Although it was late in December, the sun was shining almost as warm as
at [[ a Dec 21, 1848]] the close of May. While finishing my sketch, I
was glad to take shelter from its beams in the shadow of the sycamore.
Here, upon this curiously-wrought slab, clasped by the roots of the
forest _anak_, let us sit a while and ponder the early chronicles of
Virginia. **
I have mentioned, in the Introduction to this work, the efforts made by
the English, Spanish, and French adventurers to plant colonies in the
New World, and their failures. The idea was not abandoned; and the
public mind, particularly in England, was much occupied with the visions
of new and opulent empires beyond the ocean, of which a few glimpses had
appeared. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a step-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh,
published a hypothetical treatise on a northwest passage to the East
Indies, which attracted great attention, and exerted much influence
favorable to colonizing expeditions. He obtained [[ b June 11, 1578]] a
patent from Queen Elizabeth (b) to colonize such parts of North America
as were already possessed by any of her allies. Raleigh, a young,
ardent, and ambitious student at Oxford, had just completed his studies,
and was about to engage in a military life in France. He was induced
by his step-brother to join with him in an expedition to America. They
sailed early in 1579, but never reached our Continent, because, as
was alleged, their little squadron was broken up in a conflict with
a Spanish fleet, when they returned to England. Gilbert's patent was
limited, and he made great efforts to plant a colony before it should
expire. He and Raleigh equipped a new squadron in 1583. ***
* Wirt's Letters of a British Spy, page 128.
** The slab referred to was a blue stone about four inches thick.
The roots of the sycamore were so firmly entwined around it that no
church-yard thief could take it away. It bore the date of 1608. The
remainder of the inscription was so broken and defaced that I could not
decipher a name. This is probably the oldest tomb-stone extant in the
United States. Vandalism has been at work in that old grave-yard as
elsewhere. Almost every monument has a fragment broken from it. A small
piece, with some letters upon it, had been recently broken from one, and
was left lying in the grass. This I brought away with me, not, however,
without a sense of being an "accessory after the fact" in an act of
sacrilege.
** The names of the vessels were Raleigh, Swalloir, Hind, Delight,
and Squirrel. The Raleigh went but a lew leagues from Portsmouth, and
returned.
[[[Loss of Sir Humphrey Gilbert.--Raleigh's Perseverance.--Amidas and
Barlow.--Native Hospitality abused.--Grenville and Lane.]]]
{449}Raleigh did not sail with the expedition. Gilbert reached
Newfoundland, and at St. John's he performed the feudal ceremonies of
taking formal possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, in
the presence of the Spanish and Portuguese adventurers who were located
there. (a)
[Illustration: 8459]
Soon afterward the expedition sailed southward. The flag-ship of [[ a
August 5, 1583]] Gilbert was the _Squirrel_. Tempests arose. One
night, "about twelve o'clock, the lights of the _Squirrel_ suddenly
disappeared, and neither the vessel nor any of its crew was ever again
seen." * The survivors of the expedition reached England in the _Hind_,
on the 22d of September following.
Raleigh was not disheartened. He resolved to plant a colony in a more
southern region, and readily obtained a patent from Elizabeth as ample
as that of his lost step-brother. He was constituted a lord proprietary,
with civil and political privileges in his prospective domain almost
monarchical. He equipped two vessels, with an ample supply of men and
provisions, and gave the command to Philip Arnidas and Arthur Barlow,
two experienced mariners. They sailed for America on the 27th of
April, 1584, and reached Cuba, in the West Indies, in July. Departing
northward, they landed upon Wocoken Island, the southernmost of the
group which form Ocracock Inlet, on the shores of North Carolina. The
natives, ignorant of the character and designs of the English, received
them with friendly greetings after the first emotions of fear and wonder
had subsided. Amidas and Barlow explored Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds,
enjoyed the hospitality of Granganimeo, the father of King Wingina, upon
the beautiful island of Roanoke (now belonging to Tyr-rel county, N.
C.), and then returned to England, accompanied by Wanchese and Manteo,
two natives of the forest. The glowing accounts of his captains of the
beauty and fertility of the land, and the gentleness of the natives,
filled Raleigh's heart with joy. The captains were presented at court,
and their tales of the enchanting region which they had discovered made
Elizabeth feel that the most glorious event of her reign had just
been accomplished. She named the new-found region in the Western world
_Virginia_, as a memorial of her unmarried state.
Raleigh was elected a member of Parliament for Devonshire, obtained a
confirmation of his patent, (b) was knighted, and became one of the
most popular men in England. [[ b Dec 18, 1584]] In 1585, he fitted out
another fleet. The command was given to Sir Richard Grenville, one of
the most gallant men of the age. The fleet consisted of seven vessels,
and bore one hundred and eight emigrants, designed to colonize Virginia.
Ralph Lane (afterward knighted by Elizabeth) accompanied them as
governor of the colony, and several men of learning were his companions.
Among them was With, a meritorious painter, whose sketches of the people
and scenery in the New World were made with remarkable faithfulness.
This expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 9th of April, and reached
Florida on the 20th of June. Coasting northward, they arrived at the
beautiful Roanoke Island, lying between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
They went to the Main, and explored the beautiful county of Secotan,
around Albemarle Sound and the Chowan, in various directions. Ignorant
of the power of kindness, they foolishly quarreled with the simple
natives; and because they supposed a lost silver cup had been stolen
by one of them, a whole village was burned, and fields of standing corn
were destroyed. From the ashes arose the spirit of discord which ever
afterward separated the Indian and the white man.
Grenville returned with the fleet to England, leaving Lane and his
colony to perfect a settlement. Instead of cultivating the soil for the
production of maize and the potato, which were indigenous, they sought
gold. A wily savage, intent on revenge, told them wondrous tales of a
land of gold at the head waters of the Roanoke River. Up that broad and
rapid stream, Lane and a portion of his people went, for the two-fold
purpose of exploring the
* Bancroft, i., 91.
** This sketch is from a picture published in a Treatise on Navigation
in 1595.
[[[Hostilities with the Indiana.--Colonists Return to England.--Another
Expedition.--"City of Raleigh."--Virginia Dare.]]]
{450}country and seeking gold. They ascended no further than the present
village of Williams-town, when a flight of arrows from the wooded shore
revealed the enmity of the natives. Lane hastened back to Roanoke, and
summoned Wingina, the most powerful of the chiefs, to an audience.
