The way was now prepared for the advent of Captain John Smith in
Virginia. It is true that we cannot give him his own title of its
discoverer, but the plantation had been practically abandoned, all
the colonies had ended in disaster, all the governors and captains
had lacked the gift of perseverance or had been early drawn into other
adventures, wholly disposed, in the language of Captain John White, “to
seek after purchase and spoils,” and but for the energy and persistence
of Captain Smith the expedition of 1606 might have had no better fate.
It needed a man of tenacious will to hold a colony together in one spot
long enough to give it root. Captain Smith was that man, and if we find
him glorying in his exploits, and repeating upon single big Indians
the personal prowess that distinguished him in Transylvania and in the
mythical Nalbrits, we have only to transfer our sympathy from the Turks
to the Sasquesahanocks if the sense of his heroism becomes oppressive.
Upon the return of Samuel Mace, mariner, who was sent out in 1602 to
search for White's lost colony, all Raleigh's interest in the Virginia
colony had, by his attainder, escheated to the crown. But he never
gave up his faith in Virginia: neither the failure of nine several
expeditions nor twelve years imprisonment shook it. On the eve of his
fall he had written, “I shall yet live to see it an English nation:” and
he lived to see his prediction come true.
The first or Virginian colony, chartered with the Plymouth colony in
April, 1606, was at last organized by the appointment of Sir Thomas
Smith, the 'Chief of Raleigh's assignees, a wealthy London merchant, who
had been ambassador to Persia, and was then, or shortly after, governor
of the East India Company, treasurer and president of the meetings of
the council in London; and by the assignment of the transportation of
the colony to Captain Christopher Newport, a mariner of experience in
voyages to the West Indies and in plundering the Spaniards, who had the
power to appoint different captains and mariners, and the sole charge of
the voyage. No local councilors were named for Virginia, but to Captain
Newport, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, and Captain John Ratcliffe were
delivered sealed instructions, to be opened within twenty-four hours
after their arrival in Virginia, wherein would be found the names of the
persons designated for the Council.
This colony, which was accompanied by the prayers and hopes of London,
left the Thames December 19, 1606, in three vessels--the Susan Constant,
one hundred tons, Captain Newport, with seventy-one persons; the
God-Speed, forty tons, Captain Gosnold, with fifty-two persons; and a
pinnace of twenty tons, the Discovery, Captain Ratcliffe, with twenty
persons. The Mercure Francais, Paris, 1619, says some of the passengers
were women and children, but there is no other mention of women. Of the
persons embarked, one hundred and five were planters, the rest crews.
Among the planters were Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John Smith,
Captain John Martin, Captain Gabriel Archer, Captain George Kendall,
Mr. Robert Hunt, preacher, and Mr. George Percie, brother of the Earl of
Northumberland, subsequently governor for a brief period, and one of the
writers from whom Purchas compiled. Most of the planters were shipped
as gentlemen, but there were four carpenters, twelve laborers, a
blacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, a
drummer, and a chirurgeon.
The composition of the colony shows a serious purpose of settlement,
since the trades were mostly represented, but there were too many
gentlemen to make it a working colony. And, indeed, the gentlemen, like
the promoters of the enterprise in London, were probably more solicitous
of discovering a passage to the South Sea, as the way to increase
riches, than of making a state. They were instructed to explore every
navigable river they might find, and to follow the main branches, which
would probably lead them in one direction to the East Indies or South
Sea, and in the other to the Northwest Passage. And they were forcibly
reminded that the way to prosper was to be of one mind, for their own
and their country's good.
This last advice did not last the expedition out of sight of land. They
sailed from Blackwell, December 19, 1606, but were kept six weeks on the
coast of England by contrary winds. A crew of saints cabined in those
little caravels and tossed about on that coast for six weeks would
scarcely keep in good humor. Besides, the position of the captains and
leaders was not yet defined. Factious quarrels broke out immediately,
and the expedition would likely have broken up but for the wise conduct
and pious exhortations of Mr. Robert Hunt, the preacher. This faithful
man was so ill and weak that it was thought he could not recover, yet
notwithstanding the stormy weather, the factions on board, and although
his home was almost in sight, only twelve miles across the Downs, he
refused to quit the ship. He was unmoved, says Smith, either by the
weather or by “the scandalous imputations (of some few little better
than atheists, of the greatest rank amongst us).” With “the water of his
patience” and “his godly exhortations” he quenched the flames of envy
and dissension.
