were given by the crown for the government of the two colonies, directing that the council in England should be appointed by the crown; the local council by the superior one in England; the local one to choose a president annually from its own body; the Christian religion to be preached; lands to descend as in England; trial by jury secured in criminal causes; and the council empowered to determine all civil actions; all produce and goods imported to be stored in magazines; a clerk and treasurer, or cape-merchant, to be appointed for the colony. The stockholders, styled adventurers, were authorized to organize a company for the management of the business of the colony, and to superintend the proceedings of the local council. The colonists were enjoined to treat the natives kindly, and to endeavor by all means to convert them to Christianity.[37:A] Sir Thomas Smith was appointed treasurer of the company, and the chief management of their affairs intrusted to him. He was an eminent London merchant; had been chief of Sir Walter Raleigh's assignees; was about this time governor of the East India Company, and had been ambassador to Russia.[37:B]

The frame of government thus provided for the new colony was cumbrous and complicated, the legislative and administrative powers being so distributed between the local council, the crown, and the company, as to involve the danger of delays, uncertainty, conflict, and irresponsibility. By the words of the charter the colonists were invested with the rights of Englishmen; yet, as far as political rights were concerned, there being no security provided by which they could be vindicated, they might often prove to be of no more real value than the parchment on which they were written. However, the government of such an infant colony must, of necessity, have been for the most part arbitrary; the political rights of the colonists must, for a time, have lain in abeyance. Their civil rights were protected in criminal causes by the trial by jury, and lands were to be held by a free tenure.

At length three vessels were fitted out for the expedition, one of twenty tons, one of forty, the third of one hundred tons, and they were put under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, a navigator experienced in voyages to the New World. Orders being put on board inclosed in a sealed box, not to be opened until their arrival in Virginia, they set sail from Blackwall on the 19th of December, 1606. For six weeks they were detained by headwinds and stormy weather in the Downs, within view of the English coast, and during this interval, disorder, threatening a mutiny, prevailed among the adventurers. However, it was suppressed by the interposition of the clergyman, Robert Hunt. The winds at length proving favorable, the little fleet proceeded along the old route by the Canaries, which they reached about the twenty-first of April, and on the twenty-sixth sailed for the West Indies, upon arriving at which it appears that Captain Smith was actually in command of the expedition, for,[38:A] writing afterwards in 1629, he says: "Because I have ranged and lived among those islands, what my authors cannot tell me, I think it no great error in helping them to tell it myself. In this little Isle of Mevis, more than twenty years ago, I have remained a good time together, to wood and water, and refresh my men." This isle was, on this occasion, the scene of a remarkable incident in his life, and one which appears to have escaped the notice of our historians. "Such factions here we had as commonly attend such voyages, that a pair of gallows was made; but Captain Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded to use them. But not any of the inventors but their lives by justice fell into his power to determine of at his pleasure, whom, with much mercy, he favored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayed him."

After passing three weeks in the West Indies they sailed in quest of Roanoke Island, and having exceeded their reckoning three days without finding land, the crew grew impatient, and Ratcliffe, captain of the pinnace, proposed to steer back for England.

At this conjuncture a violent storm, compelling them to scud all night under bare poles, providentially drove them into the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The first land that they came in sight of, April 26th, 1607, they called Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James, as the opposite point, Cape Charles, was named after the king's second son, then Duke of York, afterwards Charles the First. A party of twenty or thirty, with Newport, landing here, found a variety of pretty flowers and goodly trees. While recreating themselves on the shore they were attacked by five of the savages, who came creeping upon all-fours from the hills like bears, and with their arrows wounded two, but retired at the discharge of muskets.[39:A]

That night the sealed box was opened, when it appeared that the members of council appointed were—Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. They were instructed to elect, out of their own number, a president for one year; he and the council together were invested with the government; affairs of moment were to be examined by a jury, but determined by the council.

Seventeen days were spent in quest of a place for the settlement. A point on the western side of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay they named Point Comfort, because they found a good harbor there, which, after the recent storm, put them in good comfort. Landing there, April 30th, they saw five Indians, who were at first alarmed; but seeing the captain lay his hand upon his heart, they came boldly up and invited the strangers to Kecoughtan, now Hampton, their town, where they were entertained with corn-bread, tobacco and pipes, and a dance. May 4th, the explorers were kindly received by the Paspaheghs. The chief of a neighboring tribe sent a guide to conduct the English strangers to his habitation. Percy calls them the Rappahannas; but as no such tribe is mentioned by Smith as being near the James River, they were probably the Quiqoughcohanocks, who dwelled on the north side of the river, about ten miles above Jamestown.[39:B] Upon the arrival of the English this chief stood on the bank of the river to meet them, when they landed, "with all his train," says Percy, "as goodly men as any I have seen of savages, or Christians, the Werowance [chief] coming before them, playing on a flute made of a reed, with a crown of deer's hair, colored red, in fashion of a rose, fastened about his knot of hair, and a great plate of copper on the other side of his head, with two long feathers, in fashion of a pair of horns, placed in the midst of his crown. His body was painted all with crimson, with a chain of beads about his neck; his face painted blue, besprinkled with silver ore, as we thought; his ears all behung with bracelets of pearl, and in either ear a bird's claw through it, beset with fine copper or gold. He entertained us in so modest a proud fashion, as though he had been a prince of civil government, holding his countenance without laughter, or any such ill behavior. He caused his mat to be spread on the ground, where he sate down with a great majesty, taking a pipe of tobacco, the rest of his company standing about him. After he had rested awhile he rose, and made signs to us to come to his town: he went foremost, and all the rest of his people and ourselves followed him up a steep hill, where his palace was settled. We passed through the woods in fine paths having most pleasant springs, which issued from the mountains [hills.] We also went through the goodliest corn-fields that ever were seen in any country. When we came to Rappohanna town, he entertained us in good humanity." While this hospitable, unsophisticated chief was piping a welcome to the English strangers, how little did he anticipate the tragic scenes of war and blood which were so soon to ensue!

On the 8th of May the English went farther up the river to the country of the Appomattocks, who came forth to meet them in a most warlike manner, with bows and arrows, and formidable war-clubs; but the whites, making signs of peace, were suffered to land unmolested.[40:A] At length they selected for the site of the colony a peninsula lying on the north side of the James River, and about forty miles from its mouth. The western end of this peninsula, where it is connected by a little isthmus with the main land, was the spot pitched upon for the erection of a town, which was named, in honor of the king, Jamestown. Some contention occurred between Wingfield and Gosnold in regard to the selection of this place, Gosnold objecting to it. Smith conceived it a fit place for a great city. Gosnold exhibited in this matter the better judgment. The situation, eligible in some points, was extremely unhealthy, being low and exposed to the malaria of extensive marshes covered with water at high-tide. The bank of the river there is marked by no striking or picturesque feature. According to the terms of the charter, the territory now appropriated to the colony comprised a square of a base of one hundred miles, and including an area of ten thousand square miles, of which Jamestown was the centre, so to speak.

The settlers landed at Jamestown on the 13th day of May, 1607. This was the first permanent settlement effected by the English in North America, after the lapse of one hundred and ten years from the discovery of the continent by the Cabots, and twenty-two years after the first attempt to colonize it, made under the auspices of Walter Raleigh. Upon landing, the council took the oath of office; Edward Maria Wingfield was elected president, and Thomas Studley, cape-merchant or treasurer of the colony.[41:A] Smith was excluded from the council upon some false pretences. Dean Swift says: "When a great genius appears in the world, the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

All hands now fell to work, the council planning a fort, the rest clearing ground for pitching tents, preparing clapboard for freighting the vessels, laying off gardens, and making fishing-nets. The Indians frequently visited them in a friendly way. The president's overweening jealousy would allow no military exercise or fortification, save the boughs of trees thrown together in a semicircle by the energy of Captain Kendall.

On the fourth of June, Newport, Smith, and twenty others were dispatched to discover the head of the river on which they were seated, called by the Indians, Powhatan, and by the English, the James. The natives everywhere received them kindly, dancing, and feasting them with bread, fish, strawberries, and mulberries, for which Newport requited them with bells, pins, needles, and looking-glasses, which so pleased them that they followed the strangers from place to place. In six days they reached a town called Powhatan, one of the seats of the great chief of that name, whom they found there. It consisted of twelve wigwams, pleasantly situated on a bold range of hills overlooking the river, with three islets in front, and many corn-fields around. This picturesque spot lies on the north bank of the river, about a mile below the falls, and still retains the same name.

On the day of their arrival, the tenth of June, the party visited the falls, and again on the day following, Whitsunday, when they erected a cross there to indicate the farthest point of discovery. Newport, in return for Powhatan's hospitality, presented him with a gown and a hatchet. Upon their return, the Indians first gave occasion for distrust at Weyanoke, within twenty miles of Jamestown. Arriving there on the next day, June the twentieth, they found that a boy had been killed, and seventeen men, including the greater part of the council, had been wounded by the savages; that during the assault a cross-bar shot from one of the vessels had struck down a bough of a tree among them and made them retire, but for which all the settlers there would probably have been massacred, as they were at the time of the attack planting corn in security, and without arms. Wingfield now consented that the fort should be palisaded, cannon mounted, and the men armed and exercised. The attacks and ambuscades of the natives were frequent, and the English, by their careless straggling, were often wounded, while the fleet-footed savages easily escaped.

Thus the colonists endured continual hardships, guarding the workmen by day and keeping watch by night. Six weeks being passed in this way, Newport was now about to return to England. Ever since their departure from the Canaries, save for a while in the West Indies, Smith had been in a sort of duress upon the false and scandalous charges of some of the principal men in the expedition, who, envying his superiority, gave out that he intended to usurp the command, murder the council, and make himself king; that his confederates were distributed in the three vessels; and that divers of them, who had revealed it, would confirm it. Upon these accusations Smith had been arrested, and had now lain for several months under the cloud of these suspicions. Upon the eve of Newport's departure, Smith's accusers affecting through pity to refer his case to the council in England, rather than overwhelm him on the spot by an exposure of his criminal designs, he defied their malice, defeated their base machinations, and so bore himself throughout the whole affair, that all saw his innocence and the malignity of his enemies. The very witnesses suborned to accuse him charged his enemies with subornation of perjury. Kendall, the ringleader of them, was adjudged to pay him two hundred pounds in damages, which Smith contributed to the common stock of the colony. During these disputes Hunt, the chaplain, used his exertions to reconcile the parties, and at his instance Smith was admitted into the council on the twentieth day of June, and on the next day they all received the communion. The Indians now sued for peace, and two days after Newport weighed anchor, leaving at Jamestown one hundred settlers, with provisions sufficient, as was supposed, for more than three months.[43:A]

Not long after his departure a fatal sickness began to prevail at Jamestown, engendered by the insalubrity of the place, the exposure of the settlers, and the scarcity and bad quality of their food. Hitherto they had procured provisions from the vessels, but now, for some time, the daily allowance of each man was a pint of damaged wheat or barley. "Our drink was water, and our lodgings castles in the air." By September fifty of them, being one-half of the colony, died; the rest made out to subsist upon sturgeon and crabs. Among the victims of disease was Bartholomew Gosnold, the projector of the expedition, whose name is well worthy to be ranked with Smith and Raleigh. The sick, during this calamitous season, received the faithful attentions of Thomas Wotton, surgeon-general.

Wingfield, the president, after engrossing, as it was alleged, the public store of provisions to his own use, attempted to escape from the colony in the pinnace, and return to England. This baseness roused the indignation even of the emaciated survivors, and they deposed him, and appointed Captain John Ratcliffe in his place, and displaced Kendall, a confederate of Wingfield, from the council.

In a manuscript journal of these early incidents, written by Wingfield himself, and preserved in the Lambeth Library, he undertakes to exculpate himself from the charge of engrossing the common store in the following terms: "As I understand, by report, I am much charged with starving the colony; I did always give every man his allowance faithfully, both of corn, oil, aquavitæ, etc., as was by the council proportioned; neither was it bettered after my time, until toward the end of March a biscuit was allowed to every workingman for his breakfast, by means of the provision brought us by Captain Newport, as will appear hereafter. It is further said I did much banquet and riot; I never had but one squirrel roasted, whereof I gave a part to Mr. Ratcliffe, then sick; yet was that squirrel given me. I did never heat a flesh-pot but when the common-pot was so used likewise; yet how often Mr. Presidents and the councillors have, night and day, been endangered to break their backs, so laden with swans, geese, ducks, etc. How many times their flesh-pots have swelled, many hungry eyes did behold, to their great longing; and what great thieves and thieving there hath been in common store since my time, I doubt not but is already made known to his majesty's council for Virginia."

At length their stores were almost exhausted, the small quantity of wine remaining being reserved for the communion-table; the sturgeon gone, all further effort abandoned in despair, and an attack from the savages each moment expected. At this hopeless conjuncture, a benignant Providence put it into the hearts of the Indians to supply the famished sufferers with an abundance of fruits and provision. Mankind, in trying scenes, render an involuntary homage to superior genius. Ratcliffe, the new president, and Martin, finding themselves incompetent and unpopular, intrusted the helm of affairs to Smith, who, acting as cape-merchant, set the colonists to work, some to mow, others to build houses and thatch them, he himself always performing the heaviest task. In a short time habitations were provided for the greater part of the survivors, and a church was built. Smith next embarked in a shallop to go in quest of supplies. Ignorance of the Indian language, the want of sails for the boat, and of clothing for the men and their small force, were discouraging impediments, but they did not dishearten him. With a crew of six or seven he went down the river to Kecoughtan, a town of eighteen cabins. Here he replied to a scornful defiance, by a volley of musketry and capturing their okee—an idol stuffed with moss, and painted and adorned with copper chains—so terrified them, that they quickly brought him a supply of venison, wild-fowl, and bread. Having procured a supply of corn, on his return he discovered the town and county of Warrasqueake, where he procured a further supply. After this, in several journeys, he explored the borders of the Chickahominy River. During his absence, Wingfield and Kendall, leaguing with the sailors and others, seized the pinnace in order to escape to England; but Smith, returning unexpectedly, opened so hot a fire upon them as compelled them to stay or sink. For this offence Kendall was tried by a jury, convicted, and shot.[45:A] Not long after, Ratcliffe and Captain Gabriel Archer made a similar attempt, and it was foiled by Smith's vigilance and resolution.

At the approach of winter the rivers of Virginia abounded with wild-fowl, and the English now were well supplied with bread, peas, persimmons, fish, and game. But this plenty did not last long; for what Smith carefully provided the colonists carelessly wasted. The idlers at Jamestown, including some of the council, now began to mutter complaints against Smith for not having discovered the source of the Chickahominy, it being supposed that the South Sea or Pacific Ocean lay not far distant, and that a communication with it would be found by some river running from the northwest. The Chickahominy flowed in that direction, and hence the solicitude of these Jamestown cosmographers to trace that river to its head. To allay this dissatisfaction of the council, Smith made another voyage up that river, and proceeded until it became necessary, in order to pass, to cut away a large tree which had fallen across the stream. When at last the barge could advance no farther, he returned eight miles and moored her in a wide bay out of danger, and leaving orders to his men not to venture on shore until his return, accompanied by two of his men and two Indian guides, and leaving seven men in the barge, he went still higher up in a canoe to the distance of twenty miles. In a short time after he had parted from the barge the men left in her went ashore, and one of them, George Cassen, was surprised and killed. Smith, in the mean while, not suspecting this disaster, reached the marshy ground toward the head of the river, "the slashes," and went out with his gun to provide food for the party, and took with him one of the Indians. During his excursion his two men, Robinson and Emry, were slain; and he himself was attacked by a numerous party of Indians, two of whom he killed with a pistol. He protected himself from their arrows by making a shield of his guide, binding him fast by the arm with one of his garters. Many arrows pierced his clothes, and some slightly wounded him. Endeavoring to reach the canoe, and walking backward with his eye still fixed on his pursuers, he sunk to his waist in an oozy creek, and his savage with him. Nevertheless the Indians were afraid to approach, until, being now half-dead with cold, he threw away his arms, when they drew him forth, and led him to the fire where his two companions were lying dead. Here the Indians chafed his benumbed limbs, and having restored the vital heat, Smith inquired for their chief, and they pointed him to Opechancanough, the great chief of Pamunkey. Smith presented him a mariner's compass; the vibrations of the mysterious needle astonished the untutored sons of the forest. In a short time they bound the prisoner to a tree, and were about to shoot him to death, when Opechancanough holding up the compass, they all laid down their bows and arrows. Then marching in Indian file they led the captive guarded, by fifteen men, about six miles, to Orapakes, a hunting town in the upper part of the Chickahominy swamp, and about twelve miles northeast from the falls of James River (Richmond.) At this town, consisting of thirty or forty houses, built like arbors and covered with mats, the women and children came forth to meet them, staring in amazement at Smith. Opechancanough and his followers performed their military exercises, and joined in the war-dance. Smith was confined in a long house under a guard, and an enormous quantity of bread and venison was set before him, as if to fatten him for sacrifice, or because they supposed that a superior being required a proportionately larger supply of food. An Indian who had received some toys from Smith at Jamestown, now, in return, brought him a warm garment of fur—a pleasing instance of gratitude, a sentiment often found even in the breast of a savage. Another Indian, whose son had been mortally wounded by Smith, made an attempt to kill him in revenge, and was only prevented by the interposition of his guards.

Opechancanough meditating an assault upon Jamestown, undertook to entice Smith to join him by offers of life, liberty, land, and women. Being allowed to send a message to Jamestown, he wrote a note on a leaf of a book, giving information of the intended assault, and directing what means should be employed to strike terror into the messengers, and what presents should be sent back by them. Three men dispatched with the note returned with an answer and the presents, in three days, notwithstanding the rigor of the season; it being the midst of the winter of 1607, remarkable for its extraordinary severity, and the ground being covered with snow. Opechancanough and his people looked upon their captive as some supernatural being, and were filled with new wonder on seeing how the "paper could speak." Abandoning the design of attacking Jamestown, they conducted Smith through the country of the Youghtanunds, Mattapanients, Payanketanks, Nantaughtacunds, and Onawmanients, on the banks of the Rappahannock, and Potomac. Thence he was taken to Pamaunkee, at the junction of the Matapony and Pamunkey—the residence of Opechancanough. Here, for three days, they engaged in their horrid orgies and incantations, with a view to divine their prisoner's secret designs whether friendly or hostile. They also showed him a bag of gunpowder, which they were reserving till the next spring, when they intended to sow it in the ground, as they were desirous of propagating so useful an article.

Smith was hospitably entertained by Opitchapan, (Opechancanough's brother,) who dwelt a little above, on the Pamunkey. Finally, the captive was taken to Werowocomoco, probably signifying chief place of council, a favorite seat of Powhatan, on the York River, then called the Pamaunkee or Pamunkey. They found this chief in his rude palace, reclining before the fire, on a sort of throne, resembling a bedstead, covered with mats, his head adorned with feathers and his neck with beads, and wearing a long robe of raccoon skins. At his head sate a young female, and another at his feet; while, on each side of the wigwam, sate the men in rows, on mats; and behind them as many young women, their heads and shoulders painted red, some with their heads decorated with the snowy down of birds, and all with strings of white beads falling over their shoulders. On Smith's entrance they all raised a terrific yell; the queen of Appomattock brought him water to wash, and another, a bunch of feathers for a towel. After feasting him, a long consultation was held. That ended, two large stones were brought, and the one laid upon the other, before Powhatan; then as many as could lay hold, seizing Smith, dragged him to the stones, and laying his head on them, snatched up their war-clubs, and, brandishing them in the air, were about to slay him, when Pocahontas, Powhatan's favorite daughter, a girl of only twelve or thirteen years of age,[48:A] finding all her entreaties unavailing, flew, and, at the hazard of her life, clasped the captive's head in her arms, and laid her own upon his. The stern heart of Powhatan was touched—he relented, and consented that Smith might live.

Werowocomoco, the scene of this celebrated rescue, lies on the north side of York River, in the County of Gloucester, about twenty-five miles below the fork of the river, and on a bay into which three creeks empty.[48:B] This is Timber-neck Bay, on the east bank of which stands a remarkable old stone chimney, traditionally known as "Powhatan's chimney," and its site corresponds exactly with the royal house of that chief, as laid down on Smith's Map of Virginia. Werowocomoco is only a few miles distant from the historic field of Yorktown, which is lower down the river, and on the opposite side. The lapse of time will continually heighten the interesting associations of Werowocomoco, and in ages of the distant future the pensive traveller will linger at the spot graced with the lovely charms of nature, and endeared by recollections of the tender heroism of Pocahontas.

Within two days after Smith's rescue, Powhatan suffered him to return to Jamestown, on condition of sending him two great guns and a grindstone, for which he promised to give him the country of Capahowosick, and forever esteem him as his own favorite son Nantaquoud. Smith, accompanied by Indian guides, quartered at night in some old hunting cabins of Paspahegh, and reached Jamestown on the next morning about sunrise. During the journey, as ever since his capture, he had expected at almost every moment to be put to death. Returning, after an absence of seven weeks, he was joyfully welcomed back by all except Archer and two or three of his confederates. Archer, who had been illegally admitted into the council, had the insolent audacity to indict Smith, upon a chapter of Leviticus, for the death of his two men slain by the Indians on the Chickahominy. He was tried on the day of his return, and sentenced to be hanged on the next day, or the day after the next, when Newport's opportune arrival on the very night after Smith's return, providentially saved him from this ignominious fate. Wingfield attributes the saving of his life likewise to Newport, who released him from the pinnace, where he was in duress.[49:A]

Smith now treated his Indian guides kindly, and showing Rawhunt, a favorite servant of Powhatan, two pieces of cannon and a grindstone, gave him leave to carry them home to his master. A cannon was then loaded with stones, and discharged among the boughs of a tree hung with icicles, when the Indians fled in terror, but upon being persuaded to return, they received presents for Powhatan, his wives and children, and departed.

At the time of Smith's return to Jamestown, he found the number of the colonists reduced to forty. Of the one hundred original settlers,[49:B] seventy-eight are classified as follows: fifty-four gentlemen, four carpenters, twelve laborers, a blacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, a drummer, and a "chirurgeon." Of the gentlemen, the greater part were indolent, dissolute reprobates, of good families; and they found themselves not in a golden El Dorado, as they had fondly anticipated, but in a remote wilderness, encompassed by want, exposure, fatigue, disease, and danger.

The return of Smith, and his report of the plenty that he had witnessed at Werowocomoco, and of the generous clemency of Powhatan, and especially of the love of Pocahontas, revived the drooping hopes of the survivors at Jamestown. The arrival of Newport at the same juncture with stores and a number of additional settlers, being part of the first supply sent out from England by the treasurer and council, was joyfully welcomed. Pocahontas too, with her tawny train of attendants, frequently visited Jamestown, with presents of bread, and venison, and raccoons, sent by Powhatan for Smith and Newport. However, the improvident traffic allowed between Newport's mariners and the natives, soon extremely enhanced the price of provisions, and the too protracted detention of his vessel made great inroads upon the public store. Newport, not long after his arrival, accompanied by Smith, Scrivener, newly arrived, and made one of the council, and thirty or forty picked men, visited Powhatan at Werowocomoco. Upon their arrival, Smith landed with a party of men, and after crossing several creeks on bridges of poles and bark, (for it appears that he had mistaken the right landing place, having probably passed up a little beyond the mouth of Timberneck Bay,) they were met and escorted to the town by Opechancanough, Nantaquaus, Powhatan's son, and two hundred warriors. Powhatan was found seated on his bedstead throne of mats, with his buckskin pillow or cushion, embroidered with beads. More than forty trays of bread stood without, in rows on each side of the door. Four or five hundred Indians were present. Newport landed on the next day, and some days were past in feasting, and dancing, and trading, in which last Powhatan exhibited a curious mixture of huckstering cunning, and regal pride. Smith gave him a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a hat. Charmed with some blue beads, for one or two pounds of them he gave in exchange two or three hundred bushels of corn. Newport presented him a boy named Thomas Salvage, in return for an Indian named Namontack. Smith acted as interpreter.

The English next visited Opechancanough, at his seat, Pamunkey. The blue beads came to be in great request, and none dared to wear them save the chiefs and their families. Having procured a further supply of corn at this place, Newport and his party returned to Jamestown, which was now destroyed by an accidental fire. Originating in the public storehouse, the flames spread rapidly over the cabins, thatched with reeds, consuming even the palisades, some eight or ten yards distant. Arms, apparel, bedding, and much of their private provision, were consumed, as was also a temporary church, which had been erected. "The minister, Hunt, lost all his library, and all that he had but the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard him repine at his loss. Upon any alarm he was as ready for defence as any, and till he could not speak, he never ceased to his utmost to animate us constantly to persist; whose soul, questionless, is with God."[51:A] As no further mention is made of him at Jamestown, it is probable that he did not live long after this fire. Dr. Hawks, however, conjectures that he survived long enough to officiate in the first marriage in Virginia, which took place in the year 1608.[51:B] He appears to have resided in the County of Kent, England, where, in January, 1594, he was appointed to the vicarage of Reculver, which he resigned in 1602. But he probably still continued to reside there, or to consider that his home, until he embarked for Virginia, because when in the Downs, which are opposite to Kent, he was only twenty miles "from his habitation." Of his appointment as chaplain to the expedition, Wingfield, in his journal referred to before, gives the following account: "For my first work, (which was to make a right choice of a spiritual pastor,) I appeal to the remembrance of my Lord of Canterbury's Grace, who gave me very gracious audience in my request. And the world knoweth whom I took with me, truly a man, in my opinion, not any way to be touched with the rebellious humor of a papist spirit, nor blemished with the least suspicion of a factious schismatic." My Lord of Canterbury was that persecuting prelate, Archbishop Bancroft, who persecuted the Puritan dissenters till they desired to come over to Virginia to get out of his reach, and which they were prohibited from doing by a royal proclamation, issued at his instance. Rev. Robert Hunt, by all the notices of him that are given, appears to have been a pious, disinterested, resolute, and exemplary man.

When the English first settled at Jamestown, their place of worship consisted of an awning, or old sail, suspended between three or four trees, to protect them from the sun; the area covered by it was inclosed by wooden rails; the seats were unhewed trees, till plank was cut; the pulpit was a wooden crosspiece nailed to two neighboring trees. In inclement weather an old decayed tent served for the place of worship. After awhile, by the zeal of the minister Hunt, and the assistance of Newport's seamen, a homely structure like a barn was erected, "set upon crachets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth," as likewise were the sides, the best of the houses being constructed after the same fashion, and the greater part of them worse than the church, so that they were but a poor defence against wind or rain. Nevertheless, the service was read daily, morning and evening, and on Sunday two sermons were preached, and the communion celebrated every three months, till the Rev. Mr. Hunt died. After which prayers were still said daily, and a homily read on Sunday, and so it continued until the arrival of other preachers some two or three years afterwards. The salary allowed Mr. Hunt appears to have been £500 a year, appropriated by the council of the Virginia Company in England, consented to by the council in Virginia, and confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1605, to Richard Hackluyt, Prebend of Westminster, who, by his authority, sent out Mr. Hunt, "an honest, religious, and courageous divine, during whose life our factions were oft qualified, our wants and greatest extremities so comforted, that they seemed easy in comparison of what we endured after his memorable death."[52:A]

The stock of provisions running low, the colonists at Jamestown were reduced to a diet of meal and water, and this, together with their exposure to cold, after the loss of their habitations, cut off upwards of one-half of them. Their condition was made still worse by a rage for gold that now seized them. "There was no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Smith, not indulging in these empty dreams of imaginary wealth, laughed at their infatuation in loading "such a drunken ship with gilded dust."

Captain Newport, after a delay of three months and a half, being now ready to sail for England, and the planters having no use for parliaments, places, petitions, admirals, recorders, interpreters, chronologers, courts of plea, nor justices of the peace, sent Master Wingfield and Captain Archer home with him, so that they, who had ingrossed all those titles to themselves, might seek some better place of employment. Newport carried with him twenty turkeys, which had been presented to him by Powhatan, who had demanded and received twenty swords in return for them. This fowl, peculiar to America, had been many years before carried to England by some of the early discoverers of North America.[53:A]

After Newport's departure, Ratcliffe, the president, lived in ease, peculating on the public store. The spring now approaching, Smith and Scrivener undertook to rebuild Jamestown, repair the palisades, fell trees, prepare the fields, plant and erect another church. While thus engaged they were joyfully surprised by the arrival of the Phœnix, commanded by Captain Nelson, who had left England with Newport, about the end of the year 1607, and after coming within sight of Cape Henry, had been driven off to the West Indies. He brought with him the remainder of the first supply, which comprised one hundred and twenty settlers. Having found provisions in the West Indies, and having economically husbanded his own, he imparted them generously to the colony, so that now there was accumulated a store sufficient for half a year.

Powhatan having effected so advantageous an exchange with Newport, afterwards sent Smith twenty turkeys, but receiving no swords in return, he was highly offended, and ordered his people to take them by fraud or force, and they accordingly attempted to seize them at the gates of Jamestown. The president and Martin, who now ruled, remained inactive, under pretence of orders from England not to offend the natives; but some of them happening to meddle with Smith, he handled them so roughly, by whipping and imprisonment, as to repress their insolence.

Pocahontas, in beauty of feature, expression, and form, far surpassed any of the natives; and in intelligence and spirit "was the nonpareil of her country." Powhatan, hearing that some of his people were kept prisoners at Jamestown, sent her, with Rawhunt, (who was as remarkable for his personal deformity, but shrewd and crafty,) with presents of a deer and some bread to sue for their ransom. Smith released the prisoners, and Pocahontas was dismissed with presents. Thus the scheme of Powhatan to destroy the English with their own swords, was happily frustrated.

The Phœnix was freighted with a cargo of cedar, and the unserviceable, gold-hunting Captain Martin, concluded to return with her to England. Of the 120 settlers brought by Newport and Nelson, there were 33 gentlemen, 21 laborers, (some of them only footmen,) 6 tailors, 2 apothecaries, 2 jewellers, 2 gold-refiners, 2 goldsmiths, a gunsmith, a perfumer, a surgeon, a cooper, a tobacco-pipe maker, and a blacksmith.[54:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[36:A] See charter in Stith's Hist. of Va., Appendix; "Notes as to the Limits of Virginia," by Littleton Waller Tazewell, in Va. Hist. Register, No. 1.

[36:B] Hening's Statutes at Large, i. 57.

[37:A] Hen. 67; Stith, 36, and in Appendix.

[37:B] Stith, 42.

[38:A] Smith's Hist. of Va., ii. 276.

[39:A] Narrative (in Purchas' Pilgrims, iv. 1685,) by George Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and one of the first expedition. See Hillard's Life of Smith in Sparks' Amer. Biog., 211 and 214 in note. (Hillard in the main follows Stith.) Smith's Newes from Virginia.

[39:B] Smith, i. 140-41.

[40:A] Percy's Narrative.

[41:A] Stith, 46.

[43:A] Smith, i. 153; Newes from Virginia; Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, i. 217.

[45:A] Newes from Va., 7.

[48:A] Smith, ii. 30. In Newes from Va., Smith calls her "a child of ten years old." This was a mistake.

[48:B] Stith, 53; Newes from Virginia, 11.

[49:A] Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, i. 221, referring to Wingfield's MS. Journal.

[49:B] List of the first planters, Smith, i. 153.

[51:A] Purchas, iv. 1710, cited in Anderson's History Col. Church, i. 222.

[51:B] Hawks' Contributions, 22.

[52:A] Captain John Smith's "Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or anywhere," etc. A rare pamphlet, written at the house of Sir Humphrey Mildmay, in the Parish of Danbery, Essex County, England, dedicated to the excellent Archbishop Abbot, and published in 1631. Cited in Anderson's History of Col. Church, ii. 747.

[53:A] Grahame's Col. Hist. U. S., Amer. ed., i. 28, in note.

[54:A] Smith, i. 170.

CHAPTER IV.

1608.

Smith's First Exploring Voyage up the Chesapeake Bay—Smith's Isles—Accomac—Tangier Islands—Wighcocomoco—Watkins' Point—Keale's Hill—Point Ployer—Watts' Islands—Cuskarawaok River—The Patapsco—Potomac—Quiyough—Stingray Island—Smith returns to Jamestown—His Second Voyage up Chesapeake Bay—The Massawomeks—The Indians on the River Tockwogh—Sasquesahannocks—Peregrine's Mount—Willoughby River—The Patuxent—The Rappahannock—The Pianketank—Elizabeth River—Nansemond River—Return to Jamestown—The Hudson River Discovered—Smith, President—Affairs at Jamestown—Newport arrives with Second Supply—His Instructions—The First English Women in Virginia—Smith visits Werowocomoco—Entertained by Pocahontas—His Interview with Powhatan—Coronation of Powhatan—Newport Explores the Monacan Country—Smith's Discipline—Affairs at Jamestown—Newport's Return—Smith's Letter to the Council—The First Marriage in Virginia—Smith again visits Powhatan.

On the second day of June, 1608, Smith, with a company of fourteen, consisting of seven gentlemen (including Dr. Walter Russel, who had recently arrived,) and seven soldiers, left Jamestown, for the purpose of exploring the Chesapeake Bay. The party embarked in an open barge of less than three tons, and dropping down the James River, parted with the Phœnix off Cape Henry, and crossing over thence to the Eastern Shore, discovered and named, after their commander, "Smith's Isles." At Cape Charles they met some grim, athletic savages, with bone-headed spears in their hands, who directed them to the dwelling-place of the Werowance of Accomac, who was found courteous and friendly, and the handsomest native that they had yet seen. His country pleasant, fertile, and intersected by creeks, affording good harbors for small craft. The people spoke the language of Powhatan. Smith pursuing his voyage, came upon some uninhabited isles, which were then named after Dr. Russel, surgeon of the party, but now are known as the Tangier Islands. Searching there for fresh water, they fell in with the River Wighcomoco, now called Pocomoke; the northern point was named Watkins' Point, and a hill on the south side of Pocomoke Bay, Keale's Hill, after two of the soldiers in the barge. Leaving that river they came to a high promontory called Point Ployer, in honor of a French nobleman, the former friend of Smith. There they discovered a pond of hot water. In a thunder-storm the barge's mast and sail were blown overboard, and the explorers, narrowly escaping from the fury of the elements, found it necessary to remain for two days on an island, which they named Limbo, but it is now known as one of Watts' Islands. Repairing the sails with their shirts, they visited a river on the Eastern Shore called Cuskarawaok, and now, by a singular transposition of names, called Wighcocomoco. Here the Indians ran along the banks in wild amazement, some climbing to the tops of trees and shooting their arrows at the strangers. On the following day a volley of musquetry dispersed the savages, and the English found some cabins, in which they left pieces of copper, beads, bells and looking-glasses. On the ensuing day a great number of Indians, men, women, and children, thronged around Smith and his companions with many expressions of friendship. These savages were of the tribes Nause, Sarapinagh, Arseek, and Nantaquak, of all others the most expert in trade. They were of small stature like the people of Wighcocomoco; wore the finest furs, and manufactured a great deal of Roenoke, or Indian money, made out of shells. The Eastern Shore of the bay was found low and well wooded; the Western well watered, but hilly and barren; the valleys fruitful, thickly wooded, and abounding in deer, wolves, bears, and other wild animals. A navigable stream was called Bolus, from a parti-colored gum-like clay found on its banks, it is now known as the Patapsco.

The party having been about a fortnight voyaging in an open boat, fatigued at the oar, and subsisting on mouldy bread, now importuned Smith to return to Jamestown. He at first refused, but shortly after, the sickness of his men, and the unfavorable weather, compelled him reluctantly to turn back, where the bay was about nine miles wide and nine or ten fathoms deep. On the sixteenth of June they fell in with the mouth of the Patawomeke, or Potomac, where it appeared to be seven miles wide; and the tranquil magnificence of that majestic river reanimated their drooping spirits, and the sick having now recovered, they agreed to explore it.

About thirty miles above the mouth, near the future birth-place of Washington, two Indians conducted them up a small creek, toward Nominy, where the banks swarmed with thousands of the natives, who, with their painted bodies and hideous yells, seemed so many infernal demons. Their noisy threats were soon silenced by the glancing of the English bullets on the water and the report of the muskets re-echoing in the forests, and the astonished red men dropped their bows and arrows, and, hostages being exchanged, received the whites kindly. Toward the head of the river they met some canoes laden with bear, deer, and other game, which the Indians shared with the English.

On their return down the river, Japazaws, chief of Potomac, having furnished them with guides to conduct them up the River Quiyough, at the mouth of which he lived, (supposed by Stith[57:A] to be Potomac Creek,) in quest of Matchqueon, a mine, which they had heard of, the party left the Indian hostages in the barge, secured by a small chain, which they were to have for their reward. The mine turned out to be worthless, containing only a sort of antimony, used by the natives to paint themselves and their idols, and which gave them the appearance of blackamoors powdered with silver-dust. The credulous Newport had taken some bags of it to England as containing silver. The wild animals observed were the beaver, otter, mink, marten, and bear; of fish they met with great numbers, sometimes lying in such schools near the surface that, in absence of nets, they undertook to catch them with a frying-pan; but, plenty as they were, they were not to be caught with frying-pans. The barge running aground at the mouth of the Rappahannock, Smith amused himself "spearing" them with his sword, and in taking one from its point it stung him in the wrist. In a little while the symptoms proved so alarming that his companions concluded his death to be at hand, and sorrowfully prepared his grave in a neighboring island by his directions. But by Dr. Russel's judicious treatment the patient quickly recovered, and supped that evening upon the offending fish. This incident gave its name to Stingray Island. The fish was of the ray species, much like a thornback, but with a long tail like a horse-whip, containing a poisoned sting with a serrate edge.

The party returned to Jamestown late in July, and found sickness and discontent still prevalent there. Ratcliffe, the president, was deposed in favor of Smith, who, of the council, was next entitled to succeed; but Smith substituted Scrivener in his stead, and embarked again to complete his discoveries.

On the twenty-fourth of July he set out for the Chesapeake Bay, his company consisting of six gentlemen, including Anthony Bagnall, surgeon, and six soldiers. Detained some days at Kecoughtan, (Hampton,) they were hospitably entertained by the Indians there, who were astonished by some rockets thrown up in the evening. Reaching the head of the bay, the explorers met some canoes manned by Massawomeks, who, after their first alarm being propitiated by the present of two bells, presented Smith with bear's meat, venison, fish, bows, arrows, targets, and bear-skins. Stith supposed this nation to be the same with the Iroquois, or Five Nations.[58:A]

On the River Tockwogh (now Sassafras) Smith came to an Indian town, fortified with a palisade and breastworks, and here men, women, and children, came forth to welcome the whites with songs and dances, offering them fruits, furs, and whatever they had, spreading mats for them to sit on, and in every way expressing their friendship. They had tomahawks, knives, and pieces of iron and copper, which, as they alleged, they had procured from the Sasquesahannocks, a mighty people dwelling two days' journey distant on the borders of the Susquehanna. Suckahanna, in the Powhatan language, signifies "water."[58:B]

Two interpreters being dispatched to invite the Sasquesahannocks to visit the English, in three or four days sixty of that gigantic people arrived, with presents of venison, tobacco-pipes three feet long, baskets, targets, bows and arrows. Five of their chiefs embarked in the barge to cross the bay. It being Smith's custom daily to have prayers with a psalm, the savages were filled with wonder at it, and in their turn performed a sort of adoration, holding their hands up to the sun, and chanting a wild unearthly song. They then embraced Captain Smith, adoring him in the like manner, apparently looking upon him as some celestial visitant, and overwhelming him with a profusion of presents and abject homage.

The highest mountain seen by the voyagers to the northward they named Peregrine's Mount; and Willoughby River derived its name from Smith's native town. At the extreme limits of discovery crosses were carved in the bark of trees, or brass crosses were left. The tribes on the Patuxent were found very tractable, and more civil than any others. On the banks of the picturesque Rappahannock, Smith and his party were kindly treated by the Moraughtacunds; and here they met with Mosco, one of the Wighcocomocoes, who was remarkable for a bushy black beard, whereas the natives in general had little or none. He proved to be of great service to the English in exploring the Rappahannock. Mr. Richard Fetherstone, a gentleman of the company, died during this part of the voyage, and was buried on the sequestered banks of this river, where a bay was named after him. The river was explored to the falls, (near Fredericksburg,) where a skirmish took place with the Rappahannocks.

Smith next explored the Pianketank, where the inhabitants were, for the most part, absent on a hunting excursion, only a few women, children, and old men being left to tend the corn. Returning thence the barge encountered a tremendous thunder-storm in Gosnold's Bay, and running before the wind, the voyagers could only catch fitful glimpses of the land, by the flashes of lightning, which saved them from dashing to pieces on the shore, and directed them to Point Comfort. They next visited Chesapeake, now Elizabeth River, (on which Norfolk is situated,) six or seven miles from the mouth of which they came upon two or three cultivated patches and some cabins. After this they sailed seven or eight miles up the Nansemond, and found its banks consisting mainly of oyster-shells. Skirmishing here with the Chesapeakes and Nansemonds, Smith procured as much corn as he could carry away. September the 7th, 1608, the party arrived at Jamestown, after an absence of upwards of three months, and found some of the colonists recovered, others still sick, many dead, Ratcliffe, the late president, under arrest for mutiny, the harvest gathered, but the stock of provisions damaged by rain.

During that summer, Smith, with a few men, in a small barge, in his several voyages of discovery traversed a distance of not less than three thousand miles.[60:A] He had been at Jamestown only three days in three months, and had, during this interval, explored the whole of Chesapeake Bay and of the country lying on its shores, and made a map of them.

In the year 1607 the Plymouth Company, under the direction of Lord Chief Justice Popham, dispatched a vessel to inspect their territory of North Virginia. That vessel being captured by the Spaniards, Sir John Popham, at his own expense, sent out another, which, having returned with a favorable report of the country, he was enabled to equip an expedition for the purpose of effecting a settlement there. Under the command of his brother, Henry Popham, and of Raleigh Gilbert, a nephew of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a hundred emigrants, embarking May, 1607, in two vessels, repaired to North Virginia, and seated themselves at the mouth of the River Sagahadock, where they erected Fort St. George. However, after enduring a great deal of sickness and hardship, and losing several of their number, including their president, Henry Popham, and hearing by a supply-vessel of the death of their chief patrons, Sir John Popham, and Sir John Gilbert, (brother of Raleigh Gilbert,) they gladly abandoned the colony, and returned to England in the spring of 1608.

It was in this year that Henry Hudson, an Englishman, employed by the Dutch East India Company, after entering the Chesapeake, and remarking the infant settlement of the English, discovered the beautiful river which still retains the name of that distinguished navigator. The Dutch afterwards erected near its mouth, and on the Island of Manhattan, the fort and cabins of New Amsterdam, the germ of New York.

Smith had hitherto declined, but now consented, September, 1608, to undertake the office of president. Ratcliffe was under arrest for mutiny; and the building of the fine house which he had commenced for himself in the woods, was discontinued. The church was repaired, the storehouse newly covered, magazines for supplies erected, the fort reduced to a pentagon figure, the watch renewed, troops trained; and the whole company mustered every Saturday in the plain by the west bulwark, called "Smithfield." There, sometimes, more than a hundred dark-eyed and dark-haired tawny Indians would stand in amazement to see a file of soldiers batter a tree, where a target was set up to shoot at.

Newport arrived with a second supply, and brought out also presents for Powhatan, a basin and ewer, bedstead and suit of scarlet clothes. Newport, upon this voyage, had procured a private commission in which he stood pledged to perform one of three impossibilities; for he engaged not to return to England without either a lump of gold, a certainty of the South Sea, or one of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colonists. Newport brought also orders to discover the Manakin (originally Monacan) country, and a barge constructed so as to be taken to pieces, which they were to carry beyond the falls, so as to convey them down by some river running westward to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. Vasco Nunez, in 1513, crossing the Isthmus of Darien, from the summit of a mountain discovered, beyond the other side of the continent, an ocean, which, from the direction in which he saw it, took the name of the "South Sea."

The cost of this last supply brought out by Newport was two thousand pounds, and the company ordered that the vessels should be sent back freighted with cargoes of corresponding value, and threatened, in case of a failure, that the colonists should be left in Virginia as banished men. It appears that the Virginia Company had been deeply incensed by a letter received by Lord Salisbury, (Sir Robert Cecil,) Secretary of State, reporting that the planters intended to divide the country among themselves. It is altogether improbable that they had conceived any design of appropriating a country which so few of them were willing to cultivate, and from which so many of them were anxious to escape. The folly of the instructions was only surpassed by the inhumanity of the threat, and this folly and inhumanity were justly exposed by Smith's letter in reply.[61:A]

Newport brought over with him Captains Peter Wynne and Richard Waldo, two veteran soldiers and valiant gentlemen; Francis West, brother of Lord Delaware; Raleigh Crashaw; Thomas Forest with Mrs. Forest, and Anne Burras, her maid; the first Englishwomen that landed at Jamestown.[62:A] Some Poles and Germans were sent out to make pitch, tar, glass, soap, ashes, and erect mills. Waldo and Wynne were admitted into the council; and Ratcliffe was restored to his seat.

The time appointed for Powhatan's coronation now drawing near, Smith, accompanied by Captain Waldo, and three others, went overland to a point on the Pamaunkee (York) River, opposite Werowocomoco, to which they crossed over in an Indian canoe. Upon reaching Werowocomoco, Powhatan being found absent, was sent for, and, in the mean time, Smith and his comrades were being entertained by Pocahontas and her companions. They made a fire in an open field, and Smith being seated on a mat before it, presently a hideous noise and shrieking being heard in the adjoining woods, the English snatched up their arms, and seized two or three aged Indians; but Pocahontas immediately came, and protested to Smith that he might slay her if any surprise was intended, and he was quickly satisfied that his apprehensions were groundless. Then thirty young women emerged from the woods, all naked, save a cincture of green leaves, their bodies being painted; Pocahontas wearing on her head a beautiful pair of buck's horns, an otter's skin at her girdle and another on her arm; a quiver hung on her shoulder, and she held a bow and arrow in her hand. Of the other nymphs, one held a sword, another a club, a third a pot-stick, with the antlers of the deer on their heads, and a variety of other savage ornaments. Bursting from the forest, like so many fiends, with unearthly shrieks, they circled around the fire singing and dancing, and thus continued for an hour, when they again retired to the woods. Returning, they invited Smith to their habitations, where, as soon as he entered, they all crowded around, hanging about him with cries of "Love you not me? love you not me?" They then feasted their guest; some serving, others singing and dancing, till at last, with blazing torches of light-wood, they escorted him to his lodging.

On the next day, Powhatan having arrived, Smith informed him of the presents that had been sent out for him; restored to him Namontack, who had been taken to England, and invited the chief to visit Jamestown to accept the presents, and with Newport's aid to revenge himself upon his enemies, the Monacans. Powhatan, in reply, refused to visit Jamestown, saying that he, too, was a king; but he consented to wait eight days to receive presents; as for the Monacans, he was able to avenge his grievances himself. In regard to the salt water beyond the mountains, of which Smith had spoken, Powhatan denied that there was any such, and drew lines of those regions on the ground. Smith returned to Jamestown, and the presents being sent round to Werowocomoco by water, near a hundred miles, Newport and Smith, with fifty men, proceeded thither by the direct route across the neck of land that separates the James from the York.

All being assembled at Werowocomoco, the ensuing day was set for the coronation, when the presents were delivered to Powhatan—a basin, ewer, bed, and furniture ready set up. A scarlet cloak and suit of apparel were with difficulty put upon him, Namontack, meanwhile, insisting that it would not hurt him. Still more strenuous efforts were found necessary to make him kneel to receive the crown, till, at last, by dint of urgent persuasions, and pressing hard upon his shoulders, he was induced, reluctantly, to stoop a little, when three of the English placed the crown upon his head. At an appointed signal a volley of musketry was fired from the boats, and Powhatan started up from his seat in alarm, from which, however, he was in a few moments relieved. As if, by way of befitting satire upon so ridiculous a ceremony, Powhatan graciously presented his old moccasins and mantle to Newport, and some corn; but refused to allow him any guides except Namontack. The English having purchased, in the town, a small additional supply of corn, left Werowocomoco, and returned to Jamestown.