The sachem and his followers appeared. Their secret plans for the
destruction of the English were suspected, indeed, quite certainly
known, and the white men were on the alert. With apparent friendliness
Wingina appeared at the council. At a given signal the English fell
upon the chief and his handful of warriors, and put them to death. The
calumet was now buried forever; the hatchet was brightened and made
sharp by intensest hatred. The English felt the danger of their
situation, and were desponding, when the fleet of Sir Francis Drake
anchored outside of Roanoke Inlet. He came from the West Indies to visit
the domain of Raleigh, and generously offered to furnish the colony with
means to pursue their discoveries; but fear gained the mastery of their
avaricious de[[ a June 19, 1586]] sires, and the colonists sailed with
Drake for England. (a) A few days after their departure a ship arrived,
laden with stores for the colony; and, within a fortnight, Grenville
also arrived with three well-furnished ships. The commander sought in
vain for the colony, and, leaving fifteen men on the Island of Roanoke
to maintain English dominion, he returned to England with the sad
intelligence for Raleigh. *
Raleigh, undismayed by misfortunes, fitted out another expedition. He
changed his policy, and sent a colony of men, women, and children
to establish an agricultural state. John White was appointed their
governor. They sailed on the 26th of April, 1587, and arrived on the
coast of North Carolina in July. When they reached Roanoke, they found
no vestige of the fifteen men left by Grenville, except a few scattered
bones. The Indians had slain them all. Wild deers were in the untenanted
habitations, and rank grass covered their gardens, They proceeded to lay
the foundation of "the city of Raleigh," pursuant to the instructions
of the proprietor, but it was an idle show. ** White endeavored to make
treaties of amity with the natives, but failed, though aided by the
friendly Manteo, who accompanied Amidas and Barlow to England. *** The
neighboring tribes exhibited implacable hatred and jealousy. Winter
approached, and the vessel which brought them was prepared for departure
for England. White was urged strongly to go with it, and use his
endeavors to send them immediate relief, for they had neither planted
nor reaped, and to England alone they looked for supply. He was
unwilling to appear as a deserter of his colony, and refused. He had
another tie. His daughter, Eleanor Dare, had given birth to a child, the
first offspring of English parents in the New World. Little _Virginia
Dare_ twined the tendrils of affection close around the heart of her
grand-parent, and he lingered. **** He at length consented to go,
leaving his daughter and child as pledges that he would return. Very
long the poor colonists waited for relief. Three years passed away
before White returned, and then he found the settlement a desolation.
There was evidence upon the bark of a tree that the people had departed
for Croatan, (v) the residence of Manteo; but
* It is believed that these returning colonists first carried the
tobacco plant to England, as prepared by the natives for smoking.
Raleigh first used it privately. It is related that when his servant
entered his room with a tankard of ale, and for the first time saw the
smoke issuing from his master's mouth and nostrils, he cast the liquor
in his face. Terribly frightened, he alarmed the household with the
intelligence that Sir Walter was on fire.
** The Island of Roanoke is now uninhabited, except by a few wreckers
and pilots. Slight traces of Lane's fort may be seen near the north end.
*** By command of Raleigh, Manteo was baptized, and invested by White
with the rank of feudal Baron, as the Lord of Roanoke. It was the first
creation of an American peer of the realm.
**** It is a coincidence worth noticing, that White was the name of
the progenitors of the first two children born of English parents in
America. One on the Island of Roanoke, in August, 1587; the other in the
May Flower, in Plymouth harbor, more than thirty-three years afterward.
* (v) It was agreed, on the departure of White, that if the colony
should go to Croatan, they would signify the fact by inscribing the
letters C R O upon the bark of a tree. This inscription, and also
the full name of Croatan, was found. White has been censured for
heartlessness in not prosecuting his search with more perseverance,
particularly as his own relatives were among the settlers. The colony
was composed of eighty-nine men, seventeen women, and two children. What
was their fate is left to conjecture. Lawson, in his Travels among
the Indians, with a Description of North Carolina, published in 1700,
hazards the opinion that the colonists intermarried with the Hatteras
Indians, and cites the physical character of that tribe in support of
his hypothesis. Such, too, was the tradition of the Indians at a late
day.
[[[Loss of a Colony.--Other Expeditions.--London and Plymouth
Companies.--Death of Raleigh.--Newport.]]]
{451}the season was far advanced, and search was abandoned. "White put
to sea without intelligence of the fate of his daughter and child,
and returned to England. Five several times Raleigh sent a vessel with
trusty men to search for his colony, when hope fading, his fortune
almost exhausted, and his health and heart broken by domestic griefs,
he abandoned all ideas of settlement in America, and assigned his
proprietary rights to a company. * Virginia, then including in its
indefinite boundaries all of North Carolina, remained untouched by
the English for twenty years, except by an occasional adventurer who
voluntarily searched for Raleigh's colony. These attempts at settlement
on the coasts of our Middle States, form a wonderful chapter of
adventure and moral heroism in the history of the world.
We will now consider the modern settlement of Virginia. The efforts of
Raleigh awakened intense interest in the public mind. Other expeditions
were fitted out, but all failed to make permanent settlements. Gosnold,
Weymouth, Pring, Smith, and others, who visited America, gave such
glowing accounts of the country, that men of rank, capital, and
influence were induced to embark in colonizing schemes. They were made
acquainted with the general character of a fertile region, extending
over eleven degrees of latitude, from Cape Fear to Halifax, all in
the temperate climates, diversified with noble rivers and harbors, and
displaying the most luxuriant vegetation. An association was formed, (a)
of men eminent as merchants, and wealthy titled commoners, of London and
Bristol. ** King James encouraged the scheme, and gave them a charter.
(b) They formed two [[ a April 10, 1606]] companies; the men of London
for colonizing the south portion of the territory, and called the
_London Company_; those of Bristol for settling the more northern
region, and called the _Plymouth Company_. A line of three degrees
between both was allowed, upon which settlements in common might
be made, it being stipulated that whenever one should first become
permanently seated, the other should settle at least one hundred
miles distant. Each of the colonies was to be governed by a council of
thirteen persons. The companies were to have full property in all lands,
fisheries, &c., except a fifth of the gold, and a fifteenth of the
copper ore that might be found, which was to be paid to the king. James,
with his usual pedantry, prepared a code of laws for them, written with
his own hand. The colonists and their posterity were declared English
subjects, but were vested with no political rights, not even trial
by jury, unless in capital charges. Minor offenses were punished
arbitrarily by the council. That body was to be appointed by the home
government, the former choosing its own president. The property of the
colonists was to continue in joint stock for five years. The English
Church was exclusively established, and strict injunctions were given
for the mild and just treatment of the natives. ***
Three small vessels, whose joint tonnage amounted to only one hundred
and sixty, under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, with a
colony of one hundred and five men, sailed for Virginia on the 19th of
December, 1606. The king had placed the names of the future council
of Virginia in a sealed box, which, was not to be opened until their
arrival in
* Sir Walter Raleigh experienced the folly of "putting his trust in
princes." For years after abandoning his schemes for colonization, he
served his country nobly against its enemies. He also was sent by Queen
Elizabeth on an expedition in search of gold, up the Oronoco, in South
America. Once, because he married without the queen's consent, she
committed him to the Tower for a brief season. Finally, on the death of
his royal mistress in 1602, and the accession of James I., he became the
victim of a conspiracy. He was tried, and condemned for treason; and for
fifteen years he remained in the Tower a prisoner, first under sentence
of death, afterward under the merciful provision of a reprieve. During
that long imprisonment he wrote his History of the World. On being
released, he went on another expedition to Guiana; but it being
unsuccessful, he was cast into prison on his return, and the royal
scoundrel who occupied the throne of England allowed the decrepit old
man, who had given more true luster to the crown than any living mortal,
to be beheaded. He was then in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
** Among these were Sir Thomas Gates; Sir George Summers; Sir John
Popham, lord chief justice of
England; Edward Maria Wingfield, a wealthy, sordid, and unprincipled
merchant; Richard Hakluyt, one of the assignees of Raleigh, who wrote
an interesting collection of voyages, in three volumes; Robert Hunt, a
clergyman; and Captain John Smith.
*** Chalmers, pages 15, 16.
[[[Captain John Smith.--Founding of Jamestown.--Visit to
Powhatan.--Energy of Smith.--Bartholomew Gosnold.]]]
