Five only of the ships of the fleet of nine sailed from Jamestown October
14, 1609,--one had been lost at sea, one had been wrecked at Bermuda;
two, the _Virginia_ and the _Swallow_, were left with the colony, "to
procure the victuals whereof they were exceedingly much in need." Thirty
newly arrived, unruly youths were returned--as they were not wanted in
Virginia,--to their affectionate relatives in England, who doubtless
confronted with dismay the vexed problem of their future disposal.
Among the letters sent abroad at this time was one from Ratcliffe to
the Earl of Salisbury, telling the earl in a candid and confidential
manner the "Truth of some late accidents befalne His Majesties Virginia
Collonye,"--how Captain Smith had "reigned sole Governour without
assistantes, and would at first admit of no councell but himselfe. This
man," he continues, "is sent home to answer some misdemeanours, whereof I
persuade me he can scarcely clear himself from great imputation of blame."
He then gives a list of certain superior persons now in power, including
himself; and adds, "Some few of the best and worthyest that inhabit at
Jamestown are assistantes to us!"
The career of this mischievous hypocrite was destined to be brief.
Remembering Captain Smith's successful visits to Powhatan, he made bold
to seek an interview with that monarch. He was not received with the
pretentious pageant--the dais, the crown and heads, the many wives,
children, and retainers; but was sharply met at the threshold with arrow
and tomahawk, and slain, with all that were with him, except Henry Spelman
and one other, who escaped to tell the story.
Captain Percy now addressed himself to the comfort, advancement, and
protection of the colony. The danger of Spanish invasion was ever present
with the leaders at Jamestown. With perfect ease the Spanish caravels
could sail up the James, anchor immediately before the hamlet which they
called a "Cittie," and make short work of its slender defences. It is
known[63] that Philip, importuned day by day to strangle the colony in
its infancy, had ordered a vessel to be manned and sent from Florida, as
a scout, to the Virginia waters. This ship had seen a great vessel flying
the red cross in the waters near the capes, had ventured near enough to
reconnoitre; and, convinced that this was a lookout ship of a formidable
squadron, had run away as fast as tide and wind could carry it. In reality
there was no ship at the spot,--none whatever,--and the threatening sail
had been a phantom of Spanish imagination.
Captain Percy sent "some 16 proper men" to build a fort at Point
Comfort near the site of the present Fortress Monroe. Percy named the
fortification in honour of the founder of the Percy family, "Algernoune
Fort." This fort was afterward destroyed by fire and another commenced
by the colonists, but not finished. The name was unfortunate. The early
settlers were fond of short alliterative names: "Pace's Pains," "Piping
Poynt," "Pryor's Plantation," "Beggar's Bush." Had the President called
his fort "Percy's Point," I am persuaded it could have held its name until
to-day.
"Beggar's Bush," as a name for a country place, is peculiar. Historians
invariably explain that Fletcher's play suggested the name, but I am
by no means sure that its owner was a reading man. He was probably a
Huntingdonshire man, who remembered in the wild, new country a familiar
saying of the old. "He is on the way to Beggar's Bush," was the comment
when a man lived beyond his means or evinced extravagant tendencies.
Beggar's Bush was a tree on the left hand of the London road from
Huntingdon to Caxton, halfway between the rich and the poor part of the
country. "I have heard," says old Thomas Fuller, "how King James being
in progress in these parts with Sir Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor,
and having heard that morning how Sir Francis had prodigiously rewarded a
mean man for a small present: 'Sir Francis,' quoth he, 'you will quickly
come to Beggar's Bush, and I may even go along with you if both be so
bountiful.'"
The numbers at the plantation had again been reduced by sickness to about
two hundred people, who were at war with the Indians, and in need of
ammunition. "The hand of God was heavy on the Colony, and the hand of God
reacheth all the earth! Who can avoid it or dispute with him?"
The Indians had heard of the powder accident from which Captain Smith had
suffered so much, and missing him from the fort, concluded he was dead.
They saw their opportunity. "They all revolted and did spoil and murther
all they encountered." Powhatan resolved to press the war in earnest.
All now felt the loss of the strong, fearless captain. Beverley, the old
historian, says, "as soon as he left them, all went to ruin."
George Percy, enfeebled from illness, was utterly unable to cope with
the difficulties that beset him. His crew at home was a motley one--some
thirty "true men;" some honest labourers, the rest detrimental in every
particular. There were now outlying forts and plantations to be cared for.