Shortly afterwards Newport, contrary to Smith's advice, undertook to explore the Monacan country, on the borders of the upper James River, with one hundred and twenty picked men, commanded by Captain Waldo, Lieutenant Percy, Captain Wynne, Mr. West, and Mr. Scrivener. Smith, with eighty or ninety men, some sick, some feeble, being left at Jamestown; Newport and his party, embarking in the pinnace and boats, went up to the falls of the river, where, landing, they marched forty miles beyond on the south side in two days and a half, and returned by the same route, discovering two towns of the Monacans—Massinacak, and Mowchemenchouch. The natives, "the Stoics of the woods," evinced neither friendship nor enmity; and the English, out of abundant caution, took one of their chiefs, and led him bound at once a hostage and a guide. Having failed to procure any corn from the Indians, Newport's party returned from the exploration of this picturesque, fertile, well-watered region, more than half of them sick or lame, and disheartened with fatigue, stinted rations, and disappointed hopes of finding gold.

Smith, the president, now set the colonists to work; some to make glass, others to prepare tar, pitch, and soap-ashes; while he, in person, conducted thirty of them five miles below the fort to cut down trees and saw plank. Two of this lumber-party happened to be young gentlemen, who had arrived in the last supply. Smith sharing labor and hardship in common with the rest, these woodmen, at first, became apparently reconciled to the novel task, and seemed to listen with pleasure to the crashing thunder of the falling trees; but when the axes began to blister their unaccustomed hands, they grew profane, and their frequent loud oaths echoed in the woods. Smith taking measures to have the oaths of each one numbered, in the evening, for each offence, poured a can of water down the offender's sleeve; and this curious discipline, or water-cure, was so effectual, that after it was administered, an oath would scarcely be heard in a week. Smith found that thirty or forty gentlemen who volunteered to work, could do more in a day than one hundred that worked by compulsion; but, he adds, that twenty good workmen would have been better than the whole of them put together.

Smith finding so much time wasted, and no provisions obtained, and Newport's vessel lying idle at heavy charge, embarked in the discovery barge, taking with him eighteen men and another boat, and leaving orders for Lieutenant Percy to follow after him, went up the Chickahominy. Being overtaken by Percy, he procured a supply of corn. Upon his return to Jamestown, Newport and Ratcliffe, instigated by jealousy, attempted to depose Smith from the presidency, but he defeated their schemes. The colony suffered much loss at this time by an illicit trade carried on between the sailors of Newport's vessel, dishonest settlers, and the Indians. Smith threatened to send away the vessel and to oblige Newport to remain a year in the colony, so that he might learn to judge of affairs by his own experience, but Newport submitting, and acknowledging himself in the wrong, the threat was not executed. Scrivener visiting Werowocomoco, by the said of Namontack procured another supply of corn and some puccoons, a root which it was supposed would make an excellent dye, as the Indians used its red juice to stain their faces.

Newport at last sailed for England, leaving at Jamestown two hundred souls, carrying a cargo of such pitch, tar, glass, and soap-ashes as the colonists had been able to get ready. Ratcliffe, whose real name was discovered to be Sicklemore, was sent back at the same time. Smith in his letter to the council in England, exhibited, in caustic terms, the preposterous folly of expecting a present profitable return from Virginia. He sent them also his map of the country, drawn with so much accuracy, that it has been taken as the groundwork of all succeeding maps of Virginia.

Not long after Newport's departure, Anne Burras was married at Jamestown to John Laydon, the first marriage in Virginia. Smith finding the provisions running low, made a voyage to Nansemond, and afterwards went up the James, and discovered the river and people of Appomattock, who gave part of their scanty store of corn in exchange for copper and toys.

About this time Powhatan sent an invitation to Smith to visit him, and a request that he would send men to build him a house, and give him a grindstone, fifty swords, some guns, a cock and hen, with much copper, and many beads, in return for which he promised to load his vessel with corn. Having dispatched by land a party of Englishmen and four Dutchmen to build the house, Smith, accompanied by the brave Waldo, set out for Werowocomoco on the twenty-ninth of December, with the pinnace and two barges manned with forty-six men. Smith went in a barge with six gentlemen and as many soldiers, while in the pinnace were Lieutenant Percy and Francis West, with a number of gentlemen and soldiers. The little fleet dropping down the James arrived on the first night at Warrasqueake, from which place Sicklemore, a veteran soldier, was dispatched with two Indian guides in quest of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost company, and of silk grass. Smith left Samuel Collier, his page, at Warrasqueake to learn the language. The party being detained, by inclement weather, a week at Kecoughtan, spent the holidays there among the natives, feasting on oysters, venison, wild-fowl, and good bread, enjoying also excellent fires in the dry, smoky cabins. While here Smith and two others killed one hundred and forty-eight wild-fowl in three shots.

At Kiskiack, (now Chescake, pronounced Cheese-cake,) the severity of the cold again compelled the English to take shelter in the Indian wigwams. On the twelfth day of January they reached Werowocomoco. The York River being frozen over near half a mile from the shore, Smith, to lose no time, undertook to break his way through the ice; but the tide ebbing, left the barge aground on a shoal. In this dilemma, although the cold was extreme, Smith jumping into the icy river, set the example to his men of wading near waist deep to the shore, where, quartering in the first cabins that they reached, they sent to Powhatan for provisions. On the following day he supplied them abundantly with bread, wild turkeys, and venison. Like Nestor of old, he told Smith somewhat extravagantly, that he had seen the death of all of his people thrice; that he was now old and must ere long die; that his brothers, Opitchapan, Opechancanough, and Kekataugh, his two sisters, and their two daughters, were to be his successors. He deprecated war, and declared that when he and his people, forced to fly by fear of the English, lay in the woods, exposed to cold and hunger, if a twig but broke, every one cried out, "There comes Captain Smith." At length, after a long dialogue, Powhatan still obstinately insisting that the English should lay aside their arms, Smith gave orders privately to his people in the boat to approach and capture him. Discovering their design he fled with his women and children, while his warriors beset the cabin where Smith was. With pistol, sword, and target, he rushed out among them and fired; some fell one over another, the rest escaped.

Powhatan, finding himself in Smith's power, to make his peace sent him, by an aged orator, a large bracelet and a string of beads, and in the mean while the savages, goodly, well-formed fellows, but grim-looking, carried the corn on their backs down to the boats. The barges of the English being left aground by the ebb-tide, they were obliged to wait till the next high-water; and they returned ashore to lodge in some Indian wigwams.

Powhatan, and the treacherous Dutchmen who had been sent to build him a house, and who were attracted by the abundant good cheer that they enjoyed at Werowocomoco, now together plotted Smith's destruction. But Pocahontas, the chieftain's dearest jewel, in that dark night, passing through the gloomy woods, told Smith that great cheer would soon be sent to him, but that her father with all his force would quickly come and kill him and all the English, with their own weapons, while at supper; that therefore, if he would live, she wished him to go at once. Smith would have given her such toys as she delighted in; but, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she said that she would not dare to be seen to have them, for if her father should know it she would die; and so she ran away by herself as she had come. The attempt to surprise Smith was accordingly soon after made; but, forewarned, he readily defeated the design.

Upon the return of the tide, Smith and his party embarked for Pamaunkee, at the head of the river, leaving with Powhatan Edward Boynton, to kill fowl for him, and the Dutchmen, whose treachery was not as yet suspected, to finish his house. As the party sent forward to build the house had been there about two weeks, and as the chimney is erected after the house, it may be probably inferred that "Powhatan's Chimney" was built by the Dutchmen. It indeed looks like a chimney of one of those Dutch houses described by Irving in his inimitable "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It is the oldest relic of construction now extant in Virginia, and is associated with the most interesting incident in our early history. This chimney is built of stone found on the banks of Timberneck Bay, and easily quarried; it is eighteen and a half feet high, ten and a half wide at the base, and has a double flue. The fire-place is eight feet wide, with an oaken beam across. The chimney stands on an eminence, and is conspicuous from every quarter of the bay; and itself a monumental evidence of no inconsiderable import. That the colonists would construct for Powhatan's house a durable and massive chimney there is every reason to believe, and here is such a one still extant, and still retaining, through all the mutations of time, the traditional name of "Powhatan's Chimney." There is no other such chimney in all that region, nor the remains of such a one. At the foot of the yard, and at a short distance from the chimney, which is still in use, being attached to a modern farm-house, is a fine spring, formerly shaded by a venerable umbrageous red-oak, of late years blown down. In the rivulet that steals along a ravine from the spring, Pocahontas sported in her childhood. Her name, according to Heckwelder, signifies "a rivulet between two hills," but this is denied by others.

In the early annals of Virginia, Werowocomoco is second only to Jamestown in historical and romantic interest; as Jamestown was the seat of the English settlers, so Werowocomoco was the favorite residence of the Indian monarch Powhatan. It was here that, when Smith was about to meet his fate,

"An angel knelt in woman's form
And breathed a prayer for him."

It was here that Powhatan was crowned by the conceited Newport; here that supplies for the colony were frequently procured; here that occurred so many interviews and rencontres between the red men and the whites. Here, two centuries and a half ago, dwelt the famous old Powhatan, tall, erect, stern, apparently beardless, his hair a little frosted with gray. Here he beheld, with barbarous satisfaction, the scalps of his enemies recently massacred, suspended on a line between two trees, and waving in the breeze; here he listened to recitals of hunting and blood, and in the red glare of the council-fire planned schemes of perfidy and revenge; here he sate and smoked, sometimes observing Pocahontas at play, sometimes watching the fleet canoe coming in from the Pamaunkee. Werowocomoco was a befitting seat of the great chief, overlooking the bay, with its bold, picturesque, wood-crowned banks, and in view of the wide majestic flood of the river, empurpled by transient cloud-shadows, or tinged with the rosy splendor of a summer sunset.

FOOTNOTES:

[57:A] Stith, 65.

[58:A] Stith, 67.

[58:B] Smith, i. 147.

[60:A] Smith, i. 191.

[61:A] Stith, 82; Smith, 200.

[62:A] Smith, i. 193.

CHAPTER V.

1608-1609.

Smith visits Pamaunkee—Seizes Opechancanough—Goes back to Werowocomoco—Procures Supplies—Returns to Jamestown—Smith's Rencontre with Chief of Paspahegh—Fort built—"The Old Stone House"—Colonists dispersed to procure Subsistence—Tuckahoe-root—Smith's Discipline—New Charter—Lord Delaware appointed Governor—Fleet dispatched for Virginia—Sea-Venture; cast away on Island of Bermuda—Seven Vessels reach Virginia—Disorders that ensued—Smith's Efforts to quell them—He Embarks for England—His Character, Life, and Writings.

Smith and his party had no sooner set sail from Werowocomoco, up the river, than Powhatan returned, and dispatched two of the Dutchmen to Jamestown. The two emissaries, by false pretences and the assistance of some of the colonists, who confederated with them, succeeded in procuring a supply of arms and ammunition, which were conveyed to Powhatan by some of his people who were at hand for that purpose. In the mean time the other Dutchman, who had been retained by Powhatan as a hostage, provided him with three hundred stone tomahawks. Edward Boynton and Thomas Savage, discovering the treachery, attempted to make their escape back to Jamestown, but were apprehended and taken back, and expected every moment to be put to death.

During this interval, Smith having arrived at Pamunkey, at the junction of the Pamunkey and the Matapony, landed with Lieutenant Percy and others, to the number of fifteen, and proceeded to Opechancanough's residence, a quarter of a mile back from the river. The town was found deserted by all, except a lame man and a boy, and the cabins stripped of everything. In a short time the chief of the warlike Pamunkies returned, accompanied by some of his people, armed with bows and arrows. After some conference, Smith finding himself deceived as to the supply of corn which had been promised, reproached the chief for his treachery. Opechancanough, to veil his designs, agreed to sell what scanty commodities he then had, at Smith's own price, and promised to bring on the morrow a larger supply. On the next day Smith, with the same party, marched again up to Opechancanough's residence, where they found four or five Indians, who had just arrived, each carrying a large basket. Soon after the chief made his appearance, and with an air of frankness began to tell what pains he had been at to fulfil his promise, when Mr. Russel brought word that several hundred of the Indians had surrounded the house where the English were. Smith, perceiving that some of his party were terrified, exhorted them "to fight like men and not die like sheep." Reproaching Opechancanough for his murderous designs, he challenged him to decide the dispute in single combat on a neighboring island. The wily chief declining that mode of settlement, endeavored to inveigle Smith into an ambuscade, when his treachery being manifest, the president seized him by the forelock, and with a cocked pistol at his breast, led him, trembling, in the midst of his own people. Overcome with terror, Opechancanough surrendered his vambrace, bow, and arrows; and his dismayed followers threw down their arms. Men, women, and children, now brought in their commodities to trade with the English. Smith, overcome with fatigue, retired into a cabin to rest; and while he was asleep, a party of the Indians, armed with swords and tomahawks, made an attempt to surprise him, but starting up at the noise, he, with the help of some of his comrades, soon put the intruders to flight.

During this time, Scrivener, misled by letters received from England, began to grow ambitious of supplanting Smith, who was cordially attached to him; and setting out from Jamestown for Hog Island, on a stormy day, in company of Captain Waldo, Anthony Gosnold, and eight others, the boat was sunk and all were lost. When no one else could be found willing to convey this intelligence to Smith, Richard Wyffin volunteered to undertake it. At Werowocomoco he was shielded from danger by Pocahontas, who, in every emergency, still proved herself the tutelary angel of the colony. Wyffin having overtaken Smith at Pamunkey, he concealed the news of the recent disaster from his party, and, releasing Opechancanough, returned down the river. On the following morning, a little after sunrise, the bank of the river swarmed with Indians, unarmed, carrying baskets, to tempt Smith ashore, under pretence of trade. Smith, landing with Percy and two others, was received by Powhatan at the head of two or three hundred warriors formed in two crescents; some twenty men and a number of women carrying painted baskets. Smith attempted to inveigle Powhatan into an ambuscade, but the savages, on a nearer approach, discovering the English with arms in their hands, fled. However, the natives, some days afterwards, from all parts of the country, within a circuit of ten or twelve miles, in the snow brought, on their naked backs, corn for Smith's party.

Smith next went up the Youghtanund (now Pamunkey) and the Matapony. On the banks of this little river the poor Indians gave up their scanty store of corn with such tears and lamentations of women and children as touched the hearts of the English with compassion.[72:A]

Returning, he descended the York as far as Werowocomoco, intending to surprise Powhatan there, and thus secure a further supply of corn; but Powhatan had abandoned his new house, and had carried away all his corn and provisions; and Smith, with his party, returned to Jamestown. In this expedition, with twenty-five pounds of copper and fifty pounds of iron, and some beads, he procured, in exchange, two hundred pounds of deer suet, and delivered to the Cape-merchant four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn.

At Jamestown the provision of the public store had been spoiled by exposure to the rain of the previous summer, or eaten by rats and worms. The colonists had been living there in indolence, and a large part of their implements and arms had been trafficked away to the Indians. Smith undertook to remedy these disorders by discipline and labor, relieved by pastimes and recreations; and he established it as a rule, that he who would not work, should not eat. The whole government of the colony was now, in effect, devolved upon him—Captain Wynne being the only other surviving councillor, and the president having two votes. Shortly after Smith's return, he met the Chief of Paspahegh near Jamestown, and had a rencontre with him. This athletic savage attempting to shoot him, he closed and grappled, when, by main strength, the chief forced him into the river to drown him. They struggled long in the water, until Smith, grasping the savage by the throat, well-nigh strangled him, and, drawing his sword, was about to cut off his head, when he begged for his life so piteously that Smith spared him, and led him prisoner to Jamestown, where he put him in chains. He was daily visited by his wives, and children, and people, who brought presents to ransom him. At last he made his escape. Captain Wynne and Lieutenant Percy were dispatched, with a party of fifty, to recapture him, failing in which they burned the chief's cabin, and carried away his canoes. Smith now going out to "try his conclusions" with "the salvages," slew some, and made some prisoners, burned their cabins, and took their canoes and fishing weirs. Shortly afterwards the president, passing through Paspahegh, on his way to the Chickahominy, was assaulted by the Indians; but, upon his firing, and their discovering who he was, they threw down their arms, and sued for peace. Okaning, a young warrior, who spoke in their behalf, in justifying the escape of their chief from imprisonment at Jamestown, said: "The fishes swim, the fowls fly, and the very beasts strive to escape the snare, and live." Smith's vigorous measures, together with some accidental circumstances, dismayed the savages, that from this time to the end of his administration, they gave no further trouble.

A block-house was now built in the neck of the Jamestown Peninsula; and it was guarded by a garrison, who alone were authorized to trade with the Indians; and neither Indians nor whites were suffered to pass in or out without the president's leave. Thirty or forty acres of land were planted with corn; twenty additional houses were built; the hogs were kept at Hog Island, and increased rapidly; and poultry was raised without the necessity of feeding. A block-house was garrisoned at Hog Island for the purpose of telegraphing shipping arrived in the river. Captain Wynne, sole surviving councillor, dying, the whole government devolved upon Smith. He built a fort, as a place of refuge in case of being compelled to retreat from Jamestown, on a convenient river, upon a high commanding hill, very hard to be assaulted, and easy of defence. But the scarcity of provisions prevented its completion.[74:A] This is, no doubt, the diminutive structure known as "the Old Stone House," in James City County, on Ware Creek, a tributary of York River. It stands about five miles from the mouth of the creek, and twenty-two from Jamestown. It is built of sandstone found on the bank of the creek, and without mortar. The walls and chimney still remain. This miniature fortress is eighteen and a half feet by fifteen in size, and consists of a basement under ground, and one story above. On one side is a doorway, six feet wide, giving entrance to both apartments. The walls are pierced with loop-holes, and the masonry is exact. This little fort stands in a wilderness, on a high, steep bluff, at the foot of which Ware Creek meanders. The Old Stone House is approached only by a long, narrow ridge, surrounded by gloomy forests and dark ravines overgrown with ivy. It is the oldest house in Virginia; and its age and sequestered situation have connected with it fanciful stories of Smith and Pocahontas, and the hidden treasures of the pirate Blackbeard.

The store of provisions at Jamestown was so wasted by rats, introduced by the vessels, that all the works of the colonists were brought to an end, and they were employed only in procuring food. Two Indians that had been some time before captured by Smith, had been until the present time kept fettered prisoners, but made to perform double tasks, and to instruct the settlers in the cultivation of corn. The prisoners were released for want of provision, but were so well satisfied as to remain. For upwards of two weeks the Indians from the surrounding country supplied the colony daily with squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other game, while the rivers afforded an abundance of wild-fowl. Smith also bought from Powhatan half of his stock of corn. But, nevertheless, it was found necessary to distribute the settlers in different parts of the country to procure subsistence. Sergeant Laxon, with sixty or eighty of them, was sent down the river to live upon oysters; Lieutenant Percy with twenty, to find fish at Point Comfort; West, brother of Lord Delaware, with an equal number, repaired to the falls, where, however, nothing edible was found but a few acorns. Hitherto the whole body of the colonists had been provided for by the courage and industry of some thirty or forty.

The main article of their diet was, for a time, sturgeon, an abundant supply of which was procured during the season. It not only served for meat, but when dried and pounded, and mixed with herbs, supplied the place of bread. Of the spontaneous productions of the soil, the principal article of sustenance was the tuckahoe-root, of which one man could gather enough in a day to supply him with bread for a week. The tockawhoughe, as it is called by Smith, was, in the summer, a principal article of diet among the natives. It grows in marshes like a flag, and resembles, somewhat, the potato in size and flavor. Raw it is no better than poison, so that the Indians were accustomed to roast it, and eat it mixed with sorel and corn-meal.[75:A] There is another root found in Virginia called tuckahoe, and confounded with the flag-like root described above, and erroneously supposed by many to grow without stem or leaf. It appears to be of the convolvulus species, and is entirely unlike the root eaten by the Jamestown settlers.[75:B]

Such was the indolence of the greater number of the colonists, that it seemed as if they would sooner starve than take the trouble of procuring food; and at length their mutinous discontents arose to such a pitch that Smith arrested the ringleader of the malecontents, and ordered that whoever failed to provide daily as much food as he should consume, should be banished from Jamestown as a drone. Of the two hundred settlers, many were billeted among the Indians, and thus became familiar with their habits and manner of life.

Sicklemore, who had been dispatched to Chowanock, returned, after a fruitless search for Sir Walter Raleigh's people. He found the Chowan River not large; the country generally overgrown with pines; pemminaw, or silk-grass growing here and there. Two other messengers, sent to the country of the Mangoags in quest of the lost settlers, learned that they were all dead. Guides had been supplied by the hospitable chief of the Quiyoughcohannocks to convoy the messengers. This chief was of all others most friendly to the whites; although a superstitious worshipper of his own gods, yet he acknowledged that they were as inferior to the English God in power as the bow and arrow were inferior to the English gun; and he often sent presents to Smith, begging him "to pray to the English God for rain, else his corn would perish, for his gods were angry."

The Virginia Company in England, mainly intent on pecuniary gain and quick returns, were discouraged by the disasters that had befallen the colony, and disappointed in their visionary hopes of the discovery of gold mines, and of a passage to the South Sea. They therefore took measures to procure from King James a new charter, abrogating the existing one, and investing them with ampler powers. Having associated with themselves a numerous body of additional stockholders, or adventurers, as they were then styled, including many persons of rank, and wealth, and influence, they succeeded in obtaining from the king a new charter, dated May 23d, 1609, transferring to the Company several important powers before reserved to the crown. By this charter the extent of Virginia was much enlarged, the eastern boundary being a line extending two hundred miles north of Point Comfort, and two hundred miles south of it, the northern and southern boundaries being parallels drawn through the extremities of the eastern boundary back to the South Sea or Pacific—the western boundary being the Pacific.

By the provisions of the new charter the Virginia Company became indeed apparently more independent and republican, but under the new system the governor of the colony was indued with arbitrary power, and authorized to declare martial-law; and the condition of the colonists became even worse than before. This sudden repeal of the former charter evinced an ingratitude for the services of Smith and his associates, who, under it, had endured the toil, and privations, and dangers of the first settlement.

The Supreme Council in England, now chosen by the stockholders themselves, appointed Sir Thomas West, Lord Delaware, Governor and Captain-General of Virginia. He was the third Lord Delaware, and the present (1843) Earl Delaware, John George West, is his lineal descendant. Sir Thomas Gates was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and Sir George Somers, Admiral. Sir George was a member of Parliament, but upon being appointed to a colonial post his seat was declared vacant.

Nine vessels were speedily fitted out, with supplies of men and women, five hundred in number, and provisions and other stores for the colony. Newport, who was entrusted with the command of the fleet, and Gates and Somers, were each severally authorized, whichever might happen first to reach Jamestown, to supersede the existing administration there until the arrival of Lord Delaware, who was not to embark for several months, and who did not reach Virginia until the lapse of more than a year. This abundant caution defeated itself, for Newport, and the lieutenant-governor, and the admiral, finding it impossible to adjust the point of precedence among themselves, embarked together by way of compromise, in the same vessel, the Sea-Venture.[77:A]

The expedition sailed from Plymouth toward the end of May, 1609, and going, contrary to instructions, by the old circuitous route, via the Canaries and the West Indies, late in July, when in latitude thirty degrees north, and, as was supposed, within eight days' sail of Virginia, they were caught "in the tail of a hurricane," blowing from the northeast, accompanied by an appalling darkness, that continued for forty-four hours. Some of the vessels lost their masts, some their sails blown from the yards, the sea breaking over the ships.

"When rattling thunder ran along the clouds,
Did not the sailors poor and masters proud
A terror feel, as struck with fear of God?"[78:A]

A small vessel was lost, July twenty-fourth, and the Sea-Venture, with Newport, Gates, Somers, and one hundred and fifty settlers, destined for Virginia, was separated from the other vessels of the expedition. The other vessels, shattered by the storm, and having suffered the loss of the greater portion of their supplies, and many of their number by sickness, at length reached Jamestown in August, 1609. They brought back Ratcliffe, or Sicklemore, who had been remanded to England on account of his mutinous conduct, also Martin and Archer, together with sundry other captains, and divers gentlemen of good means and high birth, and about three hundred settlers, the greater part of them profligate youths, packed off from home to escape ill destinies, broken-down gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, and the like, "decayed tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and long peace."

Upon the appearance of this fleet near Jamestown, Smith, not expecting such a supply, took them to be Spaniards, and prepared to encounter them, and the Indians readily offered their assistance. The colony had already, before the arrival of the fleet, been threatened with anarchy, owing to intelligence of the premature repeal of the charter, brought out by Captain Argall, and the new settlers had now no sooner landed than they gave rise to new confusion and disorder. The factious leaders, although they brought no commission with them, insisted on the abrogation of the existing charter, rejected the authority of Smith, whom they hated and feared, and undertook to usurp the government. Their capricious folly equalled their insolence; to-day the old commission must rule, to-morrow the new, the next day neither—thus, by continual change, plunging all things into anarchy.

Smith, filled with disgust, would cheerfully have embarked for England, but seeing little prospect of the arrival of the new commission, (which was in the possession of Gates on the Island of Bermudas,) he resolved to put an end to these incessant plots and machinations. The ringleaders, Ratcliffe, Archer, and others, he arrested; to cut off another source of disturbance, he gave permission to Percy, who was in feeble health, to embark for England, of which, however, he did not avail himself. West, with one hundred and twenty picked men, was detached to the falls of James River, and Martin, with nearly the same number, to Nansemond. Smith's presidency having expired about this time, he had been succeeded by Martin, who, conscious of his incompetency, had immediately resigned it to Smith. Martin, at Nansemond, seized the chief, and, capturing the town, occupied it with his detachment; but owing to want of judgment, or of vigilance, he suffered himself to be surprised by the savages, who slew many of his party, rescued the chief, and carried off their corn. Martin not long after returned to Jamestown, leaving his detachment to shift for themselves.

Smith going up the river to West's settlement at the falls, found the English planted in a place not only subject to the river's inundation, but "surrounded by many intolerable inconveniences." To remedy these, by a messenger he proposed to purchase from Powhatan his seat of that name, a little lower down the river. The settlers scornfully rejected the scheme, and became so mutinous that Smith landed among them and arrested the chief malcontents. But overpowered by numbers, being supported by only five men, he was forced to retire on board of a vessel lying in the river. The Indians daily supplied him with provisions, in requital for which the English plundered their corn, robbed their cultivated ground, beat them, broke into their cabins, and made them prisoners. They complained to Captain Smith that the men whom he had sent there as their protectors, "were worse than their old enemies, the Monacans." Smith embarking, had no sooner set sail for Jamestown than many of West's party were slain by the savages.

It so happened, that before Smith's vessel had dropped a mile and a half down the river, she ran aground, whereupon, making a virtue of necessity, he summoned the mutineers to a parley, and they, now seized with a panic, on account of the assault of a mere handful of Indians, submitted themselves to his mercy. He again arrested the ringleaders, and established the rest of the party at Powhatan, in the Indian palisade fort, which was so well fortified by poles and bark as to defy all the savages in Virginia. Dry cabins were also found there, and nearly two hundred acres of ground ready to be planted, and it was called Nonsuch, as being at once the strongest and most delightful place in the country. Nonsuch was the name of a royal residence in England.

When Smith was now on the eve of his departure, the arrival of West again threw all things aback into confusion. Nonsuch was abandoned, and all hands returned to the falls, and Smith, finding all his efforts abortive, embarked in a boat for Jamestown. During the voyage he was terribly wounded while asleep, by the accidental explosion of a bag of gunpowder, and in the paroxysm of pain he leapt into the river, and was well-nigh drowned before his companions could rescue him. Arriving at Jamestown in this helpless condition, he was again assailed by faction and mutiny, and one of his enemies even presented a cocked pistol at him in his bed; but the hand wanted the nerve to execute what the heart was base enough to design.

Ratcliffe, Archer, and their confederates, laid plans to usurp the government of the colony, whereupon Smith's faithful soldiers, fired with indignation at conduct so infamous, begged for permission to strike off their heads; but this he refused. He refused also to surrender the presidency to Percy. For this, Smith is censured by the historian Stith, who yet acknowledges that Percy was in too feeble health to control a mutinous colony. Anarchy being triumphant, Smith probably deemed it useless to appoint a governor over a mob. He at last, about Michaelmas, 1609, embarked for England, after a stay of a little more than two years in Virginia,[80:A] to which he never returned.

Here, then, closes the career of Captain John Smith in Virginia, "the father of the colony," and a hero like Bayard, "without fear and without reproach." One of his comrades, in deploring his departure, describes him as one who, in all his actions, made justice and prudence his guides, abhorring baseness, idleness, pride, and injustice; that in no danger would he send others where he would not lead them himself; that would never see his men want what he had, or could by any means procure; that would rather want than borrow, and rather starve than not pay; that loved action more than words, and hated falsehood and avarice worse than death; "whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our deaths." Another of his soldiers said of him:—

"I never knew a warrior but thee,
From wine, tobacco, debts, dice, oaths, so free."

From the time of Smith's departure from Virginia to the year 1614, little is known of him. In that year he made his first voyage to New England. In the following year, after many disappointments, sailing again in a small vessel for that country, after a running fight with, and narrow escape from, two French privateers, near Fayal, he was captured, near Flores, by a half-piratical French squadron. After long detention he was carried to Rochelle, in France, and there charged with having burned Port Royal, in New France, which act had been committed by Captain Argall. Smith, at length, at the utmost hazard, escaped from his captors, and being assisted by several of the inhabitants of Rochelle, especially by Madame Chanoyes, he was enabled to return to England. The protective sympathy exhibited toward him, at several critical conjunctures, is thus mentioned in some complimentary verses prefixed to his History of Virginia:—

"Tragabigzanda, Callamata's love,
Deare Pocahontas, Madam Shanoi's too,
Who did what love with modesty could do."

In 1616 Smith published his "Description of New England," composed while he was a prisoner on board of the French piratical vessel, in order, as he says, to keep his perplexed thoughts from too much meditation on his miserable condition. The Plymouth Company now conferred upon him the title of Admiral of New England. It was during this year that Pocahontas visited England. After this time, Smith never again visited America. When, in 1622, the news of the massacre reached England, he proposed to come over to Virginia with a proper force to reduce the savages to subjection, but his proposal was not accepted. Captain Smith received little or no recompense for his colonial discoveries, labors, and sacrifices; and after having spent five years, and more than five hundred pounds, in the service of Virginia and New England, he complains that in neither of those countries has he one foot of land, nor even the house that he built, nor the ground that he cultivated with his own hands, nor even any content or satisfaction at all, while he beheld those countries bestowed upon men who neither could have them, nor even know of them but by his descriptions. It is remarkable that in his "Newes from Virginia," published in 1608, no allusion is made to his rescue by Pocahontas. In 1612 appeared his work entitled "A Map of Virginia, with a Description of the Country, Commodities, People, Government, and Religion, etc.," and in 1620, "New England Trials." In 1626 was published his "General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles," the greater part of which had already been published in 1625, by Purchas, in his "Pilgrim." The second and sixth books of this history were composed by Smith himself; the third was compiled by Rev. William Simons, Doctor of Divinity, and the rest by Smith from the letters and journals of about thirty different writers. During the year 1625 he published "An Accidence, or the Pathway to Experience necessary for all young Seamen," and in 1627 "A Sea Grammar." In 1630 he gave to the public "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, from 1593 to 1629." This work, together with "The General History," was republished by Rev. Dr. John H. Rice, in 1819, at Richmond, Virginia. The copy is exact and complete, except some maps and engravings of but little value. The obsolete orthography and typography of the work confines it to a limited circle of readers. It is now out of print and rare. In 1631 Smith published "Advertisements for the unexperienced planters of New England, or anywhere," etc., said to be the most elaborate of his productions. The learned, judicious, and accurate historian, Grahame, considers Smith's writings on colonization, superior to those of Lord Bacon. At the time of his death, Smith was engaged in composing a "History of the Sea." So famous was he in his own day, that he complains of some extraordinary incidents in his life having been misrepresented on the stage. He was gifted by nature with a person and address of singular fascination. He married, and the author of a recent interesting English book of travels, a lineal descendant, refers with just pride to his distinguished ancestor: "On the upper waters of the Alt, near the celebrated Rothen Thurm, (or Red Tower,) several severe engagements ushered in the seventeenth century. It was at this time that the wave of Mohammedan conquest rolled on, and broke over Hungary, Transylvania, and Wallachia, and, whether advancing or retiring, swept those unfortunate lands with equal severity. Sigismund Bathori, after holding his own for awhile in Transylvania against the emperor, was obliged to succumb; the Voyvode of Wallachia, appointed by the Porte, aroused, by his cruelties, an insurrection against him, and the moment appeared favorable for thrusting back the Turkish power beyond the Danube. The Austrian party not only appointed a new Voyvode, but marched a large army, chiefly Hungarian, into the country, and were at first victorious, in a well-contested battle. But, at length, between the river and the heights of the Rothen Thurm range, the Christian army was attacked with impetuosity by a far greater number, composed principally of Tartars, and was entirely cut to pieces. In this catastrophe several English officers, serving with the Hungarian army, were slain; and an ancestor of the author's, who was left for dead on the field, after describing this 'dismall battell,' gives their names, and observes that 'they did what men could do, and when they could do no more, left there their bodies in testimony of their mind.'"[83:A]

Captain John Smith died at London, 1631, in the fifty-second year of his age. He was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, Skinner Street, London; and from Stowe's Survey of London, printed in 1633, it appears there was a tablet erected to his memory in that church, inscribed with his motto, "Vincere est vivere," and the following epitaph:—

Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings,
Subdued large territories, and done things
Which, to the world, impossible would seem,
But that the truth is held in more esteem.
Shall I report his former service done
In honor of God and Christendom,
How that he did divide from pagans three
Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry;
For which great service, in that climate done,
Brave Sigismundus, (King of Hungarion,)
Did give him a coat of arms to wear,
Those conquered heads got by his sword and spear?
Or shall I tell of his adventures since
Done in Virginia, that large continent,
How that he subdued kings unto his yoke,
And made those heathens fly as wind doth smoke,
And made their land, being of so large a station,
A habitation for our Christian nation,
Where God is glorified, their wants supplied,
Which else for necessaries might have died?
But what avails his conquest? now he lies
Interred in earth, a prey for worms and flies.
O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep
Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep,
Return to judgment, and that after thence
With angels he may have his recompense.

The tablet was destroyed by the great fire in the year 1666, and all now remaining to the memory of Captain Smith is a large flat stone, in front of the communion-table, engraved with his coat of arms, upon which the three Turks' heads are still distinguishable.[84:A] The historian Grahame concludes a notice of him in these words: "But Smith's renown will break forth again, and once more be commensurate with his desert. It will grow with the growth of men and letters in America, and whole nations of its admirers have yet to be born." A complete edition of his works would be a valuable addition to American historical literature. The sculptor's art ought to present a fitting memorial of him and of Pocahontas, in the metropolis of Virginia.

FOOTNOTES:

[72:A] The word Matapony is said to signify "no bread at all." The four confluents of this river, on modern maps, are whimsically named Ma, Ta, Po, and Ny, being the four component syllables of the word. Captain Smith calls it the Matapanient.

[74:A] Smith, i. 227.

[75:A] Smith, i. 123; Beverley's Hist. of Va., iii. 15. I refer to the first edition of 1705, which does not differ materially from the second edition of 1722.

[75:B] Farmer's Register for April, 1839, ix. 3; Jefferson's Notes on Va., 33; Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Tuckahoe; Fremont's Report, 135, 160.

[77:A] The following is a list of the vessels and their commanders: the Sea-Adventure, or Sea-Venture, Admiral Sir George Somers, with Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Christopher Newport; the Diamond, Captain Ratcliffe and Captain King; the Falcon, Captain Martin and Master Nelson; the Blessing, Gabriel Archer and Captain Adams; the Unity, Captain Wood and Master Pett; the Lion, Captain Webb; the Swallow, Captain Moon and Master Somers. There were also in company two smaller craft, a ketch and a pinnace.

[78:A] Smith's Hist of Va.

[80:A] Smith, i. 239.

[83:A] A Year with the Turks, by Warington W. Smyth, A.M., 27.

[84:A] Godwin's Churches of London, i. 9.

CHAPTER VI.

The Indians of Virginia—Their Form and Features—Mode of wearing their Hair—Clothing—Ornaments—Manner of Living—Diet—Towns and Cabins—Arms and Implements—Religion—Medicine—The Seasons—Hunting—Sham-fights—Music—Indian Character.

The mounds—monuments of a primitive race, found scattered over many parts of North America, especially in the valley of the Mississippi—have long attracted the attention of men curious in such speculations. These heir-looms of dim, oblivious centuries, seem to whisper mysteriously of a shadowy race, populous, nomadic, not altogether uncivilized, idolatrous, worshipping "in high places." The Anglo-Saxon ploughshare is busy in obliterating these memorials, but many yet survive, and many, perhaps, remain yet to be discovered. Whether they were the work of the progenitors of the Indians, or of a race long since extinct, is a question for such as have taste and leisure for such abstruse inquiries. The general absence of written language and of architectural remains, indicates a low grade of civilization, and yet the relics that have been disinterred, and the enormous extent of some of their earth-works, would argue a degree of art, and of collective industry, to which the Indians are entire strangers. We may, at the least, conclude that either they, in the lapse of ages, have greatly degenerated, or that the mound-makers were a distinct and superior race. Some of these mounds are found in Virginia. The most remarkable of these is the Mammoth Mound, in the County of Marshall. Mr. Jefferson[85:A] was of opinion that there is nothing extant in Virginia deserving the name of an Indian monument, as he would not dignify with that name their stone arrow-points, tomahawks, pipes, and rude images. Of labor on a large scale there is no remain, unless it be the barrows, or mounds, of which many are found all over this country.

They are of different sizes; some of them constructed of earth, and some of loose stones. That they were repositories of the dead is obvious, but on what occasion they were constructed is a matter of doubt. Mr. Jefferson opened one of them near Monticello, and found it filled with human bones. The Mammoth Mound in Marshall County is 69 feet high, 900 in circumference at the base; in shape the frustrum of a cone, with a flat top 50 feet in diameter. An oak standing on the top has been estimated to be five hundred years old. In the interior have been discovered vaults, with pieces of timber, human skeletons, ivory beads, and other ivory ornaments, sea-shells, copper bracelets around the wrists of skeletons, with laminated mica, and a stone with hieroglyphic characters inscribed on it, in the opinion of some, of African origin. The whole mass of the mound is studded with blue spots, supposed to have been occasioned by deposites of the remains of human bodies consumed by fire. Seven lesser mounds are connected with the main one by low entrenchments. Some rude towers of stone, greatly dilapidated, are also found in the neighborhood. Porcelain beads are picked up, and a stone idol has been found, as also tubes of lead, blue steatite, syphon-like, drilled, twelve inches long, and finely polished.

The places of habitation of the Indians may yet be identified along the banks of rivers, by the deposites of shells of oysters and muscles, which they subsisted upon, as also of ashes and charred wood, arrow-points, fragments of pottery, pipes, tomahawks, mortars, etc. Vestiges may be traced of their moving back their cabins when urged by the accumulation of shells and ashes. Standing on such a spot one's fancy may almost repeople it with the shadowy forms of the aborigines, and imagine the flames of the council-fire projecting its red glare upon the face of the York or the James, and hear their wild cries mingling with the dash of waves and the roar of the forest. Here they rejoice over their victories, plan new enterprises of blood, and celebrate the war-dance by the rude music of the drum and the rattle, commingled with their own discordant yells.

The Indians of Virginia were tall, erect, and well-proportioned, with prominent cheek-bones; eyes dark and brilliant, with an animal expression, and a sort of squint; their hair dark and straight. The chiefs were distinguished by a long pendant lock. The Indians had little or no beard, and the women served as barbers, eradicating the beard, and grating away the hair with two shells. Like all savages, they were fond of toys and tawdry ornaments. The principal garment was a mantle, in winter dressed with the fur in, in summer with it out; but the common sort had scarce anything to hide their nakedness, save grass or leaves, and in summer they all went nearly naked. The females always wore a cincture around the middle. Some covered themselves with a mantle of curiously interwoven turkey feathers, pretty and comfortable. The greater part went barefoot; some wore moccasins, a rude sandal of buckskin. Some of the women tattooed their skins with grotesque figures. They adorned the ear with pendants of copper, or a small living snake, yellow or green, or a dead rat, and the head with a bird's wing, a feather, the rattle of a rattlesnake, or the hand of an enemy. They stained the head and shoulder red with the juice of the puccoon.

The red men dwelt for the most part on the banks of rivers. They spent the time in fishing, hunting, war, or indolence, despising domestic labor, and assigning it to the women. These made mats, baskets, pottery, hollowed out stone-mortars, pounded the corn in them, made bread, cooked, planted corn, gathered it, carried burdens, etc. Infants were inured to hardship and exposure. The Indians kindled a fire quickly "by chafing a dry pointed stick in a hole of a little square piece of wood, which, taking fire, sets fire to moss, leaves, or any such dry thing." They subsisted upon fish, game, the natural fruits of the earth, and corn, which they planted. The tuckahoe-root, during the summer, was an important article of diet in marshy places. Their cookery was not less rude than their other habits, yet pone and hominy have been borrowed from them, as also, it is said, the mode of barbecuing meat. Pone, according to the historian Beverley, is derived "not from the Latin panis, but from oppone," an Indian word; according to Smith, ponap signifies meal-dumplings. The natives did not refuse to eat grubs, snakes, and the insect locust. Their bread was sometimes made of wild oats, or the seed of the sunflower, but mostly of corn. Their salt was only such as could be procured from ashes. They were fond of roasting ears of corn, and they welcomed the crop with the festival of the green-corn dance. From walnuts and hickory-nuts, pounded in a mortar, they expressed a liquid called pawcohiccora. The hickory-tree is indigenous in America. Beverley has fallen into a curious mistake in saying that the peach-tree is a native of this country. Indian-corn and tobacco, although called indigenous, appear to have grown only when cultivated. They are never found of wild spontaneous growth. In their journeys the Indians were in the habit of providing themselves with rockahominy, or corn parched and reduced to a powder.

They dwelt in towns, the cabins being constructed of saplings bent over at the top and tied together, and thatched with reeds, or covered with mats or bark, the smoke escaping through an aperture at the apex. The door, if any, consisted of a pendant mat. They sate on the ground, the better sort on matchcoats or mats. Their fortifications consisted of palisades ten or twelve feet high, sometimes encompassing an entire town, sometimes a part. Within these enclosures they preserved, with pious care, their idols and relics, and the remains of their chiefs. In hunting and war they used the bow and arrow—the bow usually of locust, the arrow of reed, or a wand. The Indian notched his arrow with a beaver's tooth set in a stick, which he used in the place of a file. The arrow was winged with a turkey-feather, fastened with a sort of glue extracted from the velvet horns of the deer. The arrow was headed with an arrow-point of stone, often made of white quartz, and exquisitely formed, some barbed, some with a serrate edge. These are yet to be found in every part of the country. For knives the red men made use of sharpened reeds, or shells, or stone; and for hatchets, tomahawks of stone, sharpened at one end or both. Those sharpened only at one end, at the other were either curved to a tapering point, or spheroidally rounded off, so as to serve the purpose of a hammer for breaking or pounding. In the middle a circular indenture was made, to secure the tomahawk to the handle. They soon, however, procured iron hatchets from the English. Trees the Indians felled by fire; canoes were made by dint of burning and scraping with shells and tomahawks. Some of their canoes were not less than forty or fifty feet long. Canoe is a West Indian word, the Powhatan word is quintan, or aquintan.[89:A] The women manufactured a thread, or string of bark, or of a kind of grass called pemminaw, or of the sinews of the deer. A large pipe, adorned with the wings of a bird, or with beads, was the symbol of friendship, called the pipe of peace. A war-chief was styled werowance, and a war-council, matchacomoco. In war, like all savages, they relied mainly on surprise, treachery, and ambuscade; in the open field they were timid; and their cruelty, as usual, was proportionate to their cowardice.

The Virginia Indians were of course idolatrous, and their chief idol, called Okee, represented the spirit of evil, to appease whom they burnt sacrifices. They were greatly under the influence and control of their priests and conjurors, who wore a grotesque dress, performed a variety of divinations, conjurations, and enchantments, called powwowings, after the manner of wizards, and by their superior cunning and shrewdness, and some scanty knowledge of medicine, contrived to render themselves objects of veneration, and to live upon the labor of others. The superstition of the savages was commensurate with their ignorance. Near the falls of the James River, about a mile back from the river, there were some impressions on a rock like the footsteps of a giant, being about five feet apart, which the Indians averred to be the footprints of their god. They submitted with Spartan fortitude to cruel tortures imposed by their idolatry, especially in the mysterious and horrid ordeal of huskanawing. The avowed object of this ordeal was to obliterate forever from the memory of the youths subjected to it all recollection of their previous lives. The house in which they kept the Okee was called Quioccasan, and was surrounded by posts, with human faces rudely carved and painted on them. Altars on which sacrifices were offered, were held in great veneration.

The diseases of the Indians were not numerous; their remedies few and simple, their physic consisting mainly of the bark and roots of trees. Sweating was a favorite remedy, and every town was provided with a sweat-house. The patient, issuing from the heated atmosphere, plunged himself in cold water, after the manner of the Russian bath.

The Indians celebrated certain festivals by pastimes, games, and songs. The year they divided into five seasons, Cattapeak, the budding time of spring; Messinough, roasting ear time; Cohattayough, summer; Taquitock, the fall of the leaf; and Popanow, winter, sometimes called Cohonk, after the cry of the migratory wild-geese. Engaged from their childhood in fishing and hunting, they became expert and familiar with the haunts of game and fish. The luggage of hunting parties was carried by the women. Deer were taken by surrounding them, and kindling fires enclosing them in a circle, till they were killed; sometimes they were driven into the water, and there captured. The Indian, hunting alone, would stalk behind the skin of a deer. Game being abundant in the mountain country, hunting parties repaired to the heads of the rivers at the proper season, and this probably engendered the continual hostilities that existed between the Powhatans of the tide-water region and the Monacans, on the upper waters of the James, and the Mannahoacks, at the head of the Rappahannock. The savages were in the habit of exercising themselves in sham-fights. Upon the first discharge of arrows they burst forth in horrid shrieks and the war-whoop, so that as many infernal hell-hounds could not have been more terrific. "All their actions, cries, and gestures, in charging and retreating," says Captain Smith, "were so strained to the height of their quality and nature, that the strangeness thereof made it seem very delightful." For their music they used a thick cane, on which they piped as on a recorder. They had also a rude sort of drum, and rattles of gourds or pumpkins. The chastity of their women was not held in much value, but wives were careful not to be suspected without the consent of their husbands.

The Indians were hospitable, in their manners exhibiting that imperturbable equanimity and uniform self-possession and repose which distinguish the refined society of a high civilization. Extremes meet. Yet the Indians were in everything wayward and inconstant, unless where restrained by fear; cunning, quick of apprehension, and ingenious; some were brave; most of them timorous and cautious; all savage. Not ungrateful for benefits, they seldom forgave an injury. They rarely stole from each other, lest their conjurors should reveal the offence, and they should be punished.[91:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[85:A] Notes on Va., 104, ed. 1853.

[89:A] Strachey's Virginia Britannica.

[91:A] Smith, ii. 129, 137; Beverley, B. iii.; Drake's Book of the Indians; Thatcher's Lives of the Indians; Bancroft's History of U. S., vol. iii. cap. xxii.

CHAPTER VII.

1609-1614.