{452}America. Only twelve laborers and a few mechanics were among
the voyagers; the remainder of the one hundred and five persons were
adventurers, with hands unused to labor. Dissensions arose on the
voyage, and, as there was no acknowledged head, in consequence of the
folly of the king, much confusion ensued. Captain Smith possessed more
genius than any man among them, and, consequently, great jealousy of
him was felt. Under the absurd accusation of an intention to murder the
council, and make himself King of Virginia, he was put in confinement.
After a voyage of four months, the expedition entered the [[ a April 26,
1607]]Chesapeake, (a) having been driven by a storm northward of their
point of destination. The capes of the noble bay they named in honor
of the two sons of the king, Henry and Charles. They landed upon Cape
Henry, made peace with the natives, opened the sealed paper of the king,
discovered the names of the council, and chose the unscrupulous and
narrow-minded Wingfield to be president. Smith was named one of the
council, but was excluded from that body. His accusers thought it
prudent, however, to withdraw their charges, and he was released from
confinement.
A few days after their arrival in the Chesapeake, the little fleet
entered the mouth of the noble River Powhatan, which they named _James_,
in honor of their sovereign. Up its broad channel they sailed about
fifty miles, and there, upon a charming peninsula, an island at high
tide, they determined to build a town and plant a permanent settlement.
The natives received them kindly; and in the beautiful month of May,
1607, the first sound of an ax was heard, the first tree was felled, and
the first rafter was laid in Virginia. A village was planned, and,
in honor of the king, was called Jamestown. While the carpenters and
laborers were rearing the city, Smith and Newport, with twenty others,
ascended the river to the Falls, and at his imperial residence of twelve
wigwams, just below Richmond, they visited Powhatan, the "Emperor of the
Country." The events connected with that visit have been noticed on page
432.
Newport returned to England with his vessels in June, leaving one
hundred men, and a pinnace with stores, at Jamestown. The colonists,
wanting habits of industry, soon perceived the helplessness of their
situation. Many of them were of dissolute habits; and before autumn,
the dampness of the climate, and the malaria arising from the decay of
luxuriant vegetation, produced diseases which swept away fifty of their
number, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, * the eminent navigator and
projector of the settlement.
The survivors relied chiefly upon sturgeons and crabs, and scanty
supplies of maize, for their subsistence, while Wingfield and a part of
his council were appropriating the stores to their own use. Wingfield,
and Kendall (one of the council), were detected in a conspiracy to
abandon the colony, and escape with the pinnace and stores to the West
Indies. They were deposed, and, Ratcliffe, an irresolute and indolent
man, was appointed president. Fortunately for the colony, he was quite
willing to bear the empty honors of his office without exercising its
functions, and he allowed Captain Smith, by far the ablest man among
them, to have the principal management of affairs. The colony at once
assumed a new and better aspect under the direction of Smith. As far as
possible, he infused his own energetic spirit into his companions; but
they were generally too indolent and dissolute to profit much by his
example. Smith quelled the spirit of anarchy and rebellion; restored
order in the midst of confusion; visited the chiefs of the neighboring
tribes, and inspired them with respect for the English; and, by his
consummate skill, he procured from the natives an ample stock of corn
and wild fowl when winter approached.
We are now at a point in the history of the New World full of the most
romantic interest, and the pen is tempted from its present line of duty
by a thousand seductive influences. The exploits of Smith--his exploring
voyages--his discoveries--his indomitable perseverance
* Gosnold crossed the Atlantic in 1602. and, after a voyage of six
weeks, saw land at the northern extremity of Massachusetts Bay. He
sailed southward, and landed upon a promontory, which he called Cape
Cod, on account of the great quantity of cod fish which abounded there.
Pursuing his voyage along the coast, he discovered and named Elizabeth
Islands, thirteen in number, Martha's Vineyard, and others in the
neighborhood of Buzzard's Bay. After an absence of only four months,
Gosnold returned to England.
[[[Progress of Jamestown Colony.--Smith's Voyage up the
Chickahominy.--His Capture.--His Adventures in Europe.]]]
{453}and courage--his hardships, sufferings, escapes, and forbearance
with his ungrateful companions, all plead eloquently for the services of
pen and pencil. These must be briefly sketched in faint outline, for it
is foreign to my plan to detail colonial history, except so much as is
necessary to illustrate the main subject of these volumes--The War for
Independence.
The Jamestown colony was placed beyond the effects of want in the
autumn of 1607, and Smith, with a few companions, set out to explore the
country.
[Illustration: 8463]
He went up the Chickahominy, in an open boat, fifty miles from its
mouth. * There he left his boat, the water being shallow, and, with two
companions and two Indian guides, pushed into the interior. He ordered
those in the boat not to leave it. Disobeying his instructions, they
wandered on shore and were slain. Smith was surprised by a party of
Indians, under Opechancanough, the "King of Pamunkee his two companions
were killed, and he, after slaying several Indians, was made a prisoner.
His life was spared, and he was conducted in triumph through the several
Indian villages, from the Chickahominy to the banks of the Rappahannock
and Potomac, and was finally brought back to the seat of Opechancanough,
at Pamunkee, on the York River. There, for three days, the priests
performed incantations to discover the character of their prisoner, and
* Among the positive instructions of the London Company, was an
injunction for the colonists to endeavor to find a passage to the South
Sea, or, in other words, to the East Indies, by a northwest passage, the
object of the polar expeditions of the present day. For this purpose,
they were instructed to explore every considerable stream that came
from the northward; and hence we find Smith (who did not share in the
geographical ignorance of his employers, but was willing to engage
in discoveries) exploring the James, Chickahominy, York, and Potomac
Rivers. The wily Indian mentioned on page 449 as having invented the
wonderful story of a gold region at the head of the Roanoke, informed
Lane that the source of that river was among high rocks so near the
ocean on the west, that the salt water would sometimes dash over into
the clear fountains of the stream!
** John Smith was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1559.
He was early distinguished for his daring spirit and love of adventure.
At the age of thirteen, he sold his school-books and satchel to procure
money to pay his way to the sea-board, for the purpose of going to sea.
He was prevented, and was apprenticed to a merchant. He left home when
he was fifteen years old, and went to France and the Low Countries. For
two years he studied military tactics; and, at the age of seventeen,
having procured a portion of an estate left by his father, went abroad
seeking adventures. On a voyage from Marseilles to Naples, a storm
arose, and the Roman Catholic crew believing the heretic, as they called
Smith, to be a Jonah, they cast him into the sea to quiet the waters.
He was a good swimmer, and reached the shore of a small island in the
Mediterranean, called St. Mary's. From St. Mary's he went in a French
vessel to Alexandria, in Egypt. He soon went from thence to Italy, and
then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army, and, by his daring
exploits at the siege of Olympach, was rewarded by the command of a
troop of horse. These obtained the name of the "Fiery Dragoons," in the
war against the Turks. At the siege of Regall, a Turkish officer, the
Lord Turbishaw, "to amuse the ladies," offered to engage in single
combat with any Christian soldier. The lot fell upon Smith; and, in the
sight of both armies, he cut off the head of Turbishaw, and carried it
in triumph to the Austrian camp. He fought two other champions, Grualgo
and Mulgro, with the same result. In a subsequent battle Smith was
wounded, captured, and sold to a pacha. This dignitary sent him to
Constantinople, as a present to a damsel whom he loved. She, in turn,
loved Smith, and to place him in safety, sent him to her brother.