They took the old route by the West Indies. George Percy notes that on
the 12th of February they saw a blazing star, and presently a storm.
They watered at the Canaries, traded with savages at San Domingo, and
spent three weeks refreshing themselves among the islands. The quarrels
revived before they reached the Canaries, and there Captain Smith was
seized and put in close confinement for thirteen weeks.
We get little light from contemporary writers on this quarrel. Smith
does not mention the arrest in his “True Relation,” but in his “General
Historie,” writing of the time when they had been six weeks in Virginia,
he says: “Now Captain Smith who all this time from their departure from
the Canaries was restrained as a prisoner upon the scandalous suggestion
of some of the chiefs (envying his repute) who fancied he intended to
usurp the government, murder the Council, and make himself King, that
his confedcrates were dispersed in all three ships, and that divers
of his confederates that revealed it, would affirm it, for this he was
committed a prisoner; thirteen weeks he remained thus suspected, and by
that time they should return they pretended out of their commiserations,
to refer him to the Council in England to receive a check, rather than
by particulating his designs make him so odious to the world, as to
touch his life, or utterly overthrow his reputation. But he so much
scorned their charity and publically defied the uttermost of their
cruelty, he wisely prevented their policies, though he could not
suppress their envies, yet so well he demeaned himself in this business,
as all the company did see his innocency, and his adversaries' malice,
and those suborned to accuse him accused his accusers of subornation;
many untruths were alleged against him; but being apparently disproved,
begot a general hatred in the hearts of the company against such unjust
Commanders, that the President was adjudged to give him L 200, so
that all he had was seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smith
presently returned to the store for the general use of the colony.”--
Neither in Newport's “Relatyon” nor in Mr. Wingfield's “Discourse” is
the arrest mentioned, nor does Strachey speak of it.
About 1629, Smith, in writing a description of the Isle of Mevis (Nevis)
in his “Travels and Adventures,” says: “In this little [isle] of Mevis,
more than twenty years agone, I have remained a good time together,
to wod and water--and refresh my men.” It is characteristic of Smith's
vivid imagination, in regard to his own exploits, that he should speak
of an expedition in which he had no command, and was even a prisoner, in
this style: “I remained,” and “my men.” He goes on: “Such factions here
we had as commonly attend such voyages, and a pair of gallows was made,
but Captaine Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded
to use them; but not any one of the inventors but their lives by justice
fell into his power, to determine of at his pleasure, whom with much
mercy he favored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayed
him.” And it is true that Smith, although a great romancer, was often
magnanimous, as vain men are apt to be.
King James's elaborate lack of good sense had sent the expedition to sea
with the names of the Council sealed up in a box, not to be opened
till it reached its destination. Consequently there was no recognized
authority. Smith was a young man of about twenty-eight, vain and no
doubt somewhat “bumptious,” and it is easy to believe that Wingfield
and the others who felt his superior force and realized his experience,
honestly suspected him of designs against the expedition. He was the
ablest man on board, and no doubt was aware of it. That he was not only
a born commander of men, but had the interest of the colony at heart,
time was to show.
The voyagers disported themselves among the luxuries of the West Indies.
At Guadaloupe they found a bath so hot that they boiled their pork in
it as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monaca they took from the
bushes with their hands near two hogsheads full of birds in three or
four hours. These, it is useless to say, were probably not the “barnacle
geese” which the nautical travelers used to find, and picture
growing upon bushes and dropping from the eggs, when they were ripe,
full-fledged into the water. The beasts were fearless of men. Wild birds
and natives had to learn the whites before they feared them.
“In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles,” says the “General Historie,” “we
spent some time, where with a lothsome beast like a crocodile, called
a gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and fishes, we feasted
daily.”