Condition of the Colony at the time of Smith's Departure—Assaults of Indians—"The Starving Time"—The Sea-Venture—Situation of the English on the Island of Bermuda—They Embark for Virginia—Arrive at Jamestown—Jamestown abandoned—Colonists meet Lord Delaware's Fleet—Return to Jamestown—Delaware's Discipline—The Church at Jamestown—Sir George Somers—Delaware returns to England—Percy, Governor—New Charter—Sir Thomas Dale, Governor—Martial Laws—Henrico Founded—Plantations and Hundreds settled—Argall makes Pocahontas a Prisoner—Dale's expedition up York River—Rolfe visits Powhatan—Dale returns to Jamestown—Rolfe marries Pocahontas—The Chickahominies enter into Treaty of Peace—Community of Goods abolished—Argall's Expeditions against the French in Acadia—Captures Fort at New Amsterdam.

Captain Smith, upon embarking for England, left at Jamestown three ships, seven boats, a sufficient stock of provision, four hundred and ninety odd settlers, twenty pieces of cannon, three hundred muskets, with other guns, pikes, swords, and ammunition, and one hundred soldiers acquainted with the Indian language, and the nature of the country.[92:A] The settlers were, for the most part, poor gentlemen, serving-men, libertines; and with such materials the wonder is, not that the settlement was retarded by many disasters, but that it was effected at all. Lord Bacon says: "It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people, wicked, condemned men, with whom you plant; and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation, for they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy and do mischief; spend victuals and be quickly weary."[92:B] Immediately upon Smith's departure the Indians renewed their attacks. Percy, the Earl of Northumberland's brother, for a time administered the government; but it soon fell into the hands of the seditious malecontents. Provisions growing scarce, West and Ratcliffe embarked in small vessels to procure corn. Ratcliffe, inveigled by Powhatan, was slain with thirty of his companions, two only escaping, of whom one, a boy, Henry Spilman, a young gentleman well descended, was rescued by Pocahontas, and he afterwards lived for many years among the Patawomekes, acquired their language, and often proved serviceable as an interpreter for his countrymen. He was slain by the savages, on the banks of the Potomac, in 1622. The loss of Captain Smith was soon felt by the colonists: they were now continually exposed to the arrow and the tomahawk; the common store was consumed by the commanders and the savages; swords and guns were bartered with the Indians for food; and within six months after Smith's departure the number of English in Virginia was reduced from five hundred to sixty men, women, and children. These found themselves in a starving condition, subsisting on roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, berries, and fish. Starch became an article of diet, and even dogs, cats, rats, snakes, toadstools, and the skins of horses. The body of an Indian was disinterred and eaten; nay, at last, the colonists preyed on the dead bodies of each other. It was even alleged that a husband murdered his wife for a cannibal repast; upon his trial, however, it appeared that the cannibalism was feigned, to palliate the murder. He was put to death—being burned according to law. This was long afterwards remembered as "the starving time." Sir Thomas Smith, treasurer of the Virginia Company, was bitterly denounced by the sufferers for neglecting to send out the necessary supplies. The happiest day that many of them expected ever to see, was when the Indians had killed a mare, the people wishing, while the carcass was boiling, "that Sir Thomas was upon her back in the kettle." It seemed to them as if the Earl of Salisbury's threat of abandoning the colony to its fate, was now to be actually carried into effect; but it is to be recollected that a large portion of ample supplies, that had been sent out from England for the colony, had been lost by storm and shipwreck.

It has before been mentioned, that toward the end of July, 1609, in a violent tempest, the Sea-Venture, with Newport, Gates, and Somers, and one hundred and fifty souls, had been separated from the rest of the fleet. Racked by the fury of the sea, she sprang a leak, and the water soon rose in her hold above two tiers of hogsheads that stood over the ballast, and the crew had to stand up to their waists in the water, and bail out with buckets, baricos, and kettles. They continued bailing and pumping for three days and nights without intermission, yet the water appeared rather to gain upon them than decrease; so that all hands, being at length utterly exhausted, came to the desperate resolution to shut down the hatches and resign themselves to their fate; and some having "good and comfortable waters fetched them, and drank to one another as taking their last farewell." During all this time the aged Sir George Somers, sitting upon the quarter-deck, scarce taking time to eat or sleep, bearing the helm so as to keep the ship as upright as possible, but for which she must have foundered,—at last descried land. At this time many of the unhappy crew were asleep, and when the voice of Sir George was heard announcing "land," it seemed as if it was a voice from heaven, and they hurried up above the hatches to look for what they could scarcely credit. On finding the intelligence true, and that they were, indeed, in sight of land,—although it was a coast that all men usually tried to avoid,—yet they now spread all sail to reach it. Soon the ship struck upon a rock, till a surge of the sea dashed her off from thence, and so from one to another till, at length, fortunately, she lodged (July twenty-eighth) upright between two rocks, as if she was laid up in a natural dry-dock. Till this, at every lurch they had expected instant death; but now, all at once, the storm gave place to a calm, and the billows, which at each successive dash had threatened destruction, were stilled; and, quickly taking to their boats, they reached the shore, distant upwards of a league, without the loss of a single man out of upwards of one hundred and fifty. Their joy at an escape so unexpected and almost miraculous, arose to the pitch of amazement. Yet their escape was not more wonderful in their eyes than their preservation after they had landed on the island; for the Spaniards had always looked upon it as more frightful than purgatory itself; and all seamen had reckoned it no better than an enchanted den of Furies and devils—the most dangerous, desolate, and forlorn place in the whole world; instead of which it turned out to be healthful, fertile, and charming.

The Bermudas are a cluster of islands lying in the Atlantic Ocean, at the distance of six hundred miles from the American Continent, extending, in crescent form, from east to west; in length, twenty miles; in breadth, two and a half. On the coast of the principal of these islands, Bermuda, the Sea-Venture was wrecked; and, on landing, the English found, instead of those gloomy horrors with which a superstitious fancy had invested it, a terrestrial paradise blessed with all the charms of exquisite scenery, luxuriant vegetation, and a voluptuous atmosphere, which have since been celebrated in the verse of a modern poet. Here they remained for nearly a year. Fish, fowl, turtle, and wild hogs supplied the English with abundant food; the palmetto leaf furnished a cover for their cabins. They had daily morning and evening prayers, and on Sunday divine service was performed and two sermons preached by the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Bucke. He was a graduate of Oxford, and received the appointment of chaplain to the Virginia expedition upon the recommendation of Dr. Ravis, Bishop of London. Mr. Bucke was the second minister sent out from England to Virginia, being successor to Rev. Robert Hunt. The company of the Sea-Venture were summoned to worship by the sound of the church-going bell, and the roll was called, and absentees were duly punished. The clergyman performed the ceremony of marriage once during the sojourn on the island, the parties being Sir George Somers' cook and a maid-servant, (of one Mrs. Mary Horton,) named Elizabeth Persons. The communion was once celebrated. The infant child of one John Rolfe—a daughter, born on the island—was christened, February eleventh, by the name of Bermuda, Captain Newport, the Rev. Mr. Bucke, and Mrs. Horton being witnesses. It would seem from this, that John Rolfe was a widower when he afterwards married Pocahontas. Another infant, born on the island, a boy, was christened by the name of Bermudas. Six of the company, including the wife of Sir Thomas Gates, died there. Living in the midst of peace and plenty in this sequestered and delightful place of abode, after escaping from the yawning perils of the deep, many of the English lost all desire ever to leave the island, and some were even mutinously determined to remain there. Gates, however, having decked the long-boat of the Sea-Venture with the hatches, dispatched the mate, Master Raven, an expert mariner, with eight men, to Virginia for succor; but the boat was never more heard of. Discord and insubordination found a place among the exiles of the Bermudas; and even the leaders, Gates and Somers, lived for awhile asunder. At length, while Somers was engaged in surveying the islands, Gates completed a vessel of about eighty tons, constructed somewhat after the manner of Robinson Crusoe, partly from the timber of the Sea-Venture, and the rest of cedar. A small bark was also built under the direction of Sir George Somers, of cedar, without the use of any iron, save a bolt in her keel. These two vessels were named, the one the "Patience," the other the "Deliverance." Finally, on the 10th day of May, 1610, after the lapse of nine months spent on the island, and nearly a year since their departure from England, harmony being restored, and the leaders reconciled, they embarked in these cedar vessels for Virginia.

The name of Sir Thomas West, afterwards Lord la Ware, or De la War, or Delaware, appears in the commission appointed in the year of James the First, for inquiring into the case of all such persons as should be found openly opposing the doctrines of the Church of England. Such was the spirit of that age, by which standard the men of that age ought to be judged. Lord Delaware was, nevertheless, distinguished for his virtues and his generous devotion to the welfare of the infant colony of Virginia—a man of approved courage, temper, and experience. The Rev. William Crashaw, father of the poet of that name, at the period of Lord Delaware's appointment to the place of Governor of Virginia, was preacher at the Temple; and he delivered a sermon before his lordship, and others of his majesty's council for the Colony of Virginia, and the rest of the adventurers or stockholders in that plantation, upon occasion of his lordship's embarkation for Virginia, on the 21st day of February, 1609-10. The text was from Daniel, xii. 3: "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever." This sermon was printed by William Welby, and sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Swan, 1610, and is the first missionary sermon preached in England to any of her sons embarking for Virginia. Crashaw, in this discourse, urges it warmly upon his countrymen to aid the enterprise of planting the colony; rejects, with indignant scorn, the more sordid motives of mere lucre, and appeals to loftier principles, and the more elevated motives of Christian beneficence. But although he rejects motives of mere profit, he tells his auditors that if they will pursue their object, animated by these enlarged views, they will probably find the plantation eventually a source of pecuniary profit, the soil being good, the commodities numerous and necessary for England, the distance not great, and the voyage easy, so that God's blessing was alone wanting to make it gainful. In his peroration, the preacher, apostrophizing Lord Delaware, excites his generous emulation by a personal appeal, reminding him of the gallant exploit of his ancestor, Sir Roger la Warr, who, assisted by John de Pelham, captured the King of France at the battle of Poictiers. In memory of which exploit, Sir Roger la Warr—Lord la Warr according to Froissart—had the crampet or chape of his sword for a badge of that honor. Crashaw bitterly denounces the Papists, and the Brownists, and factious separatists, and exhorts the Virginia Company not to suffer such to have any place in the new colony. Rome and Geneva were the Scylla and Charybdis of the Church of England.[97:A] Lord Delaware sailed in February for Virginia.

Gates and Somers, after leaving the Bermudas in May, in fourteen days reached Jamestown, where they found only sixty miserable colonists surviving. Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-Governor, landing on the twenty-fourth of May, caused the church-bell to be rung; and such as were able repaired thither, and the Rev. Mr. Bucke delivered an earnest and sorrowful prayer upon their finding so unexpectedly all things so full of misery and misgovernment. At the conclusion of the religious service the new commission of Gates was read; Percy, the acting president, scarcely able to stand, surrendered up the former charter and his commission. The palisades of the fort were found torn down; the ports open; the gates distorted from the hinges; the houses of those who had died, broken up and burned for firewood, and their store of provision exhausted. Gates reluctantly resolved to abandon the plantation, and to return to England by way of Newfoundland, where he expected to receive succor from English fishing vessels. June seventh, they buried their ordnance and armor at the gate of the fort, and, at the beat of drum, embarked in four pinnaces. Some of the people were, with difficulty, restrained from setting fire to the town; but Sir Thomas Gates, with a select party, remained on shore until the others had embarked, and he was the last man that stepped into the boat. They fired a farewell volley; but not a tear was shed at their departure from a spot associated with so much misery. How often is the hour of despair but the deeper darkness that immediately precedes the dawn! At noon they reached Hog Island, and on the next morning, while anchored off Mulberry Island, they were met by a long-boat with dispatches from Lord Delaware, who had arrived with three vessels, after a voyage of three months and a half from England.[98:A] Upon this intelligence Gates, with his company, returned up the river to Jamestown on the same day. Lord Delaware arrived there with his three vessels on the ninth, and on the morning of the following day (Sunday) he landed at the south gate of the fort, and although the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Thomas Gates, with his company, were drawn up to meet him, he fell on his knees, and remained for some time in silent prayer. After this he repaired to the church, and heard a sermon delivered by the Rev. Mr. Bucke. A council was then called, and the governor delivered an address to the colonists. The hand of a superintending and benignant Providence was plainly manifested in all these circumstances. The arrival of Sir Thomas Gates rescued the colony from the jaws of famine; his prudence preserved the fort at Jamestown, which the unhappy colonists, upon abandoning the place, wished to destroy, so as to cut off all possibility of a return; had their return been longer delayed, the savages might have destroyed the fort; had they set sail sooner, they would probably have missed Lord Delaware's fleet, as they had intended to sail by way of Newfoundland, in a direction contrary to that by which Lord Delaware approached.[99:A]

Lord Delaware, Governor and Captain-General, was accompanied by Sir Ferdinand Waynman, Master of the Horse, who died shortly afterwards; Captain Holcroft; Captain Lawson; and other gentlemen. Lord Delaware was the first executive officer of Virginia with the title of Governor; and the titles of Governor and Captain-General were ever after given to the colonial chief magistrates of Virginia. Under Lord Delaware's discreet and energetic management, discipline and industry were speedily restored, the hours of labor being set from six o'clock in the morning to ten, and from two to four in the afternoon. The store of provisions that he had brought over with him was sufficient to supply four hundred men for twelve months. He gave orders for repairing the church. Its length was sixty feet, and its breadth twenty-four, and it was to have a chancel of cedar and a communion-table of black-walnut, and the pews of cedar, with handsome wide windows, to shut and open according to the weather, made of the same wood; as also a pulpit with a font hewed out hollow like a canoe, with two bells at the west end. The building was so constructed as to be very light within; and the Lord Governor and Captain-General caused it to be kept passing sweet, and trimmed up with divers flowers. There was also a sexton belonging to it. Every Sunday there were two sermons delivered, and every Thursday one—there being two preachers who took their weekly turns. In the morning of every day, at the ringing of the bell at ten o'clock, the people attended prayers; and also again at four in the afternoon, before supper. On Sunday, when the Governor went to church, he was accompanied by the councillors, officers, and all the gentlemen, with a guard of halberdiers in his lordship's livery, handsome red cloaks, to the number of fifty on each side, and behind him. In the church his lordship had his seat in the choir, in a green velvet chair, with a cloth, and also a velvet cushion laid on the table before him on which he knelt. The council and officers sate on each side of him, and when he returned to his house he was escorted back in the same manner. The newly appointed council consisted of Sir Thomas Gates, whose title was changed from that of Lieutenant-Governor to that of Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Admiral; Captain George Percy; Sir Ferdinando Wayman, Master of the Ordnance; Captain Newport, Vice-Admiral; and Mr. Strachey, Secretary and Recorder. Strachey, who appears to have been a scholar, published an interesting account of the colony at this period. Some of the houses at Jamestown were covered with boards; some with Indian mats. They were comfortable, and securely protected from the savages by the forts. Lord Delaware was a generous friend of the colony; but it was as yet quite too poor and too much in its infancy to maintain the state suitable to him and his splendid retinue. The fashions of a court were preposterous in a wilderness. On the ninth of June, Sir George Somers was dispatched, in compliance with his own suggestion, in his cedar vessel to the Bermudas, accompanied by Argall in another vessel, to procure further supplies for the colony. Captain Argall, in consequence of adverse winds and heavy fogs, returned to Jamestown. Sir George Somers, after much difficulty, reached his destination, where he shortly after died, at a spot on which the town of St. George commemorates his name. The islands themselves received the designation of his surname, and were afterwards called the Summer Islands. It is said that the Bermudas were at first named in England "Virginiola," but shortly after the "Summer Islands," partly in allusion to their temperature, and partly in honor of Sir George.[102:A] It was remarked of him that he was "a lamb upon land; a lion at sea." As his life had been divided between the Old World and the New, so after his death his remains were buried, part at Bermuda, part at Whitchurch, Dorsetshire, in England.

Lord Delaware dispatched Captain Argall to the Potomac for corn, which he succeeded in procuring by the aid of the youthful prisoner, Henry Spilman. His lordship erected two forts, called Henry and Charles, after the king's sons. These forts were built on a level tract bordering Southampton River, and it was intended that settlers arriving from England should first land there, to refresh themselves after the confinement of the voyage. Sir Thomas Gates, who had before sent his daughters back to England, now returned there himself, in order to render to the council an account of all that had happened. Captain Percy was dispatched with a party to chastise the Paspaheghs, for some depredations; they fled before the English, who burnt their cabins, captured their queen and her children, and shortly after barbarously slew them. Lord Delaware, visiting the falls with a party of soldiers, was attacked by the Indians, who killed some of his men.

His lordship having suffered much sickness, and finding himself in a state of extreme debility, embarked,[103:A] in company of Dr. Bohun and Captain Argall, and about fifty others, for the Island of Mevis, in the West Indies. Contrary winds drove them to the north, and having put in at the mouth of a large river, then called Chickohocki, it hence derived its name of the Delaware.

Lord Delaware upon leaving the colony, committed the charge of it to Captain George Percy, an honorable and resolute gentleman, but in infirm health, and deficient in energy. The number of colonists was at this period about two hundred; the stock of provisions sufficient for ten months, and the Indians peaceable and friendly. Before Lord Delaware reached England, the Virginia Council, discouraged by so many disasters and disappointments, were at a loss to decide whether they should use any further efforts to sustain the ill-fated colony, or should abandon the enterprise, and recall the settlers from Virginia. But Sir Thomas Gates made so strenuous an appeal in favor of sustaining the plantation, that Sir Thomas Dale was dispatched with three vessels, cattle, hogs, and other supplies. The title given to Dale was that of High Marshal of Virginia, indicative of the martial authority with which he was invested. He was a military man, and had served in the Low Countries, and he brought over with him an extraordinary code of "laws divine, moral, and martial," compiled by William Strachey, secretary of the colony, for Sir Thomas Smith, from the military laws observed during the wars in the Low Countries. This code was sent over by Sir Thomas Smith, treasurer or governor of the Virginia Company, without the company's sanction, as it has been alleged; but since the company in no way interposed its authority in contravention to the new code, their sanction of it may be presumed. Several of these laws were barbarous, inhuman, written in blood.

Arriving in Virginia in the month of May, 1611, Dale touched at Kiquotan, and set all hands there to planting corn. Reaching Jamestown on the tenth of May, he found the settlers busily engaged in their usual occupation, playing at bowls in the streets. He set them to work felling trees, repairing houses, and providing materials for enclosing the new town, which he proposed to build. To find a site for it he surveyed the Nansemond River and the James as far as the falls, and finally pitched upon a high ground, with steep banks, on the north side of the river, near Arrohattock, and about twelve miles below the falls of the river. The site was on a peninsula, known as Farrar's Island, in Varina Neck. Sir Thomas was prevented for a time from founding the new town by the disturbances that prevailed in the colony, and to restore order he enforced martial law with rigor. Eight of the colonists appear to have been convicted of treasonable plots and conspiracies, and executed by cruel and unusual modes, before midsummer. Among these was Jeffrey Abbot, who had served long in the army in Ireland and in the Netherlands; had been a sergeant of Captain John Smith's company in Virginia, who avers that he never knew there a better soldier or more loyal friend of the colony. It must be acknowledged that rigorous measures were necessary, and it was fortunate for the colony that the cruel and despotic code of laws, to which it was now subjected, was administered by so discreet and upright a governor as Dale.

Early in August, 1611, Sir Thomas Gates, commissioned to take charge of the government of the colony, came over with six vessels, three hundred men, and abundant supplies. He was accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Glover, an approved preacher in Bedford and Huntingdonshire, a graduate of Cambridge, in easy circumstances, and somewhat advanced in years. Arriving at Jamestown early in August, during the sickly season, he soon after died.

Dale, relieved from the cares of the chief post, cheerfully occupied a subordinate position, and now turned his attention to the establishment of new settlements on the banks of the James, at some distance above Jamestown. Furnished by Gates with three hundred and fifty men, he sailed up the river early in September, and on the spot selected before, he founded the town of Henrico, so called in honor of the heir-apparent, Prince Henry, eldest son of James the First. The peninsula on which it was built is formed by a remarkable bend, styled the "Dutch Gap," where the river, after sweeping a circuit of seven miles, returns within one hundred and twenty yards from the point of departure. The site commands an extensive and picturesque view of the winding river, which in this part of it is called the "Corkscrew." The fertile tract of land there produced tobacco nearly resembling the Spanish Varinas, and hence received the appellation of Varina, the name of a well-known plantation. This was afterwards the residence of the Rev. William Stith, the best of our early historians, who dates the preface of his History of Virginia there, in 1746.

The peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the river, was impaled across the isthmus from water to water. There were three streets of well-framed houses, a handsome church of wood completed, and the foundation laid of a better one to be built of brick, besides store-houses, watch-houses, etc. Upon the river edge there were five houses, in which lived "the honester sort of people," as farmers in England, and they kept continual watch for the town's security. About two miles back from the town was a second palisade, near two miles in length, from river to river, guarded by several commanders, with a good quantity of corn-ground impaled, and sufficiently secured.

The breastwork thrown up by Sir Thomas Dale is still to be traced, and vestiges of the town are indicated by scattered bricks, showing the positions of the houses.[106:A] Burk[106:B] and Keith[106:C] have fallen into singular mistakes as to the situation of this town.

On the south side of the river a plantation was established, called Hope in Faith and Coxendale, with forts, named, respectively, Charity, Elizabeth, Patience, and Mount Malady, and a guest-house for sick people, on the spot where afterwards, in Stith's time, Jefferson's church stood. On the same side of the river the Rev. Alexander Whitaker, sometimes styled the "Apostle of Virginia," established his parsonage, a well-framed house and one hundred acres of land, called Rock Hall.[106:D]

The work of William Strachey, already referred to, entitled "The History of Travel into Virginia Britannia," etc., appears to have been written before 1616, and two manuscripts of it exist, one in the British Museum, the other in the Ashmolean manuscripts at Oxford.[106:E]

Sir Thomas Dale, when he came over to Virginia, was accompanied by Rev. Alexander Whitaker, the son of Dr. William Whitaker, Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and also Regius Professor of Divinity there. The doctor distinguished himself by his controversial writings against the Church of Rome, and took a leading part in framing and maintaining the Lambeth Articles, which were Calvinistic, and had they been established, might have gone far toward healing the divisions between the Church of England and the Presbyterians. Rev. Alexander Whitaker, when he reached Virginia, had been a graduate of Cambridge some five or six years, and had been seated in the North of England, where he was held in great esteem. He had property of his own and excellent prospects of promotion; but, animated by a missionary spirit, he came over to Virginia. The voyage is described as speedy and safe, "being scarce eight weeks long."

The Appomattox Indians having committed some depredations, Sir Thomas Dale, about Christmas, 1611, captured their town, near the mouth of the Appomattox River where it empties into the James. The town was five miles distant from Henrico. Sir Thomas, pleased with the situation, established a plantation there, and called it Bermudas, the third town erected in Virginia, now known as Bermuda Hundred, the port of Richmond for ships of heavy burden. He laid out several plantations there, the Upper and Lower Rochdale, West Shirley, and Digges' Hundred. In conformity with the code of martial law each hundred was subjected to the control of a captain. The Nether Hundred was enclosed with a palisade two miles long, running from river to river, and here, within a half mile of each other, were many neat houses already built. Rochdale, or Rock's Dale, enclosed by a palisade four miles in length, was dotted with houses along the enclosure; here the hogs and cattle enjoyed a range of twenty miles to graze in securely. About fifty miles below these settlements stood Jamestown, on a fertile peninsula, with two rows of framed houses, some of them with two stores and a garret, and three large store-houses. The town was well enclosed, and it and the neighboring region were well peopled. Forty miles below Jamestown, at Kiquotan, the settlers enjoyed an abundance of fish, fowl, and venison.[107:A]

Captain Argall now arriving from England, in a vessel with forty men, was sent to the Potomac to trade for corn, and he contrived to ingratiate himself with Japazaws, a friendly chief, and from him learned that Pocahontas was there. She had never visited Jamestown since Smith's departure, and on the remote banks of the Potomac she thought herself unknown. Japazaws, easily bribed, betrayed the artless and unsuspecting girl into Argall's hands. When she discovered the treachery she burst into tears. Argall, having sent a messenger to inform Powhatan that his favorite daughter was a prisoner, and must be ransomed with the men and arms, conveyed her to Jamestown. Three months thereafter Powhatan restored seven English prisoners and some unserviceable muskets, and sent word that if his daughter was released he would make restitution for all injuries, and give the English five hundred bushels of corn, and forever remain in peace and amity.[108:A] They refused to surrender Pocahontas until full satisfaction was rendered.

Powhatan was deeply offended, and nothing more was heard from him for a long time. At length Governor Dale, with Argall's vessel and some others, manned with one hundred and fifty men, went up the York River, taking the young captive with him, to Werowocomoco. Here, meeting with a scornful defiance, the English landed, burnt the cabins, and destroyed everything. On the next day Dale, proceeding up the river, concluded a truce with the savages. He then sailed up to Matchot, another residence of Powhatan, on the south side of the Pamunkey, where it unites with the Matapony. Matchot is supposed to be identical with Eltham, the old seat of the Bassets, in the County of New Kent, and which borrows its name from an English seat in the County of Kent. At this place, where several hundred warriors were found, the English landed, and the savages demanded a truce till Powhatan could be heard from, which being granted, two of Powhatan's sons went on board the vessel to see their sister Pocahontas. Finding her well, contrary to what they had heard, they were delighted, and promised to persuade their father to make peace, and forever be friends with the English.

John Rolfe, and another of the Englishmen named Sparks, were dispatched to let Powhatan know these proceedings. He entertained them hospitably, but would not admit them into his presence; they, however, saw his brother Opechancanough, who engaged to use his influence with Powhatan in favor of peace. It now being April, the season for planting corn, Sir Thomas Dale returned to Jamestown, intending not to renew hostilities until the next crop was made.

March 12th, 1612, another charter was granted to the Virginia Company, extending the boundaries of the colony, so as to include all islands lying within three hundred leagues of the continent. The object of this extension was to embrace the Bermudas, or Summer Islands; but the Virginia Company shortly afterwards sold them to one hundred and twenty of its own members, who became incorporated into a distinct company.[109:A]

On the 4th of November, 1612, died Henry, Prince of Wales, a gallant and generous spirit, the friend of Raleigh, and the idol of the nation; and his premature death was deplored like that of the Black Prince before, and the Princess Charlotte in more modern times. He appears to have been a warm friend of the infant plantation of Virginia, and Sir Thomas Dale speaks of him "as his glorious master, who would have enamelled with his favors the labors which were undertaken for God's cause," and laments that the "whole frame of the enterprise seemed fallen into his grave."

Mr. John Rolfe, a worthy gentleman, who appears to have been a widower, had been for some time in love with Pocahontas, and she with him; and, agitated by the conflicting emotions of this singular and romantic attachment, in a letter he requested the advice of Sir Thomas Dale, who readily gave his assent to the proposed union. Pocahontas likewise communicated the affair to her brother; so that the report of the marriage soon reached Powhatan, and it proved likewise acceptable to him. Accordingly, within ten days he sent Opachisco, an aged uncle of Pocahontas, and her two brothers, to attend the wedding, and fill his place at the ceremony. The marriage took place early in April, 1613, at Jamestown, and the rites were no doubt performed by the Rev. Mr. Whitaker.[109:B]

This remarkable union became a happy link of peace and harmony between the red man and the white; and the warlike Chickahominies now came to propose a treaty of peace.[110:A] This fierce and numerous tribe, dwelling on the borders of the Chickahominy River, and near neighbors to the English, had long maintained their independence, and refused to acknowledge the sceptre of Powhatan. They now sent two runners to Governor Dale with presents, apologizing for all former injuries, and offering to submit themselves to King James, and to relinquish the name of Chickahominies, and be called Tassautessus (English.) They desired, nevertheless, still to be governed by their own laws, under the authority of eight of their own chiefs. Governor Dale, with Captain Argall and fifty men, on the banks of the Chickahominy, concluded a treaty of peace with them, and they ratified it by acclamation. An aged warrior then arose and explained the treaty, addressing himself successively to the old men, the young, and the women and children. The Chickahominies, apprehensive of being reduced under the despotism of Powhatan, sheltered themselves under the protection of the whites—a striking proof of the atrocious barbarity of a race whose imaginary virtues have been so often celebrated by poets, orators, and historians, and who have been described as renewing the golden age of innocent felicity.

The system of working in common, and of being provided for out of the public store, although unavoidable at first, had hitherto tended to paralyze industry, and to retard the growth of the colony. An important alteration in this particular was now effected; Sir Thomas Dale allotted to each man three acres of cleared ground, from which he was only obliged to contribute to the public store two and a half barrels of corn. These regulations, raising the colonists above the condition of absolute dependence, and creating a new incentive to exertion, proved very acceptable and beneficial.[110:B]

Early in the year 1614 Sir Thomas Gates returned again to England, and Sir Thomas Dale reassumed the government of the colony. The French settlers of Acadia had, as early as 1605, built the town of Port Royal, on the Bay of Fundy; St. Croix was afterwards erected on the other side of the bay. Dale, looking upon these settlements as an encroachment upon the territory of Virginia, which extended to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, dispatched his kinsman, Argall, an enterprising and unscrupulous man, with a small force, to dislodge the intruders. The French colony was found situated on Mount Desert Island, near the Penobscot River, and within the bounds of the present State of Maine. The French, surprised while dispersed in the woods, soon yielded to superior force, and Argall, as some accounts say, furnished the prisoners with a fishing vessel, in which they returned to France, except fifteen, including a Jesuit missionary, who were brought to Jamestown. According to other accounts, their vessels were captured, but the colonists escaped, and went to live among the Indians. On his return, Argall visited the Dutch settlement near the site of Albany, on the Hudson, and compelled the governor there to surrender the place; but it was reclaimed by the Dutch not long afterwards, and during the next year they erected a fort on Manhattan Island, on which is now seated the commercial metropolis of the United States.

FOOTNOTES:

[92:A] The colony was provided with fishing-nets, working tools, apparel, six mares and a horse, five or six hundred swine, with some goats and sheep. Jamestown was strongly fortified with palisades, and contained fifty or sixty houses. There were, besides, five or six other forts and plantations. There was only one carpenter in the colony; three others were learning that trade. There were two blacksmiths and two sailors.

[92:B] Bacon's Essays, 123.

[97:A] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, i. 232.

[98:A] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, i. 263.

[99:A] The wreck of the Sea-Venture appears to have suggested to Shakespeare the groundwork for the plot of "The Tempest," several incidents and passages being evidently taken from the contemporary accounts of that disaster, as narrated by Jordan and the Council of the Virginia Company.

"Boatswain, down with the top-mast, yare
Lower, lower; bring her to try with the main course."

Captain Smith, in his Sea-Grammar, published 1627, under the article how to handle a ship in a storm, says: "Let us lie as try with our main course—that is, to haul the tack aboard, the sheet close aft, the boling set up, and the helm tied close aboard." Again, the boatswain says: "Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses." The two courses are the mainsail and the foresail; and to lay a ship a-hold is to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can. These, and other nautical orders, are such as the brave old Somers probably gave when trying to keep the ship as upright as possible.

"We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards."

This was suggested to the poet by the recorded incident of part of the crew of the Sea-Venture having undertaken to drown their despair in drunkenness.

These answer to the leave-taking of the Sea-Venture's crew. Jordan, in his narrative, says: "It is reported that this land of Bermudas, with the islands about it, are enchanted and kept by evil and wicked spirits," etc. Shakespeare accordingly employs Prospero, Ariel, and Caliban to personate this fabled enchantment of the island. Ariel's task is, at Prospero's bidding—

"To fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curled clouds."

The tempest, in which the ship was wrecked, is thus described by Ariel:—

"I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometimes I'd divide,
And burn in many places; on the top-mast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join; Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire, and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring, the most mighty Neptune
Seemed to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble."

Again:—

"Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad and played
Some tricks of desperation."

The almost miraculous escape of all from the very jaws of impending death, is thus alluded to by Ariel in her report to Prospero:—

"Not a hair perished;
On their sustaining garments not a blemish,
But fresher than before: and as thou bad'st me,
In troops I have dispersed them 'bout the isle."

The particular circumstances of the wreck are given quite exactly in the familiar verses:—

"Safely in harbor
Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'st me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vexed Bermoothes, there she's hid."

Bermoothes, the Spanish pronunciation of Bermudas, or Bermudez, the original name of the island, taken, as is said, from that of a Spanish captain wrecked there. Another real incident is referred to in the following verses, the time only being transposed:—

"The mariners all under hatches stowed;
Whom, with a charm joined to their suffered labor,
I have left asleep."

The return of the other seven vessels of the fleet is described with a change, however, of the sea in which they sailed, and in their place of destination:—

"And for the rest of the fleet,
Which I dispersed, they all have met again;
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples;
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrecked
And his great person perish."

For nearly a year after the Sea-Venture's separation from the fleet, it was believed, in Virginia and in England, that she and her company were lost. Smith and Pocahontas may have suggested some materials for the characters of Ferdinand and Miranda.

Shakespeare, after abandoning the stage, in 1607 or 1608, about the time of the first landing at Jamestown, remained in London for some four or five years. Smith, and the early colonists of Virginia, had many of them probably witnessed the theatrical performances at the Globe or Black Fryars; Beggars' Bush, now Jordan's Point, an early plantation on the James River, derived its name from a comedy of Fletcher's. Shakespeare was, no doubt, quite familiar with the more remarkable incidents of the first settlement of the colony: the early voyages; the first discovery; the landing; Smith's rencontres with the Indians; his rescue by Pocahontas; the starving time, etc. Smith, indeed, as has been before mentioned, complained of his exploits and adventures having been misrepresented on the stage, in London. That Shakespeare makes few or no allusions to these incidents, is because they occurred after nearly all his plays had been composed. "The Tempest," however, was written several years after the landing at Jamestown, being one of his latest productions—a creation of his maturest intellect.

[102:A] Court and Times of James the First, 160.

[103:A] March 28th, 1611.

[106:A] Va. Hist. Reg., i. 161.

[106:B] Hist. of Va., i. 166.

[106:C] Hist. of Va., 124.

[106:D] Stith, 124; Keith, 124; Beverley, i. 25; South. Lit. Messr. for June, 1845; Hawks' Narrative, 29.

[106:E] It has been of late years printed for the first time by the Hakluyt Society in England. The work is illustrated by etchings, comprising fac-similes of signatures, Captain Smith's map, and several engravings from De Bry. It contains also a copious glossary of Indian words. The first book comprises the geography of the country, with a full and admirable account of the manners and customs of Powhatan and his people. It is an important authority, but as it was printed only for the use of the members of the Hakluyt Society, it is but little known in this country. The second book treats of Columbus, Vespucius, Cabot, Raleigh, and Drake, with notices of the early efforts to colonize Northern Virginia, or New England. The period to which Strachey's History of Virginia relates includes 1610, 1611, and 1612. The same author published a map of Virginia at Oxford, in 1612. Mr. Peter Force has a MS. copy of it.

[107:A] Smith, ii. 13.

[108:A] Court and Times of James the First, i. 262.

[109:A] Hen. Stat., i. 98; Stith, 126, and Appendix No. 3.

[109:B] A letter was written by Dale on the occasion, dated in June, 1614, and addressed to a friend in London; another of Rolfe to Dale, before mentioned, was published in London, 1615, by Ralph Hamor, in his work entitled, "A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia," etc.; Rev. Alexander Whitaker addressed a letter on the same subject to a cousin in London. These letters were republished in this country in 1842, in a pamphlet explanatory of Chapman's picture of the Baptism of Pocahontas.

[110:A] Stith, 131.

[110:B] Chalmers, Introduction, i. 10; Grahame's Colonial Hist. U. S., i. 64. Compare Belknap's Amer. Biog., ii. 151.

CHAPTER VIII.

1614-1617.

Hamor visits Powhatan—Richard Hakluyt—Pocahontas Baptized—Fixed Property in the Soil established—Dale Embarks for England accompanied by Pocahontas—Yeardley, Deputy Governor—Culture of Tobacco introduced—Pocahontas in England—Tomocomo—Death of Pocahontas—John and Thomas Rolfe—Smith and Pocahontas.

Ralph Hamor[112:A] having obtained permission from Sir Thomas Dale to visit Powhatan, and taking with him Thomas Savage, as interpreter, and two Indian guides, started from Bermuda (Hundred) in the morning, and reached Matchot (Eltham) on the evening of the next day. Powhatan recognizing the boy Thomas Savage, said to him: "My child, I gave you leave, being my boy, to go see your friends; and these four years I have not seen you nor heard of my own man, Namontack, I sent to England, though many ships have been returned from thence." Turning then to Hamor, he demanded the chain of beads which he had sent to Sir Thomas Dale at his first arrival, with the understanding that whenever he should send a messenger, he should wear that chain about his neck; otherwise he was to be bound, and sent home. Sir Thomas had made such an arrangement, and on this occasion had directed his page to give the necklace to Hamor; but the page had forgotten it. However, Hamor being accompanied by two of Powhatan's own people, he was satisfied, and conducted him to the royal cabin, where a guard of two hundred bowmen stood always in attendance. He offered his guest a pipe of tobacco, and then inquired after his brother, Sir Thomas Dale, and his daughter, Pocahontas, and his unknown son-in-law, Rolfe, and "how they lived and loved." Being answered that Pocahontas was so well satisfied, that she would never live with him again, he laughed, and demanded the object of his visit. Hamor gave him to understand that his message was private, to be made known only to him and to Papaschicher, one of the guides who was in the secret. Forthwith Powhatan ordered out all his people, except his two queens "that always sit by him," and bade Hamor deliver his message. He then, by his interpreter, let him know that Sir Thomas Dale had sent him pieces of copper, strings of white and blue beads, wooden combs, fish-hooks, and a pair of knives, and would give him a grindstone, when he would send for it; that his brother Dale, hearing of the charms of his younger daughter, desired that he would send her to Jamestown, as well because he intended to marry her, as on account of the desire of Pocahontas to see her, and he believed that there could be no better bond of peace and friendship than such a union. While Hamor was speaking, Powhatan repeatedly interrupted him, and when he had ended, the old chief replied: "I gladly accept your salute of love and peace which, while I live, I shall exactly keep. His pledges thereof I receive with no less thanks, although they are not so great as I have received before. But, for my daughter, I have sold her within these few days to a great werowance, three days journey from me, for two bushels of rawrenoke." Hamor: "I know your highness, by returning the rawrenoke, might call her back again, to gratify your brother, Sir Thomas Dale, and the rather because she is but twelve years old. Besides its forming a bond of peace, you shall have in return for her, three times the value of the rawrenoke, in beads, copper, and hatchets." Powhatan: "I love my daughter as my life, and though I have many children, I delight in none so much as her, and if I should not often see her I could not possibly live, and if she lived at Jamestown I could not see her, having resolved on no terms to put myself into your hands, or go among you. Therefore, I desire you to urge me no further, but return my brother this answer: I desire no firmer assurance of his friendship than the promise he hath made. From me he has a pledge, one of my daughters, which, so long as she lives, shall be sufficient; when she dies, he shall have another. I hold it not a brotherly part to desire to bereave me of my two children at once. Further, tell him that though he had no pledge at all, he need not fear any injury from me or my people; there have been too many of his men and mine slain; and, by my provocation, there never shall be any more, (I who have power to perform it, have said it,) even if I should have just cause, for I am now old, and would gladly end my days in peace; if you offer me injury, my country is large enough for me to go from you. This, I hope, will satisfy my brother. Now, since you are weary and I sleepy, we will here end." So Hamor and his companions lodged at Matchot that night. While there they saw William Parker, who had been captured three years before at Fort Henry. He had grown so like an Indian in complexion and manner, that his fellow-countrymen recognized him only by his language. He begged them to intercede for his release, but upon their undertaking it, Powhatan replied: "You have one of my daughters, and I am satisfied; but you cannot see one of your men with me, but you must have him away, or break friendship; but if you must needs have him, you shall go home without guides, and if any evil befall you, thank yourselves." They answered him that if any harm befell them he must expect revenge from his brother Dale. At this Powhatan, in a passion, left them; but returning to supper, he entertained them with a pleasant countenance. About midnight he awoke them, and promised to let them return in the morning with Parker, and charged them to remind his brother Dale to send him ten large pieces of copper, a shaving-knife, a frowl, a grindstone, a net, fish-hooks, and other such presents. Lest they might forget, he made them write down the list of articles in a blank book that he had. They requesting him to give them the book, he declined doing so, saying, "it did him much good to show it to strangers."[114:A]

During the year 1614 Sir Walter Raleigh published his "History of the World;" Captain John Smith made a voyage to North Virginia, and gave it the name of New England; and the Dutch, as already mentioned, effected a settlement near the site of Albany, on the Hudson River. Sir Thomas Gates, upon his return to England, reported that the plantation of Virginia would fall to the ground unless soon reinforced with supplies.[114:B] Martin, a lawyer, employed by the Virginia Company to recommend some measure to the House of Commons, having spoken disparagingly of that body, was arraigned at the bar of the House; but, upon making due acknowledgment upon his knees, was pardoned.[115:A] During this year died Richard Hakluyt, the compiler of a celebrated collection of voyages and discoveries. He was of an ancient family in Herefordshire, and, after passing some time at Westminster School, was elected to a studentship at Oxford, where he contracted a friendship with Sir Philip Sydney, to whom he inscribed his first collection of Voyages and Discoveries printed in 1582. Having imbibed a taste for the study of geography and cosmography from a cousin of the same name, a student of law at the Temple, he applied himself to that department of learning with diligence, and was at length appointed to lecture at the University on that subject. He contributed valuable aid in fitting out Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition. Soon after, taking holy orders, he proceeded to Paris as chaplain to Sir Edward Stafford, the English Ambassador. During his absence he was appointed to a prebendal stall at Bristol, and upon his return to England he frequently resided there. He was afterwards preferred to the rectory of Witheringset, in Suffolk. In 1615 he was appointed a prebendary of Westminster, and became a member of the council of the Virginia Company. He continued to watch over the affairs of the colony until his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Hakluyt's Voyages consist of five volumes, folio.

Pocahontas was now carefully instructed in the Christian religion, and such was the change wrought in her, that after some time she lost all desire to return to her father, and retained no longer any fondness for the rude society of her own people. She had already, before her marriage, openly renounced the idolatry of her country, confessed the faith of Christ, and had been baptized. Master Whitaker, the preacher, in a letter dated June 18th, 1614, expresses his surprise that so few of the English ministers, "that were so hot against the surplice and subscription," came over to Virginia, where neither was spoken of. At the end of June Captain Argall returned to England with tidings of the more auspicious state of affairs. The Virginia Company now proceeded to draw the lottery, which had been made up to promote the interests of the colony, and twenty-nine thousand pounds were thus contributed; but Parliament shortly after prohibited this pernicious practice. It has been said that this is the first instance of raising money in England by lottery;[116:A] but this is erroneous, for there had been a lottery drawn for the purpose of repairing the harbors of the kingdom as far back as 1569.[116:B]

The year 1615 is remarkable in Virginia history for the first establishment of a fixed property in the soil, fifty acres of land being granted by the company to every freeman in absolute right.[116:C] This salutary reform was brought about mainly by the influence of Sir Thomas Dale, one of the best of the early governors. Sir Thomas having now, after a stay of five years in Virginia, established good order at Jamestown, appointed George Yeardley to be deputy governor in his absence, and embarked for England, accompanied by John Rolfe and his wife, the Princess Pocahontas, and other Indians of both sexes. They arrived at Plymouth on the 12th of June, 1616, about six weeks after the death of Shakespeare, who died on the twenty-third of April. The arrival is thus noticed in a news-letter: "Sir Thomas Dale is arrived from Virginia, and brought with him some ten or twelve old and young of that country, among whom is Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, a king or cacique of that country, married to one Rolfe, an Englishman. I hear not of any other riches or matter of worth, but only some quantity of sassafras, tobacco, pitch, tar, and clapboard—things of no great value, unless there were plenty and nearer hand. All I can hear of it is, that the country is good to live in, if it were stored with people, and might in time become commodious. But there is no present profit to be expected."[116:D]

Reverting to the condition of affairs in the colony, it is to be observed, that the oligarchical government of the president and council, with all its odious features, had long before this come to an end; order and diligence had now taken the place of confusion and idleness; peace with the Indians had given rise to a free trade with them, and the English acquired their commodities by lawful purchase instead of extorting them by force of arms. The places inhabited by the whites, at this time, were Henrico and the limits, Bermuda Nether Hundred, West and Shirley Hundred, Jamestown, Kiquotan, and Dale's Gift. At Henrico there were thirty-eight men and boys, of whom twenty-two were farmers. The Rev. William Wickham was the minister of this place. It was the seat of the college established for the education of the natives; they had already brought hither some of their children, of both sexes, to be taught. At Bermuda Nether Hundred (Presquile) the number of inhabitants was one hundred and nineteen. Captain Yeardley, deputy governor, lived here for the most part. The minister here was Master Alexander Whitaker. At West and Shirley Hundred there were twenty-five men under Captain Madison. At Jamestown fifty, under Captain Francis West; the Rev. Mr. Bucke minister. At Kiquotan Captain Webb commanded; Rev. Mr. Mease the minister. Dale's Gift, on the sea-coast, near Cape Charles, was occupied by seventeen men under Lieutenant Cradock. The total population of the colony, at this time, was three hundred and fifty-one.[117:A] Yeardley directed the attention of the colony to tobacco, as the most saleable commodity that they could raise, and its cultivation was introduced into Virginia in this year, 1616, for the first time. The English now found the climate to suit their constitutions so well, that fewer people died here in proportion than in England. The Chickahominies refusing to pay the tribute of corn agreed upon by the treaty, Yeardley went up their river with one hundred men, and, after killing some and making some prisoners, brought off much of their corn. On his return he met Opechancanough at Ozinies, about twelve miles above the mouth of the Chickahominy. In this expedition Henry Spilman, who had been rescued from death by Pocahontas, now a captain, acted as interpreter.

In the mean time Pocahontas was kindly received in London; by the care of her husband and friends she was, by this time, taught to speak English intelligibly; her manners received the softening influence of English refinement, and her mind was enlightened by the truths of religion. Having given birth to a son, the Virginia Company provided for the maintenance of them both, and many persons of quality were very kind to her. Before she reached London, Captain Smith, who was well acquainted at court, and in especial favor with Prince Charles, in requital for her former preservation of his life, had prepared an account of her in a small book, and he presented it to Queen Anne. But, at this time, being about to embark for New England, he could not pay her such attentions as he desired and she well deserved. Nevertheless, learning that she was staying at Brentford, where she had repaired in order to avoid the smoke of the city, he went, accompanied by several friends, to see her. After a modest salutation, without uttering a word, she turned away, and hid her face, as if offended. In that posture she remained for two or three hours, her husband and Smith and the rest of the company having, in the mean while, gone out of the room, and Smith now regretting that he had written to the queen that Pocahontas could speak English. At length she began to talk, and she reminded Captain Smith of the kindness she had shown him in her own country, saying: "You did promise Powhatan what was yours should be his, and he the like to you; you called him father, being in his land a stranger, and for the same reason so I must call you." But Smith, on account of the king's overweening and preposterous jealousy of the royal prerogative, felt constrained to decline the appellation of "father," for she was "a king's daughter." She then exclaimed, with a firm look: "Were you not afraid to come into my father's country, and cause fear in him and all his people (but me,) and fear you here that I should call you father? I tell you then I will, and you shall call me child, and I will be forever and ever your countrywoman. They did tell us always you were dead, and I knew no other till I came to Plymouth; yet Powhatan did command Uttomattomakkin to seek you, and know the truth, because your countrymen will lie much." It is remarkable that Rolfe, her husband, must have been privy to the deception thus practised on her; are we to attribute this to his secret apprehension that she would never marry him until she believed that Smith was dead?