There, however, Smith was cruelly treated. He beat out the brains of
the tyrant, and escaped to Muscovy, and finally reached Austria. He
went with a French captain to Morocco and the Canaries, encountered a
sea-fight with the Spaniards, and returned to his native country. His
restless spirit made him yearn for adventures in the New World. Here,
after many great exploits, and the endurance of many hardships, he
planted the Virginia colony on a firm basis, and returned to England. He
died in London in 1631, at the age of 72.
[[[The Indians outwitted by Smith.--His Trial and
Sentence.--Pocahontas--her Marriage, Death, and Descendants.]]]
{545}the most expedient disposition of him, for they considered him a
superior being. * They finally carried him to Wevowoeomoco, ** the lower
seat of Powhatan, and referred the decision to that powerful chief.
Seated upon a raised platform, the trunk and branches of the towering
pine for a palace, the lordly Powhatan, with his two favorite daughters
beside him, and his "grim courtiers" and women around him, received the
prisoner.
[Illustration: 9464]
In solemn state he was tried; with solemn words he was adjudged to die.
On the right of the Indian emperor sat Pocahontas, his youngest and best
loved daughter. Her heart beat quick with sympathy the moment she saw
the manly form of Smith, and in her young bosom glowed intense desire to
save his life.=
```"How trembled then the maid, as rose
````That captive warrior, calm and stern,
```Thus girded by his wolfish foes
````His fearless spirit still would spurn.
```How bright his glance, how fair his face,
```And with what proud, enfranchised grace
````His footsteps free advance, as still
```He follow'd firm the bloody mace
```That guided to the gloomy place
````Where stood the savage sent to kill."
`````W. Gillmore Simms=
* Smith showed them a pocket compass, and explained its properties, and
the shape of the earth; how "the sun, and the moon, and the stars chased
each other." They were astonished, and regarded him with awe. They made
him offers of "life, liberty, land, and women," if he would tell them
how to obtain possession of Jamestown. They also obtained some of his
powder. Smith made them waste it (for they had been made acquainted with
its use) by letting them sow it as seed and raise a crop for themselves.
In various ways he outwitted them, and so perfectly retained his
self-possession that they regarded him with great respect.
** Werowocomoeo, the scene of Smith's salvation by Pocahontas, was
upon the north side of the York River, in Gloucester county, about
twenty-five miles below the junction of the Pamunkey and Mattapony
Rivers, which form the broad and navigable York. According to Charles
Campbell, Esq., of Petersburg, Virginia, who has carefully examined the
matter, Shelly, the scat of Mrs. Mann Page, nearly opposite the mouth
of Queen's Creek, is the site of Werowocomoeo. Carter's Creek, emptying
into the York at Shelly, afforded a safe harbor for canoes. Such was
also the opinion of Governor Page, whose plantation (Rosewell) adjoined
that of Shelly. The enormous beds of oyster shell (on account of which
Governor Page named the place Shelly) at this point indicate that it was
once a place of great resort by the natives.
*** Pocahontas was a girl "of ten or twelve" years of age when she saved
the life of Captain Smith. Two years afterward, when not over fourteen
years old, she went from her father's camp, on a dark and stormy night,
to Jamestown, and informed Smith of a conspiracy among the Indians to
destroy the settlers. This timely interposition saved them. While Smith
remained in the colony, she was a welcome visitor at Jamestown, and
often bore messages between the white men and her kindred. In 1612,
after Smith had returned to England, she was treacherously betrayed, for
the bribe of a copper kettle, into the hands of Captain Argali, and by
him kept as a prisoner, in order to secure advantageous terms of peace
with Powhatan. The Indian king offered five hundred bushels of corn for
her ransom; but, before her release was effected, a mutual attachment
had sprung up between her and John Rolfe, a young Englishman of good
family. With the consent of her father she received Christian baptism,
and was married to Rolfe. The former ceremony is the subject, of a
beautiful painting by John G. Chapman, Esq., which graces one of
the panels of the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. Pocahontas
accompanied her husband to England in 1616, where she was received at
court with the distinction of a princess. The bigoted King James was
highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to marry into a
royal family, and absurdly apprehended that, because Rolfe had married
an Indian princess, he might lay claim to the crown of Virginia! It is
said that Pocahontas was much afflicted because Smith, fearing the royal
displeasure, would not allow a king's daughter to call him father, her
usual endearing name when addressing him. She remained in England about
a year; and when on the point of returning to America, with her husband,
in 1617, she sickened and died at Gravesend. The Lady Rebecca (for so
she was called in England) had many and sincere mourners. She left one
son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became a distinguished man in Virginia.
He left an only daughter, and from her some of the leading families of
Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Bollings, Hemmings,
Murrays, Guys, Eldridires, and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of
Roanoke, was a descendant of the Indian princess. Her portrait here
given is from a painting made in England, while she was there. Her
costume shows the style of a fashionable dress of that day.
[[[Smith's Life saved by Pocahontas.--Condition of Jamestown.--Newport's
Folly.--Smith's Exploring Expedition.]]]
{455}With his arms pinioned, Smith was laid upon the ground, with his
head upon a stone, and the executioner had lifted the huge club to dash
out his brains. With a bound like that of a frightened fawn, Pocahontas
leaped from the side of her father to that of the prisoner, and
interposed her delicate form between his head and the warrior's mace;=
```Then turns--with eye grown tearless now,
````But full of speeeh, as eye alone
```Can speak to eye, and heart in prayer--
````For merey to her father's throne!=
```How could that stern old king deny
```The angel pleading in her eye?
```How mock the sweet, imploring grace.
```That breathed in beauty from her faee,
```And to her kneeling action gave
````A power to soothe, and still subdue,
```Until, though humble as a slave,
````To more than queenly sway she grew?
```Oh! brief the doubt--oh! short the strife;
```She wins the captive's forfeit life;
```She breaks his bands, she bids him go,
```Her idol, but her country's foe,
```And dreams not, in that parting hour,
````The gyves that from his limbs she tears
```Are light in weight, and frail in power,
````To those that round her heart she wears."
`````Simms.=
Smith's life was spared. The enmity of the natives was changed to
friendship, and, with a guard of twelve men, he was sent to Jamestown, a
wiser man; for, during his seven weeks of captivity, he had traversed
a large extent of country, observed its resources, and the habits and
condition of the Indians, and made himself quite familiar with their
language. He established a friendly intercourse with Powhatan and his
confederates, and often the "dearest daughter of the king," with her
companions, brought baskets of corn for the garrison.
Disorder prevailed at Jamestown on Smith's return. Only forty men
remained, and these were on the point of abandoning the country where
they had suffered so much, and escape with the pinnace. The courage and
energy of Smith compelled them to remain. Newport soon afterward arrived
with supplies, and one hundred and twenty emigrants, chiefly idle
gentlemen, "packed hither," as Smith says, "by their friends, to escape
ill destinies," and goldsmiths, the very men least needed in the colony.
Gold was the chief incentive of the Company and the adventurers to risk
capital and life. Discovering something resembling grains of the metal
near the site of Richmond, "there was no talk, no hope, no work, but
dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Newport loaded his vessel
with, worthless earth, and returned to England with the idea that he was
exceedingly rich, but to have science and skill pronounce him miserably
poor in useful knowledge and well-earned reputation.