At Jamestown,[64] "there was but one Carpenter (John Laydon) and three
others who were only learners; two Blacksmiths; two saylers; and those
we write 'laborers' were for the most part footmen, and such as they that
were adventurers brought to attend them, or such as they could perswade to
goe with them, that never did know what a daye's work was. All the rest
were poore Gentlemen, Tradesmen, Serving-men, libertines and such like;
ten times more fit to spoyle a Commonwealth than either begin one or but
helpe to maintaine one. For when neither the feare of God, nor the law,
nor shame, nor displeasure of their friends could rule them in England,
there is small hope ever to bring one in twentie of them ever to be good
in Virginia."
There was one way to remedy this state of things, and but
one,--annihilation! Many died from yellow fever, many from the London
plague. The rest hastened to destruction from starvation. The hand of God
was heavy--who could avoid it or dispute with Him?
As the days passed on, the disorder increased, and the inevitable
dissolution hastened. Martin's men at Nansemond and West's at the Falls
were assailed by the savages and took refuge in Jamestown. Percy was
now so ill "he could neither goe nor stand." Lord Delaware's kinsman had
sailed in despair for England. With every passing hour the prospect grew
darker. Thirty men seized one of the vessels and became buccaneers. Utter
hopelessness took possession of those left behind. [65]Every day death
visited some house, and when the master was buried, the house was pulled
down for firewood, the living not being able to gather fuel in the woods.
Parts of the defending palisade were burnt, although the inmates trembled
with fear of the Indians. Only the blockhouse was the safety of the few
who lived.
The Indians knew all this weakness and forebore to assault the fort or
hazard themselves in a war on those whom they were assured in a short time
would of themselves perish, yet they killed all stragglers found beyond
bounds. Every particle of food was devoured, and the miserable women and
children begged from the savages, to receive insult and mortal wounds.
Roots, acorns, and the skins of horses were boiled for food. At last dead
Indians were dug up and devoured "by the baser sort."
A horrible, ghastly tragedy froze the blood of the "better sort." A
man killed his wife, and had devoured part of her body, when he was
discovered. He was executed, but that only added horror to horror.
This time marked one of two terrible epochs,--"the starving time" and
the great massacre of 1622. Nearly five hundred persons had lately been
landed at Jamestown, and six months afterward "there remained not past
sixty men, _women and children_, most miserable and poor creatures." Of
five hundred, more than four hundred had perished,--dead of starvation or
brained by the Indian tomahawk.
In May, 1607, the Englishmen had landed in what they termed "a Paradise."
Over the moss-green earth "bespred with faire flowers" the branches of
the stately trees threw lacelike shadows. Flowering vines hung from their
boughs, brilliant birds darted among them, or swooped down to dip their
blue and crimson wings in the clear rivulets. All was happiness, activity,
and hope.
Now, in May, 1610, the earth was trampled bare of all verdure, ragged
stumps of the felled trees were rotting in the ground, noisome vapours
rose from the neglected, filthy yards of a pestilence-smitten town. Men,
women, and children, gaunt and wild-eyed from famine, perishing by inches
slowly but surely, lay about the town, moaning and despairing. The last
agony was near. They knew that without help they could not survive many
hours. Long ago they had ceased to expect it.
We can imagine the frantic joy when two vessels appeared on the river!
These were the cedar ships we left Admiral Somers and Sir Thomas Gates
building at Bermuda: the _Deliverance_ and the _Patience_! The Admiral
and Sir Thomas cast anchor and at once went on shore. The scene that
ensued baffles description. The two mariners looked upon wretchedness
and desolation indescribable. The shipwrecked on sea looked into the eyes
of the shipwrecked on land. Jamestown was in ruins, the town encumbered
with filth. The torn-down palisades, the gates swinging to and fro on
rusty hinges, the church ruined and unfrequented, the dismantled houses,
the emaciated faces, the hollow hungry eyes, and voices hardly able to
articulate the prayer to be "taken home to die,"--these were the piteous
sights and sounds which greeted the commanders as they landed from their
cedar ships. All hope of Virginia was over forever! Even the stout hearts
that had borne storm and wreck in the _Sea Venture_ were appalled by the
spectacle.
Gates and Somers had heard at Algernoune Fort of the sad condition of
the colony. Captain Percy had happened to be in the fort directing the
preparations for its abandonment. "From hence," says Strachey, "in two
days (only by the help of Tydes no wind stirring) we plyed it sadly up the
River; and the three and twentieth of May we cast Anchor before Jamestowne
where we landed, and our much grieved Governour first visiting the church
caused the Bell to be rung, at which all such as were able to come out of
their houses repayred to the church where our Maister Bucke made a zealous
and sorrowful Prayer, finding all things so contrary to our expectation,
so full of misery and misgovernment. After service our Governour caused
me to read his commission, and Captain Percy delivered up to him his
commission, the old Patent and the Councell Seale."