Tomocomo, or Uttamattomakkin, or Uttamaccomack, husband of Matachanna, one of Powhatan's daughters, being a priest, and esteemed a wise and knowing one among his people, Powhatan, or, as Sir Thomas Dale supposed, Opechancanough, had sent him out to England, in company of Pocahontas, to number the people there, and bring back to him an account of that country. Upon landing at Plymouth he provided himself, according to his instructions, with a long stick, and undertook, by notching it, to keep a tally of all the men he could see; but he soon grew weary of the task, and gave it out in despair. Meeting with Captain Smith in London, Uttamattomakkin told him that Powhatan had ordered him to seek him out, that he might show him the English God, the king, queen, and prince. Being informed that he had already seen the king, he denied it; but on being convinced of it, he said: "You gave Powhatan a white dog, which Powhatan fed as himself; but your king gave me nothing, and I am better than your white dog." On his return to Virginia, when Powhatan interrogated him as to the number of people in England, he is said to have replied: "Count the stars in the heavens, the leaves on the trees, the sands on the sea-shore." Whether this and other such figurative expressions attributed to the Indians, were actually uttered by them, or whether they have received some poetical embellishment in the course of interpretation, the judicious reader may determine for himself.

During Smith's brief stay in London, many courtiers and others of his acquaintance daily called upon him for the purpose of being introduced to Pocahontas, and they expressed themselves satisfied that the hand of Providence was manifest in her conversion, and declared that they had seen many English ladies worse favored, proportioned, and behaviored. She was presented at Court by Lady Delaware, attended by the lord her husband, and other persons of quality, and was graciously received. Her modest, dignified, and graceful deportment, excited the admiration of all, and she received the particular attentions of the king and queen.

It is said, upon the authority of a well-established tradition, that King James was at first greatly offended at Rolfe for having presumed to marry a princess without his consent; but that upon a fuller representation of the matter, his majesty was pleased to express himself satisfied. There is hardly any folly so foolish but that it may have been committed by "the wisest fool in Christendom."

"The Virginia woman, Pocahontas, with her father counsellor, have been with the king, and graciously used, and both she and her assistant well placed at the masque."[120:A] She was styled the "Lady Pocahontas," and carried herself "as the daughter of a king." Lady Delaware and other noble persons waited on her to masquerades, balls, plays, and other public entertainments. Purchas, the compiler of Voyages and Travels, was present at an entertainment given in honor of her by the Bishop of London, Doctor King, which exceeded in pomp and splendor any other entertainment of the kind that the author of "The Pilgrim" had ever witnessed there.

Sir Walter Raleigh, after thirteen years' confinement in the Tower, had been released on the seventeenth of March preceding, and, upon gaining his liberty, he went about the city looking at the changes that had occurred since his imprisonment. It is not improbable that he may have seen Pocahontas.

Early in 1617 John Rolfe prepared to embark for Virginia, with his wife and child, in Captain Argall's vessel, the George. Pocahontas was reluctant to return. On the eve of her embarkation it pleased God to take her unexpectedly from the world. She died at Gravesend, on the Thames, in the latter part of March. As her life had been sweet and lovely, so her death was serene, and crowned with the hopes of religion.

"The Virginia woman, whose picture I sent you, died this last week at Gravesend, as she was returning home."[120:B] The parish register of burials at Gravesend, in the County of Kent, contains the following entry: "1616, March 21, Rebecca Wrothe, wyffe of Thomas Wrothe, Gent. A Virginia Lady borne, was buried in the Chancell." The date, 1616, corresponds with the historical year 1617. It appears that there was formerly a family of the name of Wrothe resident near Gravesend. This name might therefore easily be confounded with that of Rolfe, the sound being similar. Nor is the mistake of Thomas for John at all improbable. Gravesend Church, in which Pocahontas was buried, was destroyed by fire in 1727, and no monument to her memory remains, if any ever existed.[121:A]

According to Strachey, a good authority, the Indians had several different names given them at different times, and Powhatan called his favorite daughter when quite young, Pocahontas, that is, "Little Wanton," but at a riper age she was called Amonate. According to Stith,[121:B] her real name was Matoax, which the people of her nation concealed from the English, and changed it to Pocahontas from a superstitious fear, lest, knowing her true name, they should do her some injury. Others suppose Matoax to have been her individual name, Pocahontas her title. After her conversion she was baptized by the name of Rebecca, and she was sometimes styled the "Lady Rebecca." The ceremony of her baptism has been made the subject of a picture, (by Chapman,) exhibited in the rotundo of the Capitol at Washington.

Of the brothers of Pocahontas, Nantaquaus, or Nantaquoud, is especially distinguished for having shown Captain Smith "exceeding great courtesy," interceding with his father, Powhatan, in behalf of the captive, and he was the "manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit," Smith ever saw in a savage.

Of the sisters of Pocahontas two are particularly mentioned, Cleopatre and Matachanna. Strachey has recorded the names of the numerous wives and children of Powhatan, the greater part of which are harsh and guttural, and apparently almost incapable of being pronounced by the vocal organs of civilized man.

Smith says that Pocahontas, "with her wild train, visited Jamestown as freely as her father's habitation." In these visits she had to cross the York River, some two miles wide, in a canoe, ("quintan" in the Powhatan language,) and then walk some ten or twelve miles across to Jamestown. She is described as "being of a great spirit, however her stature;" from which it may be inferred that she was below the middle height.[122:A] She died at the age of twenty-two, having been born about the year 1595. Her infant son, Thomas Rolfe, was left for a time at Plymouth, under the care of Sir Lewis Stukely, Vice-Admiral of Devon, who afterwards, by his base treachery toward Sir Walter Raleigh, covered himself with infamy, and by dishonest and criminal practices reduced himself to beggary. The son of Pocahontas was subsequently removed to London, where he was educated under the care of his uncle, Henry Rolfe, a merchant.[122:B]

Thomas Rolfe came to Virginia and became a person of fortune and note in the colony. It has been said that he married in England a Miss Poyers; however that may have been, he left an only daughter, Jane Rolfe, who married Colonel Robert Bolling. He lies buried at Farmingdale, in the County of Prince George.[122:C] This Colonel Robert Bolling was the son of John and Mary Bolling, of Alhallows, Barkin Parish, Tower Street, London. He was born in December, 1646, and came to Virginia in October, 1660, and died in July, 1709, aged sixty-two years. Colonel Robert Bolling, and Jane Rolfe, his wife, left an only son, Major John Bolling, father of Colonel John Bolling and several daughters, who married respectively, Col. Richard Randolph, Colonel John Fleming, Doctor William Gay, Mr. Thomas Eldridge, and Mr. James Murray.

Censure is sometimes cast upon Captain Smith for having failed to marry Pocahontas; but history no where gives any just ground for such a reproach. The rescue of Smith took place in the winter of 1607, when he was twenty-eight years of age, and she only twelve or thirteen.[123:A] Smith left Virginia early in 1609, and never returned. Pocahontas was then about fourteen years of age; but if she had been older, it would have been impossible for him to marry her unless by kidnapping her, as was done by the unscrupulous Argall some years afterwards—a measure which, if it had been adopted in 1609, when the colony was so feeble, and so rent by faction, would probably have provoked the vengeance of Powhatan, and overwhelmed the plantation in premature ruin. It was in 1612 that Argall captured Pocahontas on the banks of the Potomac, and from the departure of Smith until this time she never had been seen at Jamestown, but had lived on the distant banks of the Potomac. In the spring of 1613 it is stated, that long before that time "Mr. John Rolfe had been in love with Pocahontas, and she with him." This attachment must, therefore, have been formed immediately after her capture, if it did not exist before; and the marriage took place in April, 1613. It is true that Pocahontas had been led to believe that Smith was dead, and in practising this deception upon her, Rolfe must have been a party; but Smith was in no manner whatever privy to it; he cherished for her a friendship animated by the deepest emotions of gratitude; and friendship, according to Spenser, a cotemporary poet, is a more exalted sentiment than love.

Pocahontas appears to have regarded Smith with a sort of filial affection, and she accordingly said to him, in the interview at Brentford, "I tell you then, I will call you father, and you shall call me child." The delusion practised on her relative to Smith's death would, indeed, seem to argue an apprehension on the part of Rolfe and his friends that she would not marry another while Smith was alive, and the particular circumstances of the interview at Brentford would seem to confirm the existence of such an apprehension. Yet, however that may have been, the honor and integrity of Smith remain untarnished.

FOOTNOTES:

[112:A] Smith, ii. 19. There appears to be a mistake in affixing William Parker's name to the account of this visit, for it was evidently written by Hamor.

[114:A] Smith, ii. 21.

[114:B] Court and Times of James the First, i. 311.

[115:A] Court and Times of James the First, i. 317.

[116:A] Chalmers' Annals, 33.

[116:B] Anderson's Hist. Col. Church, i. 27, in note.

[116:C] Chalmers' Introduc., i. 10.

[116:D] Court and Times of James the First, i. 415.

[117:A] Sir Thomas Dale, at one haul with a seine, had caught five thousand fish, three hundred of which were as large as cod, and the smallest of the others a kind of salmon-trout, two feet long. He durst not adventure on the main school, for fear it would destroy his nets.

[120:A] Court and Times of James the First, i. 388.

[120:B] Letter of John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, dated at London, March, 1617, in Court and Times of James the First, ii. 3.

[121:A] Letter of C. W. Martin, Leeds Castle, England, to Conway Robinson, Esq., in Va. Hist. Reg, ii. 187.

[121:B] Stith, 136 and 285.

[122:A] Smith, ii. 31; Beverley, B. i. 27.

[122:B] Stith, 144; Beverley, B. i. 34.

[122:C] Of Farmingdale, or Farmingdell, John Randolph of Roanoke said, in a letter dated 1832: "But the true name is Kippax, called after the village of Kippax and Kippax Park, adjacent thereto, the seat of my maternal ancestors, the Blands, of the West Riding of York." Bland, of Kippax, County York, anciently seated at Bland's Gill, in that county, was raised to the degree of baronet in 1642. The present representative (1854) is Thomas Davison Bland, of Kippax Park, Esq. Gill signifies dell or valley.

[123:A] Inscription of date on Smith's likeness, prefixed to his history; Stith, 55, 127.

CHAPTER IX.

1617-1618.

Argall, Governor—Condition of Jamestown—Death of Lord Delaware—Name of Delaware River—Argall's Martial Law—Brewster's Case—Argall leaves Virginia—His Character—Powhatan's Death—His Name, Personal Appearance, Dominions, Manner of Life, Character—Succeeded by Opitchapan.

Lord Rich, an unscrupulous and corrupt head of a faction in the Virginia Company, having entered into partnership with Captain Samuel Argall, (a relative of Sir Thomas Smith, the Treasurer or Governor of the Company,) by his intrigues contrived to have him elected Deputy-Governor of Virginia and Admiral of that country and the seas adjoining. He sailed for Virginia early in 1617, accompanied by Ralph Hamor, his vice-admiral, and arrived at Jamestown in May. Argall was welcomed by Captain Yeardley and his company, the right file of which was led by an Indian. At Jamestown were found but five or six habitable houses, the church fallen, the palisades broken, the bridge foundrous, the well spoiled, the storehouse used for a church; the market-place, streets, and other vacant ground planted with tobacco; the savages as frequent in the houses as the English, who were dispersed about as each man could find a convenient place for planting corn and tobacco. Tomocomo, who (together with the other Indians that had gone out to England in the suite of Pocahontas, as may be presumed, although the fact is not expressly mentioned,) had returned with Argall, was immediately, upon his arrival, sent to Opechancanough, who came to Jamestown, and received a present with great joy and thankfulness. But Tomocomo denounced England and the English in bitter terms, especially Sir Thomas Dale. Powhatan having some time before this resigned the cares of government into the hands of Opechancanough, went about from place to place, still continuing in friendship with the English, but greatly lamenting the death of Pocahontas. He rejoiced, nevertheless, that her child was living, and he and Opechancanough both expressed much desire to see him. During this year a Mr. Lambert introduced the method of curing tobacco on lines instead of in heaps, as had been the former practice.[125:A] Argall's energetic measures procured from the Indians, by trade, a supply of corn. The whole number of colonists now was about four hundred, with numerous cattle, goats, and swine. The corn contributed to the public store was about four hundred and fifty bushels, and from the tributary Indians seven hundred and fifty, being considerably less than the usual quantity. Of the "Company's company" there remained not more than fifty-four, including men, women, and children. Drought, and a storm that poured down hailstones eight or nine inches in circumference, greatly damaged the crops of corn and tobacco.

The following is found among the early records:—

"By the Admiral, etc.

"To all to whom these presents shall come, I, Samuel Argall, Esq., admiral, and for the time present principal Governor of Virginia, send greeting in our Lord God everlasting, si'thence in all places of wars and garrison towns, it is most expedient and necessary to have an honest and careful provost marshall, to whose charge and safe custody all delinquents and prisoners of what nature or quality soever their offences be, are to be committed; now know ye that for the honesty, sufficiency, and carefulness in the execution and discharge of the said office, which I conceived of William Cradock, I do by these presents nominate, constitute, ordain, and appoint the said William Cradock to be provost marshall of the Bermuda City, and of all the Hundred thereto belonging, giving and granting unto the said William Cradock, all power and authority to execute all such offices, duties, and commands belonging to the said place of provost marshall; with all privileges, rights, and preëminences thereunto belonging, and in all cases which require his speedy execution of his said office, by virtue of these presents, he shall require all captains, officers, soldiers, or any other members of this colony, to be aiding and assisting to him, to oppose all mutinies, factions, rebellions, and all other discords contrary to the quiet and peaceable government of this Commonwealth, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.

"Given at Bermuda City this twentieth of February, in the 15th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord James, by the Grace of God, King of England, and of Scotland the 51st, and in the 11th year of this Plantation. Anno Domini, 1617.

"Extract and recorded per John Rolf, Sec'y and Recorder Genl.

["Copia. Test. R. Hickman, Ck. Secy's office.">[

To reinforce the colony the Company sent out a vessel of two hundred and fifty tons, well stored, with two hundred and fifty people, under command of Lord Delaware. They set sail in April, 1618; during the voyage thirty died, and among them Lord Delaware, a generous friend of the colony. The intelligence of his death reached London October fifth. Stith[126:A] says: "And I think I have somewhere seen that he died about the mouth of Delaware Bay, which thence took its name from him." Stith fell into a mistake on this point, and Belknap, equally distinguished for his general accuracy, has followed him.[126:B] Delaware Bay (the mouth of the river called by the Indians Chihohocki) and River were named as early as 1611, when Lord Delaware put in there, during his homeward voyage.[126:C] According to Strachey, the bay was discovered in 1610, by Captain Argall, and he named Cape Delaware, "where he caught halibut, cod, and ling fish, and brought some of them to Jamestown."

His lordship's family name was West, and persons descended from the same stock are yet found in Virginia bearing the name. West-Point, at the head of York, derived its name from the same source, and it was at first called Delaware. Lord Delaware married, in 1602, the daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley, of Whiston; and, perhaps, the name of Shirley, the ancient seat on James River, may be traced to this source.

Martial law had already been established in Virginia by Dale; Argall came over invested with powers to make the government still more arbitrary and despotic, and bent upon acquiring gain by all possible means of extortion and oppression. He decreed that goods should be sold at an advance of twenty-five per cent., and tobacco rated at the Procrustean value of three shillings—the penalty for rating it either higher or lower being three years slavery to the colony; that there should be no trade or intercourse with the Indians, and that none of them should be taught the use of fire-arms; the penalty for violating which ordinance was death to teacher and learner. Yet it has been contended by some, that the use of fire-arms by the savages hastened their extermination, because they thus became dependent on the whites for arms and ammunition; when their guns came to be out of order they became useless to them, for they wanted the skill to repair them; and, lastly, fire-arms in their hands when effective, were employed by hostile tribes in mutual destruction.

"The white faith of history cannot show
That e'er a musket yet could beat a bow."[127:A]

Argall also issued edicts that no one should hunt deer or hogs without his leave; that no man should fire a gun before a new supply of ammunition, except in self-defence, on pain of a year's slavery; absence from church on Sundays or holidays, was punished by confinement for the night and one week's slavery to the colony; for the second offence the offender should be a slave for a month; and for the third, for a year and a day. Several of these regulations were highly judicious, but the penalties of some of them were excessive and barbarous, and the vigorous enforcement of these, and his oppressive proceedings, rendered Argall odious to the colony, and a report of his tyranny and extortions having reached England, Sir Thomas Smith, Alderman Johnson, deputy treasurer, Sir Lionel Cranfield, and others of the council, addressed a letter dated August 23, 1618, to him, in which they recapitulated a series of charges against him of dishonesty, corruption, and oppression. At the same time a letter, of the same purport, was written to Lord Delaware, and he was told, that such was the indignation felt by the stockholders in the Virginia Company against Argall that they could hardly be restrained from going to the king, although on a distant progress, and procuring his majesty's command for recalling him as a malefactor. The letter contained further instructions to Lord Delaware to seize upon all the goods and property in Argall's possession. These letters, by Lord Delaware's death, fell into Argall's hands, and finding his sand running low, he determined to make the best of his remaining time, and so he multiplied his exactions, and grew more tyrannical than ever. The case of Edward Brewster was a remarkable instance of this. A person of good repute in the colony, he had the management of Lord Delaware's estate. Argall, without any rightful authority, removed the servants from his lordship's land, and employed them on his own. Brewster endeavored to make them return, and upon this being flatly refused by one of them, threatened him with the consequences of his contumacy. Brewster was immediately arrested by Argall's order, charged with sedition and mutiny, and condemned to death by a court-martial. The members of the court, however, and some of the clergy, shocked at such a conviction, interceded earnestly for his pardon, and Argall reluctantly granted it on condition that Brewster should depart from Virginia, with an oath never to return, and never to say or do anything to the disparagement of the deputy governor. Brewster, nevertheless, upon his return to England, discarding the obligation of an oath extorted under duress, appealed to the Company against the tyranny of the deputy governor, and the inhuman sentence was reversed. John Rolfe, a friend of Argall, made light of the affair.[128:A]

During this year, 1618, a ship called the Treasurer was sent out from England by Lord Rich, who had now become Earl of Warwick, a person of great note afterwards in the civil wars, and commander of the fleet against the king. This ship was manned with recruits from the colony, and dispatched on a semi-piratical cruise in the West Indies, where she committed some depredations on the Spanish possessions.

Upon receiving intelligence of the death of Lord Delaware, the Virginia Company appointed Captain George Yeardley, who was knighted upon this occasion, Governor and Captain-General of Virginia. Before his arrival in the colony Argall embarked for England, in a vessel laden with his effects, and being a relation of Sir Thomas Smith, and a partner in trade of the profligate Earl of Warwick, he escaped with impunity. In 1620 Argall commanded a ship-of-war in an expedition fitted out against the Algerines, and in 1623 was knighted by King James. Argall's character has been variously represented; he appears to have been an expert mariner of talents, courage, enterprise, and energy, but selfish, avaricious, unscrupulous, arbitrary and cruel.

In April, 1618, Powhatan died, being upwards of seventy years of age. He was, perhaps, so called from one of his places of residence;[129:A] he was also sometimes styled Ottaniack, and sometimes Mamanatowick,[129:B] but his proper name was Wahunsonacock. The country subject to him was called Powhatan, as was likewise the chief river, and his subjects were called Powhatans. His hereditary domain consisted only of Powhatan, Arrohattox, Appamatuck, Youghtanund, Pamunkey, and Matapony, together with Werowocomoco and Kiskiack. All the rest were his conquests, and they consisted of the country on the James River and its branches, from its mouth to the falls, and thence across the country to the north, nearly as high as the falls of all the great rivers over the Potomac, as far as to the Patuxent in Maryland. Some nations on the Eastern Shore also owned subjection to this mighty werowance. In each of his several hereditary dominions he had houses built like arbors, thirty or forty feet long, and whenever he was about to visit one of these, it was supplied beforehand with provision for his entertainment. The English first met with him at a place of his own name, (which it still retains,) a short distance below the falls of James River, where now stands the picturesque City of Richmond.[129:C] His favorite residence was Werowocomoco, on the east bank of what is now known as Timberneck Bay, on York River, in the County of Gloucester; but in his latter years, disrelishing the increasing proximity of the English, he withdrew himself to Orapakes, a hunting-town in the "desert," as it was called, more properly the wilderness, between the Chickahominy and the Pamunkey. It is not improbable that he died and was buried there, for a mile from Orapakes, in the midst of the woods, he had a house where he kept his treasure of furs, copper, pearl, and beads, "which he storeth up against the time of his death and burial."[130:A] This place is about twelve miles northeast from Richmond.

At the time of the first settlement of the colony, Powhatan was usually attended, especially when asleep, by a body-guard of fifty tall warriors; he afterwards augmented the number to about two hundred. He had as many wives as he pleased, and when tired of any one of them, he bestowed her on some favorite. In the year 1608, by treachery, he surprised the Payanketanks, his own subjects, while asleep in their cabins, massacred twenty-four men, and made prisoners their werowance with the women and children, who were reduced to slavery. Captain Smith, himself a prisoner, saw at Werowocomoco the scalps of the slain suspended on a line between two trees. Powhatan caused certain malefactors to be bound hand and foot, then a great quantity of burning coals to be collected from a number of fires, and raked round in the form of a cock-pit, and the victims of his barbarity thrown in the midst and burnt to death.[130:B] He was not entirely destitute of some better qualities; in him some touches of princely magnanimity are curiously blended with huckstering cunning, and the tenderness of a doating father with the cruelty of an unrelenting despot.

Powhatan was succeeded by his second brother, Opitchapan, sometimes called Itopatin, or Oeatan, who, upon his accession, again changed his name to Sasawpen; as Opechancanough, upon the like occasion, changed his to Mangopeomen. Opitchapan being decrepid in body and inert in mind, was in a short time practically superseded in the government by his younger, bolder, and more ambitious brother, the famous Opechancanough; though for a time he was content to be styled the Werowance of Chickahominy. Both renewed the assurances of continued friendship with the English.

FOOTNOTES:

[125:A] Stith, 147.

[126:A] Stith, 147.

[126:B] Belknap, ii. 115.

[126:C] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, i. 271-311.

[127:A] Cited in Logan's Scottish Gaël, 223.

[128:A] Smith, ii. 37.

[129:A] Stith, 53.

[129:B] Strachey.

[129:C] In an act, dated 1705, found in the old "Laws of Virginia," mention is made of a ferry from Powhatantown to the landing at Swineherd's. The site of this Powhatantown is on the upper part of Flower de Hundred Plantation. Numerous Indian relics have been found there, and earthworks, evidently thrown up for fortification, are still extant. The name of Powhatantown was given to this spot by the whites. Near Jamestown is the extensive Powhatan Swamp.

[130:A] Smith, i. 143.

[130:B] Smith, i. 144.

CHAPTER X.

Sir Walter Raleigh—His Birth and Parentage—Student at Oxford—Enlists in Service of Queen of Navarre—His stay in France—Returns to England—At the Middle Temple—Serves in Netherlands and Ireland—Returns to England—His Gallantry—Undertakes Colonization of Virginia—Member of Parliament—Knighted—In Portuguese Expedition—Loses Favor at Court—Retires to Ireland—Spenser—Sir Walter in the Tower—His Flattery of the Queen—She grants him the Manor of Sherborne—His Expedition to Guiana—Joins Expedition against Cadiz—Wounded—Makes another Voyage to Guiana—Restored to Queen's Favor—Contributes to Defeat of Treason of Essex—Raleigh made Governor of Jersey—His Liberal Sentiments—Elizabeth's Death—Accession of James the First—Raleigh confined in the Tower—Found guilty of High Treason—Reprieved—Still a Prisoner in the Tower—Devotes himself to Study—His Companions—His "History of the World"—Lady Raleigh's Petition—Raleigh Released—His Last Expedition to Guiana—Its Failure—His Son killed—Sir Walter's Return to England—His Arrest, Condemnation, Execution, Character.

During the same year, 1618, died the founder of Virginia colonization, the famous Sir Walter Raleigh. He was born at Hayes, a farm in the Parish of Budley, Devonshire, 1552, being the fourth son of Walter Raleigh, Esq., of Fardel, near Plymouth, and Catharine, daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, and widow of Otho Gilbert, of Compton, Devonshire. After passing some time at Oriel College, Oxford, about the year 1568, where he distinguished himself by his genius and attainments, at the age of seventeen he joined a volunteer company of gentlemen, under Henry Champernon, in an expedition to assist the Protestant Queen of Navarre. He remained in France five years, and while in Paris, under the protection of the English embassy, he witnessed the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. On returning to England he was for a while in the Middle Temple; but whether as a student is uncertain. His leisure hours were devoted to poetry. In the year 1578 he accompanied Sir John Norris to the Netherlands. In the following year he joined in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's first and unsuccessful voyage. Now, when at the age of twenty-seven, it is said that of the twenty-four hours he allotted four to study and only five to sleep; but this is rather improbable, for so much activity of employment as always characterized him, demanded a proportionate degree of repose. In 1580 he served in Ireland as captain of horse, under Lord Grey, and became familiar with the dangers and atrocities of civil war. In 1581, the following year, he became acquainted with the poet Spenser, then resident at Kilcolman. Disgusted with a painful service, Raleigh returned to England during this year, and it was at this period that he exhibited a famous piece of gallantry to the queen. She, in a walk, coming to a "plashy place," hesitated to proceed, when he "cast and spread his new plush cloak on the ground" for her to tread on. By his graceful wit and fascinating manners, he rose rapidly in Elizabeth's favor, and "she took him for a kind of oracle." His munificent and persevering efforts in the colonization of Virginia ought to have moderated the too sweeping charge of levity and fickleness brought against him by Hume.

During the year 1583 Raleigh became member of Parliament for Devonshire; was knighted, and made Seneschal of Cornwall and Warden of the Stanneries. Engaged in the expedition whose object was to place Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal, Sir Walter for his good conduct received a gold chain from the queen. The rivalship of the Earl of Essex having driven Raleigh into temporary exile in Ireland, he there renewed his acquaintance with the author of the "Faëry Queen," who accompanied him on his return to England.

Sir Walter was arrested in 1592, and confined in the Tower, on account of a criminal intrigue with one of the maids of honor, who was imprisoned at the same time; and this incident is alluded to in Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel." The lady was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and a celebrated beauty, whom Raleigh afterwards married. In a letter written from the Tower, and addressed to Sir Robert Cecil, Raleigh indulged in a vein of extravagant flattery of the queen: "I that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus—the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks like a nymph; sometime sitting in the shade like a goddess; sometime singing like an angel; sometime playing like Orpheus." Elizabeth was at this time about sixty years old.

In 1593 she granted him the Manor of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire. About this period he distinguished himself in the House of Commons. In 1595 he commanded an expedition to Guiana, in quest of the golden El Dorado, and another in the following year. In an expedition against Cadiz he led the van in action, and received a severe wound in the leg. Upon his return to England he embarked in his third voyage to Guiana. In 1597 he was restored to his place of captain of the guard, and entirely reinstated in the queen's favor.

Essex having engaged in a rash treasonable conspiracy, the object of which was to seize upon the queen's person, so as thereby to control the government, Raleigh aided in defeating his designs. But after the execution of his popular rival, Raleigh's fortune began to wane. Nevertheless, in 1600 he was made Governor of the Isle of Jersey. In the following year, in a speech made in Parliament on an act for sowing hemp, Sir Walter said: "For my part, I do not like this constraining of men to manure or use their grounds at our wills, but rather let every man use his ground to that which it is most fit for, and therein use his discretion." Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, and Raleigh's happiness ended with her life.

James the First came to the throne of Great Britain prejudiced against Raleigh. He was also at this time extremely unpopular, and especially odious to the friends of the highly gifted, but rash and unfortunate Earl of Essex. In three months after the arrival of King James in England, Sir Walter was arrested on a charge of high treason, in conspiring with the Lords Cobham and Grey to place the Lady Arabella Stuart on the throne. Arraigned on charges frivolous and contradictory, tried under circumstances of insult and oppression, he was found guilty without any sufficient evidence. By their conduct on this occasion, Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice Popham, and Sir Robert Cecil proved themselves fit tools for the abject and heartless James. Raleigh, though reprieved, remained a prisoner in the Tower at the king's mercy.

Lady Raleigh and her son were not excluded from the Tower, and Carew, the youngest, was born there. During his long confinement, Sir Walter devoted himself to literature and science, and enjoyed the society of a few friends, among them Hariot and the Earl of Northumberland, who was likewise a State prisoner. Sir Walter was also frequently visited by Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, who was devotedly attached to him, and who said that "none but his father would keep such a bird in a cage." Prince Charles, on the contrary, appears to have entertained a strong dislike to him. In the Tower Raleigh composed his great work, the "History of the World," the first volume of which appeared in the year 1614; it extended from the creation to the close of the Macedonian war, and embraced a period of about four thousand years. It was dedicated to Prince Henry. Raleigh intended to compose two other volumes, but owing to the untimely death of that prince, and to the suppression of it by King James, on the ground that it censured princes too freely, and perhaps to the magnitude of the task, he proceeded no further than the first volume. Oliver Cromwell recommended this work to his son.

During his confinement the king gave away Raleigh's estate of Sherborne to his favorite, Sir Robert Carr, afterwards the infamous Viscount Rochester and Earl of Somerset, who swayed the influence at Court from 1611 to 1615, when he was supplanted by the equally corrupt George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

When Lady Raleigh, with her children around her, kneeling in tears, besought James to restore this estate, the only answer she received was, "I maun have the land, I maun have it for Carr." At length, owing in part to the death of some of his enemies, and in part to the influence of money, Sir Walter Raleigh was released from the Tower for the purpose of making another voyage to Guiana. The expedition failed in its object, and Sir Walter, after losing his son in an action with the Spaniards, returned to England, where he was arrested.

James was now wholly bent on effecting a match between his son, Prince Charles, afterwards Charles the First, and the Spanish Infanta, and to gratify the Court of Spain and his own malignity, he resolved to sacrifice Raleigh. He was condemned, after a most eloquent defence, under the old conviction of 1603, notwithstanding that he had been recently commissioned commander of a fleet and Governor of Guiana, which had unquestionably annulled that conviction. "He was condemned (said his son Carew) for being a friend of the Spaniards, and lost his life for being their bitter enemy."

Queen Anne, then in declining health, interceded for him, not long before his execution, in the following note, addressed to the Marquis of Buckingham:—

"My Kind Dog:—

"If I have any power or credit with you, in dealing sincerely and earnestly with the king, that Sir Walter Raleigh's life may not be called in question. If you do it so that the success answer my expectation, assure yourself that I will take it extraordinarily kindly at your hands, and rest one that wisheth you well, and desires you to continue still (as you have been) a true servant to your master.

"ANNE R."[136:A]

Sir Walter Raleigh was executed on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1618, in the Old Palace Yard. He died with Christian heroism. Distinguished as a navigator and discoverer, a naval and military commander, an author in prose and verse, a wit, a courtier, a statesman and philosopher, there is perhaps in English history no name associated with such lofty and versatile genius, so much glorious action, and so much wise reflection. He was indeed proud, fond of splendor, of a restless and fiery ambition, sometimes unscrupulous. An ardent imagination, excited by the enthusiasm of an extraordinary age, infused an extravagance and marvellousness into some of his relations of his voyages and discoveries, that gave some occasion for distrust. The ardor of his temperament and an over-excited imagination involved him in several projects that terminated unhappily. But with his weaknesses and his faults he united noble virtues, and Virginia will ever be proud of so illustrious a founder.[136:B]

The Queen Anne, of Denmark, who had in vain employed her kind offices in his behalf, did not long survive him; she died in March, 1619. Without any extraordinary qualities, she was accomplished, distinguished for the easy elegance of her manners, amiable, and the generous friend of the oppressed and unfortunate.

FOOTNOTES:

[136:A] Miss Strickland's Lives of Queens of England, vii. 357.

[136:B] Oldy's Life of Raleigh, 74; Belknap, i. art. Raleigh, 289, 370; "A Brief Relation of Sir Walter Raleigh's Troubles," Harleian Mis., No. 100. There are also lives of Raleigh by Birch, Cayley, Southey, and Mrs. Thompson.

CHAPTER XI.

1619.

Sir Edwin Sandys, Treasurer of London Company—Powell, Deputy Governor—Sir George Yeardley, Governor—First Assembly meets—Its Proceedings.

Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer or Governor of the Virginia Company, was displaced in 1618, and succeeded by Sir Edwin Sandys.[138:A] This enlightened statesman and exemplary man was born in Worcestershire, in 1561, being the second son of the Archbishop of York. Educated at Oxford under the care of "the judicious Hooker," he obtained a prebend in the church of York. He afterwards travelled in foreign countries, and published his observations in a work entitled "Europæ Speculum, or a View of the State of Religion in the Western World." He resigned his prebend in 1602, was subsequently knighted by James, in 1603, and employed in diplomatic trusts. His appointment as treasurer gave great satisfaction to the colony; for free principles were now, under his auspices, in the ascendant. His name is spelt sometimes Sandis, sometimes Sands. Sir Thomas Smith was shortly after reappointed, by the Virginia Company, President of the Somers Islands.

When Argall, in April, stole away from Virginia, he left for his deputy, Captain Nathaniel Powell,[138:B] who had come over with Captain Smith in 1607, and had evinced courage and discretion. He was one of the writers from whose narratives Smith compiled his General History. Powell held his office only about ten days, when Sir George Yeardley, recently knighted, arrived as Governor-General, bringing with him new charters for the colony. He added to the council Captain Francis West, Captain Nathaniel Powell, John Rolfe, William Wickham, and Samuel Macock.[139:A] John Rolfe, who had been secretary, now lost his place, probably owing to his connivance at Argall's malepractices, and was succeeded by John Pory. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts, in April, 1610. It is supposed that he was a member of the House of Commons. He was much of a traveller, and was at Venice in 1613, at Amsterdam in 1617, and shortly after at Paris. By the Earl of Warwick's influence he now procured the place of Secretary for the Colony of Virginia, having come over in April, 1619, with Sir George Yeardley, who appointed him one of his council.

In June, Governor Yeardley summoned the first legislative assembly that ever met in America. It assembled at James City or Jamestown, on Friday, the 30th of July, 1619, upwards of a year before the Mayflower left England with the Pilgrims. A record of the proceedings is preserved in the London State Paper Office, in the form of a Report from the Speaker, John Pory.[139:B]

John Pory, Secretary of the Colony, was chosen Speaker, and John Twine, Clerk. The Assembly sate in the choir of the church, the members of the council sitting on either side of the Governor, and the Speaker right before him, the Clerk next the Speaker, and Thomas Pierse, the Sergeant, standing at the bar.

Before commencing business, prayer was said by Mr. Bucke, the minister. Each burgess then, as called on, took the oath of supremacy. When the name of Captain Ward was called, the Speaker objected to him as having seated himself on land without authority. Objection was also made to the burgesses appearing to represent Captain Martin's patent, because they were, by its terms, exempted from any obligation to obey the laws of the colony. Complaint was made by Opochancano, that corn had been forcibly taken from some of his people in the Chesapeake, by Ensign Harrison, commanding a shallop belonging to this Captain John Martin, "Master of the Ordinance." The Speaker read the commission for establishing the Council of State and the General Assembly, and also the charter brought out by Sir Thomas Yeardley. This last was referred to several committees for examination, so that if they should find anything "not perfectly squaring with the state of the colony, or any law pressing or binding too hard," they might by petition seek to have it redressed, "especially because this great charter is to bind us and our heirs forever." Mr. Abraham Persey was the Cape-merchant. The price at which he was to receive tobacco, "either for commodities or upon bills," was fixed at three shillings for the best and eighteen pence for the second rate. After inquiry the burgesses from Martin's patent were excluded, and the Assembly "humbly demanded" of the Virginia Company an explanation of that clause in his patent entitling him to enjoy his lands as amply as any lord of a manor in England, adding, "the least the Assembly can allege against this clause is, that it is obscure, and that it is a thing impossible for us here to know the prerogatives of all the manors in England." And they prayed that the clause in the charter guaranteeing equal liberties and immunities to grantees, might not be violated, so as to "divert out of the true course the free and public current of justice." Thus did the first Assembly of Virginia insist upon the principle of the Declaration of Rights of 1776, that "no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services." Certain of the instructions sent out from England were "drawn into laws" for protection of the Indians from injury, and regulating intercourse with them, and educating their children, and preparing some of the most promising boys "for the college intended for them; that from thence they may be sent to that work of conversion;" for regulating agriculture, tobacco, and sassafras, then the chief merchantable commodities raised. Upon Captain Powell's petition, "a lewd and treacherous servant of his" was sentenced to stand for four days with his ears nailed to the pillory, and be whipped each day. John Rolfe complained that Captain Martin had made unjust charges against him, and cast "some aspersion upon the present government, which is the most temperate and just that ever was in this country—too mild, indeed, for many of this colony, whom unwonted liberty hath made insolent, and not to know themselves." On the last day of the session were enacted such laws as issued "out of every man's private conceit." "It shall be free for every man to trade with the Indians, servants only excepted upon pain of whipping, unless the master will redeem it off with the payment of an angel." "No man to sell or give any of the greater hoes to the Indians, or any English dog of quality, as a mastiff, greyhound, bloodhound, land or water spaniel." Any man selling arms or ammunition to the Indians, to be hanged so soon as the fact is proved. All ministers shall duly "read divine service, and exercise their ministerial function according to the ecclesiastical laws and orders of the Church of England, and every Sunday, in the afternoon, shall catechise such as are not ripe to come to the communion." All persons going up or down the James River were to touch at James City, "to know whether the governor will command them any service." "All persons whatsoever, upon the Sabbath days, shall frequent divine service and sermons, both forenoon and afternoon; and all such as bear arms shall bring their pieces, swords, powder, and shot."

Captain Henry Spellman, charged by Robert Poole, interpreter, with speaking ill of the governor "at Opochancano's court," was degraded from his rank of captain, and condemned to serve the colony for seven years as interpreter to the governor. Paspaheigh, embracing three hundred acres of land, was also called Argallstown, and was part of the tract appropriated to the governor. To compensate the speaker, clerk, sergeant, and provost marshal, a pound of the best tobacco was levied from every male above sixteen years of age. The Assembly prayed that the treasurer, council, and company would not "take it in ill part if these laws, which we have now brought to light, do pass current, and be of force till such time as we may know their further pleasure out of England; for otherwise this people (who now at length have got their reins of former servitude into their own swindge) would, in short time, grow so insolent as they would shake off all government, and there would be no living among them." They also prayed the company to "give us power to allow or disallow of their orders of court, as his majesty hath given them power to allow or reject our laws." So early did it appear, that from the necessity of the case, the colony must in large part legislate for itself, and so early did a spirit of independence manifest itself. Owing to the heat of the weather, several of the burgesses fell sick, and one died, and thus the governor was obliged abruptly, on the fourth of August, to prorogue the Assembly till the first of March.[142:A] There being as yet no counties laid off, the representatives were elected from the several towns, plantations, and hundreds, styled boroughs, and hence they were called burgesses.

FOOTNOTES:

[138:A] Court and Times of James the First, i. 161.

[138:B] A Welsh name.

[139:A] Macocks, the seat on James River, opposite to Berkley, was called after this planter, who was the first proprietor.

[139:B] This interesting document, discovered by Mr. Bancroft, was published by the New York Historical Society in 1857, and a number of copies were sent to Richmond by George Henry Moore, Esq., Secretary of that Society, for distribution among the members of the Assembly. The attention of Virginians was first drawn to the existence of this document by Conway Robinson, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Virginia Historical Society.

The number of burgesses was twenty-two. For James City, Captain William Powell, Ensign William Spense; for Charles City, Samuel Sharpe and Samuel Jordan; for the City of Henricus, Thomas Dowse, John Polentine; for Kiccowtan, Captain William Tucker, William Capp; for Martin-Brandon, Captain John Martin's Plantation, Mr. Thomas Davis, Mr. Robert Stacy; for Smythe's Hundred, Captain Thomas Graves, Mr. Walter Shelley; for Martin's Hundred, Mr. John Boys, John Jackson; for Argall's Gift, Mr. Pawlett, Mr. Gourgainy; for Flowerdieu Hundred, Ensign Rossingham, Mr. Jefferson; for Captain Lawne's Plantation, Captain Christopher Lawne, Ensign Washer; for Captain Ward's Plantation, Captain Ward, Lieutenant Gibbes.

[142:A] Proceedings of the First Assembly of Virginia, in 1619.

CHAPTER XII.

1619-1621.

The New Laws—Yeardley, Governor—Affairs of the Colony—Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth—Negroes Imported into Virginia—Supplies sent out from England—Wives for the Colonists—The Bishops directed to take up Collections for aid of the Colony in erecting Churches and Schools—England claims a Monopoly of Virginia Tobacco—Charitable Donations.

Thus after eleven years of suffering, peril, discord, and tyranny, intermingled with romantic adventure, bold enterprise, the dignity of danger, virtuous fortitude, and generous heroism, were at length established a local legislature and a regular administration of right. The Virginia planters expressed their gratitude to the company, and begged them to reduce into a compend, with his majesty's approbation, such of the laws of England as were applicable to Virginia, with suitable additions, "because it was not fit that his subjects should be governed by any other rules than such as received their influence from him." The acts of the Assembly were transmitted to England for the approval of the treasurer and company. They were thought to have been very judiciously framed, but the company's committee found them "exceeding intricate and full of labor." There was granted to the old planters an exemption from all compulsive service to the colony, with a confirmation of their estates, which were to be holden as by English subjects.

It is remarkable, that from about 1614, for some seven years, James the First had governed England without a parliament; and the Virginia Company was during this period a rallying point for the friends of civil and religious freedom, and the colony enjoyed the privilege, denied to the mother country, of holding a legislative assembly.

Yeardley finding a scarcity of corn, undertook to promote the cultivation of it, and this year was blessed with abundant crops of grain. But an extraordinary mortality carried off not less than three hundred of the people. Three thousand acres of land were allotted to the governor, and twelve thousand to the company. The Margaret, of Bristol, arrived with some settlers, and "also many devout gifts." The Trial brought a cargo of corn and cattle. The expenditure of the Virginia Company at this period, on account of the colony, was estimated at between four and five thousand pounds a year.

A body of English Puritans, persecuted on account of their nonconformity, had, in 1608, sought an asylum in Holland. In 1617 they conceived the design of removing to America, and in 1619 they obtained from the Virginia Company, by the influence of Sir Edward Sandys, the treasurer, "a large patent," authorizing them to settle in Virginia. They embarked in the latter part of the year 1620, in the Mayflower, intending to settle somewhere near the Hudson River, which lay within the Virginia Company's territory. The Pilgrims were, however, conducted to the bleak and barren coast of Massachusetts, where they landed on the twenty-second day of December, (new style,) 1620, on the rock of Plymouth. Thus, thirteen years after the settlement of Jamestown, was laid the foundation of the New England States. The place of their landing was beyond the limits of the Virginia Company.

In the month of August, 1619, a Dutch man-of-war visited Jamestown and sold the settlers twenty negroes, the first introduced into Virginia. Some time before this, Captain Argall sent out, at the expense of the Earl of Warwick, on a "filibustering" cruise to the West Indies, a ship called the Treasurer, manned "with the ablest men in the colony," under an old commission from the Duke of Savoy against the Spanish dominions in the western hemisphere. She returned to Virginia after some ten months, with her booty, which consisted of captured negroes, who were not left in Virginia, because Captain Argall had gone back to England, but were put on the Earl of Warwick's plantation in the Somer Islands.[144:A]

It is probable that the planters who purchased the negroes from the Dutch man-of-war reasoned but little on the morality of the act, or if any scruples of conscience presented themselves, they could be readily silenced by reflecting that the negroes were heathens, descendants of Ham, and consigned by Divine appointment to perpetual bondage.[145:A] The planters may, if they reasoned at all on the subject, have supposed that they were even performing a humane act in releasing these Africans from the noisome hold of the ship. They might well believe that the condition of the negro slave would be less degraded and wretched in Virginia than it had been in their native country. This first purchase was probably not looked upon as a matter of much consequence, and for several ages the increase of the blacks in Virginia was so inconsiderable as not to attract any special attention. The condition of the white servants of the colony, many of them convicts, was so abject, that men, accustomed to see their own race in bondage, could look with more indifference at the worse condition of the slaves.

The negroes purchased by the slavers on the coast of Africa were brought from the interior, convicts sold into slavery, children sold by heathen parents destitute of natural affection, kidnapped villagers, and captives taken in war, the greater part of them born in hereditary bondage. The circumstances under which they were consigned to the slave-ship evince the wretchedness of their condition in their native country, where they were the victims of idolatry, barbarism, and war. The negroes imported were usually between the ages of fourteen and thirty, two-thirds of them being males. The new negro, just transferred from the wilds of a distant continent, was indolent, ignorant of the modes and implements of labor, and of the language of his master, and perhaps of his fellow-laborers.[145:B] To tame and domesticate, to instruct in the modes of industry, and to reduce to subordination and usefulness a barbarian, gross, obtuse, perverse, must have demanded persevering efforts and severe discipline.

While the cruel slave-trade was prompted by a remorseless cupidity, an inscrutable Providence turned the wickedness of men into the means of bringing about beneficent results. The system of slavery, doubtless, entailed many evils on slave and slave-holder, and, perhaps, the greater on the latter. These evils are the tax paid for the elevation of the negro from his aboriginal condition.

Among the vessels that came over to Virginia from England, about this time, is mentioned a bark of five tons. A fleet sent out by the Virginia Company brought over, in 1619, more than twelve hundred settlers.[146:A] The planters at length enjoyed the blessings of property in the soil, and the society of women. The wives were sold to the colonists for one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, and it was ordered that this debt should have precedence of all others. The price of a wife afterwards became higher. The bishops in England, by the king's orders, collected nearly fifteen hundred pounds to build a college or university at Henrico, intended in part for the education of Indian children.[146:B]

In July, 1620, the population of the colony was estimated at four thousand. One hundred "disorderly persons" or convicts, sent over during the previous year by the king's order, were employed as servants.[147:A] For a brief interval the Virginia Company had enjoyed freedom of trade with the Low Countries, where they sold their tobacco; but in October, 1621, this was prohibited by an order in council; and from this time England claimed a monopoly of the trade of her plantations, and this principle was gradually adopted by all the European powers as they acquired transatlantic settlements.[147:B]

Two persons unknown presented plate and ornaments for the communion-table at the college, and at Mrs. Mary Robinson's Church, so called because she had contributed two hundred pounds toward the founding of it. Another person unknown gave five hundred and fifty pounds for the education of Indian children in Christianity; he subscribed himself "Dust and Ashes;" and was afterwards discovered to be Mr. Gabriel Barber, a member of the company.

FOOTNOTES:

[144:A] Belknap, art. Argall, citing Declaration of Va. Council, 1623, and Burk's Hist. of Va., i. 319; Smith, ii. 39, where Rolfe gives the true date, 1619; Stith, 171; Beverley, B. i. 37; Chalmers' Annals, 49; Burk, i. 211, and Hening, i. 146, all (as Bancroft, i. 177, remarks,) rely on Beverley. It may be added, that they were all misled by him in making the date 1620. I was enabled to rectify this date by an intimation from the Rev. Dr. Wm. H. Foote, author of "Sketches of Virginia."

[145:A] Burk, i. 211.

[145:B] Bancroft, iii. 402.

[146:A] They were disposed of in the following way: eighty tenants for the governor's land, one hundred and thirty for the company's land, one hundred for the college, fifty for the glebe, ninety young women of good character for wives, fifty servants, fifty whose labors were to support thirty Indian children; the rest were distributed among private plantations.

[146:B] The following is a copy of the letter addressed by the king on this occasion to the archbishops, authorizing them to invite the members of the church throughout the kingdom to assist in the establishment of the college, and such works of piety. The exact date of the letter has not been ascertained; but it was about the year 1620. It has never been published until recently, and is the first document of the kind ever issued in England for the benefit of the colonies. It is as follows:—

"Most reverend father in God, right, trusty, and well-beloved counsellor, we greet you well. You have heard ere this time of the attempt of divers worthy men, our subjects, to plant in Virginia, (under the warrant of our letters patents,) people of this kingdom as well as for the enlarging of our dominions, as for the propagation of the gospel amongst infidels: wherein there is good progress made and hope of further increase; so as the undertakers of that plantation are now in hand with the erecting of some churches and schools for the education of the children of those barbarians, which cannot but be to them a very great charge and above the expense which, for the civil plantation, doth come to them. In which we doubt not but that you and all others who wish well to the increase of Christian religion, will be willing to give all assistance and furtherance, you may, and therein to make experience of the zeal and devotion of our well-minded subjects, especially those of the clergy. Wherefore we do require you, and hereby authorize you to write your letters to the several bishops of the dioceses in your province, that they do give order to the ministers and other zealous men of their dioceses, both by their own example in contribution and by exhortation to others to move our people within their several charges to contribute to so good a work, in as liberal a manner as they may; for the better advancing whereof our pleasure is, that those collections be made in all the particular parishes, four several times within these two years next coming; and that the several accounts of each parish, together with the moneys collected, be returned from time to time to the bishops of the dioceses, and by them be transmitted half yearly to you; and so to be delivered to the treasurer of that plantation to be employed for the godly purposes intended, and no other." (Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, i. 315; Stith's Hist. of Va., 159.)