Thence they made sail-in search of Virginia, but the mariners lost their
reckoning for three days and made no land; the crews were discomfited,
and Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up helm and return to
England. But a violent storm, which obliged them “to hull all night,”
drove them to the port desired. On the 26th of April they saw a bit
of land none of them had ever seen before. This, the first land they
descried, they named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales; as the
opposite cape was called Cape Charles, for the Duke of York, afterwards
Charles I. Within these capes they found one of the most pleasant places
in the world, majestic navigable rivers, beautiful mountains, hills, and
plains, and a fruitful and delightsome land.
Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of the fair meadows and
goodly tall trees. As much to his taste were the large and delicate
oysters, which the natives roasted, and in which were found many pearls.
The ground was covered with fine and beautiful strawberries, four times
bigger than those in England.
Masters Wingfield, Newport, and Gosnold., with thirty men, went ashore
on Cape Henry, where they were suddenly set upon by savages, who came
creeping upon all-fours over the hills, like bears, with their bows
in their hands; Captain Archer was hurt in both hands, and a sailor
dangerously wounded in two places on his body. It was a bad omen.
The night of their arrival they anchored at Point Comfort, now Fortress
Monroe; the box was opened and the orders read, which constituted Edward
Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Christopher Newport,
John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall the Council, with power
to choose a President for a year. Until the 13th of May they were slowly
exploring the River Powhatan, now the James, seeking a place for the
settlement. They selected a peninsula on the north side of the river,
forty miles from its mouth, where there was good anchorage, and which
could be readily fortified. This settlement was Jamestown. The Council
was then sworn in, and Mr. Wingfield selected President. Smith being
under arrest was not sworn in of the Council, and an oration was made
setting forth the reason for his exclusion.
When they had pitched upon a site for the fort, every man set to work,
some to build the fort, others to pitch the tents, fell trees and make
clapboards to reload the ships, others to make gardens and nets. The
fort was in the form of a triangle with a half-moon at each corner,
intended to mount four or five guns.
President Wingfield appears to have taken soldierly precautions, but
Smith was not at all pleased with him from the first. He says “the
President's overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise at arms, or
fortifications but the boughs of trees cast together in the form of a
half-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of Captain Kendall.”
He also says there was contention between Captain Wingfield and Captain
Gosnold about the site of the city.
The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th of May, according to
Percy. Previous to that considerable explorations were made. On the 18th
of April they launched a shallop, which they built the day before,
and “discovered up the bay.” They discovered a river on the south side
running into the mainland, on the banks of which were good stores
of mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flowers of all colors, and
strawberries. Returning to their ships and finding the water shallow,
they rowed over to a point of land, where they found from six to twelve
fathoms of water, which put them in good comfort, therefore they named
that part of the land Cape Comfort. On the 29th they set up a cross on
Chesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the next day coasted to the Indian
town of Kecoughton, now Hampton, where they were kindly entertained.
When they first came to land the savages made a doleful noise, laying
their paws to the ground and scratching the earth with their nails. This
ceremony, which was taken to be a kind of idolatry, ended, mats were
brought from the houses, whereon the guests were seated, and given
to eat bread made of maize, and tobacco to smoke. The savages also
entertained them with dancing and singing and antic tricks and grimaces.
They were naked except a covering of skins about the loins, and many
were painted in black and red, with artificial knots of lovely colors,
beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The 4th of May they were entertained
by the chief of Paspika, who favored them with a long oration, making
a foul noise and vehement in action, the purport of which they did not
catch. The savages were full of hospitality. The next day the weroance,
or chief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to invite them to his seat. His
majesty received them in as modest a proud fashion as if he had been a
prince of a civil government. His body was painted in crimson and his
face in blue, and he wore a chain of beads about his neck and in his
ears bracelets of pearls and a bird's claw. The 8th of May they went up
the river to the country Apomatica, where the natives received them in
hostile array, the chief, with bow and arrows in one hand, and a pipe of
tobacco in the other, offering them war or peace.
These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians in
the world. Mr. Percy said they bore their years well. He saw among the
Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes were sunk
in his head, his teeth gone his hair all gray, and quite a big beard,
white as snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as fast as
anybody.
