Produced by Dianne Bean, Justin Philips, The James J. Kelly
Library Of St. Gregory's University, and Alev Akman
PIONEERS OF THE OLD SOUTH
A CHRONICLE OF ENGLISH COLONIAL BEGINNINGS
By Mary Johnston
CONTENTS
I. THE THREE SHIPS SAIL
II. THE ADVENTURERS
III. JAMESTOWN
IV. JOHN SMITH
V. THE SEA ADVENTURE
VI. SIR THOMAS DALE
VII. YOUNG VIRGINIA
VIII. ROYAL GOVERNMENT
IX. MARYLAND
X. CHURCH AND KINGDOM
XI. COMMONWEALTH AND RESTORATION
XII. NATHANIEL BACON
XIII. REBELLION AND CHANGE
XIV. THE CAROLINAS
XV. ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD
XVI. GEORGIA
THE NAVIGATION LAWS
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
PIONEERS OF THE OLD SOUTH
CHAPTER I. THE THREE SHIPS SAIL
Elizabeth of England died in 1603. There came to the English throne
James Stuart, King of Scotland, King now of England and Scotland. In
1604 a treaty of peace ended the long war with Spain. Gone was the
sixteenth century; here, though in childhood, was the seventeenth
century.
Now that the wars were over, old colonization schemes were revived
in the English mind. Of the motives, which in the first instance had
prompted these schemes, some with the passing of time had become weaker,
some remained quite as strong as before. Most Englishmen and women knew
now that Spain had clay feet; and that Rome, though she might threaten,
could not always perform what she threatened. To abase the pride of
Spain, to make harbors of refuge for the angel of the Reformation--these
wishes, though they had not vanished, though no man could know how long
the peace with Spain would last, were less fervid than they had been in
the days of Drake. But the old desire for trade remained as strong as
ever. It would be a great boon to have English markets in the New World,
as well as in the Old, to which merchants might send their wares, and
from which might be drawn in bulk, the raw stuffs that were needed
at home. The idea of a surplus population persisted; England of five
million souls still thought that she was crowded and that it would
be well to have a land of younger sons, a land of promise for all not
abundantly provided for at home. It were surely well, for mere pride's
sake, to have due lot and part in the great New World! And wealth like
that which Spain had found was a dazzle and a lure. "Why, man, all their
dripping-pans are pure gold, and all the chains with which they chain up
their streets are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered
in gold; and for rubies and diamonds they go forth on holidays and
gather 'em by the seashore!" So the comedy of "Eastward Ho!" seen on the
London stage in 1605--"Eastward Ho!" because yet they thought of America
as on the road around to China.
In this year Captain George Weymouth sailed across the sea and spent
a summer month in North Virginia--later, New England. Weymouth had
powerful backers, and with him sailed old adventurers who had been
with Raleigh. Coming home to England with five Indians in his company,
Weymouth and his voyage gave to public interest the needed fillip
towards action. Here was the peace with Spain, and here was the new
interest in Virginia. "Go to!" said Mother England. "It is time to place
our children in the world!"
The old adventurers of the day of Sir Humphrey Gilbert had acted as
individuals. Soon was to come in the idea of cooperative action--the
idea of the joint-stock company, acting under the open permission of the
Crown, attended by the interest and favor of numbers of the people, and
giving to private initiative and personal ambition, a public tone.
Some men of foresight would have had Crown and Country themselves the
adventurers, superseding any smaller bodies. But for the moment the
fortunes of Virginia were furthered by a group within the great group,
by a joint-stock company, a corporation.
In 1600 had come into being the East India Company, prototype of many
companies to follow. Now, six years later, there arose under one royal
charter two companies, generally known as the London and the Plymouth.
The first colony planted by the latter was short-lived. Its letters
patent were for North Virginia. Two ships, the Mary and John and the
Gift of God, sailed with over a hundred settlers. These men, reaching
the coast of what is now Maine, built a fort and a church on the banks
of the Kennebec. Then followed the usual miseries typical of colonial
venture--sickness, starvation, and a freezing winter. With the return of
summer the enterprise was abandoned. The foundation of New England was
delayed awhile, her Pilgrims yet in England, though meditating that
first remove to Holland, her Mayflower only a ship of London port,
staunch, but with no fame above another.