[147:A] Mr. Jefferson appears to have fallen into a mistake as to the period of time when malefactors were first shipped over to this country from England, for he says: "It was at a late period of their history that the practice began." (Writings of Jefferson, i. 405.)

[147:B] Chalmers' Introduc., i. 15. The following letter accompanied a shipment of marriageable females sent out from England to Virginia:—

"London, August 21, 1621.

"We send you a shipment, one widow and eleven maids, for wives of the people of Virginia: there hath been especial care had in the choice of them, for there hath not one of them been received but upon good commendations.

"In case they cannot be presently married, we desire that they may be put with several householders that have wives, until they can be provided with husbands. There are nearly fifty more that are shortly to come, and are sent by our honorable lord and treasurer, the Earl of Southampton, and certain worthy gentlemen, who, taking into consideration that the plantation can never flourish till families be planted, and the respect of wives and children for their people on the soil, therefore having given this fair beginning; reimbursing of whose charges it is ordered that every man that marries them, give one hundred and twenty pounds of best leaf tobacco for each of them.

"We desire that the marriage be free according to nature, and we would not have those maids deceived and married to servants, but only to such freemen or tenants as have means to maintain them. We pray you, therefore, to be fathers of them in this business, not enforcing them to marry against their wills." (Hubbard's note in Belknap, art. Argall.)

CHAPTER XIII.

Proceedings in London of Virginia Company—Lord Southampton elected Treasurer—Sir Francis Wyat appointed Governor—New frame of Government—Instructions for Governor and Council—George Sandys, Treasurer in Virginia—Notice of his Life and published Works—Productions of the Colony.

Sir Edwin Sandys held the office of treasurer of the company but for one year, being excluded from a re-election by the arbitrary interference of the king. The election was by ballot. The day for it having arrived, the company met, consisting of twenty peers of the realm, near one hundred knights, together with as many more of gallant officers and grave lawyers, and a large number of worthy citizens—an imposing array of rank, and wealth, and talents, and influence. Sir Edwin Sandys being first nominated as a candidate, a lord of the bedchamber and another courtier announced that it was the king's pleasure not to have Sir Edwin Sandys chosen; and because he was unwilling to infringe their right of election, he (the king) would nominate three persons, and permit the company to choose one of them. The company, nevertheless, voted to proceed to an election, as they had a right to do under the charter. Sir Edwin Sandys withdrew his name from nomination, and, at his suggestion it was finally agreed that the king's messengers should name two candidates, and the company one. Upon counting the ballots, it was ascertained that one of the royal candidates received only one vote, and the other only two. The Earl of Southampton received all the rest.

The Virginia Company was divided into two parties, the minority enjoying the favor of the king, and headed by the Earl of Warwick; the other, the liberal, or opposition, or reform party, headed by the Earl of Southampton. The Warwick faction were greatly embittered against Yeardley, and their virulence was increased by his having intercepted a packet from his own secretary, Pory, containing proofs of Argall's misconduct, to be used against him at his trial, which the secretary had been bribed by his friend, the Earl of Warwick, to convey to him. The mild and gentle Yeardley, overcome by these annoyances, at length requested leave to retire from the cares of office. His commission expired in November, 1621; but he continued in the colony, was a member of the council, and enjoyed the respect and esteem of the people. During his short administration, many new settlements were made on the James and York rivers; and the planters, being now supplied with wives and servants, began to be more content, and to take more pleasure in cultivating their lands. The brief interval of free trade with Holland had enlarged the demand for tobacco, and it was cultivated more extensively.

Sir George Yeardley's term of office having expired, the company's council, upon the recommendation of the Earl of Southampton, appointed Sir Francis Wyat governor, a young gentleman of Ireland, whose education, family, fortune, and integrity, well qualified him for the place. He arrived in October, 1621, with a fleet of nine sail, and brought over a new frame of government constituted by the company, and dated July the 24th, 1621, establishing a council of State and a general assembly—vesting the governor with a negative upon the acts of the assembly; this body to be convoked by him in general once a year, and to consist of the council of State and of two burgesses from every town, hundred, or plantation; the trial by jury secured; no act of the assembly to be valid unless ratified by the company in England; and, on the other hand, no order of the company to be obligatory upon the colony without the consent of the assembly. This last feature displays that spirit of constitutional freedom which then pervaded the Virginia Company. A commission bearing the same date with the new frame of government recognized Sir Francis Wyat as the first governor under it; and this famous ordinance became the model of every subsequent provincial form of government in the Anglo-American colonies.[150:A]

Wyat brought with him also a body of instructions intended for the permanent guidance of the governor and council. He was to provide for the service of God in conformity with the Church of England as near as may be; to be obedient to the king, and to administer justice according to the laws of England; not to injure the natives, and to forget old quarrels now buried; to be industrious, and to suppress drunkenness, gaming, and excess in clothes; not to permit any but the council and heads of hundreds to wear gold in their clothes, or to wear silk, till they make it themselves; not to offend any foreign prince; to punish pirates; to build forts; to endeavor to convert the heathen; and each town to teach some of the Indian children fit for the college which was to be built; to cultivate corn, wine, and silk; to search for minerals, dyes, gums, and medicinal drugs, and to draw off the people from the excessive planting of tobacco; to take a census of the colony; to put 'prentices to trades and not let them forsake them for planting tobacco, or any such useless commodity; to build water-mills; to make salt, pitch, tar, soap, and ashes; to make oil of walnuts, and employ apothecaries in distilling lees of beer; to make small quantity of tobacco, and that very good.

Wyat, entering on the duties of his office on the eighteenth of November, dispatched Mr. Thorpe to renew the treaties of peace and friendship with Opechancanough, who was found apparently well affected and ready to confirm the pledges of harmony. A vessel from Ireland brought in eighty immigrants, who planted themselves at Newport's News. The company sent out during this year twenty-one vessels, navigated with upwards of four hundred sailors, and bringing over thirteen hundred men, women, and children. The aggregate number of settlers that arrived during 1621 and 1622 was three thousand five hundred.

With Sir Francis Wyat came over George Sandys, treasurer in Virginia, brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the company in England. George Sandys, who was born in 1577, after passing some time at Oxford, in 1610, travelled over Europe to Turkey, and visited Palestine and Egypt. He published his travels, at Oxford, in 1615, and they were received with great favor. The first poetical production in Anglo-American literature was composed by him, while secretary of the colony; and in the midst of the confusion which followed the massacre of 1622,—"by that imperfect light which was snatched from the hours of night and repose,"—he translated the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the First Book of Virgil's Æneid, which was published in 1626, and dedicated to King Charles the First. He also published several other works, and enjoyed the favor of the literary men of the day. Dryden pronounced Sandys the best versifier of his age. Pope declared that English poetry owed much of its beauty to his translations; and Montgomery, the poet, renders his meed of praise to the beauty of the Psalms translated by him. Having lived chiefly in retirement, he died in 1643, at the house of Sir Francis Wyat, in Bexley, Kent. A fine copy of the translation of Ovid and Virgil, printed in 1632, in folio, elegantly illustrated, once the property of the Duke of Sussex, is now in the library of Mr. Grigsby. Mr. Thomas H. Wynne, of Richmond, also has a copy of this rare work.

FOOTNOTES:

[150:A] Chalmers' Introduc., i. 13-16; Belknap, art. Sir Francis Wyat. Belknap is an excellent authority, as accurate as Stith without his diffuseness; and Hubbard's notes are worthy of the text. The ordinance and commission may be seen in Hening's Statutes at Large, i. 110-113.

CHAPTER XIV.

Use of Tobacco in England—Raleigh's Habits of Smoking—His Tobacco-box—Anecdotes of Smoking—King James, his Counterblast—Denunciations against Tobacco—Amount of Tobacco Imported.

In 1615 twelve different commodities had been shipped from Virginia; sassafras and tobacco were now the only exports. During the year 1619 the company in England imported twenty thousand pounds of tobacco, the entire crop of the preceding year. James the First endeavored to draw a "prerogative" revenue from what he termed a pernicious weed, and against which he had published his "Counterblast;" but he was restrained from this illegal measure by a resolution of the House of Commons. In 1607 he sent a letter forbidding the use of tobacco at St. Mary's College, Cambridge.

Smoking was the first mode of using tobacco in England, and when Sir Walter Raleigh first introduced the custom among people of fashion, in order to escape observation he smoked privately in his house, (at Islington,) the remains of which were till of late years to be seen, as an inn, long known as the Pied Bull. This was the first house in England in which it was smoked, and Raleigh had his arms emblazoned there, with a tobacco-plant on the top. There existed also another tradition in the Parish of St. Matthew, Friday Street, London, that Raleigh was accustomed to sit smoking at his door in company with Sir Hugh Middleton. Sir Walter's guests were entertained with pipes, a mug of ale, and a nutmeg, and on these occasions he made use of his tobacco-box, which was of cylindrical form, seven inches in diameter and thirteen inches long; the outside of gilt leather, and within a receiver of glass or metal, which held about a pound of tobacco. A kind of collar connected the receiver with the case, and on every side the box was pierced with holes for the pipes. This relic was preserved in the museum of Ralph Thoresby, of Leeds, in 1719, and about 1843 was added, by the late Duke of Sussex, to his collection of the smoking utensils of all nations.[154:A]

Although Sir Walter Raleigh first introduced the custom of smoking tobacco in England, yet its use appears to have been not entirely unknown before, for one Kemble, condemned for heresy in the time of Queen Mary the Bloody, while walking to the stake smoked a pipe of tobacco. Hence the last pipe that one smokes was called the Kemble pipe.

The writer of a pamphlet, supposed to have been Milton's father, describes many of the play-books and pamphlets of that day, 1609, as "conceived over night by idle brains, impregnated with tobacco smoke and mulled sack, and brought forth by the help of midwifery of a caudle next morning." At the theatres in Shakespeare's time, the spectators were allowed to sit on the stage, and to be attended by pages, who furnished them with pipes and tobacco.

About the time of the settlement of Jamestown, in 1607, the characteristics of a man of fashion were, to wear velvet breeches, with panes or slashes of silk, an enormous starched ruff, a gilt-handled sword, and a Spanish dagger; to play at cards or dice in the chamber of the groom-porter, and to smoke tobacco in the tilt-yard, or at the playhouse.

The peers engaged in the trial of the Earls of Essex and Southampton smoked much while they deliberated on their verdict. It was alleged against Sir Walter Raleigh that he used tobacco on the occasion of the execution of the Earl of Essex, in contempt of him; and it was perhaps in allusion to this circumstance that when Raleigh was passing through London to Winchester, to stand his trial, he was followed by the execrations of the populace, and pelted with tobacco-pipes, stones, and mud. On the scaffold, however, he protested that during the execution of Essex he had retired far off into the armory, where Essex could not see him, although he saw Essex, and shed tears for him. Raleigh used tobacco on the morning of his own execution.

As early as the year 1610 tobacco was in general use in England. The manner of using it was partly to inhale the smoke and blow it out through the nostrils, and this was called "drinking tobacco," and this practice continued until the latter part of the reign of James the First. In 1614 the number of tobacco-houses in or near London was estimated at seven thousand. In 1620 was chartered the Society of Tobacco-pipe Makers of London; they bore on their shield a tobacco-plant in full blossom.

The "Counterblast against Tobacco," attributed to James the First, if in some parts absurd and puerile, yet is not without a good deal of just reasoning and good sense; some fair hits are made in it, and those who have ridiculed that production might find it not easy to controvert some of its views. King James, in his Counterblast, does not omit the opportunity of expressing his hatred toward Sir Walter Raleigh, in terms worthy of that despicable monarch. He continued his opposition to tobacco as long as he lived, and in his ordinary conversation oftentimes argued and inveighed against it.

The Virginia tobacco in early times was imported into England in the leaf, in bundles, as at present; the Spanish or West Indian tobacco in balls. Molasses or other liquid preparation was used in preparing those balls. Tobacco was then, as now, adulterated in various ways. The nice retailer kept it in what were called lily-pots, that is, white jars. The tobacco was cut on a maple block; juniper-wood, which retains fire well, was used for lighting pipes, and among the rich silver tongs were employed for taking up a coal of it. Tobacco was sometimes called the American Silver Weed.

The Turkish Vizier thrust pipes through the noses of smokers; and the Shah of Persia cropped the ears and slit the noses of those who made use of the fascinating leaf. The Counterblast says of it: "And for the vanity committed in this filthy custom, is it not both great vanity and uncleanness, that at the table—a place of respect of cleanliness, of modesty—men should not be ashamed to sit tossing of tobacco-pipes and puffing of smoke, one at another, making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale athwart the dishes, and infect the air, when very often men who abhor it are at their repast? Surely smoke becomes a kitchen far better than a dining-chamber; and yet it makes the kitchen oftentimes in the inward parts of man, soiling and infecting them with an unctuous and oily kind of soot, as hath been found in some great tobacco-takers that after their deaths were opened."

"A Counterblast to Tobacco," by James the First, King of England, was first printed in quarto, without name or date, at London, 1616. In the frontispiece was engraved the tobacco-smoker's coat of arms, consisting of a blackamoor's head, cross-pipes, cross-bones, death's-head, etc. It is not improbable that it was intended to foment the popular prejudice against Sir Walter Raleigh, who first introduced the use of tobacco into England, and who was put to death in the same year, 1616. King James alludes to the introduction of the use of tobacco and of Raleigh as follows: "It is not so long since the first entry of this abuse among us here, as that this present age cannot very well remember both the first author and the form of the first introduction of it among us. It was neither brought in by king, great conqueror, nor learned doctor of physic. With the report of a great discovery for a conquest, some two or three savage men were brought in together with this savage custom; but the pity is, the poor wild barbarous men died, but that vile barbarous custom is still alive, yea, in fresh vigor; so as it seems a miracle to me how a custom springing from so vile a ground, and brought in by a father so generally hated, should be welcomed upon so slender a warrant."

The king thus reasons against the Virginia staple: "Secondly, it is, as you use or rather abuse it, a branch of the sin of drunkenness, which is the root of all sins,[156:A] for as the only delight that drunkards love any weak or sweet drink, so are not those (I mean the strong heat and fume) the only qualities that make tobacco so delectable to all the lovers of it? And as no man loves strong heavy drinks the first day, (because nemo repente fuit turpissimus,) but by custom is piece and piece allured, while in the end a drunkard will have as great a thirst to be drunk as a sober man to quench his thirst with a draught when he hath need of it; so is not this the true case of all the great takers of tobacco, which therefore they themselves do attribute to a bewitching quality in it? Thirdly, is it not the greatest sin of all that you, the people of all sorts of this kingdom, who are created and ordained by God to bestow both your persons and goods for the maintenance both of the honor and safety of your king and commonwealth, should disable yourself to this shameful imbecility, that you are not able to ride or walk the journey of a Jew's Sabbath but you must have a reeky coal brought you from the next poor-house to kindle your tobacco with? whereas he cannot be thought able for any service in the wars that cannot endure oftimes the want of meat, drink, and sleep; much more then must he endure the want of tobacco." A curious tractate on tobacco, by Dr. Tobias Venner, was published at London in 1621. The author was a graduate of Oxford, and a physician at Bath, and is mentioned in the Oxoniæ Athenienses.[157:A]

The amount of tobacco imported in 1619 into England, from Virginia, being the entire crop of the preceding year, was twenty thousand pounds. At the end of seventy years there were annually imported into England more than fifteen millions of pounds of it, from which was derived a revenue of upwards of £100,000.[157:B]

In April, 1621, the House of Commons debated whether it was expedient to prohibit the importation of tobacco entirely; and they determined to exclude all save from Virginia and the Somer Isles. It was estimated that the consumption of England amounted to one thousand pounds per diem. This seductive narcotic leaf, which soothes the mind and quiets its perturbations, has found its way into all parts of the habitable globe, from the sunny tropics to the snowy regions of the frozen pole. Its fragrant smoke ascends alike to the blackened rafters of the lowly hut, and the gilded ceilings of luxurious wealth.

FOOTNOTES:

[154:A] Introduction to "A Counterblast to Tobacco, by James the First, King of England," published at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1843.

[156:A] And one from which the king himself was not free.

[157:A] A copy of this rare pamphlet was lent me by N. S. Walker, Esq., of Richmond.

[157:B] Chalmers, Introduc. to Hist. of Revolt of Amer. Colonies, i. 13.

CHAPTER XV.

1621-1622.

Silk in Virginia—Endowment of East India School—Ministers in Virginia—Sermon at Bow Church—Corporation of Henrico.

In November and December, 1621, at an assembly held at James City, acts were passed for encouraging the planting of mulberry-trees, and the making of silk; but this enterprise, so early commenced in Virginia, and so earnestly revived of late years, is still unsuccessful; and it may be concluded that the climate of Virginia is unpropitious to that sort of production.

The Rev. Mr. Copeland, Chaplain on board of the Royal James, East Indiaman, on the return voyage from the East Indies, prevailed upon the officers and crew of that ship to contribute seventy pounds toward the establishment of a church and school in Virginia, and Charles City County was selected as the site of it, and it was to be called the East India School, and to be dependent upon the college at Henrico. The Virginia Company allotted one thousand acres of land for the maintenance of the master and usher, and presented three hundred acres to Mr. Copeland. Workmen were accordingly sent out early in 1622, to begin the building. The clergymen in Virginia at this time were Messrs. Whitaker, Mease, Wickham, Stockham, and Bargrave.[158:A]

Early in 1622 very favorable intelligence from Virginia reached England, and upon this occasion, on the seventeenth of April, the Rev. Mr. Copeland, by appointment, preached before the Virginia Company, at Bow Church. He was shortly afterwards appointed a member of the Virginia Council and rector of the college established for the conversion of the Indians; but all these benevolent purposes and hopeful anticipations were suddenly darkened and defeated by the news of a catastrophe which had, in a few hours, blasted the labors of so many years.

FOOTNOTES:

[158:A] The following is found in the early records:—

The Corporation of Henrico.

On the northerly ridge of James River, from the falls down to Henrico, containing ten miles in length, are the public lands, surveyed and laid out; whereof, ten thousand acres for the university lands, three thousand acres for the company's lands, with other lands belonging to the college. The common land for that corporation, fifteen hundred acres.

On the southerly side, beginning from the falls, there are there patented, viz.:—

CHAPTER XVI.

1622.

The Massacre—Its Origin, Nemattanow—Opechancanough—Security of Colonists—Perfidy of the Indians—Particulars of Massacre—Its Consequences—Brave Defence of some—Supplies sent from England—Captain Smith's Offer.

On the twenty-second day of March, 1622, there occurred in the colony a memorable massacre, which originated, as was believed, in the following circumstances: There was among the Indians a famous chief, named Nemattanow, or "Jack of the Feather," as he was styled by the English, from his fashion of decking his hair. He was reckoned by his own people invulnerable to the arms of the English. This Nemattanow coming to the store of one of the settlers named Morgan, persuaded him to go to Pamunkey to trade, and murdered him by the way. Nemattanow, in two or three days, returned to Morgan's house, and finding there two young men, Morgan's servants, who inquired for their master, answered them that he was dead. The young men, seeing their master's cap on the Indian's head, suspected the murder, and undertook to conduct him to Mr. Thorpe, who then lived at Berkley, on the James River, since well known as a seat of the Harrisons, and originally called "Brickley." Nemattanow so exasperated the young men on the way that they shot him, and he falling, they put him into a boat and conveyed him to the governor at Jamestown, distant seven or eight miles. The wounded chief in a short time died. Feeling the approaches of death, he entreated the young men not to disclose that he had been mortally wounded by a bullet: so strong is the desire for posthumous fame even in the breast of a wild, untutored savage!

Opechancanough, the ferocious Indian chief, agitated with mingled emotions of grief and indignation at the loss of his favorite Nemattanow, at first muttered threats of revenge; but the retorted defiance of the English made him for a time smother his resentment and dissemble his dark designs under the guise of friendship. Accordingly, upon Sir Francis Wyat's arrival, all suspicion of Indian treachery had died away; the colonists, in delusive security, were in general destitute of arms; the plantations lay dispersed, as caprice suggested, or a rich vein of land allured, as for as the Potomac River;[161:A] their houses everywhere open to the Indians, who fed at their tables and lodged under their roofs. About the middle of March, a messenger being sent upon some occasion to Opechancanough, he entertained him kindly, and protested that he held the peace so firm that "the sky should fall before he broke it." On the twentieth of the same month, the Indians guided some of the English safely through the forest, and the more completely to lull all suspicion, they sent one Brown, who was sojourning among them for the purpose of learning their language, back home to his master. They even borrowed boats from the whites to cross the river when about holding a council on the meditated attack. The massacre took place on Friday, the twenty-second of March, 1622. On the evening before, and on that very morning, the Indians, as usual, came unarmed into the houses of the unsuspecting colonists, with fruits, fish, turkeys, and venison for sale: in some places they actually sate down to breakfast with the English. At about the hour of noon the savages, rising suddenly and everywhere at the same time, butchered the colonists with their own implements, sparing neither age, nor sex, nor condition; and thus fell in a few hours three hundred and forty-nine men, women, and children. The infuriated savages wreaked their vengeance even on the dead, dragging and mangling the lifeless bodies, smearing their hands in blood, and bearing off the torn and yet palpitating limbs as trophies of a brutal triumph.

Among their victims was Mr. George Thorpe, (a kinsman of Sir Thomas Dale,) who had been of the king's bedchamber, deputy to the college lands, and one of the principal men of the colony—a pious gentleman, who had labored zealously for the conversion of the Indians, and had treated them with uniform kindness. As an instance of this, they having at one time expressed their fears of the English mastiff dogs, he had caused some of them to be put to death, to the great displeasure of their owners. Opechancanough inhabiting a paltry cabin, Mr. Thorpe had built him a handsome house after the English manner.[162:A] But the savage miscreants, equally deaf to the voice of humanity and the emotions of gratitude, murdered their benefactor with every circumstance of remorseless cruelty. He had been forewarned of his danger by a servant, but making no effort to escape, fell a victim to his misplaced confidence. With him ten other persons were slain at Berkley.

Another of the victims was Captain Nathaniel Powell, one of the first settlers, a brave soldier, and who had for a brief interval filled the place of governor of the colony. His family fell with him. Nathaniel Causie, another of Captain Smith's old soldiers, when severely wounded and surrounded by the Indians, slew one of them with an axe, and put the rest to flight. At Warrasqueake a colonist named Baldwin, by repeatedly firing his gun, saved himself and family, and divers others. The savages at the same time made an attempt upon the house of a planter named Harrison, (near Baldwin's,) where were Thomas Hamor with some men, and a number of women and children. The Indians tried to inveigle Hamor out of the house, by pretending that Opechancanough was hunting in the neighboring woods and desired to have his company; but he not coming out, they set fire to a tobacco-house; the men ran toward the fire, and were pursued by the Indians, who pierced them with arrows and beat out their brains. Hamor having finished a letter that he was writing, and suspecting no treachery, went out to see what was the matter, when, being wounded in the back with an arrow, he returned to the house and barricaded it. Meanwhile Harrison's boy, finding his master's gun loaded, fired it at random, and the Indians fled. Baldwin still continuing to discharge his gun, Hamor, with twenty-two others, withdrew to his house, leaving their own in flames. Hamor next retired to a new house that he was building, and there defending himself with spades, axes, and brickbats, escaped the fury of the savages. The master of a vessel lying in the James River sent a file of musqueteers ashore, who recaptured from the enemy the Merchant's store-house. In the neighborhood of Martin's Hundred seventy-three persons were butchered; yet a small family there escaped, and heard nothing of the massacre until two days after.

Thus fell in so short a space of time one-twelfth part of the colonists of Virginia, including six members of the council. The destruction might have been universal but for the disclosure of a converted Indian, named Chanco, who, during the night preceding the massacre, revealed the plot to one Richard Pace, with whom he lived. Pace, upon receiving this intelligence, after fortifying his own house, repaired before day to Jamestown, and gave the alarm to Sir Francis Wyat, the Governor; his vigilance saved a large part of the colony from destruction.[163:A] Eleven were killed at Berkley, fifty at Edward Bonit's plantation, two at Westover, five at Macocks, four on Appomattox River, six at Flower-de-Hundred, twenty-one of Sir George Yeardley's people at Weyanoke, and seventy-three at Martin's Hundred, seven miles from Jamestown.

The horrors of famine threatened to follow in the train of massacre, and the consternation of the survivors was such that twenty or thirty days elapsed before any plan of defence was concerted. Many were urgent to abandon the James River, and take refuge on the eastern shore, where some newly settled plantations had escaped. At length it was determined to abandon the weaker plantations, and to concentrate their surviving population in five or six well fortified places, Shirley, Flower-de-Hundred, Jamestown, with Paspahey, and the plantations opposite to Kiquotan, and Southampton Hundred. In consequence a large part of the cattle and effects of the planters fell a prey to the enemy. Nevertheless, a planter, "Master Gookins," at Newport's News, refused to abandon his plantation, and with thirty-five men resolutely held it.

The family of Gookins is ancient, and appears to have been found originally at Canterbury, in Kent, England. The name has undergone successive changes—Colkin, Cockin, Cockayn, Cocyn, Cokain, Cokin, Gockin, Gokin, Gookin, Gookins, Gooking, and others. The early New England chroniclers spelled it "Goggin."[164:A] Daniel Gookin removed to County Cork, in Ireland, and thence to Virginia, arriving in November, 1621, with fifty men of his own and thirty passengers, exceedingly well furnished with all sorts of provision and cattle, and planted himself at Newport's News. In the massacre he held out with a force of thirty-five men against the savages, disregarding the order to retire. It is probable that he affected to make a settlement independent of the civil power of the colony, and it appears to have been styled by his son a "lordship." It was above Newport's News, and was called "Mary's Mount."[164:B]

To return to the incidents of the massacre. Samuel Jordan, with the aid of a few refugees, maintained his ground at Beggar's Bush;[164:C] as also did Mr. Edward Hill, at Elizabeth City. "Mrs. Proctor, a proper, civil, modest gentlewoman," defended herself and family for a month after the massacre, until at last constrained to retire by the English officers, who threatened, if she refused, to burn her house down; which was done by the Indians shortly after her withdrawal. Captain Newce, of Elizabeth City, and his wife, distinguished themselves by their liberality to the sufferers. Several families escaped to the country afterwards known as North Carolina, and settled there.[164:D]

When intelligence of this event reached England, the king granted the Virginia Company some unserviceable arms out of the Tower, and "lent them twenty barrels of powder;" Lord St. John of Basing gave sixty coats of mail; the privy council sent out supplies, and the City of London dispatched one hundred settlers.[165:A]

One effect of the massacre was the ruin of the iron-works at Falling Creek, on the south side of the James River, (near Ampthill in the present County of Chesterfield,) where, of twenty-four people, only a boy and girl escaped by hiding themselves.[165:B] Lead was found near these iron-works. King James promised to send over four hundred soldiers for the protection of the colony; but he never could be induced to fulfil his promise. Captain John Smith offered, if the company would send him to Virginia, with a small force, to reduce the savages to subjection, and protect the colony from future assaults. His project failed on account of the dissensions of the company, and the niggardly terms proposed by the few members that were found to act on the matter. The Rev. Jonas Stockham, in May, 1621, previous to the massacre, had expressed the opinion that it was utterly in vain to undertake the conversion of the savages, until their priests and "ancients" were put to the sword. Captain Smith held the same opinion, and he states that the massacre drove all to believe that Mr. Stockham was right in his view on this point.[165:C] The event justified the policy of Argall in prohibiting intercourse with the natives, and had that measure been enforced, the massacre would probably have been prevented. The violence and corruption of such rulers as Argall serve to disgrace and defeat even good measures; while the virtues of the good are sometimes perverted to canonize the most pernicious.

FOOTNOTES:

[161:A] Beverley, 39.

[162:A] The chief was so charmed with it, especially with the lock and key, that he locked and unlocked the door a hundred times a day.

[163:A] Purchas, his Pilgrim, iv. 1788; Smith, ii. 65: a list of the slain may be found on page 70.

[164:A] Arms. Quarterly: First, gules, a chevron ermine between three cocks or, two in chief, one in base, Gookin. Second and third, sable, a cross crosslet, ermine. Fourth, or, a lion rampant, gules between six crosses fitchée. Crest. On a mural crown, gules, a cock or, beaked and legged azure, combed and wattled gu.

[164:B] Article by J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of Boston, in Mass. Gen. and Antiq. Register, vol. for 1847, page 345, referring, among other authorities, to Records of General Court of Virginia.

[164:C] Afterwards called and still known as Jordan's Point, in the County of Prince George, the seat of the revolutionary patriot Richard Bland. Beggar's Bush, as already mentioned, was the title of one of Fletcher's comedies then in vogue in England. (Hallam's Hist. of Literature, ii. 210.)

[164:D] Martin's Hist. of North Carolina, i. 87.

[165:A] Smith, ii. 79; Chalmers' Introduction, i. 19; Belknap, art. Wyat.

[165:B] Beverley, 43.

[165:C] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, i. 343; Smith, 139; Stith, 233.

CHAPTER XVII.

1622.

Crashaw and Opechancanough—Captain Madison massacres a Party of the Natives—Yeardley invades the Nansemonds and the Pamunkies—They are driven back—Reflections on their Extermination.

During these calamitous events that had befallen the colony, Captain Raleigh Crashaw had been engaged in a trading cruise up the Potomac. While he was there, Opechancanough sent two baskets of beads to Japazaws, the chief of the Potomacs, to bribe him to slay Crashaw and his party, giving at the same time tidings of the massacre, with an assurance that "before the end of two moons" there should not be an Englishman left in all the country. Japazaws communicated the message to Crashaw, and he thereupon sent Opechancanough word "that he would nakedly fight him, or any of his, with their own swords." The challenge was declined. Not long afterwards Captain Madison, who occupied a fort on the Potomac River, suspecting treachery on the part of the tribe there, rashly killed thirty or forty men, women, and children, and carried off the werowance and his son, and two of his people, prisoners to Jamestown. The captives were in a short time ransomed.

When the corn was ripe, Sir George Yeardley, with three hundred men, invaded the country of the Nansemonds, who, setting fire to their cabins, and destroying whatever they could not carry away, fled; whereupon the English seized their corn, and completed the work of devastation. Sailing next to Opechancanough's seat, at the head of York River, Yeardley inflicted the same chastisement on the Pamunkies. In New England it was said: "Since the news of the massacre in Virginia, though the Indians continue their wonted friendship, yet are we more wary of them than before, for their hands have been embrued in much English blood, only by too much confidence, but not by force."[166:A]

The red men of Virginia were driven back, like hunted wolves, from their ancient haunts. While their fate cannot fail to excite commiseration, it may reasonably be concluded that the perpetual possession of this country by the aborigines would have been incompatible with the designs of Providence in promoting the welfare of mankind. A productive soil could make little return to a people so destitute of the art and of the implements of agriculture, and habitually indolent. Navigable rivers, the natural channels of commerce, would have failed in their purpose had they borne no freight but that of the rude canoe; primeval forests would have slept in gloomy inutility, where the axe was unknown; and the mineral and metallic treasures of the earth would have remained forever entombed. In Virginia, since the aboriginal population was only about one to the square mile, they could not be justly held occupants of the soil. However well-founded their title to those narrow portions which they actually occupied, yet it was found impossible to take possession of the open country, to which the savages had no just claim, without also exterminating them from those particular spots that rightfully belonged to them. This inevitable necessity actuated the pious Puritans of Plymouth as well as the less scrupulous settlers of Jamestown; and force was resorted to in all the Anglo-American settlements except in that effected, at a later day, by the gentle and sagacious Penn. The unrelenting hostility of the savages, their perfidy and vindictive implacability, made sanguinary measures necessary. In Virginia, the first settlers, a small company, in an unknown wilderness, were repeatedly assaulted, so that resistance and retaliation were demanded by the natural law of self-defence. Nor were these settlers voluntary immigrants; the bulk of them had been sent over, without regard to their choice, by the king or the Virginia Company. Nor did the king or the company authorize any injustice or cruelty to be exercised toward the natives; on the contrary, the colonists, however unfit, were enjoined to introduce the Christian religion among them, and to propitiate their good will by a humane and lenient treatment. Smith and his comrades, so far from being encouraged to maltreat the Indians, were often hampered in making a necessary self-defence, by a fear of offending an arbitrary government at home.

It has been remarked by Mr. Jefferson,[168:A] that it is not so general a truth, as has been supposed, that the lands of Virginia were taken from the natives by conquest, far the greater portion having been purchased by treaty. It may be objected, that the consideration was often inadequate; but a small consideration may have been sufficient to compensate for a title which, for the most part, had but little validity; besides, a larger compensation would oftentimes have been thrown away upon men so ignorant and indolent. Groping in the dim twilight of nature, and slaves of a gross idolatry, their lives were circumscribed within a narrow uniform circle of animal instincts and the necessities of a precarious subsistence. Cunning, bloody, and revengeful, engaged in frequent wars, they were strangers to that Arcadian innocence and the Elysian scenes of a golden age of which youthful poets so fondly dream. If an occasional exception occurs, it is but a solitary ray of light shooting across the surrounding gloom. Yet we cannot be insensible to the many injuries they have suffered, and cannot but regret that their race could not be united with our own. The Indian has long since disappeared from Virginia; his cry no longer echoes in the woods, nor is the dip of his paddle heard on the water. The exterminating wave still urges them onward to the setting sun, and their tribes are fading one by one forever from the map of existence. Geology shows that in the scale of animal life, left impressed on the earth's strata, the inferior species has still given place to the superior: so likewise is it with the races of men.

FOOTNOTES:

[166:A] Purchas, iv. 1840.

[168:A] Notes on Va., 102.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1622-1625.

James the First jealous of Virginia Company—Gondomar—The King takes Measures to annul the Charter—Commissioners appointed—Assembly Petitions the King—Disputes between Commissioners and Assembly—Butler's Account of the Colony—Nicholas Ferrar—Treachery of Sharpless, and his Punishment—The Charter of Virginia Company dissolved—Causes of this Proceeding—Character of the Company—Records of the Company—Death of James the First—Charles the First succeeds him—The Virginia Company—Earl of Southampton—Sir Edwin Sandys and Nicholas Ferrar—The Rev. Jonas Stockham's Letter—Injustice of the Dissolution of the Charter—Beneficial Results—Assembly of 1624.

The Court of James the First, already jealous of the growing power and republican spirit of the Virginia Company, was rendered still more inimical by the malign influence of Count Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, who was jealous of any encroachment on the Spanish colony of Florida. He remarked to King James, of the Virginia Company, that "they were deep politicians, and had further designs than a tobacco-plantation; that as soon as they should get to be more numerous, they intended to step beyond their limits, and, for aught he knew, they might visit his master's mines." The massacre afforded an occasion to the enemies of the company to attribute all the calamities of the colony to its mismanagement and neglect, and thus to frame a plausible pretext for dissolving the charter.

Captain Nathaniel Butler, a dependent of the Earl of Warwick, had, by his influence, been sent out Governor of Bermudas for three years, where he exercised the same oppression and extortion as Argall had exhibited in Virginia. Upon finding himself compelled to leave those islands, he came to Virginia, in the midst of the winter succeeding the massacre. He was hospitably entertained by Governor Wyat, which kindness he proved himself wholly unworthy of, his conduct being profligate and disorderly. He demanded a seat in the council, to which he was in no way entitled. He went up the James as far as to the mouth of the Chickahominy, where "he plundered Lady Dale's cattle;" and after a three months' stay, he set sail for England. Upon his return, Butler was introduced to the king, and published "The Unmasked Face of our Colony in Virginia, as it was in the Winter of 1622," in which he took advantage of the misfortunes of the colony, and exaggerated its deplorable condition. The Rev. William Mease, (who had been for ten years resident in the colony,) with several others, replied to this defamatory pamphlet.[170:A]

The company was divided into two parties, the one headed by the Earl of Southampton, Lord Cavendish, Sir Edward Sackville, Sir John Ogle, Sir Edwin Sandys, with several others of less note; on the other side, the leaders were the Earl of Warwick, Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Nathaniel Rich, Sir Henry Mildmay, Alderman Johnson, etc. They appeared before the king, the Earl of Warwick's faction presenting their accusations against the company, and the other side defending it; and Sir Edward Sackville used such freedom of language that "the king was fain to take him down soundly and roundly." However, by the lord treasurer's intervention, the matter was reconciled on the next day.[170:B]

In May, 1623, a commission was issued authorizing Sir William Jones, a justice of the common pleas, Sir Nicholas Fortescue, Sir Francis Goston, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir William Pitt, Sir Henry Bourchier, and Sir Henry Spilman,[170:C] to inquire into the affairs of the colony. By an order of the privy council the records of the company were seized, and the deputy treasurer, Nicholas Ferrar, imprisoned, and on the arrival of a ship from Virginia, her packets were seized and laid before the privy council.

Nicholas Ferrar, Jr., was born in London in 1592, educated at Cambridge, where he was noted for his talents, acquirements, and piety.[171:A] Upon leaving the university he made the tour of Europe, winning the esteem of the learned, passing through many adventures and perils with Christian heroism, and maintaining everywhere an unsullied character. Upon his return to England, in 1618, he was appointed king's counsel for the Virginia Plantation. In the year 1622 he was chosen deputy treasurer of the Virginia Company, (which office his brother John also filled for some years,) and so remained till its dissolution. In the House of Commons he distinguished himself by his opposition to the political corruption of that day, and abandoned public life when little upwards of thirty years of age, "in obedience to a religious fancy he had long entertained," and formed of his family and relations a sort of little half-popish convent, in which he passed the remainder of his life.[171:B]

Carlyle[171:C] thus describes this singular place of retirement: "Crossing Huntingdonshire in his way northward, his majesty[171:D] had visited the establishment of Nicholas Ferrar, at Little Gidding, on the western border of that county. A surprising establishment now in full flower, wherein above fourscore persons, including domestics, with Ferrar and his brother, and aged mother at the head of them, had devoted themselves to a kind of Protestant monachism, and were getting much talked of in those times. They followed celibacy and merely religious duties; employed themselves in binding of prayer-books, embroidering of hassocks, in almsgiving also, and what charitable work was possible in that desert region; above all, they kept up, night and day, a continual repetition of the English liturgy, being divided into relays and watches, one watch relieving another, as on shipboard, and never allowing at any hour the sacred fire to go out."

In October, 1623, the king declared his intention to grant a new charter modelled after that of 1606. This astounding order was read three times, at a meeting of the company, before they could credit their own ears; then, by an overwhelming vote, they refused to relinquish their charter, and expressed their determination to defend it.

The king, in order to procure additional evidence to be used against the company, appointed five commissioners to make inquiries in Virginia into the state and condition of the colony. In November, 1623, when two of these commissioners had just sailed for Virginia, the king ordered a writ of quo warranto to be issued against the Virginia Company.

In the colony, hitherto, the proclamations of the governors, which had formed the rule of action, were now enacted into laws; and it was declared that the governor should no more impose taxes on the colonists without the consent of the Assembly, and that he should not withdraw the inhabitants from their private labor to any service of his; and further, that the burgesses should be free from arrest during the session of the Assembly. These acts of the legislature of the infant colony, while under the control of the Virginia Company, render it certain that there was more of constitutional and well-regulated freedom in Virginia then, than in the mother country.

Of the commissioners appointed to make inquiries in Virginia, John Harvey and John Pory arrived there early in 1624; Samuel Matthews and Abraham Percy were planters resident in the colony, and the latter a member of the House of Burgesses; John Jefferson, the other commissioner, did not come over to Virginia, nor did he take any part in the matter, being a hearty friend to the company.[172:A] Thomas Jefferson, in his memoir of himself,[172:B] says that one of his name was secretary to the Virginia Company. The Virginia planters at first looking on it as a dispute between the crown and the company, in which they were not essentially interested, paid little attention to it; but two petitions, defamatory of the colony and laudatory of Sir Thomas Smith's arbitrary rule, having come to the knowledge of the Assembly, in February, 1624, that body prepared spirited replies, and drafted a petition to the king, which, with a letter to the privy council, and other papers, were entrusted to Mr. John Pountis, a member of the council.[173:A] He died during the voyage to England. The letter addressed to the privy council prayed "that the governors may not have absolute power, that they might still retain the liberty of popular assemblies, than which nothing could more conduce to the public satisfaction and public utility." At the same time the Virginia Company, in England, presented a petition to the House of Commons against the arbitrary proceedings of the king; but although favorably received, it was withdrawn as soon as the king's disapprobation was announced.

In Virginia the commissioners refused to exhibit their commission and instructions, and the Assembly therefore refused to give them access to their records. Pory, one of the commissioners, who had formerly lost his place of secretary of the colony by betraying its secrets to the Earl of Warwick, suborned Edward Sharpless, clerk of the council, to expose to him copies of the journal of that body, and of the House of Burgesses. Sharpless being convicted of this misdemeanor was sentenced to the pillory, with the loss of his ears.[173:B] Only a part of one ear was actually cut off.

The commissioners, having failed to obtain from the Assembly a declaration of their willingness to submit to the king's purpose of revoking the charter, made a report against the company's management of the colony and the government of it, as too popular, that is, democratic, under the present charter. The king, by a proclamation issued in July, suppressed the meetings of the company, and ordered for the present a committee of the privy council, and others, to sit every Thursday, at the house of Sir Thomas Smith, in Philpot Lane, for conducting the affairs of the colony. Viscount Mandeville was at the head of this committee: Sir George Calvert, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir Samuel Argall, John Pory, Sir John Wolstenholme, and others, were members. At the instance of the attorney-general, to enable the company to make a defence, their books were restored and the deputy treasurer released. In Trinity term, 1624, the writ of quo warranto was tried in the Court of King's Bench, and the charter of the Virginia Company was annulled. The case was determined only upon a technicality in the pleadings.

In one of the hearings against the company, before the privy council, the Marquis of Hamilton said of the letters and instructions of the company, written by Nicholas Ferrar, Jr.: "They are papers as admirably well penned as any I ever heard." And the Earl of Pembroke remarked: "They all deserve the highest commendation: containing advices far more excellent than I could have expected to have met with in the letters of a trading company. For they abound with soundness of good matter and profitable instruction, with respect both to religion and policy; and they possess uncommon elegance of language."[174:A]

The company had been long obnoxious to the king's ill will for several reasons; it had become a nursery for rearing and training leaders of the opposition, many of its members being likewise members of parliament. It was a sort of reform club. The king, in a speech, swore that "the Virginia Company was a seminary for a seditious parliament." The company had chosen a treasurer in disregard of the king's nomination; and in electing Carew Raleigh, a member, they had made allusions to his father, Sir Walter Raleigh, which were doubtless unpalatable to the author of his judicial murder. The king was greedy of power and of money, which he wanted the sense and the virtue to make a good use of; and he hoped to find in Virginia a new field for extortion. Fortunately for the history of the colony, copies of the company's records were made by the precaution of Nicholas Ferrar: these being deposited in the hands of the Earl of Southampton, after his death, which took place in 1624, descended to his son. After his death, in 1667, they were purchased from his executors, for sixty guineas, by the first Colonel William Byrd, then in England. From these two folio volumes, in possession of Sir John Randolph, and from the records of the colony, Stith compiled much of his History of Virginia, which comes down to the year 1624.[174:B]

On the sixth day of April, 1625, died King James the First, aged fifty-nine, after a reign of twenty years. By his consort, Anne of Denmark, he had issue, Henry and Robert, who died young, Charles, his successor, and Elizabeth, who married Frederic the Fifth, elector Palatine. Charles the First succeeding to the crown and the principles of his father, took the government of Virginia into his own hands.

The company thus dissolved, had expended one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in establishing the colony, and had transported nine thousand settlers without the aid of government. The number of stockholders was about one thousand; and the annual value of exports from Virginia was, at the period of the dissolution of the charter, only twenty thousand pounds.

The company embraced much of the rank, wealth, and talents of the kingdom—near fifty noblemen, several hundred knights, and many gentlemen, merchants, and citizens. Among the leaders in its courts were Lord Cavendish, afterwards Earl of Devonshire; Sir Edwin Sandys; and Sir Edward Sackville, afterwards the celebrated Earl of Dorset; and, above all, the Earl of Southampton, the friend of Essex, and the patron of Shakespeare. Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, in 1601, was implicated with the Earl of Essex in his hair-brained and abortive conspiracy to seize the person of Queen Elizabeth. Essex lost his life. Southampton was convicted, attainted and imprisoned during the queen's life. Upon the accession of James the First he was liberated, and restored in 1603. He was afterwards made Captain of the Isle of Wight and Governor of Carisbroke Castle; and in 1618 a member of the privy council. Brave and generous, but haughty and impetuous, he was by no means adapted to the court and cabinet of James, where fawning servility and base intrigue were the ordinary stepping-stones of political advancement.

About the year 1619, the Earl of Southampton was imprisoned through the influence of Buckingham, "whom he rebuked with some passion for speaking often to the same thing in the house, and out of order." In 1620 he was chosen Treasurer, or Governor of the Virginia Company, contrary to the king's wishes; but he, nevertheless, continued in that office until the charter was dissolved, and at its meetings, and in parliament, opposed the measures of a feeble and corrupt court. He and Sir Edwin Sandys, the leaders, together with the bulk of the members of the company, shared largely in the spirit of civil and religious freedom, which was then manifesting itself so strongly in England. In the hostile course pursued against the company, the attacks were especially directed against the earl and his associates Sir Edwin Sandys and Nicholas Ferrar. These three were celebrated: Lord Southampton for wisdom, eloquence, and sweet deportment; Sir Edwin Sandys for great knowledge and integrity; and Nicholas Ferrar for wonderful abilities, unwearied diligence, and the strictest virtue.[176:A] The earl and Sir Edwin were particular objects of the king's hatred. Sir Edwin, a member of the House of Commons, was arbitrarily imprisoned in 1621, during the session of parliament; and the earl was arrested after its dissolution. Spain had, at this time, acquired the ascendancy in the English Court, and this malign influence was skilfully maintained by the intrigues of her crafty ambassador, Count Gondomar. It was believed by many that James was even willing to sacrifice the interests of the English colonies for the benefit of those of Spain. The Rev. Jonas Stockham, a minister in Virginia, in a letter dated in May, 1621, and addressed to the Council of the Virginia Company, said: "There be many Italianated and Spaniolized Englishmen envies our prosperities, and by all their ignominious scandals they can devise, seeks to dishearten what they can those that are willing to further this glorious enterprise. To such I wish, according to the decree of Darius, that whosoever is an enemy to our peace, and seeketh either by getting monipolical patents, or by forging unjust tales to hinder our welfare—that his house were pulled down, and a pair of gallows made of the wood, and he hanged on them in the place."

The Earl of Southampton was grandson of Wriothesley, the famous Chancellor of Edward the Sixth, father to the excellent and noble Treasurer Southampton, grandfather to Rachel Lady Russel. In his later years he commanded an English regiment in the Dutch service, and died in the Netherlands, 1624. Shakespeare dedicated some of his minor poems to him; the County of Southampton, in Virginia, probably also took its name from him. Captain Smith, who had been unjustly displaced by the company, approved of the dissolution of their charter. Yet, as no compensation was rendered for the enormous expenditure incurred, it can be looked upon as little better than confiscation effected by chicane and tyranny. A parliamentary committee, of which Sir Edwin Sandys was a member, in the same year, 1624, drew up articles of impeachment against Lord Treasurer Cranfield for his agency in bringing about the dissolution of the charter.[177:A] Nevertheless, the result was undoubtedly favorable to the colony, as is candidly acknowledged by that honest chronicler, Stith, although no one could be more strenuously opposed to the arbitrary means employed.