The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to the
plantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort by
day, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of small
articles, and showing jealousy of the occupation. They murmured, says
Percy, at our planting in their country. But worse than the disposition
of the savages was the petty quarreling in the colony itself.
In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22d of
May, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent in the
shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River.
Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding in
trees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and of sturgeon
such as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th, having passed
the town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, the Falls, where they
set up the cross and proclaimed King James of England.
Smith says in his “General Historie” they reached Powhatan on the 26th.
But Captain Newport's “Relatyon” agrees with Percy's, and with, Smith's
“True Relation.” Captain Newport, says Percy, permitted no one to visit
Powhatan except himself.
Captain Newport's narration of the exploration of the James is
interesting, being the first account we have of this historic river.
At the junction of the Appomattox and the James, at a place he calls
Wynauk, the natives welcomed them with rejoicing and entertained them
with dances. The Kingdom of Wynauk was full of pearl-mussels. The king
of this tribe was at war with the King of Paspahegh. Sixteen miles above
this point, at an inlet, perhaps Turkey Point, they were met by eight
savages in a canoe, one of whom was intelligent enough to lay out the
whole course of the river, from Chesapeake Bay to its source, with a
pen and paper which they showed him how to use. These Indians kept them
company for some time, meeting them here and there with presents of
strawberries, mulberries, bread, and fish, for which they received pins,
needles, and beads. They spent one night at Poore Cottage (the Port
Cotage of Percy, where he saw the white boy), probably now Haxall. Five
miles above they went ashore near the now famous Dutch Gap, where King
Arahatic gave them a roasted deer, and caused his women to bake cakes
for them. This king gave Newport his crown, which was of deer's hair
dyed red. He was a subject of the great King Powhatan. While they sat
making merry with the savages, feasting and taking tobacco and seeing
the dances, Powhatan himself appeared and was received with great show
of honor, all rising from their seats except King Arahatic, and shouting
loudly. To Powhatan ample presents were made of penny-knives, shears,
and toys, and he invited them to visit him at one of his seats called
Powhatan, which was within a mile of the Falls, where now stands the
city of Richmond. All along the shore the inhabitants stood in clusters,
offering food to the strangers. The habitation of Powhatan was situated
on a high hill by the water side, with a meadow at its foot where was
grown wheat, beans, tobacco, peas, pompions, flax, and hemp.
Powhatan served the whites with the best he had, and best of all with
a friendly welcome and with interesting discourse of the country. They
made a league of friendship. The next day he gave them six men as guides
to the falls above, and they left with him one man as a hostage.
On Sunday, the 24th of May, having returned to Powhatan's seat, they
made a feast for him of pork, cooked with peas, and the Captain and King
ate familiarly together; “he eat very freshly of our meats, dranck of
our beere, aquavite, and sack.” Under the influence of this sack and
aquavite the King was very communicative about the interior of the
country, and promised to guide them to the mines of iron and copper; but
the wary chief seems to have thought better of it when he got sober, and
put them off with the difficulties and dangers of the way.
On one of the islets below the Falls, Captain Newport set up a cross
with the inscription “Jacobus, Rex, 1607,” and his own name beneath, and
James was proclaimed King with a great shout. Powhatan was displeased
with their importunity to go further up the river, and departed with all
the Indians, except the friendly Navirans, who had accompanied them from
Arahatic. Navirans greatly admired the cross, but Newport hit upon
an explanation of its meaning that should dispel the suspicions of
Powhatan. He told him that the two arms of the cross signified King
Powhatan and himself, the fastening of it in the middle was their
united league, and the shout was the reverence he did to Powhatan. This
explanation being made to Powhatan greatly contented him, and he came
on board and gave them the kindest farewell when they dropped down the
river. At Arahatic they found the King had provided victuals for them,
but, says Newport, “the King told us that he was very sick and not able
to sit up long with us.” The inability of the noble red man to sit up
was no doubt due to too much Christian sack and aquavite, for on “Monday
he came to the water side, and we went ashore with him again. He told us
that our hot drinks, he thought, caused him grief, but that he was well
again, and we were very welcome.”