The London Company, soon to become the Virginia Company, therefore
engages our attention. The charter recites that Sir Thomas Gates and
Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hakluyt, clerk, Prebendary of
Westminster, Edward-Maria Wingfield, and other knights, gentlemen,
merchants, and adventurers, wish "to make habitation, plantation, and
to deduce a colony of sundry of our people into that part of America
commonly called Virginia." It covenants with them and gives them for
a heritage all America between the thirty-fourth and the forty-first
parallels of latitude.
The thirty-fourth parallel passes through the middle of what is now
South Carolina; the forty-first grazes New York, crosses the northern
tip of New Jersey, divides Pennsylvania, and so westward across to that
Pacific or South Sea that the age thought so near to the Atlantic. All
England might have been placed many times over in what was given to
those knights, gentlemen, merchants, and others.
The King's charter created a great Council of Virginia, sitting in
London, governing from overhead. In the new land itself there should
exist a second and lesser council. The two councils had authority within
the range of Virginian matters, but the Crown retained the power of
veto. The Council in Virginia might coin money for trade with the
Indians, expel invaders, import settlers, punish ill-doers, levy and
collect taxes--should have, in short, dignity and power enough for any
colony. Likewise, acting for the whole, it might give and take orders
"to dig, mine and search for all manner of mines of gold, silver and
copper... to have and enjoy... yielding to us, our heirs and successors,
the fifth part only of all the same gold and silver, and the fifteenth
part of all the same copper."
Now are we ready--it being Christmas-tide of the year 1606--to go to
Virginia. Riding on the Thames, before Blackwall, are three ships, small
enough in all conscience' sake, the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and
the Discovery. The Admiral of this fleet is Christopher Newport, an old
seaman of Raleigh's. Bartholomew Gosnold captains the Goodspeed, and
John Ratcliffe the Discovery. The three ships have aboard their crews
and one hundred and twenty colonists, all men. The Council in Virginia
is on board, but it does not yet know itself as such, for the names of
its members have been deposited by the superior home council in a sealed
box, to be opened only on Virginia soil.
The colonists have their paper of instructions. They shall find out a
safe port in the entrance of a navigable river. They shall be prepared
against surprise and attack. They shall observe "whether the river on
which you plant doth spring out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be
out of any lake the passage to the other sea will be the more easy, and
like enough... you shall find some spring which runs the contrary
way toward the East India sea." They must avoid giving offense to the
"naturals"--must choose a healthful place for their houses--must
guard their shipping. They are to set down in black and white for the
information of the Council at home all such matters as directions and
distances, the nature of soils and forests and the various commodities
that they may find. And no man is to return from Virginia without leave
from the Council, and none is to write home any discouraging letter. The
instructions end, "Lastly and chiefly, the way to prosper and to achieve
good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of
your country and your own, and to serve and fear God, the Giver of
all Goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not
planted shall be rooted out."
Nor did they lack verses to go by, as their enterprise itself did not
lack poetry. Michael Drayton wrote for them:--
Britons, you stay too long,
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale,
Swell your stretched sail,
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you.
Your course securely steer,
West and by South forth keep;
Rocks, lee shores nor shoals,
Where Eolus scowls,
You need not fear,
So absolute the deep.
And cheerfully at sea
Success you still entice,
To get the pearl and gold,
And ours to hold
VIRGINIA,
Earth's only paradise!...
And in regions far
Such heroes bring ye forth
As those from whom we came;
And plant our name
Under that star
Not known unto our north.
See the parting upon Thames's side, Englishmen going, English kindred,
friends, and neighbors calling farewell, waving hat and scarf, standing
bare-headed in the gray winter weather! To Virginia--they are going to
Virginia! The sails are made upon the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and
the Discovery. The last wherry carries aboard the last adventurer. The
anchors are weighed. Down the river the wind bears the ships toward the
sea. Weather turning against them, they taste long delay in the Downs,
but at last are forth upon the Atlantic. Hourly the distance grows
between London town and the outgoing folk, between English shores and
where the surf breaks on the pale Virginian beaches. Far away--far away
and long ago--yet the unseen, actual cables hold, and yesterday and
today stand embraced, the lips of the Thames meet the lips of the James,
and the breath of England mingles with the breath of America.