An Assembly had been held in March, 1624, and its acts are preserved: they are brief and simple, coming directly to the point, without the redundancy of modern statutes; and refer mainly to agriculture, the church establishment, and defence against the Indians.[177:B] The following is a list of the members of this early Assembly:—

FOOTNOTES:

[170:A] Stith, 243, 268.

[170:B] Court and Times of James the First, ii. 389.

[170:C] Stith calls him Spilman; Burk, Spiller. (See Belknap, art. Wyat.)

[171:A] His father, of the same name, a London merchant, was one of the leading stockholders in the Virginia Company. Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Edwin Sandys, and the like, were frequent guests at his table.

[171:B] Belknap, art. Wyat, in note; Foster's Miscellanies, 368.

[171:C] Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, i. 69.

[171:D] Charles the First.

[172:A] Stith, 297.

[172:B] Writings of Jefferson, i. 1.

[173:A] Hening, i. 120.

[173:B] Stith, 315.

[174:A] Hist. Mag., ii. 34.

[174:B] It has been said that these folios were sent back to England by John Randolph of Roanoke, (Belknap, art. Wyat;) but it appears that they came into possession of Congress as part of Mr. Jefferson's library, and are now in the Law Library at Washington. There is to be found there also a volume of papers and records of the Virginia Company, from 1621 to 1625. (See article by J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., of Boston, in Hist. Mag., ii. 33, recommending that these documents should be published by Congress.) There are also valuable MS. historical materials in Richmond which ought to be published. The recent destruction of the library of William and Mary College shows the precarious tenure by which the collections of the Virginia Historical Society, and the records preserved in the State Capitol, are held.

[176:A] Peckard's Life of Ferrar—a work which throws much light on the early history of Virginia.

[177:A] Belknap.

[177:B] Hening's Statutes, i. 119, 129.

CHAPTER XIX.

1624-1632.

Charles the First commissions Sir Thomas Wyat, Governor—Assemblies not allowed—Royal Government virtually established in Virginia—Other Colonies on Atlantic Coast—Wyat returns to Ireland—Succeeded by Yeardley—Yeardley succeeded by West—Letter of Charles the First directing an Assembly to meet—Assembly's Reply—John Pott, Governor—Condition of Colony—Statistics—Diet—Pott superseded by Harvey—Dr. John Pott Convicted of Stealing Cattle—Sir John Harvey—Lord Baltimore visits Virginia—Refuses to take the Oaths tendered to him—Procures from Charles the First a Grant of Territory—Acts relative to Ministers, Agriculture, Indians, etc.

In August, 1624, King Charles the First granted a commission appointing Sir Thomas Wyat Governor, with a council during pleasure, and omitting all mention of an assembly, thinking so "popular a course" the chief source of the recent troubles and misfortunes. The eleven members of the council were, Francis West, Sir George Yeardley, George Sandys, Roger Smith, Ralph Hamor, who had been of the former council, with the addition of John Martin, John Harvey, Samuel Matthews, Abraham Percy, Isaac Madison, and William Clayborne. Several of these were then, or became afterwards, men of note in the colony. This is the first mention of William Clayborne, who was destined to play an important part in the future annals of Virginia.

Thus in effect a royal government was now established in Virginia; hitherto she had been subject to a complex threefold government of the company, the crown, and her own president or governor and council.[179:A]

From 1624 to 1628 there is no mention in the statute-book of Virginia, or in the journal of the Virginia Company, of any assembly having been held in the colony, and in 1628 appeals were made to the governor and council; whereas had there been an assembly, it would have been the appellate court.

The French had established themselves as early as 1625 in Canada; the Dutch were now colonizing the New Netherlands; a Danish colony had been planted in New Jersey; the English were extending their confines in New England (where New Plymouth numbered thirty-two houses and one hundred and eighty settlers) and Virginia; while the Spaniards, the first settlers of the coast, still held some feeble posts in Florida.

Sir Thomas Wyat, the governor of the colony of Virginia, on the death of his father, Sir George Wyat, returning, in 1626, to Ireland, to attend to his private affairs there, was succeeded by Sir George Yeardley. He, during the same year, by proclamation, which now again usurped the place of law, prohibited the selling of corn to the Indians; made some commercial regulations, and directed houses to be palisaded. Yeardley dying, was succeeded in November, 1627, by Francis West, elected by the council. He was a younger brother of Lord Delaware.[180:A]

At a court held at James City, November the sixteenth, Lady Temperance Yeardley came and confirmed the conveyance made by her late husband, Sir George Yeardley, knight, late governor, to Abraham Percy, Esq., for the lands of Flowerdieu Hundred, being one thousand acres, and of Weanoke, on the opposite side of the water, being two thousand two hundred acres. This lady's Christian name is Puritanical; another such was Obedience Robins, a burgess of Accomac in 1630.

James the First had extorted a revenue from the tobacco of Virginia by an arbitrary resort to his prerogative, and in violation of the charter. Charles the First, in a letter dated June, 1628, proposed that a monopoly of the tobacco trade should be granted to him, and recommended the culture of several new products, and desired that an assembly should be called to take these matters into consideration. The ensuing assembly replied, demanding a higher price and more favorable terms than his majesty was disposed to yield. As to the introduction of new staples, they explained why, in their opinion, that was impracticable. This letter was signed by Francis West, Governor, five members of the council, and thirty-one members of the House of Burgesses.

Sir George Yeardley, the late governor, with two or three of the council, had resided for the most part at Jamestown; the rest of the council repaired there as occasion required. There was a general meeting of the governor and council once in every three months. The population of the colony was estimated at not less than fifteen hundred; they inhabited seventeen or eighteen plantations, of these the greater part, lying toward the falls of the James River, were well fortified against the Indians by means of palisades. The planters dwelling above Jamestown, found means to procure an abundant supply of fish. On the banks of that river the red men themselves were now seldom seen, but their fires were occasionally observed in the woods.[181:A]

There was no family in the colony so poor as not to have a sufficient stock of tame hogs. Poultry was equally abundant; bread plenty and good. For drink the colonists made use of a home-made ale; but the better sort of people were well supplied with sack, aqua-vitæ, and good English beer. The common diet of the servants was milk-hominy, that is, bruised Indian-corn, pounded and boiled thick, and eaten with milk. This dish was also in esteem with the better sort. Hominy, according to Strachey, is an Indian word; Lord Bacon calls it "the cream of maize," and commends it as a nutritious diet. The planters were generally provided with arms and armor, and on every holiday each plantation exercised its men in the use of arms, by which means, together with hunting and fowling, the greater part of them became excellent marksmen. Tobacco was the only staple cultivated for sale. The health of the country was greatly improved by clearing the land, so that the sun had power to exhale up the humid vapors. Captain Francis West continued governor till March, 1628, and he then being about to embark for England, John Pott was elected governor by the council.

In the year 1629 most of the land about Jamestown was cleared; little corn planted; but all the ground converted into pasture and gardens, "wherein doth grow all manners of English herbs and roots and very good grass." Such is the cotemporaneous statement, but after the lapse of more than two centuries Eastern Virginia depends largely on the Northern States for her supply of hay. The greater portion of the cattle of the colony was kept near Jamestown, the owners being dispersed about on plantations, and visiting Jamestown as inclination prompted, or, at the arrival of shipping, come to trade. In this year the population of Virginia amounted to five thousand, and the cattle had increased in the like proportion. The colony's stock of provisions was sufficient to feed four hundred more than its own number of inhabitants. Vessels procured supplies in Virginia; the number of arrivals in 1629 was twenty-three. Salt fish was brought from New England; Kecoughtan supplied peaches.

Mrs. Pearce, an honest industrious woman, after passing twenty years in Virginia, on her return to England reported that she had a garden at Jamestown, containing three or four acres, where in one year she had gathered a hundred bushels of excellent figs, and that of her own provision she could keep a better house in Virginia, than in London for three or four hundred pounds a year, although she had gone there with little or nothing. The planters found the Indian-corn so much better for bread than wheat, that they began to quit sowing it.

An assembly met at Jamestown in October, 1629; it consisted of John Pott, Governor, four councillors, and forty-six burgesses, returned from twenty-three plantations. Pott was superseded in the same year by Sir John Harvey, at some time between October and March. In March, the quarter court ordered an assembly to be called, to meet Sir John Harvey on the twenty-fourth of that month; and nothing was done in Pott's name after October, so far as can be found in the records.

The late governor was, during the ensuing year, Rob-Roy-like, convicted of stealing cattle. The trial commenced on the ninth of July, 1630; the number of jurors was thirteen, of whom three were members of the council. The first day was wholly spent in pleading, the next in unnecessary disputations, Dr. John Pott endeavoring to prove Mr. Kingsmell, one of the witnesses against him, a hypocrite by the story of "Gusman of Alfrach, the Rogue." Pott was found guilty, but in consideration of his rank and station, judgment was suspended until the king's pleasure should be known; and all the council became his security.

Sir John Harvey, the new governor, had been one of the commissioners sent out by King James to Virginia, in 1623, for the purpose of investigating the state and condition of the colony, and of procuring evidence which might serve to justify the dissolution of the charter of the Virginia Company. Harvey had also been a member of the provisional government in the year 1625. Returning now to Virginia, no doubt with embittered recollections of the collisions with the assembly in which he had been formerly involved, he did not fail to imitate the arbitrary rule that prevailed "at home," and to render himself odious to the inhabitants of the colony.

Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, descended from a noble family in Flanders, born at Kipling, in Yorkshire, England, was educated partly at Trinity College, Oxford, and partly on the continent. Sir Robert Cecil, lord treasurer, employed him as his secretary, and he was promoted to the clerkship of the council. In 1618 he was knighted, and in the succeeding year he was made a secretary of state, and one of the committee of trade and plantations, with a pension of one thousand pounds. Through the influence of Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, he was chosen a member of Parliament. Receiving a patent for the southeastern peninsula of Newfoundland, he undertook to establish, in 1621, the plantation of Ferryland, which he called the Province of Avalon—a name derived from some mediæval legend. In 1624 he professed the Romish faith, and resigned his place of secretary of state; but James the First still retained this strenuous defender of royal prerogative as a member of his privy council, and created him[183:A] Baron of Baltimore, in the County of Longford, in Ireland, he being at this time the representative of the University of Oxford in the House of Commons. Still bent upon establishing a colony in America, for the promotion of his private interests, and to provide an asylum for the unmolested exercise of his religion, embarking in a ship lent him by King Charles the First, he came over to Virginia in the year 1629.

Virginia was founded by men devoted to the principles of the Reformation, amid vivid recollections of the persecutions of Mary, the Spanish armada, and the recent gunpowder plot, and when horror of papists was at its height. The charter of the colony expressly required that the oaths of allegiance and supremacy should be taken for the purpose of guarding against "the superstitions of the Church of Rome."[184:A]

The assembly being in session at the time of Lord Baltimore's arrival, proposed these oaths to him and those with him. He declined complying with the requisition, submitting, however, a form which he was ready to accept, whereupon the assembly determined to refer the matter to the privy council. The virtues of this able and estimable nobleman did not secure him from personal indignity. In the old records is found this entry: "March 25th, 1630, Thomas Tindall to be pilloried two hours for giving my Lord Baltimore the lie, and threatening to knock him down."[184:B]

Finding the Virginians unanimously averse to the very name of papist, he proceeded to the head of Chesapeake Bay, and observing an attractive territory on the north side of the Potomac River unoccupied, returned to England, and, in violation of the territorial rights of Virginia, obtained from Charles the First a grant of the country, afterwards called Maryland,[184:C] but before the sealing of his patent.

During the session of 1629-30 ministers were ordered to conform themselves in all things "according to the canons of the Church of England." It would appear that Puritanism had begun to develope itself among the clergy as well as the laity of the colony. Measures were adopted for erecting a fort at Point Comfort; new-comers were exempted from military service during the first five years after their arrival; engrossing and forestalling were prohibited. For the furtherance of the production of potashes and saltpetre, experiments were ordered to be made; to prevent a scarcity of corn, it was enacted that two acres of land, or near thereabouts, be planted for every head that works in the ground; regulations were established for the improvement of the staple of tobacco. An act provided that the war commenced against the Indians be effectually prosecuted, and that no peace be concluded with them.[185:A]

The first act of the session of February, 1632, provides that there be a uniformity throughout this colony, both in substance and circumstance, to the canons and constitution of the Church of England, as near as may be, and that every person yield ready obedience to them, upon penalty of the pains and forfeitures in that case appointed. Another act directs that ministers shall not give themselves to excess in drinking, or riot, spending their time idly, by day or night, playing at dice, cards, or any other unlawful game. Another order was, that all the council and burgesses of the assembly shall in the morning be present at divine service, in the room where they sit, at the third beating of the drum, an hour after sunrise. No person was suffered to "tend" above fourteen leaves of the tobacco-plant, nor to gather more than nine leaves, nor to tend any slips of old stalks of tobacco, or any of the second crop; and it was ordained that all tobacco should be taken down before the end of November. No person was permitted to speak or parley with the Indians, either in the woods or on any plantation, "if he can possibly avoid it by any means." The planters, however, were required to observe all terms of amity with them, taking care, nevertheless, to keep upon their guard. The spirit of constitutional freedom exhibited itself in an act declaring that the governor and council shall not lay any taxes or impositions upon the colony, their land, or commodities, otherwise than by authority of the grand assembly, to be levied and employed as by the assembly shall be appointed.

Act XL. provides, that the governor shall not withdraw the inhabitants from their private labors to service of his own, upon any color whatsoever. In case of emergency, the levying of men shall be ordered by the governor, with the consent of the whole body of the council. For the encouragement of men to plant a plenty of corn, it was enacted, that the price shall not be restricted, but it shall be free for every man to sell it as dear as he can. Men were not allowed to work in the grounds without their arms, and a sentinel on guard; due watch to be kept at night when necessary; no commander of any plantation shall either himself spend, or suffer others to spend, powder unnecessarily, that is to say, in drinking or entertainments. All men fit to bear arms were required to bring their pieces to the church on occasion of public worship. No person within the colony, upon any rumor of supposed change and alteration, was to presume to be disobedient to the present government, nor servants to their private officers, masters, and overseers, at their uttermost peril. No boats were permitted to go and trade to Canada or elsewhere that be not of the burthen of ten tons, and have a flush deck, or fitted with a grating and a tarpauling, excepting such as be permitted for discovery by a special license from the governor.[186:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[179:A] Chalmers' Introduction, i. 22. Beverley, B. i. 47, says expressly that an assembly was allowed. Burk, ii. 15, asserts that "assemblies convened and deliberated in the usual form, unchecked and uninterrupted by royal interference, from the dissolution of the proprietary government to the period when a regular constitution was sent over with Sir W. Berkeley in 1639." For authority reference is made to a document in the Appendix, which document, however, is not to be found there. The opinions of Chalmers—who, as clerk of the privy council, had access to the archives in England—and Hening, confirmed by a corresponding hiatus in the records, appear conclusive against the unsupported statements of Beverley and Burk.

[180:A] Belknap, art. Wyat, errs in making Sir John Harvey the successor.

[181:A] The number of cattle amounted to several thousand head; the stock of goats was large, and their increase rapid; the forests abounded with wild hogs, which were killed and eaten by the savages.

[183:A] 1625.

[184:A] Burk, ii. 25; Hen., i. 73, 97.

[184:B] 1 Hen., 552.

[184:C] Belknap, iii. 206; Allen's Biog. Dic., art. Calvert.

[185:A] 1 Hening, 149.

[186:A] 1 Hening, 155, 175.

CHAPTER XX.

1632-1635.

Charles the First appoints Council of Superintendence for Virginia—Acts of Assembly—William Clayborne authorized by the Crown to make Discoveries and Trade—George Lord Baltimore dies—The Patent of Territory granted is confirmed to his Son Cecilius, Lord Baltimore—Virginia remonstrates against the grant to Baltimore—Lord Baltimore employs his Brother, Leonard Calvert, to found the Colony of Maryland—St. Mary's Settled—Harvey visits Calvert—Clayborne's Opposition to the New Colony—Character of Baltimore's Patent—Contest between Clayborne and the Marylanders—He is convicted of High Crimes—Escapes to Virginia—Goes to England for trial of the Case.

In the year 1632 King Charles issued a commission appointing a Council of Superintendence over Virginia, empowering them to ascertain the state and condition of the colony. The commissioners were Edward, Earl of Dorset, Henry, Earl of Derby, Dudley, Viscount Dorchester, Sir John Coke, Sir John Davers, Sir Robert Killegrew, Sir Thomas Rowe, Sir Robert Heath, Sir Kineage Tench, Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir John Holstenholm, Sir Francis Wyat, Sir John Brooks, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John Tench, John Banks, Esq., Thomas Gibbs, Esq., Samuel Rott, Esq., George Sands, Esq., John Wolstenholm, Esq., Nicholas Ferrar, Esq., Gabriel Barber, and John Ferrar, Esquires.[187:A]

Elaborate acts passed by the Colonial Legislature at this period, for improving the staple of tobacco and regulating the trade in it, evince the increasing importance of that crop. Tithes were imposed of tobacco and corn; and the twentieth "calfe, kidd of goates and pigge" granted unto the minister. During the year 1633 every fortieth man in the neck of land between the James River and the York, (then called the Charles,) was directed to repair to the plantation of Dr. John Pott, to be employed in building of houses and securing that tract of land lying between Queen's Creek, emptying into Charles River, and Archer's Hope Creek, emptying into James River. This was Middle Plantation, (now Williamsburg,) so called as being midway between the James River and the York. Each person settling there was entitled to fifty acres of land and exemption from general taxes. All new-comers were ordered to pay sixty-four pounds of tobacco toward the maintenance of the fort at Point Comfort.[188:A] Thus far, under Harvey's administration, the Assembly had met regularly, and several judicious and wholesome acts had been passed.

The Chesapeake Bay is supposed to have been discovered by the Spaniards as early as the year 1566 or before, being called by them the Bay of Santa Maria.[188:B] It was discovered by the English in 1585, when Ralph Lane was Governor of the first Colony of Virginia. In 1620 John Pory made a voyage of discovery in the Chesapeake Bay, and found one hundred English happily settled on its borders, (in what particular place is not known,) animated with the hope of a very good trade in furs.[188:C] During the years 1627, 1628, and 1629 the governors of Virginia gave authority to William Clayborne, "Secretary of State of this Kingdom," as the Ancient Dominion was then styled, to discover the source of the bay, or any part of that government from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degree of north latitude.[188:D] In May, 1631, Charles the First granted a license to "our trusty and well-beloved William Clayborne," one of the council and Secretary of State for the colony, authorizing him to make discoveries, and to trade. This license was, by the royal instructions, confirmed by Governor Harvey; and Clayborne shortly afterwards established a trading post on Kent Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, not far from the present capital of Maryland, Annapolis; and subsequently another at the mouth of the Susquehanna River. In the year 1632 a burgess was returned from the Isle of Kent to the Assembly at Jamestown.[189:A] In 1633 a warehouse was established in Southampton River for the inhabitants of Mary's Mount, Elizabeth City, Accomac, and the Isle of Kent.

In the mean time, George, the elder Lord Baltimore, dying on the fifteenth of April, 1632, aged fifty, at London, before his patent was issued, it was confirmed June twentieth of this year, to his son Cecilius, Baron of Baltimore. The new province was named Maryland in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles the First of England, and daughter of Henry the Fourth of France. For eighteen months from the signing of the Maryland charter, the expedition to the new colony was delayed by the strenuous opposition made to the proceeding. The Virginians felt no little aggrieved at this infraction of their chartered territory; and they remonstrated to the king in council in 1633, against the grant to Lord Baltimore, alleging that "it will be a general disheartening to them, if they shall be divided into several governments." Future events were about to strengthen their sense of the justice of their cause. In July of this year the case was decided in the Star Chamber, the privy council, influenced by Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, deeming it fit to leave Lord Baltimore to his patent and the complainants to the course of law "according to their desire," recommending, at the same time, a spirit of amity and good correspondence between the planters of the two colonies. So futile a decision could not terminate the contest, and Clayborne continued to claim Kent Island, and to abnegate the authority of the proprietary of Maryland.

At length, Lord Baltimore having engaged the services of his brother, Leonard Calvert, for founding the colony, he with two others, one of them probably being another brother, were appointed commissioners. The expedition consisted of some twenty gentlemen of fortune, and two or three hundred of the laboring class, nearly all of them Roman Catholics. Imploring the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, St. Ignatius, and all the guardian angels of Maryland, they set sail from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, in November, 1633, St. Cecilia's day. The canonized founder of the order of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, was the patron saint of the infant Maryland. February twenty-seventh, 1634, they reached Point Comfort, filled with apprehensions of the hostility of the Virginians to their colonial enterprise. Letters from King Charles and the chancellor of the exchequer conciliated Governor Harvey, who hoped, by his kindness to the Maryland colonists, to insure the recovery of a large sum of money due him from the royal treasury. The Virginians were at this time all under arms expecting the approach of a hostile Spanish fleet. Calvert, after a hospitable entertainment, embarked on the third of March for Maryland. Clayborne, who had accompanied Harvey to Point Comfort to see the strangers, did not fail to intimidate them by accounts of the hostile spirit which they would have to encounter in the Indians of that part of the country to which they were destined. Calvert, on arriving in Maryland, was accompanied in his explorations of the country by Captain Henry Fleet, an early Virginia pioneer, who was familiar with the settlements and language of the savages, and in much favor with them; and it was under his guidance and direction that the site of St. Mary's, the ancient capital of Maryland, was selected.[190:A] White, a Jesuit missionary, says of Fleet: "At the first he was very friendly to us; afterwards, seduced by the evil counsels of a certain Clayborne, who entertained the most hostile disposition, he stirred up the minds of the natives against us."[190:B] White mentions that the Island of Monserrat, in the West Indies, where they touched, was inhabited by Irishmen who had been expelled by the English of Virginia "on account of their profession of the Catholic faith."

In a short time after the landing of Leonard Calvert in Maryland, Sir John Harvey, Governor of Virginia, visited him at St. Mary's. His arrival attracted to the same place the Indian chief of Patuxent, who said: "When I heard that a great werowance of the English was come to Yoacomoco, I had a great desire to see him; but when I heard the werowance of Pasbie-haye was come thither also to see him, I presently start up, and without further counsel came to see them both."[191:A]

In March, 1634, at a meeting of the governor and council, Clayborne inquired of them how he should demean himself toward Lord Baltimore and his deputies in Maryland, who claimed jurisdiction over the colony at Kent Isle. The governor and council replied that the right of his lordship's patent being yet undetermined in England, they were bound in duty and by their oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of the colony of Virginia. Nevertheless, in all humble submission to his majesty's pleasure, they resolved to keep and observe all good correspondence with the Maryland new-comers.[191:B]

The Maryland patent conferred upon Lord Baltimore, a popish recusant, the entire government of the colony, including the patronage and advowson of all churches, the same to be dedicated and consecrated according to the ecclesiastical law. This charter was illegal, inasmuch as it granted powers which the king himself did not possess; the grantee being a papist could not conform to the ecclesiastical laws of England; and, therefore, the provisions of this extraordinary instrument could not be, and were not designed to be, executed according to the plain and obvious meaning. Such was the character of the instrument by which King Charles the First despoiled Virginia of so large a portion of her territory. It is true, indeed, that the Virginia charter had been annulled, but this was done upon the condition explicitly and repeatedly declared by the royal government, that vested rights should receive no prejudice thereby.[192:A]

Clayborne, rejecting the authority of the new plantation, Lord Baltimore gave orders to seize him if he should not submit himself to the proprietary government of Maryland. The Indians beginning to exhibit some indications of hostility toward the settlers, they attributed it to the machinations of Clayborne, alleging that it was he who stirred up the jealousy of the savages, persuading them that the new-comers were Spaniards and enemies to the Virginians, and that he had also infused his own spirit of insubordination into the inhabitants of Kent Island. A trading vessel called the Longtail, employed by Clayborne in the Indian trade in the Chesapeake Bay, was captured by the Marylanders. He thereupon fitted out an armed pinnace with a crew of fourteen men under one of his adherents, Lieutenant Warren, to rescue the vessel. Two armed pinnaces were sent out by Calvert under Captain Cornwallis; and in an engagement that ensued in the Potomac, or, as some accounts have it, the Pocomoke River, one of the Marylanders fell, and three of the Virginians, including Lieutenant Warren. The rest were carried prisoners to St. Mary's. Clayborne was indicted although not arrested, and convicted of murder and piracy, constructive crimes inferred from his opposition. The chief of Patuxent was interrogated as to Clayborne's intrigues among the Indians.[192:B]

Harvey, either from fear of the popular indignation, or from some better motive, refused to surrender the fugitive Clayborne to the Maryland commissioners, and according to one authority[192:C] sent him to England, accompanied by the witnesses. Chalmers, good authority on the subject, makes no allusion to the circumstance, and it appears more probable that Clayborne having appealed to the king, went voluntarily to England.[192:D] It is certain that he was not brought to trial there.

FOOTNOTES:

[187:A] 2 Burk's Hist. of Va., 35.

[188:A] 1 Hening, 188, 190, 199, 208, 222. The pay of the officers at Point Comfort was at this time:—

[188:B] Early Voyages to America, 483.

[188:C] Chalmers' Polit. Annals, 206.

[188:D] Chalmers' Annals, 227.

[189:A] 1 Hening, 154.

[190:A] White's Relation, 4; Force's Hist. Tracts.

[190:B] White's Relation of the Colony of the Lord Baron of Baltimore in Maryland, near Virginia, and a Narrative of the Voyage to Maryland, was copied from the archives of the Jesuit's College at Rome, by Rev. William McSherry, of Georgetown College, and translated from the Latin. An abstract of it may be found in chapter first of History of Maryland, by James McSherry. The first part of the Relation is a description of the country, and appears to have been written at London previous to the departure of Calvert; the remainder details the incidents of the voyage and the first settlement of the colony, especially of the proceedings of the Jesuit missionaries down to the year 1677.

[191:A] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 120, referring to "Relation of the successful beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation, in Maryland," signed by Captain Wintour, and others, adventurers in the expedition, and published in 1634.

[191:B] Chalmers' Annals. Chalmers is the more full and satisfactory in his account of Maryland, because he had resided there for many years.

[192:A] Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.; Virginia and Maryland, 7 et seq.; and Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 113.

[192:B] McSherry's Maryland, 40; Chalmers' Annals, 211, 232; Force's Historical Tracts, ii. 13.

[192:C] Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 41, referring to "Ancient Records" of the London Company.

[192:D] Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.; Maryland and Virginia, 22.

CHAPTER XXI.

1635-1639.

Eight Shires—Harvey's Grants of Territory—His Corrupt and Tyrannical Administration—The Crown guarantees to the Virginians the Rights which they enjoyed before the Dissolution of the Charter—Burk's Opinion of Clayborne—Governor Harvey deposed—Returns to England—Charles the First reinstates him—Disturbances in Kent Island—Charles reprimands Lord Baltimore for his Maltreatment of Clayborne—The Lords Commissioners decide in favor of Baltimore—Threatening State of Affairs in England—Harvey recalled—Succeeded by Sir Francis Wyat.

In the year 1634 Virginia was divided into eight shires: James City, Henrico, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Warrasqueake, Charles River, and Accomac. The original name of Pamaunkee, or Pamunkey, had then been superseded by Charles River, which afterwards gave way to the present name of York. Pamunkey, at first the name of the whole river, is now restricted to one of its branches. The word Pamaunkee is said to signify "where we took a sweat."

The grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore opened the way for similar grants to other court-favorites, of lands lying to the north and to the south of the settled portion of the Ancient Colony and Dominion of Virginia. While Charles the First was lavishing vast tracts of her territory upon his favorites, Sir John Harvey, a worthy pacha of such a sultan, in collusion with the royal commissioners, imitated the royal munificence by giving away large bodies not only of the public, or crown lands, but even of such as belonged to private planters.[193:A] In the contests between Clayborne and the proprietary of Maryland, while the people of Virginia warmly espoused their countryman's cause, Harvey sided with Baltimore, and proved himself altogether a fit instrument of the administration then tyrannizing in England. He was extortionate, proud, unjust, and arbitrary; he issued proclamations in derogation of the legislative powers of the assembly; assessed, levied, held, and disbursed the colonial revenue, without check or responsibility; transplanted into Virginia exotic English statutes; multiplied penalties and exactions, and appropriated fines to his own use; he added the decrees of the court of high commission of England to the ecclesiastical constitutions of Virginia. The assembly, nevertheless, met regularly; and the legislation of the colony expanded itself in accordance with the exigencies of an increasing population. Tobacco was subjected, by royal ordinances, to an oppressive monopoly; and in those days of prerogative, a remonstrance to the Commons for redress proved fruitless.

At length, in July, 1634, the council's committee for the colonies, either from policy or from compassion, transmitted instructions to the governor and council, saying: "That it is not intended that interests which men have settled when you were a corporation, should be impeached; that for the present they may enjoy their estates with the same freedom and privilege as they did before the recalling of their patents," and authorizing the appropriation of lands to the planters, as had been the former custom.[194:A]

Whether these concessions were inadequate in themselves, or were not carried into effect by Harvey, upon the petition of many of the inhabitants, an assembly was called to meet on the 7th of May, 1635, to hear complaints against that obnoxious functionary. There is hardly any point on which a people are more sensitive than in regard to their territory, and it may therefore be concluded, that one of Harvey's chief offences was his having sided with Lord Baltimore in his infraction of the Virginia territory.

Burk, in his History of Virginia, has stigmatized Clayborne as "an unprincipled incendiary" and "execrable villain;" other writers have applied similar epithets to him. It appears to have been only his resolute defence of his own rights and those of Virginia that subjected him to this severe denunciation. He was long a member of the council; long filled the office of secretary; was held in great esteem by the people, and was for many years a leading spirit of the colony. Burk[195:A] denounces Sir John Harvey for refusing to surrender the fugitive Clayborne to the demand of the Maryland Commissioners, and adds: "But the time was at hand when this rapacious and tyrannical prefect (Harvey) would experience how vain and ineffectual are the projects of tyranny when opposed to the indignation of freemen." Thus the governor, who excited the indignation of the Virginians by his collusion with the Marylanders, was afterwards reprobated by historians for sympathizing with Clayborne in his defence of the rights of Virginia, and opposition to the Marylanders. If Harvey, in violation of the royal license granted to Clayborne in 1631, had surrendered him to the Maryland Commissioners, he would have exposed himself to the royal resentment; and nothing could have more inflamed the indignation of freemen than such treatment of the intrepid vindicator of their territorial rights.

Before the assembly (called to hear complaints against the governor) met, Harvey, having consented to go to England to answer them, was "thrust out of the government" by the council on the 28th of April, 1635, and Captain John West was authorized to act as governor until the king's pleasure should be known. The assembly having collected the evidence, deputed two members of the council to go out with Harvey to prefer the charges against him. It was also ordered that during the vacancy in the office of governor, the secretary (Clayborne) should sign commissions and passes, and manage the affairs of the Indians.[195:B]

King Charles the First, offended at the presumption of the council and assembly, reinstated Sir John, and he resumed his place, in or before the month of January, 1636. Chalmers[195:C] says that he returned in April, 1637. Thus the first open resistance to tyranny, and vindication of constitutional right, took place in the colony of Virginia; and the deposition of Harvey foreshadowed the downfall of Charles the First. The laws that had been enacted by the first assembly of Maryland, having been sent over to England for his approval, he rejected them, on the ground that the right of framing them was vested in himself; and he directed an assembly to be summoned to meet in January, 1638, to have his dissent announced to them.

Early in 1637 a court was established by the Maryland authorities, in Kent Island, and toward the close of that year Captain George Evelin was appointed commander of the island. Many of Clayborne's adherents there refused to submit to the jurisdiction of Lord Baltimore's colony, and the governor, Leonard Calvert, found it necessary to repair there in March, 1638, in person, with a military force, to reduce to submission these Virginia malecontents. The Maryland legislature, convened in compliance with Lord Baltimore's orders, refused to acquiesce in his claim of the legislative power, and in the event they gained their point, his lordship being satisfied with a controlling influence in the choice of the delegates, and his veto.

The Virginians captured by Cornwallis in his engagement with Warren, had been detained prisoners without being brought to trial, there being no competent tribunal in the colony. At length Thomas Smith, second in command to Warren, was brought to trial for the murder of William Ashmore, (who had been killed in the skirmish,) and was found guilty, and sentenced to death; but it is not certain that he was executed. Clayborne was attainted, and his property confiscated; and these proceedings probably produced those disturbances in Kent Island which required the governor's presence.

Harvey, after his restoration, continued to be governor of Virginia for about three years, during which period there appears to have been no meeting of the assembly, and of this part of his administration no record is left.

In July, 1638, Charles the First addressed a letter to Lord Baltimore, referring to his former letters to "Our Governor and Council of Virginia, and to others, our officers and subjects in these parts, (in which) we signified our pleasure that William Clayborne, David Morehead, and other planters in the island near Virginia, which they have nominated Kentish Island, should in no sort be interrupted by you or any other in your right, but rather be encouraged to proceed in so good a work." The king complains to Baltimore that his agents, in spite of the royal instructions, had "slain three of our subjects there, and by force possessed themselves by night of that island, and seized and carried away both the persons and estates of the said planters." His majesty concludes by enjoining a strict compliance with his former orders.[197:A]

In 1639 Father John Gravener, a Jesuit missionary, resided at Kent Island. In April of this year the Lords Commissioners of Plantations, with Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, at their head, held a meeting at Whitehall, and determined the controversy between Clayborne and Lord Baltimore. This decision was made in consequence of a petition presented in 1637 by Clayborne to the king, claiming, by virtue of discovery and settlement, Kent Island and another plantation at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, and complaining of the attempts of Lord Baltimore's agents there to dispossess him and his associates, and of outrages committed upon them. The decision was now absolute in favor of Baltimore; and Clayborne, despairing of any peaceable redress, returned to Virginia, and having in vain prayed for the restoration of his property, awaited some future opportunity to vindicate his rights, and to recover property amounting in value to six thousand pounds, of which he had been despoiled.[197:B]

The Governor of Maryland, engaged in hostilities with the Indians, obtained a supply of arms, ammunition, and provision from the Governor of Virginia.

Charles the First, bred in all the arts of corrupt and arbitrary government, had now for many years governed England by prerogative, without a parliament, until at length his necessities constrained him to convene one; and his apprehensions of that body, and the revolt of the Scotch, and other alarming ebullitions of discontent, admonished him and his advisers to mitigate the high-handed measures of administration. The severity of colonial rule was also relaxed, and in November, 1639, the unpopular Sir John Harvey was displaced, and succeeded by Sir Francis Wyat.[198:A] But Harvey remained in Virginia, and continued to be a member of the council. About this time mention is made of the exportation of cattle from Virginia to New England.

FOOTNOTES:

[193:A] Beverley, B. i. 50.

[194:A] By the words "for the present," was probably intended "at present," "now," otherwise their interests might be impeached at a future day, although not immediately. Chalmers, Hist. of Revolt of Amer. Colonies, 36, so interprets the expression.

[195:A] Hist. of Va., ii. 40.

[195:B] Hen., i. 223.

[195:C] Hist. of Revolt of Amer. Colonies, i. 36.

[197:A] Chalmers' Annals, 232.

[197:B] Clayborne is the same name with Claiborne; it is found sometimes spelt Claiborn, and sometimes Cleyborne.

[198:A] 1 Hening's Stat. at Large, 4. Burk, Hist. of Va., ii. 46, erroneously makes Sir William Berkley succeed Harvey.

CHAPTER XXII.

1640-1644.

Alarming State of Affairs in England—The Long Parliament summoned—In Virginia Stephen Reekes pilloried—Sir William Berkley made Governor—Assembly declare against Restoration of Virginia Company—The King's Letter—Puritans in Virginia—Act against Non-conformists—Massacre of 1644—Opechancanough captured—His Death—Civil War in England—Sir William Berkley visits England—Clayborne expels Calvert from Maryland, and seizes the Government—Treaty with Necotowance—Statistics of the Colony.

The spirit of constitutional freedom awakened by the Reformation, and which had been long gradually gaining strength, began to develope itself with new energy in England. The arbitrary temper of Charles the First excited so great dissatisfaction in the people, and such a strenuous opposition in parliament, as to exact at length his assent to the "Petition of Right." The public indignation was carried to a high pitch by the forced levying of ship-money, that is, of money for the building of ships-of-war, and John Hampden stood forth in a personal resistance to this unconstitutional mode of raising money. The Puritans found within the pale of the Established Church, as well as without, were arrayed against the despotic rule of the crown and the hierarchy; and Scotland was not less offended against the king, who undertook to obtrude the Episcopal liturgy upon the Presbyterian land of his birth. In the year 1640 Charles the First found himself compelled to call together the Long Parliament. Virginia meantime remained loyal; the decrees of the courts of high commission were the rule of conduct, and the authority of Archbishop Laud was as absolute in the colony as in the fatherland. Stephen Reekes was pilloried for two hours, with a label on his back signifying his offence, fined fifty pounds, and imprisoned during pleasure, for saying "that his majesty was at confession with the Lord of Canterbury," that is, Archbishop Laud.

In May, 1641, the Earl of Strafford was executed, and Archbishop Laud sent to the Tower, where he was destined to remain until he suffered the same fate. The massacre of the Protestants in Ireland occurring in the latter part of this year, rendered still more portentous the threatening storm. January tenth, the king left London, to which he was not destined to return till brought back a prisoner.

In February, 1642, Sir Francis Wyat gave way to Sir William Berkley, whose destiny it was to hold the office of governor for a period longer than any other governor, and to undergo extraordinary vicissitudes of fortune. His commission and instructions declared that it was intended to give due encouragement to the plantation of Virginia, and that ecclesiastical as well as temporal matters should be regulated according to the laws of England; provision was also made for securing to England a monopoly of the trade of the colony. By some salutary measures which Sir William Berkley introduced shortly after his arrival, and by his prepossessing manners, he soon rendered himself very acceptable to the Virginians.

In April, 1642, the assembly made a declaration against the restoration of the Virginia Company then proposed, denouncing the company as having been the source of intolerable calamities to the colony by its illegal proceedings, barbarous punishments, and monopolizing policy. They insisted that its restoration would cause them to degenerate from the condition of their birthright, and convert them from subjects of a monarchy to the creatures of a popular and tumultuary government, to which they would be obliged to resign their lands held from the crown; which they intimate, if necessary, would be more fitly resigned to a branch of the royal family than to a corporation. They averred that the revival of the company would prove a deathblow to freedom of trade, "the life-blood of a commonwealth." Finally, the assembly protested against the restoration of the company, and decreed severe penalties against any who should countenance the scheme.[200:A]

At a court holden at James City, June the 29th, 1642, present Sir William Berkley, knight, governor, etc., Captain John West, Mr. Rich. Kemp, Captain William Brocas, Captain Christopher Wormley, Captain Humphrey Higginson. The commission for the monthly court of Upper Norfolk was renewed, and the commissioners appointed were, Captain Daniel Gookin, commander, Mr. Francis Hough, Captain Thomas Burbage, Mr. John Hill, Mr. Oliver Spry, Mr. Thomas Den, Mr. Randall Crew, Mr. Robert Bennett, Mr. Philip Bennett. The captains of trained bands: Captain Daniel Gookin, Captain Thomas Burbage.[201:A]

Among the converts made by one of the New England missionaries, named Thompson, was Daniel Gookin (son of the early settler of that name.) He removed to Boston in May, 1644, being probably one of those who were driven away from Virginia for non-conformity. He went away with his family in a ship bought by him from the governor, and was received with distinction at Boston. He soon became eminent in New England, and afterwards enjoyed the confidence of Cromwell, of whom he was a devoted adherent. He was author of several historical works. He died in March, 1686-7[201:B].

The alarming crisis in the affairs of Charles the First strongly dictated the necessity of a conciliatory course; and the remonstrance, together with a petition, being communicated to him, then at York, just on the eve of the "Grand Rebellion," he replied to it, firmly engaging never to restore the Virginia Company.

The following is a copy of the king's letter:—

"C. R.

"Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you all. Whereas, we have received a petition from you, our governor, council and burgesses of the grand assembly in Virginia, together with a declaration and protestation of the first of April, against a petition presented in your names to our House of Commons in this our kingdom, for restoring of the letters patent for the incorporation of the late treasurer and council, contrary to our intent and meaning, and against all such as shall go about to alienate you from our immediate protection. And whereas, you desire by your petition that we should confirm this your declaration and protestation under our royal signet, and transmit the same to that our colony; these are to signify, that your acknowledgments of our great bounty and favors toward you, and your so earnest desire to continue under our immediate protection, are very acceptable to us; and that as we had not before the least intention to consent to the introduction of any company over that our colony; so we are by it much confirmed in our former resolutions, as thinking it unfit to change a form of government wherein (besides many other reasons given, and to be given,) our subjects there (having had so long experience of it) receive so much content and satisfaction. And this our approbation of your petition and protestation we have thought fit to transmit unto you under our royal signet.

"Given at our Court, at York, the 5th of July, 1642.

"To our trusty and well-beloved our Governor, Council, and Burgesses of the Grand Assembly of Virginia."[202:A]

It was in this year that the name of Charles City County was changed into York.

As early as 1619 a small party of English Puritans had come over to Virginia; and a larger number would have followed them, but they were prevented by a royal proclamation issued at the instance of Bancroft, the persecuting Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1642 a deputation was sent from some Virginia dissenters to Boston, soliciting a supply of pastors from the New England churches; three clergymen were accordingly sent, with letters recommending them to the governor, Sir William Berkley. On their arrival in Virginia they began to preach in various parts of the country, and the people flocked eagerly to hear them. The following year the assembly passed the following act: "For the preservation of the purity of doctrine and unity of the church, it is enacted, that all ministers whatsoever, which shall reside in the colony, are to be conformable to the orders and constitutions of the Church of England and the laws therein established; and not otherwise to be admitted to teach or preach, publickly or privately; and that the governor and council do take care, that all non-conformists, upon notice of them, shall be compelled to depart the colony with all convenience."[203:A] Sir William Berkley, equally averse to the religious tenets and political principles of the Puritan preachers, issued a proclamation in consonance with this exclusive act. Mather says of the three New England missionaries: "They had little encouragement from the rulers of the place, but they had a kind entertainment with the people;" and Winthrop: "Though the State did silence the ministers, because they would not conform to the order of England, yet the people resorted to them in private houses to hear them." In a short time the preachers returned to their own country.

The Indians, whose hatred to the whites, although dissembled, had never been abated, headed by Opechancanough, committed a second massacre on the 18th day of April, 1644. It was attributed to the encroachments made upon them by some of Sir John Harvey's grants; but it was suspected by some that Opechancanough was instigated to this massacre by certain of the colonists themselves, who informed him of the civil war then raging in England, and of the dissensions that disturbed the colony, and told him, that now was his time or never, to root out all of the English. This is improbable. Had the Indians followed up the first blow, the colonists must have all been cut off; but after their first treacherous onslaught, their courage failed them, and they fled many miles from the settlements. The colonists availed themselves of this opportunity to gather together, call an assembly, secure their cattle, and to devise some plan of defence and attack.

Opechancanough, the fierce and implacable enemy of the whites, was now nearly a hundred years old, and the commanding form, which had so often shone conspicuous in scenes of blood, was worn down by the fatigues of war, and bending under the weight of years. No longer able to walk, he was carried from place to place by his warriors in a litter. His body was emaciated, and he could only see when his eyelids were opened by his attendants. Sir William Berkley at length moving rapidly with a party of horse, surprised the superannuated chief at some distance from his residence, and he was carried a prisoner to Jamestown, and there kindly treated. He retained a spirit unconquered by decrepitude of body or reverse of fortune. Hearing one day footsteps in the room where he lay, he requested his eyelids to be raised, when, perceiving a crowd of persons attracted there by a curiosity to see the famous chief, he called for the governor, and upon his appearance, said to him: "Had it been my fortune to take Sir William Berkley prisoner, I would have disdained to make a show of him." He, however, had made a show of Captain Smith when he was a prisoner. About a fortnight after Opechancanough's capture, one of his guards, for some private revenge, basely shot him in the back. Languishing awhile of the wound, he died at Jamestown, and was probably buried there. His death brought about a peace with the Indian savages, which endured for many years without interruption.

Sir William Berkley left Virginia for England in June, 1644, and returned in June, 1645, his place being filled during his absence by Richard Kemp.

The spirit of freedom long gaining ground, like a smothered fire, began now to flame up and burst forth in England. Charles the First, incomparably superior to his father in manners, habits, and tastes—a model of kingly grace and dignity, yet was a more determined and dangerous enemy to the rights of the people. On the 19th of March, 1642, having escaped from insurgent London, he reached the ancient capital, York, and on the twenty-fifth day of August raised his standard, under inauspicious omens, at Nottingham. The royal forces under Prince Rupert suffered a disastrous defeat at Marston Moor, July 2d, 1644; and while Sir William Berkley was crossing the Atlantic, the king was overthrown at Naseby, on the 4th of June, 1645. In this eventful year, and so disastrous to the king, of whom the Berkleys were such staunch supporters, Gloucester, the chief city of the county where they resided, and which had been ravaged and plundered by Rupert, was now in the hands of the parliamentary forces, and Cromwell had been early in the year convoying ammunition thither.[204:A] A sad time for the visit of the loyal Berkley!

During the troubles in England the correspondence of the colony was interrupted, supplies reduced, trade obstructed; and the planters looked forward with solicitude to the issue of such alarming events.

In the mean while Lord Baltimore, taking advantage of the weakness of the crown, had shown some contempt for its authority, and had drawn upon himself the threat of a quo warranto.

Early in 1645, Clayborne, profiting by the distractions of the mother country, and animated by an indomitable, or, as his enemies alleged, a turbulent spirit, and by a sense of wrongs long unavenged, at the head of a band of insurgents, expelled Leonard Calvert, deputy governor, from Maryland, and seized the reins of government. In the month of August, 1646, Calvert, who had taken refuge in Virginia, regained command of Maryland. Nevertheless, Clayborne and his confederates, with but few exceptions, emerged in impunity from this singular contest.

Opechancanough was succeeded by Necotowance, styled "King of the Indians," and in October, 1646, a treaty was effected with him, by which he agreed to hold his authority from the King of England, (who was now bereft of his own,) while the assembly engaged to protect him from his enemies; in acknowledgment whereof, he was to deliver to the governor a yearly tribute of twenty beaver skins at the departure of the wild-geese.[205:A] By this treaty it was further agreed, that the Indians were to occupy the country on the north side of York River, and to cede to the English all the country between the York and the James, from the falls to Kiquotan; death for an Indian to be found within this territory, unless sent in as a messenger; messengers to be admitted into the colony by means of badges of striped cloth; and felony for a white man to be found on the Indian hunting-ground, which was to extend from the head of Yapin, the Blackwater, to the old Mannakin town, on the James River; badges to be received at Fort Royal and Fort Henry, alias Appomattox. Fort Henry had been established not long before this, at the falls of the Appomattox, now site of Petersburg; Fort Charles at the falls of the James; Fort James on the Chickahominy. This one was under command of Lieutenant Thomas Rolfe, son of Pocahontas.[206:A] Fort Royal was on the Pamunkey.

The colony bore a natural resemblance to the mother country, no little modified by new circumstances, and followed her, yet not with equal step. The government and the people were apparently, in the main, loyal, but there was a growing Puritan party, and William Clayborne appears to have been at the head of it. In 1647 certain ministers, refusing to read the Common Prayer on the Sabbath, were declared not entitled to tythes. Two years before, mercenary attorneys had been, by law, expelled from the courts, and now attorneys were prohibited from receiving any compensation for their services, and the courts were directed not to allow any professional attorneys to appear in civil causes. In case there appeared danger of a party suffering in his suit by reason of his weakness, the court was directed to appoint some suitable person in his behalf from the people. It has been suggested in modern times, as an improvement in the administration of justice, to allow the parties to make their own statements.