Smith remonstrated against idleness, and pleaded for industry, but in
vain. He implored the settlers to plow and sow, that they might reap
and be happy. They refused to listen, and he turned from Jamestown with
disgust, and, with a few sensible men, explored the Chesapeake Bay and
its tributaries. He went up the Potomac to the Falls above Washington
City. He also entered the Patapsco, and ate maize upon the site of
Baltimore. These long voyages were made in an open boat, propelled
by oars and paddles. It was one of the most wonderful of exploring
expeditions, considered in all its aspects, recorded by the pen
of history. Smith constructed a map of his discoveries, and every
subsequent survey of the region attests its remarkable accuracy.
Three days after Smith's return to Jamestown he was made president
of the colony. (a) Newport soon afterward arrived from England with a
supply of food. With [[ a Sept. 10, 1608]] him came two females, the
first English women seen upon the James River.
Smith again exerted his energies to turn the little industry of the
settlers to agriculture, and succeeded in a degree. The colony was
beginning to thrive under his management, when the features of its
political character were modified. A new charter was [[ b May 23, 1609]]
given to the London Company, (b) with provisions for a more powerful
government.
* The new charter extended the limits of the colony, and transferred to
the Company the power which had before been reserved to the king. The
council in England, formerly appointed by the king, was now to have its
vacancies filled by the votes of a majority of the corporation. This
council was authorized to appoint a governor, and to delegate to him
almost absolute power, even in cases capital and criminal, as well
as civil. They could give him power to declare martial law at his
discretion; and thus the lives, liberties, and fortunes of the colonists
were placed at the will of a single man.
[[[Lord De la Ware.--Commissioners.--Anarchy at
Jamestown.--Famine.--Timely Relief]]]
{456}The colonists had no voice in the matter; neither their rights
nor wishes were consulted or respected. While extraordinary powers were
given to the governor, not one new civil privilege was conceded to them.
Under the new charter, Lord De la Ware, or Delaware, a virtuous and
upright nobleman, was appointed governor and captain-general of Virginia
for life. Before his departure for America, nine ships, under the
command of Newport, with more than five hundred emigrants, were sent to
the James River. Sir Thomas Gates (the governor's deputy), Newport,
and Sir George Somers, were sent as commissioners to administer the
government until the arrival of Lord Delaware. A hurricane drove
the fleet toward the West Indies. The vessel in which were the three
commissioners was stranded on the rocks of the Bermudas, and only seven
vessels of the squadron reached Virginia. The commissioners were not
lost; but their arrival in the colony with the emigrants was prevented,
and great confusion followed. A large portion of the new comers were
idle and dissolute scions of wealthy families, without energy or good
principles. They regarded the colony as without a head until the arrival
of the commissioners or the governor, and were disposed to set at naught
the authority of President Smith. That energetic man was equal to the
exigency of the case, and he boldly and successfully maintained his
authority until an accident prostrated his body, and he was obliged to
go to England for surgical aid. * He delegated his authority to George
Percy, brother of the Duke of Northumberland, and sailed for England in
the summer of 1608.
The colonists, released from the control of Smith, now gave themselves
up to every irregularity of life. The Indians lost their respect for,
and dread of Englishmen; and when the ample stock of provisions of
the latter was consumed, the former refused assistance. Famine ensued;
thirty escaped in a vessel to become pirates; and within six months,
hunger, sickness, and Indian hatchets had reduced the colony of more
than five hundred left by Smith, to sixty persons, and these were
perishing with hunger. "It was not the will of God that the new state
should be formed of these materials; that such men should be the fathers
of a progeny, born on the American soil, who were one day to assert
American liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor."
** This period of distress was long remembered with a shudder as "the
starving time."
At the moment when the destitution was greatest, the commissioners and
their wrecked companions arrived. Upon the uninhabited island where they
stranded they had constructed two rude vessels, loaded them with the
stores of their ship, which laid among the rocks, and sailed for the
James River. They arrived in June; (a) but, instead of finding a large
[[ a 1609]] and flourishing colony, they were greeted by a handful of
emaciated men, on the point of dying. Death by famine awaited all, and
Gates resolved to sail for Newfoundland, and disperse the company among
the English fishing vessels there. Jamestown was utterly abandoned, and
toward Hampton Roads the dejected settlers sailed in the four pinnaces
which remained in the river. As they approached that broad harbor on the
following morning, a vision of white sails cheered their hearts; and as
the sun came up, the longboat of Lord Delaware was seen approaching. He
came with emigrants and supplies; and that night, Jamestown, abandoned
to the rude natives in the morning, was made vocal [[ b June 9]] with
hymns and thanksgivings from truly grateful lips. (b) The next day
solemn religious exercises were held; the commission of Lord Delaware
was read, and the foundation stone of the Virginia Commonwealth was
permanently laid. Delaware ad-
* I have noticed the efforts of Smith to establish a permanent
settlement at Powhatan, near Richmond. While returning from that place
down the James River, his powder-bag accidentally exploded and almost
killed him. He was dreadfully lacerated, and so acute was the pain, that
he threw himself into the river for alleviation. He was recovered when
nearly drowned.
** Bancroft, i. 138.
[[[Arrival of new Emigrants and Supplies.--Prosperity of the
Colony.--Implantation of Republicanism.--New Constitution.]]]
{457}ministered the government with equity until the failure of his
health required him to return to England. (a) Percy was left in charge
of affairs until Delaware's successor should [[ a 1611]]arrive. In
the mean while, Sir Thomas Dale, an "experienced soldier of the Low
Countries," arrived with supplies, (b) and assumed the government, which
he [[ b May 10]] administered upon the basis of martial law. In less
than four months afterward, Sir Thomas Gates arrived with supplies,
and three hundred emigrants, in six ships, and assumed the functions
of governor. Under Dale and Gates, the colony, now numbering nearly a
thousand souls, thrived wonderfully. There were but few drones; industry
and sobriety prevailed, and a bright future dawned upon Jamestown.
A new charter was granted to the London Company in 1612. The supreme
council in England was abolished, and its powers were transferred to the
whole Company, who were to meet as a democratic assembly, elect their
own officers for the colony, and establish the laws therefor. This was
the republican seed which found its way to Virginia, and took deep root
there. Another important concession was made; the Bermudas, and all
islands within three hundred leagues of the Virginia shore, were
included in the grant, and opened a commercial field. The colony
continued to flourish; and the marriage of John Rolfe with Pocahontas,
with the consent of her father, and the concurrence of Opechancanough,
her uncle (who "gave her away" at the marriage altar), cemented the
friendship which had been gradually forming between the white men and
natives.
In 1614, Gates went to England, and left affairs in the hands of Dale,
who ruled with energy for five years, when he appointed George
Yeardly deputy governor, and returned to England. Yeardly encouraged
agriculture, and, during his administration, the tobacco plant began to
be cultivated. It soon became not only the staple, but the _currency_
of the colony. He was succeeded in office (c) by Samuel Argali, an
unprincipled man, and sort of [[ c 1617]] buccaneer, * who ruled
with tyranny for two years, and was then displaced. Yeardly was made
governor; the planters were released from further tribute-service to the
colony; martial law was abolished; and on the 29th of June, 1619, the
first colonial assembly ever held in America was convened at Jamestown.
The domain of the English had been divided into eleven boroughs. Two
representatives from each were present at the assembly, and were
called burgesses. This was the kernel of the Virginia government which
prevailed until the Revolution--a governor, his council, and a house of
Burgesses. It was the beginning of the American constitutions.