There was another witness to this scene besides the actors therein.
Namontack, Powhatan's man, had returned to England with Newport before
the sailing thence of the fleet, and with him Machumps, the brother of
the king's favourite, wife Winganuskie. These[66] two Indians were on the
_Sea Venture_ when she was wrecked at Bermuda. There, in a lonely spot,
the two had quarrelled and fought, and Machumps killed Namontack, buried
him, and kept the secret from his own people. He revealed it, however,
to his English friends, and told how he had buried Namontack--the whole
of him--for, finding he could dig only a small grave, he had taken the
trouble to cut off his legs and very neatly lay them in order beside him!
Machumps was much esteemed by the colonists. He aided the first explorers
of the James River, and they had named a creek "Machump's Creek," in
his honour. He lived a year or more at Jamestown with Kemps, a former
prisoner, who had also become a friend. The two were more intimate in
their relations to the Englishmen than any other Indians except Pocahontas
and Chanco.
John Rolfe, "an honest gentleman and of good behaviour," was also a
passenger in one of the cedar ships. The little "Bermuda" had died,
perhaps on the voyage, and his wife died soon after, so he was left free
for the romance, a few years later, of his marriage with Pocahontas.
Upon reckoning up the stores brought in the tiny cedar ships, the
Admiral and Gates perceived there were only enough to last sixteen days,
allowing two cakes a day to each person. They accordingly, to the joy
of the colonists, concluded to abandon Jamestown and sail for England
_via_ Newfoundland, where English fishing vessels were supposed to be in
condition to victual the company for England. The wretched remnant of
the colony was overjoyed at this decision. The fort was dismantled and
the cannon buried at the gate. There was little else to take away. Some
of the unhappy sufferers wished to set fire to the houses where they had
endured so much, but the commanders elected otherwise; and to prevent
the destruction of the houses, church, and palisades, Sir Thomas Gates
remained on shore with a party to preserve order, and was the last man
to step into the boat. On June 7, every man, woman, and child, at the
beating of the drum, repaired aboard the _Discovery_, the _Deliverance_,
the _Patience_, and the _Virginia_, and at noon a salvo of small arms
announced to the listening echoes that all was over--all the hope,
expectation, struggle, and despair!
That night they fell down the tide to Hogg Island, and bright and early
next morning set sail again with glad hearts, the tide bringing them to
Mulberry Island.
[Illustration: Lord Delaware.
Copyright, 1906, by Jamestown Official Photo. Corp'n. ]
There, to their amazement, they met Captain Edward Brewster in a rowboat,
his sailors bending to the oars in great haste to intercept their farther
advance. Lord Delaware was at Point Comfort with three vessels laden
with all things needful, and hearing there of the movements of Somers and
Gates, sent his long boat to command their return to Jamestown. Had the
latter been a few moments earlier, or Captain Brewster a trifle later,
they would not have met. "This was the arm of the Lord of Hosts who
would have his people pass through the Red Sea and the Wilderness, and
then possess the Land of Canaan," exclaims the old writer, who bursts
forth into exclamations of "thanks and praise for the Lord's infinite
goodness! Never had poor people more cause to cast themselves at his very
footstool." The poor people themselves felt differently at the time. "Sir
Thomas Gates the next day, to the great grief of all his company, as wind
and weather gave leave, returned his whole company with charge to take
possession again of those poor ruinated habitations at Jamestown which
they had formerly inhabited. Himself in a boat proceeded down to meet his
Lordship, who making all speed up shortly arrived at Jamestown." Meanwhile
the _Deliverance_, _Discovery_, _Patience_, and _Virginia_ "bore up the
helm," went in advance, and relanded that night. The fires were rekindled,
the guns dug up, and preparation hastily made to receive his Lordship.