There were in Virginia, in 1648, about fifteen thousand English, and of negroes that had been imported, three hundred good servants. Of cows, oxen, bulls, and calves, "twenty thousand, large and good;" and the colonists made plenty of butter and good cheese. The number of horses and mares, of good breed, was two hundred; of asses fifty. The sheep numbered three thousand, producing good wool; there were five thousand goats. Hogs, tame and wild, innumerable, and the bacon excellent; poultry equally abundant. Wheat was successfully cultivated. The abundant crop of barley supplied malt, and there were public brew-houses, and most of the planters brewed a good and strong beer for themselves. Hops were found to thrive well. The price-current of beef was two pence halfpenny (about five cents) a pound, pork six cents. Cattle bore about the same price as in England; most of the vessels arriving laid in their stores here. Thirty different sorts of river and sea fish were caught. Thirty species of birds and fowls had been observed, and twenty kinds of quadrupeds; deer abundant. The varieties of fruit were estimated at fifteen, and they were comparable to those of Italy. Twenty-five different kinds of trees were noticed, suitable for building ships, houses, etc. The vegetables were potatoes, asparagus, carrots, parsnips, onions, artichokes, peas, beans, and turnips, with a variety of garden herbs and medicinal flowers. Virginia (or Indian) corn yielded five hundred fold; it was planted like garden-peas; it made good bread and furmity, and malt for beer, and was found to keep for seven years. It was planted in April or May, and ripened in five months. Bees, wild and domestic, supplied plenty of honey and wax. Indigo was made from the leaves of a small tree, and great hopes were entertained that Virginia would in time come to supply all Christendom with the commodity which was then procured "from the Mogul's country." The Virginia tobacco was in high esteem, yet the crop raised was so large that the price was only about three pence, or six cents, a pound. A man could plant enough to make two thousand pounds, and also sufficient corn and vegetables for his own support. The culture of hemp and flax had been commenced. Good iron-ore was found, and there were sanguine anticipations of the profits to be derived from that source. There were wind-mills and water-mills, horse-mills and hand-mills: a saw-mill was greatly needed, it being considered equivalent to the labor of twenty men. There came yearly to trade above thirty vessels, navigated by seven or eight hundred men. They brought linens, woollens, stockings, shoes, etc. They cleared in March, with return cargoes of tobacco, staves, and lumber. Many of the masters and chief mariners of these vessels had plantations, houses, and servants, in the colony. Pinnaces, boats, and barges were numerous, the most of the plantations being situated on the banks of the rivers. Pitch and tar were made. Mulberry-trees abounded, and it was confidently believed that silk could be raised in Virginia as well as in France. Hopeful anticipations of making wine from the native grape were entertained, but have never been realized. Virginia was now considered healthy; the colonists being so amply provided with the necessaries and comforts of life, the number of deaths was believed to be less, proportionally, than in England. The voyage from England to Virginia occupied about six weeks; the outward-bound voyage averaging about twenty-five days.

At this time a thousand colonists were seated upon the Accomac shore, near Cape Charles, where Captain Yeardley was chief commander. The settlement was then called Northampton; the name of Accomac having been changed in 1643 to Northampton, but the original name was afterwards restored. Lime was found abundant in Virginia; bricks were made, and already some houses built of them. Mechanics found profitable employment, such as turners, potters, coopers, sawyers, carpenters, tilemakers, boatwrights, tailors, shoemakers, tanners, fishermen, and the like. There were at this time twelve counties. The number of churches was twenty, each provided with a minister, and the doctrine and orders after the Church of England. The ministers' livings were worth one hundred pounds, or five hundred dollars, per annum, paid in tobacco and corn. The colonists all lived in peace and love, happily exempt by distance from the horrors of civil war that convulsed the mother country. The Virginia planters were intending to make further discoveries to the south and west. A colony of Swedes had made a settlement on the banks of the Delaware River, within the limits of Virginia, and were carrying on a profitable traffic in furs. The Dutch had also planted a colony on the Hudson River, within the Virginia territory, and their trade in furs amounted to ten thousand pounds per annum. Cape Cod was then looked upon as the point of demarcation between Virginia and New England. Cattle, corn, and other commodities were shipped from Virginia to New England. Sir William Berkley had made an experiment in the cultivation of rice, and found that it produced thirty fold, the soil and climate being well adapted to it, as the negroes affirmed, who, in Africa, had subsisted mostly on that grain. There were now many thousands of acres of cleared land in Virginia, and about one hundred and fifty ploughs at work. Captain Brocas of the council, a great traveller, had planted a vineyard, and made excellent wine.

At Christmas, 1647, there were in the James River ten vessels from London, two from Bristol, twelve from Holland, and seven from New England. Mr. Richard Bennet expressed twenty butts of excellent cider from apples of his own orchard. They began now to engraft on the crab-apple tree, which was found indigenous. Another planter had for several years made, from pears of his own raising, forty or fifty butts of perry. The governor, Sir William Berkley, in his new orchard, had fifteen hundred fruit trees, besides his apricots, peaches, mellicotons, quinces, wardens, and the like.

Captain Matthews, an old planter, of above thirty years' standing, one of the council, and "a most deserving commonwealth man," had a fine house, sowed much hemp and flax, and had it spun; he kept weavers, and had a tannery, where leather was dressed; and had eight shoemakers at work; had forty negro servants, whom he brought up to mechanical trades; he sowed large crops of wheat and barley. The wheat he sold at four shillings (about a dollar) a bushel. He also supplied vessels trading in Virginia, with beef. He had a plenty of cows, a fine dairy, a large number of hogs and poultry. Captain Matthews married a daughter of Sir Thomas Hinton, and "kept a good house, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia."

There was a free school, with two hundred acres of land appurtenant, a good house, forty milch cows, and other accommodations. It was endowed by Mr. Benjamin Symms. There were, besides, some small schools in the colony, probably such as are now known as "old-field schools."[209:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[200:A] 1 Hening, 230; Burk, ii. 68.

[201:A] Art. by J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., in Mass Gen. and Antiq. Register for 1847, page 348.

[201:B] Ibid., 352.

[202:A] Chalmers' Annals, 133.

[203:A] 1 Hening, 277.

[204:A] Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 144.

[205:A] Cohonk, the cry of the wild-geese, was an Indian term for winter.

[206:A] Toward the end of 1641 he had petitioned the governor for permission to visit his kinsman, Opechancanough, and Cleopatre, his aunt.

[209:A] Hening, i. 252.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1648-1659.

Beauchamp Plantagenet visits Virginia—Settlement of other Colonies—Dissenters persecuted and banished from Virginia—Some take refuge in Carolina; some in Maryland—Charles the First executed—Commonwealth of England—Virginia Assembly denounces the Authors of the King's Death—Colonel Norwood's Voyage to Virginia—The Virginia Dissenters in Maryland—The Long Parliament prohibits Trade with Virginia—A Naval Force sent to reduce the Colony, Bennet and Clayborne being two of the Commissioners—Captain Dennis demands surrender of Virginia—Sir William Berkley constrained to yield—Articles of Capitulation.

During the year 1648 Beauchamp Plantagenet, a royalist with a high-flown name, flying from the fury of the grand rebellion, visited America in behalf of a company of adventurers, in quest of a place of settlement, and in the course of his explorations came to Virginia. At Newport's News he was hospitably entertained by Captain Matthews, Mr. Fantleroy, and others, finding free quarter everywhere. The Indian war was now ended by the courage of Captain Marshall and the valiant Stillwell, and by the resolute march of Sir William Berkley, who had made the veteran Opechancanough prisoner. The explorer went to Chicaoen, on the Potomac, and found Maryland involved in war with the Sasquesahannocks and other Indians, and at the same time in a civil war. Kent Island appeared to be too wet, and the water was bad.[210:A]

In the month of March, 1648, Nickotowance, the Indian chief, visited Governor Berkley, at Jamestown, accompanied by five other chiefs, and presented twenty beaver skins to be sent to King Charles as tribute. About this time the Indians reported to Sir William Berkley that within five days' journey to the southwest there was a high mountain, and at the foot of it great rivers that run into a great sea; that men came hither in ships, (but not the same as the English;) that they wore apparel, and had red caps on their heads, and rode on beasts like horses, but with much longer ears. These people were probably the Spaniards. Sir William Berkley prepared to make an exploration with fifty horse and as many foot,[211:A] but he was disappointed in this enterprise.

At this period the settlement of all the New England States had been commenced; the Dutch possessed the present States of New York, New Jersey, and part of Connecticut, and they had already pushed their settlements above Albany; the Swedes occupied the shores of Pennsylvania and Delaware; Maryland was still in her infancy; Virginia was prosperous; the country now known as the Carolinas belonged to the assignees of Sir Robert Heath, but as yet no advances had been made toward the occupation of it.[211:B]

Upon complaint of the necessities of the people, occasioned by barren and over-wrought land, and want of range for cattle and hogs, permission was granted them to remove during the following year to the north side of Charles (York) and Rappahannock rivers.[211:C]

The congregation of dissenters collected by the three missionaries before mentioned from Massachusetts, amounted in 1648 to one hundred and eighteen members. They encountered the continual opposition of the colonial authorities. Mr. Durand, their elder, had already been banished by the governor; and in the course of this year their pastor, Harrison, being ordered to depart, retired to New England. On his arrival there he represented that many of the Virginia council were favorably disposed toward the introduction of Puritanism, and that "one thousand of the people, by conjecture, were of a similar mind."[211:D] The members of the council at that time were Captain John West, Richard Kempe, secretary, Captain William Brocas, Captain Thomas Pettus, Captain William Bernard, Captain Henry Browne, and Mr. George Ludlow. When the prevalence of Puritanism in the mother country is considered, and the numerous ties of interest and consanguinity that connected it with the colony, the estimate of the number favorably disposed toward Puritanism does not appear improbable. John Hammond afterwards gave an account of the proceedings against the Puritans in Virginia.[212:A] According to him, during the reign of Charles the First, Virginia "was wholly for monarchy." A congregation of people calling themselves Independents having organized a church, (probably in Nansemond County,) and daily increasing, several consultations were held by the authorities of the colony how to suppress and extinguish them. At first their pastor was banished, next their other teachers, then many were confined in prison; next they were generally disarmed, which was a very harsh measure in such a country, where they were surrounded by the Indian savages; lastly, the non-conformists were put in a condition of banishment, so that they knew not how in those straits to dispose of themselves. The leader in this persecution, according to Hammond, was Colonel Samuel Matthews, member of the council in 1643, and subsequently agent for Virginia to the parliament. A number of these dissenters having gained the consent of Lord Baltimore and his deputy governor of Maryland, retired to that colony, and settled there. Among these, one of the principal was Richard Bennet, a merchant and a Roundhead. For a time these refugees prospered and remained apparently content with their new place of abode; and others, induced by their example, likewise removed thither.

King Charles the First, after having been a prisoner for several years, was beheaded in front of Whitehall Palace, on the 30th day of January, 1648. He died with heroic firmness and dignity.[212:B] The Commonwealth of England now commenced, and continued till the restoration of Charles the Second, in 1660. Upon the dissolution of the monarchy in England, there were not wanting those in Virginia who held that the colonial government, being derived from the crown, was itself now extinct; but the assembly, by an act of October of the same year, declared that whoever should defend the late traitorous proceedings against the king, should be adjudged an accessory after the fact, to his death, and be proceeded against accordingly; to asperse the late most pious king's memory was made an offence punishable at the discretion of the governor and council; to express a doubt of the right of succession of Charles the Second, or to propose a change of government, or to derogate from the full power of the government of the colony, was declared to be high treason.[213:A] The principle, however, that the authority of the colonial government ceased with the king's death, was expressly recognized at the surrender of the colony to the parliamentary naval force in 1651.

Colonel Norwood, a loyal refugee in Holland, having formed a plan with two comrades, Major Francis Morrison and Major Richard Fox, to seek their fortunes in Virginia, they met in London, August, 1649, for the purpose of embarking. At the time when they had first concerted their scheme, Charles the First was a prisoner at Carisbrook Castle, in the Isle of Wight. He had since been executed; the royalists, thunderstruck at this catastrophe, saw their last gleam of hope extinguished; and Norwood and his friends were eager to escape from the scene of their disasters. At the Royal Exchange, whose name was now for a time to be altered to the "Great Exchange," the three forlorn cavaliers engaged a passage to Virginia in the "Virginia Merchant," burden three hundred tons, mounting thirty guns or more. The charge for the passage was six pounds a head, for themselves and servants. The colony of Virginia they deemed preferable for them in their straitened pecuniary circumstances; and they brought over some goods with them for the purpose of mercantile adventure. September the 23d, 1649, they embarked in the "Virginia Merchant," having on board three hundred and thirty souls. Touching at Fayal, Norwood and his companions met with a Portuguese lady of rank with her family returning, in an English ship, the "John," from the Brazils to her own country. With her they drank the healths of their kings, amid thundering peals of cannon. The English gentlemen discovered a striking resemblance between the lady's son and their own prince, Charles, which filled them with fond admiration, and flattered the vanity of the beautiful Portuguese. Passing within view of the charming Bermuda, the "Virginia Merchant" sailing for Virginia, struck upon a breaker early in November, near the stormy Cape Hatteras. Narrowly escaping from that peril, she was soon overtaken by a storm, and tossed by mountainous towering northwest seas. Amid the horrors of the evening prospect, Norwood observed innumerable ill-omened porpoises that seemed to cover the surface of the sea as far as the eye could reach. The ship at length losing forecastle and mainmast, became a mere hulk, drifting at the mercy of the winds and waves. Some of the passengers were swept overboard by the billows that broke over her; the rest suffered the tortures of terror and famine. At last the tempest subsiding, the ship drifted near the coast of the Eastern Shore. Here Norwood and a party landing on an island, were abandoned by the Virginia Merchant. After enduring the extremities of cold and hunger, of which some died, Norwood and the survivors in the midst of the snow were rescued by a party of friendly Indians. In the mean while the ship having arrived in the James River, a messenger was dispatched by Governor Berkley in quest of Norwood and his party. Conducted to the nearest plantation, they were everywhere entertained with the utmost kindness. Stephen Charlton (afterwards, in 1652, burgess from Northampton County,) would have the Colonel to put on a good farmer-like suit of his own. After visiting Captain Yeardley, (son of Sir George Yeardley, the former governor,) the principal person in that quarter of the colony, Norwood crossed the Chesapeake Bay in a sloop, and landed at 'Squire Ludlow's plantation on York River. Next he proceeded to the neighboring plantation of Captain Ralph Wormley, at that time burgess from York County, and member of his majesty's council. At Captain Wormley's he found some of his friends, who had likewise recently arrived from England, feasting and carousing. The cavaliers had changed their clime but not their habits. These guests were Sir Thomas Lundsford, Sir Henry Chicheley, (pronounced Chickley,) Sir Philip Honeywood, and Colonel Hammond. Sir Thomas Lundsford lies buried in the churchyard of Williamsburg. At Jamestown Norwood was cordially welcomed by Sir William Berkley, who took him to his house at Greenspring, where he remained for some months. Sir William, on many occasions, showed great respect to all the royal party who made that colony their refuge; and his house and purse were open to all such. To Major Fox, who had no other friend in the colony to look to for aid, he exhibited signal kindness; to Major Morrison he gave command of the fort at Point Comfort, and by his interest afterwards advanced him to be governor of the colony. In 1650 Governor Berkley dispatched Norwood to Holland to find the fugitive king, and to solicit for the place of treasurer of Virginia, which Sir William took to be void by "the delinquency" of William Clayborne, the incumbent, who had long held that place. The governor furnished Norwood with money to defray the charge of the solicitation, which was effectual, although Prince Charles was not found in Holland, he having gone to Scotland. Charles the Second was crowned by the Scotch at Scone, in 1651.[215:A]

Bennet and other dissenting Virginians, who had settled in Maryland, were not long there before they became dissatisfied with the proprietary government. The authority of Papists was irksome to Puritans, and they began to avow their aversion to the oath of allegiance imposed upon them; for by the terms of it Lord Baltimore affected to usurp almost royal authority, concluding his commissions and writs with "We," "us," and "given under our hand and greater seal of arms, in such a year of our dominion." The Protestants of Maryland, no doubt saw, in the political character of the Commonwealth of England, a fair prospect of the speedy subversion of Baltimore's power; nor were they disappointed in this hope.

In October, 1650, the Long Parliament passed an ordinance prohibiting trade with Barbadoes, Virginia, Bermuda, and Antigua. The act recited that these colonies were, and of right ought to be, subject to the authority of Parliament; that divers acts of rebellion had been committed by many persons inhabiting Virginia, whereby they have most traitorously usurped a power of government, and set themselves in opposition to this commonwealth. It therefore declared such persons notorious robbers and traitors; forbade all correspondence or commerce with them, and appointed commissioners, and dispatched Sir George Ayscue, with a powerful fleet and army, to reduce Barbadoes, Bermuda, and Antigua to submission.

Charles the Second having invaded England at the head of a Scottish army, was utterly defeated and overthrown by Cromwell, at Worcester, September the 3d, 1651. Charles himself, not long after, with difficulty and in disguise, escaped to France. In September of the same year the council of state, of which Bradshaw was president, issued instructions for Captain Robert Dennis, Mr. Richard Bennet, Mr. Thomas Steg,[216:A] and Captain William Clayborne, appointed commissioners, for the reducement of Virginia and the inhabitants thereof, to their due obedience to the Commonwealth of Virginia. A fleet was put under command of Captain Dennis, and the commissioners embarked in the Guinea frigate. They were empowered to assure pardon and indemnity to all the inhabitants of the said plantations that shall submit unto the present government and authority, as it is established in the Commonwealth of England. In case they shall not submit by fair ways and means, the commissioners were to use all acts of hostility that lay in their power to enforce them; and if they should find the people so to stand out as that they could by no other ways or means reduce them to their due obedience, they, or any two or more of them, whereof Captain Robert Dennis was to be one, had the power to appoint captains and other officers, and to raise forces within each of the aforesaid plantations, for the furtherance of the service; and such persons as should come in and serve as soldiers, if their masters should stand in opposition to the government of the English Commonwealth, might be discharged and set free from their masters, by the commissioners. A similar measure was adopted by Lord Dunmore in 1776. In case of the death of Captain Dennis, his place was to be filled by Captain Edmund Curtis, commander of the Guinea frigate.[217:A] It is a mistake to suppose that the members of the Long Parliament were all of them, or a majority of them, Puritans, in the religious sense of the term; but they were so in political principles.

In March, 1652, Captain Dennis arrived at Jamestown, and demanded a surrender of the colony. It is said by some historians that Sir William Berkley, either with a hope of repelling them, or of commanding better terms, prepared for a gallant resistance, and undertook to strengthen himself by making use of several Dutch ships,[217:B] which happened to be there engaged in a contraband trade, and which he hired for the occasion; that there chanced to be on board of the parliament's fleet some goods belonging to two members of the Virginia council, and that Dennis sent them word that their goods should be forfeited if the colony was not immediately surrendered; and that the threat kindled dissensions in the council, and the governor found himself constrained to yield on condition of a general amnesty.[217:C]

Such is the account of several chroniclers, but it appears to be based only on a loose and erroneous tradition. It would have been a mere empty gasconade for Sir William Berkley to oppose the English naval force, and the truth appears to be, that as soon as the parliamentary squadron entered the Chesapeake Bay, all thoughts of resistance were laid aside. If the story of the preparation for resistance were credited, it must at the same time be believed that this chivalry and loyalty suddenly evaporated under the more potent influence of pecuniary interest.[217:D]

The capitulation was ratified on the 12th of March, 1652, by which it was agreed that the Colony of Virginia should be subject to the Commonwealth of England; that the submission should be considered voluntary, not forced nor constrained by a conquest upon the country; and that "they shall have and enjoy such freedoms and privileges as belong to the free-born people of England;" the assembly to meet as formerly, and transact the affairs of the colony, but nothing to be done contrary to the government of the Commonwealth of England; full indemnity granted for all offences against the Parliament of England; Virginia to have and enjoy the ancient bounds and limits granted by the charters of former kings; "and that we shall seek a new charter from the Parliament to that purpose, against any that have entrenched upon the rights thereof," alluding no doubt to Lord Baltimore's intrusion into Maryland; that the privilege of having fifty acres of land for every person transported to the colony, shall continue as formerly granted; that the people of Virginia shall have free trade, as the people of England do enjoy, to all places, and with all nations, according to the laws of that Commonwealth; and that Virginia shall enjoy all privileges equally with any English plantation in America.

The navigation act had been passed in the preceding October, forbidding any goods, wares, or merchandise, to be imported into England, except either in English ships, or in ships of the country where the commodities were produced—a blow aimed at the carrying-trade of the Dutch. It was further agreed by the articles of surrender, that Virginia was to be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of the grand assembly; and so that neither forts nor castles be erected, or garrisons maintained, without their consent: no charge to be made upon Virginia on account of this present fleet; the engagement or oath of allegiance to be tendered to all the inhabitants of Virginia; recusants to have a year's time to remove themselves and their effects out of Virginia, and in the mean time, during the said year, to have equal justice as formerly; the use of the Book of Common Prayer to be permitted for one year, with the consent of a majority of a parish, provided that those things which relate to kingship, or that government, be not used publicly; and ministers to be continued in their places, they not misdemeaning themselves; public ammunition, powder and arms, to be given up, security being given to make satisfaction for them; goods already brought hither by the Dutch to remain unmolested; the quit-rents granted by the late king to the planters of Virginia for seven years, to be confirmed; finally, the parliamentary commissioners engage themselves and the honor of the Parliament for the full performance of the articles, the governor and council and burgesses making the same pledge for the colony.[219:A]

On the same day some other articles were ratified by the commissioners and the governor and council, exempting the governor and council from taking the oath of allegiance for a year, and providing that they should not be censured for praying for, or speaking well of the king, for one whole year in their private houses, or "neighboring conference;" Sir William Berkley was permitted to send an agent to give an account to his majesty of the surrender of the country; Sir William and the members of the council were permitted to dispose of their estates, and transport themselves "whither they please." Protection of liberty and property were guaranteed to Sir William Berkley.

Major Fox, (comrade of Norwood,) commander of the fort, at Point Comfort, was allowed compensation for the building of his house on Fort Island. A general amnesty was granted to the inhabitants, and it was agreed that in case Sir William or his councillors should go to London, or any other place in England, that they should be free from trouble or hindrance of arrests, or such like, and that they may prosecute their business there for six months. It would seem that some important articles of surrender were not ratified by the Long Parliament.

The Fourth Article was, "That Virginia shall have and enjoy the ancient bounds and limits granted by the charters of the former kings, and that we shall seek a new charter from the Parliament to that purpose, against any that entrenched against the rights thereof." This article was referred in August, 1652, to the committee of the navy, to consider what patent was fit to be granted to the inhabitants of Virginia.

The Seventh Article was, "That the people of Virginia have free trade, as the people of England do enjoy, to all places and with all nations, according to the laws of that commonwealth; and that Virginia shall enjoy all privileges equal with any English plantations in America." The latter clause was referred to the same committee.

The Eighth Article was, "That Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, and impositions, whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of the grand assembly, and so that neither forts nor castles be erected, or garrisons maintained, without their consent." This was also referred to the navy committee, together with several papers relative to the disputes between Virginia and Maryland. The committee made a report in December, which seems merely confined to the Fourth Article, relative to the question of boundary and the contest with Lord Baltimore. In the ensuing July the Long Parliament was dissolved.[220:A]

The articles of surrender were subscribed by Richard Bennet, William Clayborne, and Edmund Curtis, commissioners in behalf of the Parliament. Bennet, a merchant and Roundhead, driven from Virginia by the persecution of Sir William Berkley's administration, had taken refuge in Maryland. Having gone thence to England, his Puritanical principles and his knowledge of the colonies of Virginia and Maryland, had recommended him for the place of commissioner. Clayborne, too, who had formerly been obliged to fly to England, and whose office of treasurer of Virginia Sir William Berkley had held to be forfeited by delinquency, and which the fugitive Charles had bestowed on Colonel Norwood—this impetuous and indomitable Clayborne was another of the commissioners sent to reduce the colonies within the Chesapeake Bay.

A new era was now opening in these two colonies; and the prominent parts which Bennet and Clayborne were destined to perform in this novel scene, exhibit a signal example of the vicissitudes of human fortune. The drama that was enacted in the mother country was repeated on a miniature theatre in the colonies.

FOOTNOTES:

[210:A] Description of New Albion, in Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.

[211:A] Hening, i. 353.

[211:B] Martin's History of North Carolina, i. 105-6. This is a valuable work, but marred, especially in the first volume, by the unparalleled misprinting, the engagements of the author not permitting him to correct the proofs.

[211:C] Force's Hist. Tracts, ii., "A New Description of Va."

[211:D] Hawks' Narrative, 57, citing Savage's Winthrop, ii. 334.

[212:A] Leah and Rachel, in Force's Hist. Tracts, iii., Leah and Rachel representing the two sisters, Virginia and Maryland.

[212:B] In the same year the Netherlands became independent.

[213:A] Hening, i. 360.

[215:A] Force's Hist. Tracts, iii.; Churchill's Voyages. A Major Norwood is mentioned in Pepys' Diary, i. 46.

[216:A] A Mr. Thomas Stagg was a resident planter of Virginia in 1652. Hening, i. 375.

[217:A] Virginia and Maryland, 18; Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.

[217:B] Only one ship appears to have been confiscated. Hening, i. 382.

[217:C] Chalmers' Annals, 123; Beverley, B. i. 54.

[217:D] Bancroft, Hist. of U. S., i. 223, citing Clarendon, B. xiii. 466, and other authorities, says that the fleet was sent over by Cromwell, and came to Virginia after having reduced the West India Islands. Cromwell, however, although at this time the master-spirit of England, had not yet assumed dictatorial powers.

[219:A] Hening, i. 363.

[220:A] "Virginia and Maryland," Force's Hist. Tracts, ii. 20, in note. Mr. Force, whose researches have brought to light such a magazine of curious and instructive historical materials, appears to have been the first to mention the non-ratification of some of the articles of surrender. He says: "Three of the articles were not confirmed," and therefore did not receive the last formal and final and definitive ratification which Burk [Hist. of Va., ii. 92,] supposes they did. But it appears that Burk referred only to the ratification by the parties at Jamestown, and had no reference to the ulterior confirmation by the Parliament.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1652-1656.

Bennet and Clayborne reduce Maryland—Cromwell's Letter—Provisional Government organized in Virginia—Bennet made Governor—William Clayborne Secretary of State—The Assembly—Counties represented—Cromwell dissolves the Long Parliament, and becomes Lord Protector—Sir William Berkley—Francis Yeardley's Letter to John Ferrar—Discovery in Carolina—Roanoke Indians visit Yeardley—He purchases a large Territory—William Hatcher—Stone, Deputy Governor of Maryland, defies the Authority of the Commissioners Bennet and Clayborne—They seize the Government and entrust it to Commissioners—Battle ensues—The Adherents of Baltimore defeated—Several prisoners executed—Cromwell's Letters—The Protestants attack the Papists on the Birth-day of St. Ignatius.

Not long after the surrender of the Ancient Dominion of Virginia, Bennet and Clayborne, commissioners, embarking in the Guinea frigate, proceeded to reduce Maryland. After effecting a reduction of the infant province, they, with singular moderation, agreed to a compromise with those who held the proprietary government under Lord Baltimore. Stone, the governor, and the council, part of them Papists, none well affected to the Commonwealth of England, were allowed, until further instructions should be received, to retain their places, on condition of issuing all writs in the name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England.[222:A] Sir William Berkley, upon the surrender of the colony, betook himself into retirement in Virginia, where he remained free from molestation; and his house continued to be a hospitable place of resort for refugee cavaliers. There was, no doubt, before the surrender, a considerable party in Virginia, who either secretly or openly sympathized with the parliamentary party in England; and upon the reduction of the colony these adherents of the Commonwealth found their influence much augmented.

On the 30th of April, 1652, Bennet and Clayborne, commissioners, together with the burgesses of Virginia, organized a provisional government, subject to the control of the Commonwealth of England. Richard Bennet, who had been member of the council in 1646, nephew of an eminent London merchant largely engaged in the Virginia trade,[223:A] was made governor, April 30, 1652; and William Clayborne, secretary of state for the colony. The council appointed consisted of Captain John West, Colonel Samuel Matthews, Colonel Nathaniel Littleton, Colonel Argal Yeardley, Colonel Thomas Pettus, Colonel Humphrey Higginson, Colonel George Ludlow, Colonel William Barnett,[223:B] Captain Bridges Freeman, Captain Thomas Harwood, Major William Taylor, Captain Francis Eppes, and Lieutenant-Colonel John Cheesman. The governor, secretary, and council were to have such power and authorities to act from time to time as should be appointed and granted by the grand assembly.[223:C] The government of the mother country was entitled "the States," as the United States are now styled in Canada. The act organizing the provisional government concludes with: "God save the Commonwealth of England, and this country of Virginia." The governor and councillors were allowed to be, ex-officio, members of the assembly. On the fifth day of May, this body, while claiming the right to appoint all officers for the colony, yet for the present, in token of their implicit confidence in the commissioners, referred all the appointments not already made to the governor and them. The administration of Virginia was now, for the first time, Puritan and Republican. The act authorizing the governor and council to appoint the colonial officers was renewed in the following year. The oath administered to the burgesses was: "You and every of you shall swear upon the holy Evangelist, and in the sight of God, to deliver your opinions faithfully and honestly, according to your best understanding and conscience, for the general good and prosperity of the country, and every particular member thereof, and to do your utmost endeavor to prosecute that without mingling with it any particular interest of any person or persons whatsoever."

The governor and members of the council were declared to be entitled to seats in the assembly, and were required to take the same oath. This assembly, which met on the 20th of April, 1652, appears to have sat about ten days. There were thirty-five burgesses present from twelve counties, namely: Henrico, Charles City, James City, Isle of Wight, Nansemond, (originally called Nansimum,) Lower Norfolk, Elizabeth City, Warwick, York, Northampton, Northumberland, and Gloucester—Lancaster not being represented.[224:A] Rappahannock County was formed from the upper part of Lancaster in 1656.

At the commencement of the ensuing session of the assembly, which met in October, 1652, Mr. John Hammond, returned a burgess from Isle of Wight County, was expelled from the assembly as being notoriously a scandalous person, and a frequent disturber of the peace of the country by libel and other illegal practices. He had passed nineteen years in Virginia, and now retired to Maryland; he was the author of the pamphlet entitled "Leah and Rachel."[224:B] Mr. James Pyland, another burgess, returned from the same county, was expelled, and committed to answer such charges as should be brought against him as an abettor of Mr. Thomas Woodward, in his mutinous and rebellious declaration, and concerning his the said Mr. Pyland's blasphemous catechism. These offenders appear to have been of the royalist party.

In the year 1653 there were fourteen counties in Virginia, Surry being now mentioned for the first time, and the number of burgesses was thirty-four. The people living on the borders of the Appomattox River were authorized to hold courts, and to treat with the Indians. Colonel William Clayborne, Captain Henry Fleet, and Major Abram Wood were empowered to make discoveries to the west and south. In July, some difference occurred between the governor and council on the one side, and the house of burgesses on the other, relative to the election of speaker. The affair was amicably arranged, the governor's views being assented to. Bennet appears to have enjoyed the confidence of the Virginians. He was too generous to retaliate upon Sir William Berkley and the royalists who had formerly persecuted him. Some malecontents were punished for speaking disrespectfully of him, and refusing to pay the castle duties. From the charges brought against one of these, it appears that the Virginians considered themselves, under the articles of surrender, entitled to free trade with all the world, the navigation act to the contrary notwithstanding; and that act does not appear to have been enforced against Virginia during the Commonwealth of England.[225:A] By the articles of surrender the use of the prayer-book was permitted, with the consent of a majority of the people of the parish, for one year; so that it would seem that its use was prohibited after March 12th, 1653; but the prohibition was not enforced, and public worship continued as before without interruption.[225:B] In April, 1653, Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament, and in December, in the same year, assumed the office of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Owing to the war with Holland, Sir William Berkley's departure from Virginia was delayed, and, in conformity with the articles of convention of 1651, he now became subject to arrest. But the assembly passed an act, stating that as the war between England and Holland had prevented the confirmation of the convention of 1651, in England, or the coming of a ship out of Holland, and Sir William Berkley desiring a longer time, namely, eight months further, to procure a ship out of Flanders, in respect of the war with Holland, and that he should be exempted from impost duty on such tobacco as he should lade in her; "it is condescended that his request shall be granted." Some seditious disturbances having taken place in Northampton County, on the Eastern Shore, in which Edmund Scarburgh was a ringleader, it was found necessary for Governor Bennet, Secretary Clayborne, and a party of gentlemen, to repair thither for the purpose of restoring order. Roger Green, and others, living on the Nansemond River, received a grant of land on condition of their settling the country bordering on the Moratuck or Roanoke River,[226:A] and on the south side of the Chowan. Divers gentlemen requesting permission, were authorized, in 1653, to explore the mountains. The ship Leopoldus, of Dunkirk, was confiscated for the use of the Commonwealth of England, for violating the navigation act; and the proceeds, amounting to four hundred pounds sterling, were given to Colonel Samuel Matthews, agent for Virginia at the court of the Protector, Colonel William Clayborne, secretary, and other officers, in return for their services in the matter of the forfeited ship.

Captain Francis Yeardley, who has been mentioned before, was a son of Sir George Yeardley, some time governor of Virginia, and Lady Temperance, his wife, and was born in Virginia. A letter dated in May, 1654, was addressed by him to John Ferrar, at Little Gidding, in Huntingdonshire, brother to Nicholas Ferrar, whose name is so honorably connected with the early annals of Virginia. The younger Yeardley describes the country as very fertile, flourishing in all the exuberance of nature, abounding especially in the rich mulberry and vine, with a serene air and temperate clime, and rich in precious minerals. A young man engaged in the beaver trade having been accidentally separated from his own sloop, had obtained a small boat and provisions from Yeardley, and had gone with his party to Roanoke, at which island he hoped to find his vessel. He there fell in with a hunting party of Indians, and persuaded them and some of the other tribes, both in the island and on the mainland, to go back with him and make peace with the English. He brought some of these Indians with the great man, or chief of Roanoke, to Yeardley's house, which was probably on the Eastern Shore, where his father had lived before him. The Indians passed a week at Yeardley's. While there, the "great man" observing Yeardley's children reading and writing, inquired of him whether he would take his only son, and teach him "to speak out of the book, and make a writing." Yeardley assured him that he would willingly do so; and the chief at his departure expressing his strong desire to serve the God of the Englishmen, and his hope that his child might be brought up in the knowledge of the same, promised to bring him back again in four months. In the mean time Yeardley had been called away to Maryland; and the planters of the Eastern Shore suspecting, from the frequent visits and inquiries of the Indian, that Yeardley was carrying on some scheme for his own private advantage, were disposed to maltreat the chief. Upon one occasion, when Yeardley's wife had brought him to church with her, some over-busy justices of the peace, after sermon, threatened to whip him, and send him away. The "great man" being terrified, the lady taking him by the hand, resolutely stood forth in his defence, and pledged her whole property, as a guarantee, that no harm to the settlement was intended, or was likely to arise from the Indian's alliance. Upon Yeardley's return from Maryland, he dispatched, with his brother's assistance, a boat with six men, one being a carpenter, to build the great man an English house; and two hundred pounds for the purchase of Indian territory. The terms of the purchase were soon agreed upon, and Yeardley's people "paid for three great rivers and also all such others as they should like of, southerly." In due form they took possession of the country in the name of the Commonwealth of England, receiving as a symbol of its surrender, a turf of earth with an arrow shot into it. The territory thus given up by the Indians was a considerable part of what afterwards became the province of North Carolina. As soon as the natives had withdrawn from it to a region farther south, Yeardley built the great commander a handsome house, which he promised to fit up with English utensils and furniture.

Yeardley's people were introduced to the chief of the Tuscaroras, who received them courteously, and invited them to visit his country, of which he gave an attractive account; but his offer could not be accepted, owing to the illness of their interpreter. Upon the completion of his house, the Roanoke chief came, with the Tuscarora chief and forty-five others, to Yeardley's house, presented his wife and son and himself for baptism, and offered again the same symbol of the surrender of his whole country to Yeardley; and he in his turn tendering the same to the Commonwealth of England, prayed only "that his own property and pains might not be forgotten." The Indian child was presented to the minister before the congregation, and having been baptized in their presence, was left with Yeardley to be bred a Christian, "which God grant him grace (he prays) to become." The charges incurred by Yeardley in purchasing and taking possession of the country, had already amounted to three hundred pounds.[228:A]

At the meeting of the assembly in November, 1654, William Hatcher being convicted of having stigmatized Colonel Edward Hill, speaker of the house, as an atheist and blasphemer, (from which charges he had been before acquitted by the quarterly court,) was compelled to make acknowledgment of his offence, upon his knees, before Colonel Hill and the assembly. This Hatcher appears to have been a burgess of Henrico County in 1652. More than twenty years afterwards, in his old age, he was fined eight thousand pounds of pork, for the use of the king's soldiers, on account of alleged mutinous words uttered shortly after Bacon's rebellion.

Upon the dissolution of the Long Parliament and the establishment of the Protectorate, Lord Baltimore took measures to recover the absolute control of Maryland; and Stone, (who since June, 1652, had continued in the place of governor of Maryland,) in obedience to instructions received from his lordship, violated the terms of the agreement, which had been arranged with Bennet and Clayborne, acting in behalf of the Parliament, and set them at defiance. These commissioners having addressed a letter to Stone proposing an interview, he refused to accede to it, and gave it as his opinion, that they were "wolves in sheep's clothing." Bennet and Clayborne, claiming authority derived from his Highness the Lord Protector, seized the government of the province, and entrusted it to a board of ten commissioners.[229:A]

When Lord Baltimore received intelligence of this proceeding, he wrote to his deputy, (Stone,) reproaching him with cowardice, and peremptorily commanded him to recover the colony by force of arms. Stone and the Marylanders now accordingly fell to arms, and disarmed and plundered those that would not accept the oath of allegiance to Baltimore. The province contained, as has been mentioned before, among its inhabitants a good many emigrants from Virginia of Puritan principles, and these dwelt mainly on the banks of the Severn and the Patuxent, and on the Isle of Kent. They were disaffected to the proprietary government, and protested that they had removed to Maryland, under the express engagement with Governor Stone, that they should enjoy freedom of conscience, and be exempt from the obnoxious oath. These recusants now took up arms to defend themselves, and civil war raged in infant Maryland. Stone, to reduce the malecontents, embarking for Providence with his men, landed on the neck, at the mouth of the Severn. Here, on the 25th of March, 1654, he was attacked by the Protestant adherents of Bennet and Clayborne, and utterly defeated; the prisoners being nearly double of the number of the victors, twenty killed, many wounded, and "all the place strewed with Papist beads where they fled."

During the action, a New England vessel seized the boats, provision, and ammunition of the governor and his party. Among the prisoners was this functionary, who had been "shot in many places." Several of the prisoners were condemned to death by a court-martial; and four of the principal, one of them a councillor, were executed on the spot. Captain William Stone, likewise sentenced, owed his escape to the intercession of some women, and of some of Bennet and Clayborne's people.[229:B] John Hammond, (the same who had been, two years before, expelled from the Virginia Assembly,) also one of the condemned, fled in disguise, and escaped to England in the ship Crescent. The master of this vessel was afterwards heavily fined by the Virginia assembly for carrying off Hammond without a pass. Of the four that were shot, three were Romanists; and the Jesuit fathers, hotly pursued, escaped to Virginia, where they inhabited a mean low hut.[230:A]

Thus Maryland became subject to the Protectorate. The administration of the Puritan commissioners was rigorous, and the Maryland assembly excluded Papists from the pale of religious freedom. Such were even Milton's views of toleration;[230:B] but Cromwell, the master-spirit of his age, soared higher, and commanded the commissioners "not to busy themselves about religion, but to settle the civil government." He addressed the following letter, dated at Whitehall, in January, 1654, to Richard Bennet, Esq., Governor of Virginia:—

"Sir:—Whereas, the differences between the Lord Baltimore and the inhabitants of Virginia, concerning the bounds by them respectively claimed, are depending before our council and yet undetermined; and whereas, we are credibly informed you have, notwithstanding, gone into his plantation in Maryland, and countenanced some people there in opposing the Lord Baltimore's officers; whereby and with other forces from Virginia, you have much disturbed that colony and people, to the engendering of tumults and much bloodshed there, if not timely prevented:

"We, therefore, at the request of the Lord Baltimore and divers other persons of quality here, who are engaged by great adventures in his interest, do, for preventing of disturbances or tumults there, will and require you, and all others deriving any authority from you, to forbear disturbing the Lord Baltimore, or his officers, or people in Maryland, and to permit all things to remain as they were before any disturbance or alteration made by you, or by any other, upon pretence of authority from you, till the said differences, above mentioned, be determined by us here, and we give farther order herein.

"We rest, your loving friend,

"OLIVER, P."

Cromwell was now endeavoring to heal the wounds of civil war, to allay animosities, and to strengthen his power by a generous and conciliatory policy, blended with irresistible energy of action. In return for Lord Baltimore's ready submission to his authority, the Protector apparently recognized his proprietary rights in Maryland, yet at the same time, he sustained and protected his commissioners, only curbing the violent contest that had arisen between Virginia and Maryland respecting their boundary. His policy as to the internal government of these colonies was one of a masterly inactivity.

"To the Commissioners of Maryland.

"Whitehall, 26th September, 1655.

"Sirs:—It seems to us, by yours of the twenty-ninth of June, and by the relation we received by Colonel Bennet, that some mistake or scruple hath arisen concerning the sense of our letters of the twelfth of January last; as if by our letters we had intimated that we should have a stop put to the proceedings of those commissioners who were authorized to settle the civil government of Maryland. Which was not at all intended by us; nor so much as proposed to us by those who made addresses to us to obtain our said letter. But our intention (as our said letter doth plainly import) was only to prevent and forbid any force or violence to be offered by either of the plantations of Virginia or Maryland, from one to the other, upon the differences concerning their bounds, the said differences being then under the consideration of ourself and council here. Which, for your more full satisfaction, we have thought fit to signify to you, and rest

"Your loving friend,

"OLIVER, P."[231:A]

Remembering, however, Lord Baltimore's ready submission to his authority, he nominally, at the least, restored him to his control over the province.

It was the custom of the Maryland Romanists to celebrate, by a salute of cannon, the thirty-first of July, the birth-day of St.

Ignatius, (Loyola,) Maryland's patron saint. On the 1st of August, 1656, the day following the anniversary, a number of Protestant soldiers, aroused by the nocturnal report of the cannon, issued from their fort, five miles distant, rushed upon the habitations of the Papists, broke into them, and plundered whatever there was found of arms or powder.

FOOTNOTES:

[222:A] "Virginia and Maryland," 11, 34; Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.; Chalmers' Annals, 221.

[223:A] Stith's Hist. of Va., 199.

[223:B] Properly Bernard: see Hening, i. 408.

[223:C] Hening, i. 372.

[224:A] Gloucester and Lancaster Counties are now named for the first time; when or how they were formed, does not appear. Sir William Berkley was of Gloucestershire, England. The name of Warrasqueake was changed to Isle of Wight in 1637, and first represented in 1642. In that year Charles River was changed to York, and Warwick River to Warwick. The boundaries of Upper and Lower Norfolk were fixed in 1642; and Upper Norfolk was changed to Nansimum (afterwards Nansemond) in 1646. Northumberland is first mentioned in 1645; Westmoreland in 1653; Surry, Gloucester, and Lancaster in 1652. New Kent was first represented in 1654, being taken from the upper part of York County. (McSherry's Hist. of Maryland.)

[224:B] Force's Hist. Tracts, iii.

[225:A] Burk, ii. 97

[225:B] Virginia's Cure, p. 19, in Force's Hist. Tracts, iii.

[226:A] Called Moratuck or Moratoc above the falls, and Roanoke below. Roanoke signifies "shell:" Roanoke and Wampumpeake were terms for Indian shell-money.

[228:A] Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 506. The letter is preserved in Thurloe's State Papers, xi. 273.

[229:A] "Virginia and Maryland," Force's Hist. Tracts, ii.

[229:B] "Leah and Rachel," Force's Hist. Tracts, iii.; Chalmer's Annals, 222.

[230:A] White's Relation, 44, in Force's Hist. Tracts, iv.

[230:B] Milton's Prose Works, ii. 346.

[231:A] Carlyle's Cromwell, ii. 182.

CHAPTER XXV.

1655-1658.

Digges elected Governor—Bennet goes to England the Colony's Agent—Colonel Edward Hill defeated by the Ricahecrians—Totopotomoi, with many Warriors, slain—Miscellaneous matters—Matthews Elected Governor—Letter to the Protector—Acts of Assembly—Magna Charta recognized as in force—Governor and Council excluded from Assembly—Matthews declares a Dissolution—The House resists—Dispute referred to the Protector—Declaration of Sovereignty—Matthews re-elected—Council newly reorganized—Edward Hill elected Speaker—Rules of the House.

In March, 1655, Edward Digges was elected by the assembly governor of the colony of Virginia. He was of an ancient and distinguished family, and had been made a member of the council in November, 1654, "he having given a signal testimony of his fidelity to this colony and Commonwealth of England." He succeeded Bennet, who had held the office since April, 1652, and who was now appointed the colony's agent at London.

In the year 1656, six or seven hundred Ricahecrian Indians having come down from the mountains, and seated themselves near the falls of the James River, Colonel Edward Hill, the elder, was put in command of a body of men, and ordered to dislodge them. He was reinforced by Totopotomoi, chief of Pamunkey, with one hundred of his tribe. A creek enclosing a peninsula in Hanover County, retains the name of Totopotomoy; and Butler, in Hudibras, alludes to this chief:—

"The mighty Tottipotimoy
Sent to our elders an envoy,
Complaining sorely of the breach
Of league held forth by brother Patch."

Hill was disgracefully defeated, and the brave Totopotomoi, with the greater part of his warriors, slain. It appears probable that Bloody Run, near Richmond, derived its name from this sanguinary battle. The action in which so many Indians were afterwards massacred by Bacon and his men, and with which a loose tradition has identified Bloody Run, did not occur near the falls of the James River. Hill, in consequence of his bad conduct in this affair, was subsequently, by unanimous vote of the council and the house of burgesses, condemned to pay the expenses of effecting a peace with the Indians, and was disfranchised.[234:A] During this year an act was passed allowing all free men the right of voting for burgesses, on the ground that "it is something hard and unagreeable to reason that any persons shall pay equal taxes, and yet have no votes in elections." So republican was the elective franchise in Virginia, under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell two centuries ago! In this year, 1656, Colonel Thomas Dew, of Nansemond, sometime before speaker of the house of burgesses, and others, were authorized to explore the country between Cape Hatteras and Cape Fear. The County of Nansemond had long abounded with non-conformists.

The salary of the governor, as ordered at this time, consisted of twenty-five thousand pounds of tobacco, worth two hundred and fifty pounds sterling, together with certain duties levied from masters of vessels, called castle duties, and marriage license fees. A reward of twenty pounds was offered to any one who should import a minister; ministers, with six servants each, were exempted from taxes, it being provided that they should be examined by Mr. Philip Mallory and Mr. John Green, and should be recommended by them to the governor and council, who were invested with discretionary control of the matter.[234:B] Letters were sent to Matthews, Virginia's agent at the Protector's court, directing him to suspend for the present the further prosecution of the long and fruitless controversy with Lord Baltimore respecting the disputed boundary.[234:C] Matthews, returning from England, was elected by the assembly to succeed Digges in the office of governor, who was now employed as agent. Colonel Francis Morrison, speaker, was desired by the assembly to write a letter to the Protector, and another to the secretary of state, which was as follows:—

"May it please your Highness,—

"We could not find a fitter means to represent the condition of this country to your highness, than this worthy person, Mr. Digges, our late governor, whose occasions calling him into England, we have instructed him with the state of this place as he left it; we shall beseech your highness to give credit to his relations, which we assure ourselves shall be faithful, having had many experiences of his candor in the time of his government, which he hath managed under your highness, with so much moderation, prudence, and justice, that we should be much larger in expressing this truth, but that we fear to have already too much trespassed, by interrupting your highness' most serious thoughts in greater affairs than what can concern your highness' most humble, most devoted servants.