Twelve years had elapsed since planting Jamestown, and now the
settlement first assumed the character of permanency. Ninety respectable
young women were sent over in 1620, ** and the following year sixty more
came to be wives for the planters. The settlers "fell to building houses
and planting corn," with a determination to make Virginia their home.
The gold mania had passed away, and the wealth of the rich mold was
delved for with success. A written constitution was granted to the
colony by the Company in 1621, (d) which ratified the form of government
introduced by Yeardly. It was [[ d August, 1621]] brought over by Sir
Francis Wyatt, who succeeded Yeardly, and was received with joy by the
colonists. General prosperity prevailed, and glad dreams of happiness
filled
* Argali, as we have noticed, obtained possession of Pocahontas, and
made her his prisoner, in 1613. The same year he sailed with his fleet
to the coast ol Maine, to protect the English fisheries. He broke up a
French colony near the Penobscot, and sent some of the people to France
and some to Virginia. He also broke up a French settlement at Port
Royal, and made the conquest of Acadia. On his return voyage to
Virginia, he entered the Bay of New York, and compelled the little Dutch
trading settlement there to acknowledge the supremacy ol' England.
** On the 20th of August, in this year, a Dutch man-of-war entered the
James River, and landed twenty negroes for sale. Almost simultaneously
with the birth of civil liberty in Virginia, by the concession of the
representative system, and the tacit acknowledgment of the universal
right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the system of
human bondage, which has ever weighed upon our national energies,
and tarnished our national character, was introduced. Englishmen have
attempted to cast off the stain from themselves by alleging that the
traffickers from a foreign country first brought the negroes here. Had
not Englishmen become the willing purchasers, the slave-trade and its
system would never have been known in this country.
[[[Massacre by the Indians.--Retaliation.--The Patents canceled.--Policy
of Charles I.--Governor Harvey.]]]
{458}the minds of the settlers. They were now four thousand strong, and
fast increasing; but a cloud was gathering.
Powhatan, the firm friend of the English since the marriage of his
daughter, was now dead. * The restraints of his influence were lifted
from his people, and they, apprehending their own annihilation by the
white men, resolved to strike a blow of extermination. At [[ b March 22,
1622]] mid-day, (a) the hatchet fell upon the more remote settlements
around Jamestown, and more than seventeen scores of men, women, and
children perished in an hour. ** A friendly Indian, a Christian convert,
warned his white friend (Pa Ca) in Jamestown of the plot the night
before. The people prepared for defense, and were, with the nearest
settlements, to whom they sent notice, saved. General alarm prevailed.
The remote planters fled to Jamestown, and the number of plantations was
reduced from eighty to eight. A terrible reaction ensued. The English
arose, and, moved with a spirit of hatred and revenge, they smote
the Indians with great slaughter, and drove them far back into the
wilderness.
We have seen the government of Virginia gradually changed from a royal
tenure, under the first charter, to a proprietary and representative
government under the second and third charters. The king now began to
look upon it with suspicion, as inimical to royalty, and a breeder of
disloyal men. The holders of the stock of the London Company had become
very numerous, and their election of officers assumed a political
character, presenting two parties--the advocates of liberty, and the
upholders of the royal prerogative. The king, disliking the freedom of
debate which prevailed at their meetings, attempted to control
their elections; but failing in this, he determined to recover, by a
dissolution of their Company, the influence in the affairs of the New
World of which he had deprived himself by his own charter. He appointed
a çommission, composed of his own pliant instruments, to examine
the affairs of the Company. They, of course, reported favorable to a
dissolution of the association, and an equally pliant judiciary effected
a consummation of the measure. A quo warranto was issued; it was feebly
defended, and in June, 1624, a decision was given against the Company,
and the patents were canceled. The enterprise had, thus far, been
an unprofitable speculation for the Company, and there was not much
opposition. The king took the political affairs of the colony into his
own hands, and it became a royal government; yet no material changes
were made in the domestic policy of the settlers, and they were allowed
to retain their popular legislative assemblies as a branch of their
government. [[ b April 6]] James died in 1625, (b) and his son, the
unfortunate Charles I., succeeded him.
The policy of the new monarch toward the colonists was governed entirely
by selfish motives, and he allowed them liberty under which to prosper,
that gain to himself might accrue. He imposed some restrictions, and
attempted, but in vain, to gain for himself a monopoly of the trade
in tobacco, by becoming the sole factor of the planters. ** Governor
Yeardly died in November, 1627, and the king appointed John Harvey, one
of his warmest [[ c 1628]] supporters, and a member of the commission
appointed by James, governor; (c) but his unpopularity in the colony
lost to the king all the advantages his selfishness coveted. The
Virginians deprived Harvey of his government in 1635; summoned an
assembly to receive complaints against him, and appointed commissioners
to proceed to England
* Powhatan died in 1618, and his younger brother, Opechancanough, heired
his power, but not his friendly influence favorable to the English.
He always harbored a secret aversion to the white men. Only a few days
before the massacre, he declared "that sooner the skies would fall than
his friendship with the English be dissolved."
** Exaggerated reports went to England. Smith, in his Advertisements
for the Unexperienced Planters, stated the number of killed at 5000.
Berkeley rated it at 2000. Edward Waterhouse transmitted to the Company
a statement containing the names of every victim. The number was
347.--Declaration of the State of the Colony, &c., pages 14--21.
*** In his efforts to obtain the control of the tobacco trade, by
becoming himself the sole purchaser of the crop, the king unconsciously
recognized the legality of the Virginia Assembly. In a letter to the
governor and council, written in June, 1628, he offered to contract for
the whole crop of tobacco, and expressed a desire that an assembly might
be convened to consider his proposal. "This is the first recognition,"
says Bancroft (i., 196), "on the part of a Stuart of a representative
assembly in America." James permitted it, but did not expressly sanction
it.
[[[Wyatt and Berkeley.--The Commonwealth.--Intolerance in
Virginia.--Indian Wars.--Berkely and Loyalty.]]]
{459}with an impeachment. Harvey accompanied the commissioners. The king
would not even admit the accusers to a hearing, and the accused was
sent back, clothed with full authority from Charles to administer the
government. He remained in office until 1639, when he was succeeded
by Sir Francis Wyatt. (a) Sir William Berkeley succeeded Wyatt in [[ a
Nov.]] 1641. (b) During his first administration of ten years, the civil
condition of the [[ b Aug.]] Virginians was much improved. The rights of
property, and the rewards of industry, were secured, and the people were
prosperous and happy. *
The democratic revolution in England, which brought Charles to the block
and placed Cromwell in power, now began, and religious sects in England
and America assumed a political importance. Puritans had hitherto been
tolerated in Virginia; and Puritan ministers were even invited by the
council to come to that province from Massachusetts Bay. Now, as the
monarch and the Church were united in interest, and the Virginians were
loyal to Church and king, it was decided that no minister should preach
or teach except in conformity to the constitution of the Church of
England, and Non-conformists were banished from the colony. This was
a cloud upon the otherwise clear skies of the settlement. But a darker
cloud was gathering. The Indians prepared for another massacre of the
white men. The war-whoop sounded along the frontier settlements, and a
general border contest ensued. (c) The [[ c April, 1646]] Indians were
generally defeated, and old Opechancanough, the chief instigator, was [[
d 1646]] made a prisoner, and died in captivity. (d) Peace was speedily
effected by the Indians making large concessions to the white men. **
The Virginians remained loyal during the civil war in England; and when
the king was beheaded, and the Republicans bore rule, they recognized
Charles, the son of their murdered sovereign, though then a fugitive
in a foreign country. The Parliament was incensed at the audacity of a
colony resisting the will of the supreme government, and took measures
to enforce submission. *** A powerful fleet, under Sir George Aysene,
entered the Chesapeake, and east anchor at the mouth of the James River.