[67]Lord Delaware reached Jamestown on Sunday, June 10, 1610, and in the
afternoon went ashore, landing at the south gate of the palisade. Sir
Thomas Gates caused his company in arms to stand in order and make guard,
William Strachey acting on this special occasion as colour-bearer. As soon
as the Lord Governor landed, he fell upon his knees before them all, and
made a long and silent prayer to God. Then arising, he marched up into
the town, Strachey bowing with the colours as he entered the gate, and
let them fall at his Lordship's feet, who passed on into the chapel, where
evening service was read, followed by a sermon by Rev. Richard Bucke, and
after that "caused his ensign to read his commission as Lord Governour
and Captaine Generall during the life of the Colony and Plantation in
Virginia, upon which Sir Thomas Gates delivered up to his lordship his
own commission and the counsell seale." His Lordship then delivered some
few words of warning and encouragement to the colony, and as no fitting
house could be had for him in the town, repaired again to his ship for
his lodging.
Events had followed each other like scenes in a theatre. The curtain had
slowly descended upon a desolate picture of death, darkness, and despair;
it rose with the morning sun on an animated scene of hope and activity.
In the space of three days the Virginia colony had perished and come to
life again.
The government was now invested in one over whose deliberations there
could be no control, and with whom there could consequently be no
rivalry.[68] Steady obedience was required and enforced. Things soon
assumed a wholesome and active appearance. Every man had his own duty and
officers were appointed to see that duty done; and it was not long before
the disturbances and confusion which had been the natural consequences
of disaffection and revolt were succeeded by the happy fruits of peaceful
industry and order.
Let it never be forgotten that in all the time of sore distress there
were steadfast souls who never lost their trust in God or failed in their
religious duties. They were never without a church--in less than six
years they had built or re-built five! In their darkest hour they had
built a church. In it, although the edifice during the starving time fell
into a "ruinous condition," they held daily prayers; and in the absence
of a minister met on Sunday for "prayers and homilies." At their lowest
estate they had faith to pray to be delivered from "battle and murder,
plague, pestilence, and famine," and to implore help in all their "time
of tribulation." Although to their human apprehension the supplication
was not answered, the faith of these pious souls failed not. A prayer
for daily use was sent to them from the mother church in England--a
petition for strength to bear their heavy burdens, for a blessing on all
their work, for the conversion of the savages, and ending with a fervent
invocation, "God bless England, our sweet native country!"
Lord Delaware repaired the church, and in it Pocahontas was baptized and
married. The edifice was of wood, and it was known as the third church. It
was sixty feet long by twenty-four wide, and before the arrival of Lord
Delaware was probably plainly furnished within. He had it fitted with a
chancel of cedar and a communion table of black walnut.
[Illustration: Pocahontas Memorial Window, St. John's Church, Hampton,
erected by the Indian Girls of Hampton Institute.
Copyright, 1906, by Jamestown Official Photo. Corp'n. ]
"All the pews and pulpit were of cedar, with fair, broad windows, also
of cedar, to shut and open as the weather should occasion. The font was
hewn hollow like a canoe, and there were two bells in the steeple at
the west end. The church was so cast as to be very light within, and the
Lord Governor caused it to be kept passing sweet, trimmed up with divers
flowers."
There was a sexton in charge of the church, and every morning the bell
rang for prayers at ten and again at four in the afternoon.
There was also a sermon every Thursday, and two on Sunday. "Every Sunday
when the Lord Governour went to church, he was accompanied with all the
councillors, captains, other officers, and all the gentlemen, and with
a guard of fifty halberdiers--all in his Lordship's livery, in fair red
cloaks." His Lordship sat in the choir in a green velvet chair, and the
council, captains, and officers on each side of him.
We have the two pictures,--a starved, ragged handful, prostrate before
the altar, responding in feeble accents, "Good Lord, deliver us"; and
the light and colour, the _corps de garde_ in crimson, the Lord Governor
kneeling on his green velvet cushion, the bright flowers filling the
chancel. They are all gone now! "Whose souls questionless," whether proud
or humble, "are with God." Jamestown Island is a graveyard. After Lord
Delaware landed with his accessions to the colony, 900 persons had been
sent from England to Virginia, of whom 700 had perished.[69] In 1619 it
was estimated that 2540 immigrants had landed at Jamestown, of whom 1640
had died.
The total mortality in less than one score years was 6040, out of 7280.
Around the church thousands are buried, the victims of the first season
of starvation and those of the last: good Master Hunt, hardy adventurers,
knights and ladies, paupers and "gentlemen," gentle and simple; and on the
island also Kemps, the Indian; the poor victim of military execution; and
Opechancanough, the savage instigator of three massacres,--friend and foe
they lie together. The kind mother earth covers them all! In winter they
lie beneath the pure snows from heaven, and the summer daisies look up to
God from their ashes: and so they all sleep together "untill the generall
day."