"Dated from the Assembly of Virginia, 15th December, 1656."

Superscribed, for his "Highness, the Lord Protector."

The letter to the secretary of state was as follows:—

"Right Honorable,—

"Though we are persons so remote from you, we have heard so honorable a character of your worth, that we cannot make a second choice without erring, of one so fit and proper as yourself to make our addresses to his Highness, the Lord Protector. Our desires we have intrusted to that worthy gentleman, Mr. Digges, our late governor; we shall desire you would please to give him access to you and by your highness. And as we promise you will find nothing but worth in him, so we are confident he will undertake for us that we are a people not altogether ungrateful, but will find shortly a nearer way than by saying so, to express really how much we esteem the honor of your patronage, which is both the hopes and ambition of your very humble and then obliged servants.

"From the Assembly of Virginia, 15th December, 1656."

Superscribed, to the "Right Honorable John Thurlow, Secretary of State."

The allusion in the close of the letter appears to be to a douceur which it was intended to present to the secretary.

Digges was instructed to unite with Matthews and Bennet, in London, and to treat with the leading merchants in the Virginia trade, and to let them know how much the assembly had endeavored to diminish the quantity, and improve the quality of the tobacco; and to see what the merchants, on their part, would be willing to do in giving a better price; for if the planters should find that the bad brought as high a price as the good, they would of course raise that which could be raised the most easily.[236:A] It appears that Digges was appointed agent conjointly with Bennet. Matthews was elected by the assembly to succeed Digges as governor; but the latter was requested to hold the office as long as he should remain in Virginia. Digges departing for England toward the close of 1655, would appear to have co-operated for a short while with both Matthews and Bennet. By a singular coincidence, Digges, Matthews, and Bennet, who were the first three governors of Virginia under the Commonwealth of England, were transferred from the miniature metropolis, Jamestown, and found themselves together near the court of his Highness the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell.

Digges was succeeded as governor by Matthews, early in the year 1656. The laws of the colony were revised, and reduced into one volume, comprising one hundred and thirty-one acts, well adapted to the wants of the people and the condition of the country. Of the transactions from 1656 to 1660, the year of the restoration, Burk says there is an entire chasm in the records; Hening, on the contrary, declares that, "in no portion of the colonial records under the Commonwealth, are the materials so copious as from 1656 to 1660." The editor of the Statutes at Large is the better authority on this point.

The church government was settled by giving the people the entire control of the vestry; while the appointment of ministers and church wardens, the care of the poor, and parochial matters, were entrusted to the people of each parish. An act was passed for the keeping holy the Sabbath, and another against divulgers of false news. The ordinary weight of a hogshead of tobacco at this time did not exceed three hundred and fifty pounds, and its dimensions by law were forty-three inches long and twenty-six wide. Letters, superscribed "For the Public Service," were ordered to be conveyed from one plantation to another, to the place of destination. A remedy was provided for servants complaining of harsh usage, or of insufficient food or raiment. The penalty for selling arms or ammunition to the Indians was the forfeiture of the offender's whole estate. It was enacted that no sheriff, or deputy sheriff, then called under-sheriff, should hold his office longer than one year in any one county. The penalty of being reduced to servitude was abolished. The twenty-second day of March and the eighteenth of April were still kept as holy days, in commemoration of the deliverance of the colonists from the bloody Indian massacres of 1622 and 1644. The planters were prohibited from encroaching upon the lands of the Indians. The vessels of all nations were admitted into the ports of Virginia; and an impost duty of ten shillings a hogshead was laid on all tobacco exported, except that laden in English vessels, and bound directly for England; from the payment of which duty vessels belonging to Virginians were afterwards exempted. An act was passed to prohibit the kidnapping of Indian children.

In the year 1656 all acts against mercenary attorneys were repealed; but two years afterwards attorneys were again expelled from the courts,[237:A] and no one was suffered to receive any compensation for serving in that capacity. The governor and council made serious opposition to this act, and the following communication was made to the house of burgesses: "The governor and council will consent to this proposition so far as shall be agreeable to Magna Charta. Wm. Clayborne." The burgesses replied, that they could not see any such prohibition contained in Magna Charta; that two former assemblies had passed such a law, and that it had stood in force upwards of ten years. It thus appears that Magna Charta was held to be in force in the colony.

The ground leaves of tobacco, or lugs, were declared to be not merchantable; and it was ordered that no tobacco should be planted after the tenth day of July, under the penalty of a fine of ten thousand pounds of that staple. The exportation of hides, wool, and old iron, was forbidden. The salary of the governor, derived from the impost duty on tobacco exported, was fixed at sixteen hundred pounds sterling.

The burgesses having rescinded the order admitting the governor and council as members of the house, and having voted an adjournment, Matthews, on the 1st of April, 1658, declared a dissolution of the assembly. The house resisted, and declared that any burgess who should depart at this conjuncture, should be censured as betraying the trust reposed in him by his country; and an oath of secrecy was administered to the members. The governor, upon receiving an assurance that the business of the house would be speedily and satisfactorily concluded, revoked the order of dissolution, referring the question in dispute, as to the dissolving power, to his Highness the Lord Protector. The burgesses, still unsatisfied, appointed a committee, of which Colonel John Carter, of Lancaster County, was chairman, to draw up a resolution asserting their powers; and in consonance with their report the burgesses made a declaration of popular sovereignty: that they had in themselves the full power of appointing all officers, until they should receive an order to the contrary from England; that the house was not dissolvable by any power yet extant in Virginia but their own; that all former elections of governor and council should be void; that the power of governor for the future should be conferred on Colonel Samuel Matthews, who by them was invested with all the rights and privileges belonging to the governor and captain-general of Virginia; and that a council should be appointed by the burgesses then convened, with the advice of the governor.

The legislative records do not disclose the particular ground on which the previous elections of governor and appointments of councillors under the provisional government were annulled; but from the exclusion of the governor and council from the house, it might be inferred that it was owing to a jealousy of these functionaries being members of the body that elected them. Yet Bennet, the first of the three governors, and his council, were, in 1652, expressly allowed to be ex officio members of the assembly. An order was also made, April 2d, 1758, by the assembly, in the name of his Highness the Lord Protector, to the sheriff of James City, and sergeant-at-arms, to obey no warrant but those signed by the speaker of the house; and William Clayborne, secretary of state, (under Bennet, Digges, and Matthews,) was directed to deliver the records to the assembly. The oath of office was administered to Governor Matthews by the committee before mentioned, and the members of the council nominated by the governor and approved by the house, took the same oath.[239:A]

The number of burgesses present at the session commencing in March, 1659, was thirty. Colonel Edward Hill, who had been disfranchised, was now unanimously elected speaker. Colonel Moore Fantleroy, of Rappahannock County, not being present at the election, "moved against him, as if clandestinely elected, and taxed the house of unwarrantable proceedings therein." He was suspended until the next day, when, acknowledging his error, he was readmitted.

Any member absent from the house was subject to a penalty of twenty pounds of tobacco. A member "disguised with overmuch drink" forfeited one hundred pounds of tobacco. A burgess was required to rise from his seat, and to remain uncovered, while speaking. The oath was administered to the burgesses by a committee of three sent from the council.

FOOTNOTES:

[234:A] Hening, i. 402, 422; Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 107.

[234:B] Hening, i. 424.

[234:C] Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 116. An Armenian was imported by Digges for the purpose of making silk.

[236:A] Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 116.

[237:A] Hening, i. 434, 482.

[239:A] The governor and council were as follows: Colonel Samuel Matthews, Governor and Captain-general of Virginia, Richard Bennet, Colonel William Clayborne, Secretary of State, Colonel John West, Colonel Thomas Pettus, Colonel Edward Hill, Colonel Thomas Dew, Colonel William Bernard, Colonel Obedience Robins, Lieutenant-Colonel John Walker, Colonel George Reade, Colonel Abraham Wood, Colonel John Carter, Mr. Warham Horsmenden, Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Elliott.

CHAPTER XXVI.

1659-1661.

Death of Oliver Cromwell—Succeeded by his Son Richard—Assembly acknowledge his Authority—Character of Government of Virginia under the Commonwealth of England—Matthews dies—Richard Cromwell resigns the Protectorate—Supreme Power claimed now by the Assembly—Sir William Berkley elected Governor—Act for suppressing Quakers—Free Trade established—Stuyvesant's Letter—Charles the Second restored—Sends a new Commissioner to Berkley—His Reply—Grant of Northern Neck—The Navigation Act.

On the 8th of March, 1660, the house of burgesses having sent a committee to notify the governor that they attended his pleasure, he presented the following letter:—

"Gentlemen,—His late Highness, the Lord Protector, from that general respect which he had to the good and safety of all the people of his dominion, whether in these nations, or in the English plantations abroad, did extend his care to his colony in Virginia, the present condition and affairs whereof appearing under some unsettledness through the looseness of the government, the supplying of that defect hath been taken into serious consideration, and some resolutions passed in order thereunto, which we suppose would have been brought into act by this time, if the Lord had continued life and health to his said highness. But it hath pleased the Lord, on Friday, the third of this month, to take him out of the world, his said highness having in his lifetime, according to the humble petition and advice, appointed and declared the most noble and illustrious lord, the Lord Richard, eldest son to his late highness, to be his successor, who hath been accordingly, with general consent and applause of all, proclaimed Protector of this Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the dominions and territories thereunto belonging. And, therefore, we have thought fit to signify the same unto you, whom we require, according to your duty, that you cause his said Highness, Richard, Lord Protector, forthwith to be proclaimed in all parts of your colony. And his highness' council have thought fit hereby to assure you, that the settlement of that colony is not neglected; and to let you know, that you may expect shortly to receive a more express testimony of his highness' care in that behalf; till the further perfecting whereof, their lordships do, will, and require you, the present governor and council there, to apply yourselves with all seriousness, faithfulness, and circumspection, to the peaceable and orderly management of the affairs of that colony, according to such good laws and customs (not repugnant to the laws of England) as have been heretofore used and exercised among you, improving your best endeavors as for maintaining the civil peace, so for promoting the interest of religion, wherein you will receive from hence all just countenance and encouragement. And if any person shall presume, by any undue ways, to interrupt the quiet or hazard the safety of his highness' people there, order will be taken, upon the representation of such proceedings, to make further provision for securing of your peace in such a way as shall be found meet and necessary, and for calling those to a strict account who shall endeavor to disturb it.

"Signed in the name and by the order of the council.

"H. LAWRENCE, President.

"Whitehall, 7th September, 1658."

Superscription, to the "Governor and Council of his Highness' Colony of Virginia."

Upon the reading of this letter, the governor and council withdrew from the assembly; and the house of burgesses unanimously acknowledged their obedience to his Highness, Richard, Lord Protector, and fully recognized his power.[241:A] So much truth is there in Mr. Jefferson's remark,[241:B] that in the contest with the house of Stuart, Virginia accompanied the footsteps of the mother country. The government of Virginia under the Commonwealth of England was wholly provisional. By the convention of March the 12th, 1652, Virginia secured to herself her ancient limits, and was entitled to reclaim that part of her chartered territory which had been unjustly and illegally given away to Lord Baltimore. In this, however, owing to the perplexed condition of affairs in England, Virginia was disappointed; but she secured, by the articles of convention, free trade, exemption from taxation, save by her own assembly, and exclusion of military force from her borders. Yet all these rights were violated by subsequent kings and parliaments.[242:A]

The administration of the colonial government, under the Commonwealth of England, was judicious and beneficent; the people were free, harmonious, and prosperous; and while Cromwell's sceptre commanded the respect of the world, he exhibited toward the infant and loyal colony a generous and politic lenity; and during this interval she enjoyed free trade, legislative independence, civil and religious freedom, republican institutions, and internal peace. The Governors Bennet, Digges, and Matthews, by their patriotic virtues, enjoyed the confidence, and affection, and respect of the people; no extravagance, rapacity, corruption, or extortion was charged against their administration; intolerance and persecution were unknown. But rapine, corruption, extortion, intolerance, and persecution were all soon to be revived under the restored dynasty of the Stuarts.

Richard Cromwell resigned the Protectorate on the 22d day of April, 1659. Matthews, the governor, had died in the preceding January. England was without a monarch; Virginia without a governor. It was during this interval that public opinion in England was in suspense, the result of affairs depending upon the line of conduct which might be pursued by General Monk. The Virginia assembly, convening on the 13th day of March, 1660, declared by their first act that as there was then in England no resident, absolute, and generally acknowledged power, therefore the supreme government of the colony should rest in the assembly; and writs previously issued in the name of his Highness, the Lord Protector, now issued in the name of the Grand Assembly of Virginia. By the second act, Sir William Berkley was elected governor; he was required to call a grand assembly once in two years at the least, and was restricted from dissolving the assembly without its consent. The circumstances of this reappointment of Sir William Berkley have been frequently misrepresented; historians from age to age following each other in fabulous tradition, erroneous conjecture, or wilful perversion, have asserted that Sir William was hurried from retirement by a torrent of popular enthusiasm, and made governor by acclamation, and that Charles the Second was boldly proclaimed in Virginia, and his standard reared several months, some say sixteen, before the restoration; and thus the Virginians, as they had been the last of the king's subjects who renounced their allegiance, so they were the first who returned to it![243:A]

Error in history is like a flock of sheep jumping over a bridge; if one goes, the rest all follow. Sir William Berkley, as has been before mentioned, was not elected by a tumultuary assemblage of the people, but by the assembly; the royal standard was not raised upon the occasion, nor was the king proclaimed. The bulk of the Virginia planters undoubtedly retained their habitual attachment to monarchy and to the Established Church; and some royalist refugees had been driven hither by the civil war. Yet, as the colonists had formerly been greatly dissatisfied with some acts of the government during the reign of Charles the First, they certainly had much reason to approve of the wise, and liberal, and magnanimous policy of Cromwell. Besides this, a good many republicans and Puritans had found their way to Virginia. The predominant feeling, however, in Virginia as in England, was in favor of the restoration of Charles the Second. Sir William Berkley, in his speech addressed to the assembly on their proffer of the place of governor, said: "I do, therefore, in the presence of God and you, make this safe protestation for us all, that if any supreme settled power appears, I will immediately lay down my commission, but will live most submissively obedient to any power God shall set over me, as the experience of eight years has shewed I have done." In his address to the house of burgesses, he alludes to the late king, as "my most gracious master, King Charles, of ever blessed memory," and as "my ever honored master, who was put to a violent death." The Berkleys were staunch adherents of Charles the First, and extreme royalists. Referring in his address to the surrender of the colony, Sir William said, that the parliament "sent a small power to force my submission, which, finding me defenceless, was quietly (God pardon me) effected." Of the several parliaments and the protectorate he remarked: "And I believe, Mr. Speaker, (Theodorick Bland,) you think, if my voice had been prevalent in most of their elections, I would not voluntarily have made choice of them for my supremes. But, Mr. Speaker, all this I have said, is only to make this truth apparent to you, that in and under all these mutable governments of divers natures and constitutions, I have lived most resignedly submissive. But, Mr. Speaker, it is one duty to live obedient to a government, and another of a very different nature, to command under it." It thus appears that Sir William accepted the place hoping for the restoration of Charles the Second; but with an explicit pledge, that he would resign in case that event should not occur.[244:A] This speech was made March the nineteenth, and on the twenty-first the council unanimously concurred in his election. The members were Richard Bennet, (late Puritan Governor,) William Bernard, John Walker, George Reade, Thomas Pettus, William Clayborne, Edward Hill, Thomas Dew, Edward Carter, Thomas Swan, and Augustine Warner. Nearly all of these were colonels. The title of colonel and member of the council appears to have been a sort of order of nobility in Virginia. Sir William Berkley was elected two months before the restoration of Charles the Second, which took place on the 20th of May, 1660, that being his birth-day. Yet the word "king" or "majesty" nowhere occurs in the legislative records, from the commencement of the Commonwealth of England until the 11th day of October, 1660, more than four months after the restoration.[244:B] Virginia was indeed loyal, but she was too feeble to avow her loyalty.

An act was passed, entitled an act for the suppressing the Quakers; the preamble of which describes them as an unreasonable and turbulent sort of people, who daily gather together unlawful assemblies of people, teaching lies, miracles, false visions, prophecies, and doctrines tending to disturb the peace, disorganize society, and destroy all law, and government, and religion. Masters of vessels were prohibited from bringing in any of that sect, under the penalty of one hundred pounds of tobacco; all of them to be apprehended and committed, until they should give security that they would leave the colony; if they should return, they should be punished, and returning the third time should be proceeded against as felons. No person should entertain any Quakers that had been questioned by the governor and council; nor permit any assembly of them in or near his house, under the penalty of one hundred pounds sterling; and no person to publish their books, pamphlets, and libels.[245:A] This act was passed in March, 1660, shortly after the election of Sir William Berkley.

Of late years, certain masters of vessels trading to Virginia, in violation of the laws and of the articles of surrender granting the privilege of free trade, had "molested, troubled, and seized divers ships, sloops, and vessels, coming to trade with us." The assembly therefore required every master to give bond not to molest any person trading under the protection of the laws.

Act XVI. establishes free trade: "Whereas, the restriction of trade hath appeared to be the greatest impediment to the advance of the estimation and value of our present only commodity, tobacco, be it enacted and confirmed, That the Dutch, and all strangers of what Christian nation soever, in amity with the people of England, shall have free liberty to trade with us for all allowable commodities." And it was provided, "That if the said Dutch, or other foreigners, shall import any negro slaves, they, the said Dutch, or others, shall, for the tobacco really produced by the sale of the said negro, pay only the impost of two shillings per hogshead, the like being paid by our own nation." The regular impost being ten shillings, this exemption was a bounty of eight shillings per hogshead for the encouragement of the importation of negroes.[245:B]

When Argall, in 1614, returning from his half-piratical excursion against the French at Port Royal, entered what is now New York Bay, he found three or four huts erected there by Dutch mariners and fishermen, on the Island of Manhattan. Near half a century had since elapsed, and the colony planted there had grown to an importance that justified something of diplomatic correspondence. In the spring of 1660 Nicholas Varleth and Brian Newton were sent by Governor Stuyvesant, celebrated by Knickerbocker, from Fort Amsterdam to Virginia, for the purpose of forming a league acknowledging the Dutch title to New York. Sir William Berkley evaded the proposition in the following letter:—

"Sir,—I have received the letter you were pleased to send me by Mr. Mills his vessel, and shall be ever ready to comply with you in all acts of neighborly friendship and amity; but truly, sir, you desire me to do that concerning your letter and claims to land in the northern part of America which I am incapable to do, for I am but a servant of the assembly's; neither do they arrogate any power to themselves further than the miserable distractions of England force them to. For when God shall be pleased in His mercy to take away and dissipate the unnatural divisions of their native country, they will immediately return to their own professed obedience. What then they should do in matters of contract, donation, and confession of right, would have little strength or signification; much more presumptive and impertinent would it be in me to do it, without their knowledge or assent. We shall very shortly meet again, and then, if to them you signify your desires, I shall labor all I can to get you a satisfactory answer.

"I am, sir, your humble servant,

"WILLIAM BERKLEY.

"Virginia, August 20th, 1660."

Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch governors of New Amsterdam, within a few years was dispossessed by a small English squadron, and the captured colony was retained. Sir William Berkley's letter was written nearly three months after the actual restoration, and yet, not having received intelligence of it, he alludes to the English government as in a state of interregnum, and writes not one word in present recognition of his majesty Charles the Second; on the contrary, he expressly avows himself a servant of the assembly.

Tea was introduced into England about this time; the East India Company made the king a formal present of two pounds and two ounces.[247:A]

The address of the Parliament and General Monk to Charles the Second, then at Breda, in Holland, was carried over by Lord Berkley, of Berkley Castle. On the eighth of May Charles was proclaimed in England king, and he returned in triumph to London on the twenty-ninth of that month, being his birth-day. The restored monarch transmitted a new commission, dated July the 31st, 1660, at Westminster, to his faithful adherent Sir William Berkley. He had remained in Virginia during the Commonwealth of England under various pretexts, and it is probable that he kept up a secret correspondence with refugee royalists, and it is said that he even invited Charles to come over to Virginia. This tradition, however, is without proof or plausibility; had the exiled Charles sought refuge in Virginia, an English frigate would have found it easy to make him a prisoner. Virginia would have presented few attractions to the royal profligate; and it could have hardly been a matter of regret to the Virginians that he never came here. Sir William Berkley's letter of acknowledgment, written in March, 1661, is extravagantly loyal. He apologizes for having accepted office from the assembly thus: "It was no more, may it please your majesty, than to leap over the fold to save your majesty's flock, when your majesty's enemies of that fold had barred up the lawful entrance into it, and enclosed the wolves of schism and rebellion, ready to devour all within it," etc. By "the wolves of schism and rebellion" he probably meant the Puritan and Republican party in Virginia, and he appears to have looked upon them as formidable enemies.

Charles the Second, in the first year of his reign, that is, in the first year after the death of his father, for he was considered or imagined to have reigned all the while, had granted all the tract of land lying between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, known as the Northern Neck, to Lord Hopton, the Earl of St. Albans, Lord Culpepper, and others, to hold the same forever, paying yearly six pounds thirteen shillings and four pence to the crown.

The Anglo-American colonies now established, Virginia, New England, and Maryland, contained eighty-five thousand inhabitants. The navigation act had not been recognized by Virginia as obligatory on her; had been opposed by Massachusetts as an invasion of her rights; and had been evaded by Maryland. James the First, Charles the First, and the Commonwealth, had expressly exempted the colonies from direct taxation, but the Restoration parliament extended the customs of tonnage and poundage to every part of the dominion of the crown; and the colonists did not for years resist the collection of those imposts.[248:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[241:A] Hening, i. 509.

[241:B] Preface to T. M.'s Account of Bacon's Rebellion, in Kercheval's History of Valley of Va., 21. The clause quoted from Mr. Jefferson is omitted in the copy of the same introduction found in Force's Hist. Tracts, i.

[242:A] Jefferson's Notes, 125.

[243:A] Robertson's Hist. of America, iv. 230; Beverley's Hist. of Va., B. i. 55; Chalmers' Annals, 124; Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 120; Grahame's Colonial Hist. of U. S., i. 89; Hawks' Prot. Episcopal Church in Va., 63. See, also, Hening's Statutes at Large of Va., i. 126. Hening first corrected these errors.

[244:A] Southern Lit. Messenger for January, 1845.

[244:B] Hening, ii. 9, in note.

[245:A] Hening, i. 532.

[245:B] Hening, i. 535.

[247:A] Pepys' Diary, i. 110. Pepys was pronounced Peeps.

[248:A] Chalmers' Revolt of Amer. Colonies, 99.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1661-1663.

Settlements of Virginia—The Church—Laws for establishment of Towns—Intelligence received of Restoration—Assembly sends Address to the King—Demonstrations of Loyalty—Berkley visits England—Morrison elected by the Council in his stead—Assembly's tone altered—Act for ducking "Brabbling Women"—Power of Taxation vested in Governor and Council for three years—Miscellaneous Affairs—Act relating to Indians—Persons trespassing on the Indians, punished—Sir William Berkley returns from England—Instructions relative to the Church—Acts against Schismatics and Separatists—Berkley superintends establishment of a Colony on Albemarle Sound.

The settlements of Virginia now included the territory lying between the Potomac and the Chowan, and embraced, besides, the isolated Accomac. There were fifty parishes. The plantations lay dispersed along the banks of rivers and creeks, those on the James stretching westward, above a hundred miles into the interior. Each parish extended many miles in length along the river-side, but in breadth ran back only a mile. This was the average breadth of the plantations, their length varying from half a mile to three miles or more. The fifty parishes comprehending an area supposed to be equal to one-half of England, it was inevitable that many of the inhabitants lived very remote from the parish church. Many parishes, indeed, were as yet destitute of churches and glebes; and not more than ten parishes were supplied with ministers. Hammond[249:A] says: "They then began to provide, and send home for gospel ministers, and largely contributed for their maintenance; but Virginia savoring not handsomely in England, very few of good conversation would adventure thither, (as thinking it a place wherein surely the fear of God was not,) yet many came, such as wore black coats, and could babble in a pulpit, roar in a tavern, exact from their parishioners, and rather by their dissoluteness destroy than feed their flocks." Hammond's statements are not to be unreservedly received. Where there were ministers, worship was usually held once on Sunday; but the remote parishioners seldom attended. The planters, either from indifference or from the want of means, were remiss in the building of churches and the maintenance of ministers. Through the licentious lives of many of them, the Christian religion was dishonored, and the name of God blasphemed among the heathen natives, (who were near them and often among them,) and thus their conversion hindered.[250:A]

In 1661 the Rev. Philip Mallory was sent over to England as Virginia's agent to solicit the cause of the church. The general want of schools, likewise owing to the sparseness of the population, was most of all bewailed by parents. The children of Virginia, naturally of beautiful persons, and generally of more genius than those in England, were doomed to grow up unserviceable for any great employments in church or state. As a principal remedy for these ills, the establishment of towns in each county was recommended. It was further proposed to erect schools in the colony, and for the supply of ministers to establish, by act of parliament, Virginia fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge, with an engagement to serve the church in Virginia for seven years. To raise the funds necessary for this purpose, it was proposed to take up a collection in the churches of Great Britain; and the assembly ordered a petition to the king to that end, to be drawn up.[250:B] Another feature of this plan was to send over a bishop, so soon as there should be a city for his see. These recommendations, although urged upon the attention of the bishop of London, seem, from whatever cause, to have proved fruitless. The Virginia assembly, in no instance, expressed any desire for the appointment of a bishop; they remembered with abhorrence the cruelties that had been exercised by the prelates in England.

Mr. Jefferson remarked that the legislature of Virginia has frequently declared that there should be towns in places where nature had declared that they should not be. The scheme of compelling the planters to abandon their plantations, and to congregate in towns, built by legislation, was indeed chimerical. The failure of the schemes proposed in the Virginia assembly for the establishment of towns, is attributed by the author of "Virginia's Cure" to the majority of the house of burgesses, who are said to have come over at first as servants, and who, although they may have accumulated by their industry competent estates, yet, owing to their mean education, were incompetent to judge of public matters, either in church or state. Yet many of the early laws appear to have been judicious, practical, and well adapted to the circumstances of a newly settled country. The legislature, eventually finding the scheme of establishing towns by legal enactments impracticable, declared it expedient to leave trade to regulate itself.

The assembly of March, 1661, consisted in the main of new members. At another session held in October of the same year, there appeared still fewer of the members who had held seats during the Commonwealth; and it may be reasonably inferred that the bulk of the retiring members were well affected to the Commonwealth of England. Intelligence of the restoration of Charles the Second had already reached Virginia, and was joyfully received. The word "king," or "majesty," was used in the public acts now for the first time, since the commencement of the Commonwealth of England—an interval of twelve years.

An address was sent to the king, praying him to pardon the inhabitants of Virginia for having yielded to a force—which they could not resist. Forty-four thousand pounds of tobacco, worth two thousand and two hundred dollars, were appropriated to Major-General Hammond and Colonel Guy Molesworth, for "being employed in the address." Sir Henry Moody was dispatched on an embassy "to the Manados," or Manhattan. Colonel Carter was required to declare what passed between him and Colonel William Clayborne at the assembly of 1653 or 1654, relative to the making an act of non-address to the Right Honorable Sir William Berkley; but the particulars of this affair have not been handed down. The rent paid for the use of the house where the assembly met, was three thousand five hundred pounds of tobacco, equivalent to one hundred and seventy-five dollars. Four thousand pounds of tobacco, worth two hundred dollars, were paid for the rent of the room where the governor and council held their meetings. The name of Monroe occurs at this early day in the County of Westmoreland as one of the commissioners, or justices of the peace.

The assembly strove to display its loyalty by bountiful appropriations to the governor and the leading royalists; the restoration in England was reflected by the restoration in Virginia. The necessity of the case had made the government of the colony republican; she was as free and almost as independent during the Commonwealth of England as after the revolution of 1776. For a short time even Sir William Berkley appears to have been identified with this system. He and the new assembly were now eagerly running in an opposite tack, and were impatient to wipe out all traces of their late forced disobedience and involuntary recognition of the popular sovereignty.

Sir William continued as governor till the 30th of April, 1661, when being about to visit England, Colonel Francis Morrison was elected by the council in his place. Sir William, it is said, was dispatched to England as agent to defend the colony against the monopoly of the navigation act, which threatened to violate their "freedoms," as is declared by the first act of the assembly held at James City, on the 23d of March, 1661. Sir William was heartily opposed to the restrictions on the commerce of Virginia; but any efforts that he may have used in opposition to them were fruitless.

He embarked in May for England, and returned in the fall of the following year, 1662. His pay on account of this mission was two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco, or five hundred and seventy-one hogsheads, the average weight of a hogshead at this period being three hundred and fifty pounds.[252:A] This quantity of tobacco was worth two thousand pounds sterling, or ten thousand dollars.[253:A] The ordinary salary of the governor consisted of castle duties, license fees, tobacco, corn, and customs, and probably amounted to not less than twelve thousand dollars per annum.[253:B]

The assembly's tone was now altered; during the Commonwealth of England, Oliver Cromwell had been addressed as "His Highness," and the burgesses had subscribed themselves his "most humble, most devoted servants;" nor had Richard Cromwell been treated with a less obsequious and respectful submission. But now the following language was employed: "Whereas, our late surrender and submission to that execrable power, that so bloodily massacred the late King Charles the First of ever blessed and glorious memory, hath made us, by acknowledging them, guilty of their crimes; to show our serious and hearty repentance and detestation of that barbarous act, be it enacted, That the thirtieth of January, the day the said king was beheaded, be annually solemnized with fasting and prayers, that our sorrows may expiate our crime, and our tears wash away our guilt."[253:C] Their compulsory acknowledgment of the sovereign power of the Commonwealth of England, if they all the while remained in their hearts loyal, could not have implicated them in the execution of the king.

Colonel Francis Morrison continued to fill the place of Sir William Berkley until his return, which took place some time between September and the 21st of November, 1662.

An act was passed, entitled "Women causing scandalous suits, to be ducked:" "Whereas, oftentimes many brabbling women often slander and scandalize their neighbors, for which their poor husbands are often brought into chargeable and vexatious suits, and cast in great damages; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in actions of slander occasioned by the wife, as aforesaid, after judgment passed for the damages, the woman shall be punished by ducking; and if the slander be so enormous as to be adjudged at a greater damage than five hundred pounds of tobacco, then the woman to suffer a ducking for each five hundred pounds of tobacco against the husband adjudged, if he refuse to pay the tobacco." A ducking-stool had been already established in each county.

The anniversary both of the birth and the restoration of Charles the Second was established as a holiday. The navigation act was now enforced in Virginia, and in consequence the price of tobacco fell very low, while the cost of imported goods was also augmented. An act prohibiting the importation of luxuries seems to have been negatived by the governor. It was ordered that "no person shall trade with the Indians for any beaver, otter, or any other furs, unless he first obtain a commission from the governor." This act gave great offence to the people; it was in effect conferring on the governor an indirect monopoly of the fur-trade. By a still more high-handed measure the governor and council were empowered to lay taxes for the ensuing three years, unless in the mean time some urgent occasion should necessitate the calling together of the assembly. Thus taxation was dissevered from representation; the main safeguard of freedom was given to the executive. Major John Bond, a magistrate in Isle of Wight County, was disfranchised for "factious and schismatical demeanors." He had repeatedly been returned as one of the burgesses of his county during the Commonwealth of England. An act making provision for a college, appears to have remained a dead letter; other acts equally futile, passed at ensuing sessions, frequently recur. The assembly ventured to declare that the king's pardon did not extend to a penalty incurred for planting tobacco contrary to law.

Colonel William Clayborne, secretary of state, was displaced by Thomas Ludwell, commissioned by the king. Colonel Francis Morrison and Henry Randolph, clerk of the assembly, were appointed revisers of the laws. Beverley[254:A] says that Morrison made an abridgement of the laws. In this revised code the common law of England is, for the first time, expressly adopted, being spoken of as "those excellent and oft-refined laws of England."[254:B] But it has been seen that Magna Charta had been previously recognized as of force in Virginia. In making a revision of the laws it was ordered that all acts which "might keep in memory our forced deviation from his majesty's obedience," should be repealed "and expunged." In the absence of ministers it was enacted that readers should be appointed, where they could be found, with the advice and consent of the nearest ministers, to read the prayers and homilies, and catechise children and servants, as had been practised in the time of Queen Elizabeth. Although not more than one-fifth of the parishes were supplied with ministers, yet the laws demanded a strict conformity, and required all to contribute to the support of the established church. But the right of presentation still remained in the people. The number of the vestry was limited to twelve, elected by the people, but they were now invested with the power of perpetuating their own body by filling vacancies themselves.[255:A] Vestries were ordered to procure subscriptions for the support of the ministry. The number of burgesses to represent each county was limited to two; the number of magistrates to twelve. The assembly confirmed an order of the quarter court prohibiting "Roger Partridge and Elizabeth, his wife, from keeping any maid-servant for the term of three years."

The assembly say, that "they have set down certain rules to be observed in the government of the church, until God shall please to turn his majesty's pious thoughts" toward them, and "provide a better supply of ministers." "The pious thoughts" of Charles the Second were never turned to this remote corner of his empire. Magistrates, heretofore called commissioners, were now styled "justices of the peace," and their courts "county courts."[255:B] A duty was laid on rum, because "it had, by experience, been found to bring diseases and death to divers people." An impost, first established during the Commonwealth of England, was still levied on every hogshead of tobacco exported; this became a permanent source of revenue, and rendered the executive independent of the legislature.

The numerous acts relating to the Indians were reduced into one: prohibiting the English from purchasing Indian lands; securing their persons and property; preventing encroachments on their territory; ordering the English seated near to assist them in fencing their corn-fields; licensing them to oyster, fish, hunt, and gather the natural fruits of the country; prohibiting trade with them without license, or imprisonment of an Indian chief without special warrant; bounds to be annually defined; badges of silver and copper plate to be furnished to Indian chiefs; no Indian to enter the English confines without a badge, under penalty of imprisonment, till ransomed by one hundred arms'-length of roanoke; Indian chiefs tributary to the English, to give alarm of approach of hostile Indians; Indians not to be sold as slaves.[256:A]

It was ordered that a copy of the revised laws should be sent to Sir William Berkley in England, that he might procure the king's confirmation of them. Beverley mentions a tradition that the king, in compliment to Virginia, wore, at his coronation, a robe made of Virginia silk, and adds, that this was all the country received in return for their loyalty, the parliament having re-enacted the navigation act, (first enacted during the Commonwealth,) with still severer restrictions and prohibitions. Even the traditional compliment of the king's wearing a robe of Virginia silk appears to be unfounded.

Wahanganoche, chief of Potomac, charged with treason and murder by Captain Charles Brent, before the assembly, was acquitted; and Brent, together with Captain George Mason and others, were ordered to pay that chief a certain sum in roanoke, or in matchcoats, (from matchkore, a deerskin,) in satisfaction of the injuries. Brent, Mason, and others were afterwards punished by fines, suspension from office, and disfranchisement, for offences committed against the Indians, and for showing contempt to the governor's warrant in relation to the chief of Potomac. The counties of Westmoreland and Northumberland were especially exposed to Indian disturbances at this time. Colonel Moore Fantleroy was disfranchised for maltreating the Rappahannock Indians; Mrs. Mary Ludlow was restrained from encroaching on the lands of the Chesquiack Indians at Pyanketanke; Colonel Goodrich was charged with burning the English house of the chief of the Matapony Indians. George Harwood was ordered to ask forgiveness in open court on his knees, for speaking disrespectfully of the right honorable governor, Francis Morrison; and, at the next court held in Warwick County, to ask forgiveness of Captain John Ashton for defaming him, and to pay two thousand pounds of tobacco.

It was during this year, 1662, that Charles the Second married Catherine, the Portuguese Infanta.

The court of Boston, in New England, having discharged a servant belonging to William Drummond, an inhabitant of Virginia, the assembly ordered reprisal to be made on the property belonging to inhabitants of the Northern colony to the amount of forty pounds sterling.[257:A]

Sir William Berkley returned in the fall of 1662 from England, having accomplished nothing for the colony, but having secured for himself an interest in a part of the Virginia territory, now North Carolina, granted to himself and other courtiers and court favorites. He brought out with him instructions from the crown, comprising directions relative to church matters; that the Book of Common Prayer should be read, and the sacrament administered according to the rites of the Church of England; that the churches should be well and orderly kept; that the number of them should be increased as the means might justify; that a competent maintenance should be assigned to each minister, and a house built for him, and a glebe of one hundred acres attached. It was further directed that no minister should be preferred by the governor to any benefice, without a certificate from the Lord Bishop of London; and that ministers should be admitted into their respective vestries; that the oaths of obedience and supremacy should be administered to all persons bearing any part of the government, and to all persons whatsoever of age in the colony. The last of these instructions is in the following words: "And because we are willing to give all possible encouragement to persons of different persuasions in matters of religion, to transport themselves thither with their stocks, you are not to suffer any man to be molested or disquieted in the exercise of his religion, so he be content with a quiet and peaceable enjoying it, not giving therein offence or scandal to the government; but we oblige you in your own house and family to the profession of the Protestant religion, according as it is now established in our kingdom of England, and the recommending it to all others under your government, as far as it may consist with the peace and quiet of our said colony. You are to take care that drunkenness and debauchery, swearing, and blasphemy, be discountenanced and punished; and that none be admitted to publick trust and employment whose ill fame and conversation may bring scandal thereupon."[258:A]

The spirit of toleration expressed in these instructions was insincere and hypocritical, and dictated by the apprehensions of a government yet unstable, and by a temporizing policy. In December, 1662, the assembly declared that "many schismatical persons, out of their averseness to the orthodox established religion, or out of the new-fangled conceits of their own heretical inventions, refuse to have their children baptized," and imposed on such offenders a fine of two thousand pounds of tobacco.

The act for the suppression of the sect of Quakers was now extended to all separatists, and made still more rigorous. Persons attending their meetings were fined, for the first offence, two hundred pounds of tobacco; for the second, five hundred; and for the third, banished. In case the party convicted should be too poor to pay the fine, it was to be levied from such of his sect as might be possessed of ampler means.

A Mr. Durand, elder in a Puritan "very orthodox church," in Nansemond County, had been banished from Virginia in 1648. In 1662, the Yeopim Indians granted to "George Durant" the neck of land in North Carolina which still bears his name. He was probably the exile. In April, 1663, George Cathmaid claimed from Governor Berkley a large tract of land on the borders of Albemarle Sound, in reward of having colonized a number of settlers in that province. In the same year Sir William Berkley was commissioned to organize a government over this newly settled region, which, in honor of the perfidious General Monk, now made Duke of Albemarle, received the name which time has transferred to the Sound.

FOOTNOTES:

[249:A] "Leah and Rachel," published at London in 1656, in Force's Historical Tracts, iii.

[250:A] Virginia's Cure, (Force's Hist. Tracts, iii.,) printed at London, 1662, and composed by a minister. The initials on the title-page, R. G. He appears to have taken refuge in Virginia during the Commonwealth of England; and it is evident that he had resided in the colony for a considerable time. "Virginia's Cure" is addressed to the Bishop of London: it is a clear and vigorous document, acrimonious toward the late government, but earnest in behalf of the spiritual welfare of Virginia.

[250:B] Hening, ii. 33.

[252:A] Hening, i. 435.

[253:A] Hening, i. 398, 418.

[253:B] Ibid., i. 545, and ii. 9.

[253:C] Ibid., ii. 24.

[254:A] Hist. of Virginia, second edition.

[254:B] Beverley, B. i. 43; Chalmers' Revolt, i. 101.

[255:A] Ibid., 44.

[255:B] Hening, ii. 69.

[256:A] Hening, ii. 138.

[257:A] Hening, ii. 158.

[258:A] MS. (Virginia) in State Paper office, (London,) cited in Anderson's Hist. of Colonial Church, ii. 548-9.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1663.

Report of Edmund Scarburgh, Surveyor-General, of his Proceedings in establishing the Boundary Line between Virginia and Maryland on the Eastern Shore—The Bear and the Cub—Extracts from Records of Accomac.

A controversy existed between Virginia and Lord Baltimore relative to the boundary line on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The dispute turned on the true site of Watkins' Point, which was admitted to be the southern limit of Maryland on that shore. The Virginia assembly, in 1663, declared the true site of Watkins' Point to be on the north side of Wicocomoco River, at its mouth, and ordered publication thereof to be made by Colonel Edmund Scarburgh, his majesty's surveyor-general, commanding, in his majesty's name, all the inhabitants south of that Point, "to render obedience to his majesty's government of Virginia." A conference with Lord Baltimore's commissioners was proposed in case he should be dissatisfied, and Colonel Scarburgh, Mr. John Catlett, and Mr. Richard Lawrence were appointed commissioners on the part of Virginia. Lawrence will reappear in Bacon's Rebellion. The surveyor-general was further directed "to improve his best abilities in all other his majesty's concerns of land relating to Virginia, especially that to the northward of forty degrees of latitude, being the utmost bounds of the said Lord Baltimore's grant, and to give an account of his proceedings therein to the right honorable governor and council of Virginia."[259:A]

Colonel Scarburgh's report of his proceedings on this occasion is preserved.[259:B] He set out with "some of the commission, and about forty horsemen," an escort which he deemed necessary "to repel the contempt" which, as he was informed, "some Quakers and a fool in office has threatened to obtrude." The party reached Anamessecks on Sunday night, the eleventh of October. On the next day, at the house of an officer of the Lord Baltimore, the surveyor-general began to publish the assembly's commands by repeatedly reading the act to the officer, who labored under the disadvantage of being unable to read. He declared that he would not be false to the trust put in him by the Lord-Lieutenant of Maryland. To this Colonel Scarburgh replied, "that there could be no trust where there was no intrust," (interest.) The officer declining to subscribe his obedience, lest he might be hanged by the Governor of Maryland, was arrested and held to security (given by some of Scarburgh's party) to appear before the governor and council of Virginia, and "the broad arrow" was set on his door. This matter being so satisfactorily adjusted, the colonel and his company proceeded to the house of a Quaker, where the act was published "with a becoming reverence;" but the Quakers scoffing and deriding it, and refusing their obedience, were arrested, to answer "their contempt and rebellion," and it being found impracticable to obtain any security, "the broad arrow was set on the door." At Manokin the housekeepers and freemen, except two of Lord Baltimore's officers, subscribed. "One Hollinsworth, merchant, of a northern vessel," at this juncture, "came and presented his request for liberty of trade;" which, Scarburgh suspecting to be "some plan of the Quakers," to defeat their design, "presumed, in their infant plantation, to give freedom of trade without impositions." Scarburgh gives a descriptive list of those who stood out against submitting to the jurisdiction of Virginia: one was "the ignorant yet insolent officer, a cooper by profession, who lived long in the lower parts of Accomac; once elected a burgess by the common crowd, and thrown out of the assembly for a factious and tumultuous person." George Johnson was "the Proteus of heresy," notorious for "shifting schismatical pranks." "He stands arrested," and "bids defiance." "Thomas Price, a creeping Quaker, by trade a leather-dresser," and "saith nothing else but that he would not obey government, for which he also stands arrested." "Ambrose Dixon, a caulker by profession," "often in question for his Quaking profession," "a prater of nonsense," "stands arrested, and the broad arrow at his door, but bids defiance." "Henry Boston, an unmannerly fellow, that stands condemned on the records for fighting and contemning the laws of the country; a rebel to government, and disobedient to authority, for which he received a late reward with a rattan, and hath not subscribed; hides himself, so scapes arrest." "These are all, except two or three loose fellows that follow the Quakers for scraps, whom a good whip is fittest to reform."

On the 10th day of November, 1663, the county court of Accomac authorized Captain William Thorn and others to summon the good subjects of Manokin and other parts of the county, so far as Pocomoke River, to come together and arm themselves for defence against any that might invade them, in consequence "of the rumors that the Quakers and factious fools have spread, to the disturbance of the peace and terror of the less knowing."

The following extracts, from the records of the county court of Accomac, exemplify the simplicity of the times, and the quaint orthography, and the verbosity of the records of courts; while the final decision of the case is not less equitable than those of Sancho Panza, sometime Governor of the Island of Barataria, or those celebrated in Knickerbocker's History of New York.

"At a Court held in Accomack County, y^e 16^th of November, by his ma^ties Justices of y^e Peace for y^e s^d County, in y^e Seaventeenth yeare of y^e Reigne of o^r Sovraigne Lord Charles y^e Second, By y^e Grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of y^e Faith, &c.: And in y^e Yeare of o^r Lord God 1665.

"Whereas, Cornelius Watkinson, Philip Howard, and William Darby, were this Day accused by Mr. Jno. Fawsett, his ma^ties Attory for Accomack County, for acting a play by them called y^e Bare & y^e Cubb, on y^e 27^th of August last past; upon examination of the same, The Court have thought fitt to suspend the Cause till y^e next Court, & doe order y^t the said Cornelius Watkinson, Phillip Howard, & W^m. Darby, appeare y^e next Court, in those habilemts that they then acted in, and give a draught of such verses, or other speeches and passages, which were then acted by them; & that y^e Sherr detaine Cornelius Watkinson & Philip Howard in His Custody untill they put in Security to performe this order. It is ordered y^t the Sherr. arrest y^e Body of William Darby, for his appearance y^e next Court, to answere at his ma^ties suit, for being actour of a play commonly called y^e Beare and y^e Cubb.

"At a Court held in Accomack County, y^e 18^th of December, by his ma^ties Justices of y^e Peace for y^e s^d County, in y^e Seaventeenth yeare of y^e Raigne of o^r Sovraigne Lord Charles y^e Second, By y^e Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, & Ireland, King, Defendr of y^e Faith, &c.: And in y^e yeare of o^r Lord God 1665.

"Its ordered y^t y^e Sherr sumons Edward Martin to y^e next Court, to show cause why hee should not pay y^e charges w^ch accrued upon y^e Information given by him against Cornelius Watkinson, Philip Howard, & William Darby.

"At a Court held in Accomack County, y^e 17^th of January, by his ma^ties Justices of y^e Peace for y^e s^d County, in the Seaventeenth year of y^e Reigne of o^r Sovraigne Lord Charles y^e Second, By y^e Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.: And in the year of o^r Lord God 1665.

"Whereas, Edward Martin was this day examined concerning his information given to Mr. Fawset, his ma^ties Attory for Accomack County, about a play called the bare & y^e Cubb, whereby severall persons were brought to Court & charges thereon arise, but the Court finding the said p'sons not guilty of fault, suspended y^e payment of Court charges; & forasmuch as it appeareth upon y^e Oath of y^e said Mr. Fawsett, that upon y^e s^d Edward Martin's information, the Charge & trouble of that suit did accrew, It's therefore ordered that y^e said Edward Martin pay all y^e Charges in y^e suit Els. Exon."[262:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[259:A] Hening, ii. 183.

[259:B] This document, entitled "The Account of Proceedings in his Majt's Affairs at Anamessecks and Manokin, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia," is preserved in the records of Accomac County Court, and a copy, furnished by Thomas R. Joynes, Esq., the clerk, (himself a descendant of Colonel Edmund Scarburgh,) was published in 1833, by order of the legislature of Maryland. I am indebted to William T. Joynes, Esq., of Petersburg, for the use of this report, and for some other interesting particulars relating to the Eastern Shore.

[262:A] "The foregoing are true transcripts from the Records of the Court of the County of Accomack, in the State of Virginia."—Test: J. W. Gillett, C. A. C.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1666-1675.