Sir William Berkeley, **** with the cavaliers
* In 1648, the number of colonists was twenty thousand. '"The cottages
were filled with children, as the ports were with ships and emigrants."
Ten ships from London, two from Bristol, twelve from Holland, and
seven from New England, were trading in Virginia at Christmas of that
year.--Mass. Hist. Coll., ix., 118.
** Necotowance, the successor of Opechancanough, was forced to
acknowledge that he held his kingdom of the crown of England. It was
agreed that the Indians should remove to the north side of the York and
Pamunkey Rivers; and they ceded to the white men all the lands from the
Falls of the James River, at Richmond, between the two rivers, to the
Bay forever. Thus were the natives driven from their beautiful land--the
most beautiful in all Virginia--leaving few traces of their existence
behind.
*** An ordinance was passed on the 3d of October, 1650, empowering the
Council of State to reduce the rebellious colonies to obedience, and,
at the same time, establish it as a law, that foreign ships should
not trade in any of the ports in Barbadoes, Antiguas, Bermudas, and
Virginia.
**** Sir William Berkeley was of an ancient family near London. He was
educated at Oxford, and admitted Master of Arts in 1629. The next year
he traveled extensively in Europe, and became a model of an elegant
courtier and cavalier. He succeeded Sir Francis Wyatt as governor of
Virginia in 1641, and held that post most of the time during the civil
wars in England, and until the restoration of monarchy in 1660. He
exhibited shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of Parliament,
sent to subdue the loyal colony of Virginia, appeared in the James
River; and, by good management, both parties were satisfied. Cromwell
appointed "worthy Samuel Mathews" governor, and, at his death, Berkeley
was elected governor by the people. His obsequious deference to royalty
offended the independent Virginians, and his popularity declined.
His obstinacy in refusing compliance with the expressed wishes of the
inhabitants that Nathaniel Bacon might lead an expedition against the
Indians, further alienated the affections of his people. He became
irritable and revengeful; and when juries refused to aid his projects of
vengeance against those who followed Bacon, he resorted to martial law,
and fines, confiscations, and executions ensued. In view of this conduct
Charles II. remarked, "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked
country than I have taken for the murder of my father."
**** Berkeley returned to England, after an administration of nearly
forty years, and died soon after his arrival. He was buried at
Twickenham, July 13, 1677. He was possessed of quite liberal views in
respect to government, but these were often hidden or perverted by his
cringing loyalty. In his reply to commissioners sent in 1671 to inquire
into the state of the colony, he said, "Thank God there are no free
schools nor printing-press, and I hope we shall not have these hundred
years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into
the world, and printing has divulged these and libels against the best
government." In this last sentence the old bigot courtier uttered one
of the most glorious truths whieh the march of progress has practically
developed. Tyranny always fears enlightenment. Napoleon said he was in
more dread of one free printing-press than a hundred thousand Austrian
bayonets.
[[[Opposition to parliamentary Commissions.--Concession to the
Colonists.--Commercial Restrictions.--King of Virginia.]]]
{460}who had fled to Virginia, on the death of Charles, for safety, were
prepared for their reception. Armed Dutch vessels, lying in the river,
were pressed into service; and, although the Virginians had resolved to
submit as soon as they perceived the arrival of the fleet, they, like
Falstaff, declared they would not do it "on compulsion." This unexpected
show of resistance made the commissioners of Parliament, who were sent
out to negotiate, hesitate; and, instead of opening their cannon upon
the colonists, they courteously proposed submission to the authority
of the Protector, upon terms quite satisfactory to the Virginians. The
liberties of the colonists were more fully secured than they had ever
been; indeed, they were allowed nearly all those rights which the
Declaration of Independence a century and a quarter later charged the
King of Great Britain with violating. Until the restoration of monarchy
in 1660, Virginia was virtually an independent state; for Cromwell made
no appointments for the state, except a governor. On the death of Oliver
Cromwell In 1658, the Virginians were not disposed to acknowledge the
authority of Richard, his successor, and they _elected_ Matthews, and
afterward Berkeley, to fill the office of governor. Universal suffrage
prevailed; all freemen, without exception, were allowed to vote; and
servants, when the terms of their bondage ended, became electors, and
might be made burgesses.
When the news of the probable restoration of Charles the Second reached
Virginia, Berkeley disclaimed the popular sovereignty, proclaimed the
exiled monarch, issued writs for an assembly in the name of the king,
and the friends of royalty came into power. * High hopes of great
favor from the new king were entertained. They were speedily blasted.
Commercial restrictions, grafted upon the existing colonial system of
the commonwealth, were rigorously enforced. ** The people murmured, and
finally remonstrated, but in vain. The profligate monarch, who seems
never to have had a clear perception of right and wrong, but was always
guided by the dictates of caprice and passion, gave away to special
favorites large tracts of land, some of it cultivated and valuable. ***
The Royalist party in Virginia soon began to have an evil influence. The
Assembly abridged the liberties of the people; the members, elected
for only two years, assumed to themselves the right of an indefinite
continuance of power, and the representative system was virtually
abolished. Intolerance began to grow again, and heavy fines were imposed
upon Baptists and Quakers. Taxes were made unequal and oppressive.
Loyalty waned; the people learned to despise the very name of king, and
open discontent ensued. The common people formed a Republican party,
opposed to the aristocracy and the Royalists.
The menaces of the hostile Susquehannas, a fierce tribe on the northern
frontier, who had been driven southward by the Five Nations, and were
then desolating the remote set-
* Berkeley proclaimed Charles the Second king of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and Virginia. Charles was therefore made king in Virginia, by
the supreme authorities of the colony, before he actually became so in
England. Already, when they were informed that Cromwell was about to
send a fleet to reduce them to submission, the Virginians sent, in a
small ship, a messenger to Charles, at Breda, in Flanders, to invite him
to come over and be King of Virginia. He was on the point of sailing,
when he was called to the throne of his father. In gratitude to
Virginia, he caused the arms of that province to be quartered with
those of England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent member of
the empire. From this circumstance Virginia received the name of The Old
Dominion. Coins with these quarterings were made as late as 1773.
** The colonial system of all kingdoms has uniformly been to make the
industry of colonists tributary to the aggrandizement of the parent
country. The Navigation Act, which, down to the time of our Revolution,
was a fruitful source of complaint, was now rigorously applied, and
new and more stringent provisions added to it. Under it, no commodities
could be imported into any British settlement, nor exported from them,
except in English vessels; and tobacco, turpentine, and other principal
commodities of the colonies, could be shipped to no country except
England. The trade between the colonies was also taxed for the benefit
of the imperial treasury, and in various other ways the colonies were
made dependent on the mother country.
*** He gave away to Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington, two of his
favorites, "all the dominion of land and water called Virginia," for the
space of thirty-one years. Culpepper became governor in 1680.
[[[Indian Hostilities.--"Bacon's Rebellion."--Republican
Triumphs.--English Troops.--Burning of Jamestown.]]]
{461}tlements of Maryland, offered the people an excuse for arming. The
Indians hovered nearer and nearer, and committed murders on Virginia
soil. The planters, with Nathaniel Bacon, a popular, bold, and talented
man, for their leader, demanded of Governor Berkeley the privilege of
protecting themselves. Berkeley refused; for he doubtless had sagacity
to perceive how the people would thus discover their strength. At
length, some people on Bacon's plantation having been killed by the
Indians, that gentleman yielded to popular clamor, placed himself at the
head of five hundred men, and marched against the invaders. Berkeley,
who was jealous of Bacon's popularity, immediately proclaimed him a
traitor, (a) and [[ a May, 1676]] ordered a body of troops to pursue and
arrest him. * Bacon was successful against the Indians, while Berkeley
was obliged to recall his troops to put down a rising rebellion in the
lower counties. The people generally sympathized with the "traitor."
They arose in open insurrection; Berkeley was compelled to yield;
the Long Assembly was dissolved, and a new one elected; new laws
were granted; universal suffrage was restored; arbitrary taxation
was abolished, and Bacon was appointed commander-in-chief. Berkeley,
compelled by the popular will, promised to sign Bacon's commission, but
this promise was never fulfilled. Fearing treachery, the latter withdrew
to Williamsburg, then called the Middle Plantation, where he assembled
five hundred men, and marched to Jamestown, to demand his commission
from the governor. It was reluctantly granted; and Berkeley and the
Assembly, overawed, attested the bravery and loyalty of Bacon, and on
the 4th of July, 1676, just one hundred years before the birth-day of
our republic, a more liberal and enlightened legislation commenced
in Virginia. "The eighteenth century in Virginia was the child of the
seventeenth; and Bacon's rebellion, with the corresponding scenes
in Maryland, Carolina, and New England, was the earlier harbinger of
American independence and American nationality." **
The moment Bacon left Jamestown to confront the invading Indians,
Berkeley treacherously and rashly published a proclamation, reversing
all the proceedings of the burgesses; again declaring Bacon a traitor,
and calling upon the loyal aristocracy to join him. The indignation
of Bacon was fiercely kindled, and, marching back to the capital,
he lighted up a civil war. The property of Berkeley's adherents
was confiscated; their wives were seized as hostages; and a general
destruction of the plantations of the Royalists ensued. Berkeley and his
followers were driven from Jamestown, and sought shelter on the eastern
shore of the Chesapeake. Bacon became supreme ruler, and, having
proclaimed the abdication of Berkeley, he summoned an Assembly in his
own name, and prepared to cast off all allegiance to the English
crown. When troops came from England to support Berkeley, Bacon and his
followers resolved to oppose them. *** A rumor reached the capital that
a strong party of Royalists, with the imperial troops, were approaching,
and, in a council of war, Bacon and his followers resolved to burn
Jamestown. The torch was applied just as the night shadows came over the
village, and the sun rose the next morning upon the smoking ruins of the
first English town built in America. Naught remained standing but a few
chimneys and the church tower, that solitary monument which now attracts
the eye and heart of the traveler.
* Nathaniel Bacon was a native of Suffolk. He was educated for the legal
profession in London. He went to Virginia, where his high character
for virtue and integrity soon procured him a seat in the council.
He purchased a plantation not far from the present city of Richmond.
Handsome in person, eloquent in speech, and thoroughly accomplished, he
acquired great popularity; and when he proposed to lead the young men of
the settlement against the murderous Indians, he had many adherents. In
defiance of the wrath of the jealous Berkeley, he headed an expedition.
The governor proclaimed him a traitor, and his followers rebels. Bacon
was successfully beating back the Indians on one side, and the governor
s adherents on the other, when death, from a severe disease, closed his
career. Had he lived to complete what he had begun, his memory would
have been cherished as a patriot, instead of being clouded with
the stigma of the insurgent. He died at the house of Dr. Green, in
Gloucester county, October 1, 1676.
** Bancroft., ii., 222.
*** This was the first time that English troops were sent to America to
suppress republicanism. The same determined spirit prevailed which,
a century later, made all the Anglo-American colonies lift the arm of
defiance against the armies and navies of Great Britain, when sent here
to burn our towns, ravage our coasts, and eat out the substance of the
people."
[[[Death of Bacon.--Vengeance of Berkeley.--His Recall and
Death.--Jamestown and its Associations.]]]
{462}Leaving the smoking ruins behind, Bacon pushed forward with his
little army to drive the Royalists from Virginia; but the malaria from
the low lands infused its poison into his [[ a October, 1676]] veins,
and on the north bank of the York River that brave patriot died. (a) His
death was a blow of unutterable evil to his followers, for no other man
could wear the mantle of his influence. The fugitive governor returned
to the Middle Plantation In triumph, and began to wreak his vengeance
upon the principal insurgents. Twenty were hanged, ** and others were
on their way to the gallows, when the Assembly implored that "he would
spill no more blood." Berkeley yielded; but the fines, confiscations,
and other punishments continued. He ruled with an iron hand, which rule
begot him many enemies at home. ** He was soon recalled, and went to
England, but died before he obtained an audience with his king. ***
As briefly as perspicuity would allow, I have sketched the early history
of Virginia, in order to illustrate the gradual development of that
spirit of liberty which spoke out so boldly, and acted with so much
decision and power there, in the incipient and progressive stages of
the War for Independence. We have seen the republican tree spring up and
flourish on the banks of the James River, until its branches overspread
a wide region, and sheltered thousands of freemen who, a hundred years
before our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, were ready to
forswear allegiance to the British monarch, unless he should virtually
recognize their sovereignty as a people. In the struggle between
monarchy and republicanism, represented by Berkeley and Bacon, we have
seen the capital of the new state, after an existence of seventy years,
reduced to ashes, never to be restored. For a century and three quarters
it has been a desolation. The green grass, the waving corn, and the
golden wheat now cover the earth where streets and lanes were trodden by
Smith and Gosnold, Newport, Gates and Berkeley, Powhatan and Pocahontas,
and a host of Englishmen, whose spirits seem to have taken root in
the soil, and multiplied a thousand-fold--whose scattered bones, like
dragons teeth sown upon the land, seem to have germinated and sent up
full-armed heroes. Nothing remains of the past but this old tower
and these broken tombs, among which we have sat while pondering the
antecedents of the present. We will close the chronicle for a while,
and, taking a glance at later Revolutionary events here, hasten away to
Williamsburg--the "Middle Plantation"--the second capital of Virginia.
* Among those who suffered were Colonel Hansford; Captains Carver,
Farlow, and Wilford; Major Cheeseman; William Drummond (former governor
of Carolina), and Colonel Richard Lawrence. Colonel Hansford was the
first native of Virginia who died on the gallows, and he has been justly
termed the first martyr to American liberty. This civil war cost the
colony a quarter of a million of dollars.
** Afraid of popular enlightenment, Berkeley would not allow a
printing-press in Virginia. To speak ill of him, or any of his friends,
was punished as a crime by whipping, or a fine; to speak, write, or
publish any thing in mitigation or favor of the rebellion or rebels,
was made a misdemeanor, and, if thrice repeated, was evidence of
treason.--Henning's Statutes of Virginia, ii., 385.
*** Berkeley was much censured in England, and those censures affected
him greatly. His brother, Lord Berkeley, declared that the unfavorable
report of the commissioners caused the death of Sir William.
[[[Departure from Jamestown.--Remains of Fortifications.--"Spencer's
Ordinary."--Retreat of Cornwallis.]]]
{463}