It seems, therefore, that to Captain Newport, who was a good sailor
in his day, and has left his name in Virginia in Newport News, must be
given the distinction of first planting the cross in Virginia, with a
lie, and watering it, with aquavite.
They dropped down the river to a place called Mulberry Shade, where the
King killed a deer and prepared for them another feast, at which they
had rolls and cakes made of wheat. “This the women make and are very
cleanly about it. We had parched meal, excellent good, sodd [cooked]
beans, which eat as sweet as filbert kernels, in a manner, strawberries;
and mulberries were shaken off the tree, dropping on our heads as we
sat. He made ready a land turtle, which we ate; and showed that he was
heartily rejoiced in our company.” Such was the amiable disposition
of the natives before they discovered the purpose of the whites to
dispossess them of their territory. That night they stayed at a place
called “Kynd Woman's Care,” where the people offered them abundant
victual and craved nothing in return.
Next day they went ashore at a place Newport calls Queen Apumatuc's
Bower. This Queen, who owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much land
under cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. This ancient
representative of woman's rights in Virginia did honor to her sex. She
came to meet the strangers in a show as majestical as that of Powhatan
himself: “She had an usher before her, who brought her to the matt
prepared under a faire mulberry-tree; where she sat down by herself,
with a stayed countenance. She would permitt none to stand or sitt neare
her. She is a fatt, lustie, manly woman. She had much copper about her
neck, a coronet of copper upon her hed. She had long, black haire, which
hanged loose down her back to her myddle; which only part was covered
with a deare's skyn, and ells all naked. She had her women attending
her, adorned much like herself (except they wanted the copper). Here we
had our accustomed eates, tobacco, and welcome. Our Captaine presented
her with guyfts liberally, whereupon shee cheered somewhat her
countenance, and requested him to shoote off a piece; whereat (we noted)
she showed not near the like feare as Arahatic, though he be a goodly
man.”
The company was received with the same hospitality by King Pamunkey,
whose land was believed to be rich in copper and pearls. The copper was
so flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the thickness of his
finger as if it had been lead. The natives were unwilling to part with
it. The King had about his neck a string of pearls as big as peas, which
would have been worth three or four hundred pounds, if the pearls had
been taken from the mussels as they should have been.
Arriving on their route at Weanock, some twenty miles above the fort,
they were minded to visit Paspahegh and another chief Jamestown lay in
the territory of Paspahegh--but suspicious signs among the natives made
them apprehend trouble at the fort, and they hastened thither to find
their suspicions verified. The day before, May 26th, the colony had been
attacked by two hundred Indians (four hundred, Smith says), who were
only beaten off when they had nearly entered the fort, by the use of the
artillery. The Indians made a valiant fight for an hour; eleven white
men were wounded, of whom one died afterwards, and a boy was killed on
the pinnace. This loss was concealed from the Indians, who for some time
seem to have believed that the whites could not be hurt. Four of the
Council were hurt in this fight, and President Wingfield, who showed
himself a valiant gentleman, had a shot through his beard. They killed
eleven of the Indians, but their comrades lugged them away on their
backs and buried them in the woods with a great noise. For several days
alarms and attacks continued, and four or five men were cruelly wounded,
and one gentleman, Mr. Eustace Cloville, died from the effects of five
arrows in his body.
Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fort
should be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed and
exercised. The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, and it
was unsafe for any to venture beyond the fort.
Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President Wingfield's management.
Captain Newport says: “There being among the gentlemen and all the
company a murmur and grudge against certain proceedings and inconvenient
courses [Newport] put up a petition to the Council for reformation.” The
Council heeded this petition, and urged to amity by Captain Newport,
the company vowed faithful love to each other and obedience to the
superiors. On the 10th of June, Captain Smith was sworn of the Council.
In his “General Historie,” not published till 1624, he says: “Many were
the mischiefs that daily sprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious)
spirits; but the good doctrine and exhortation of our preacher Mr. Hunt,
reconciled them and caused Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council.”
The next day they all partook of the holy communion.
In order to understand this quarrel, which was not by any means appeased
by this truce, and to determine Captain Smith's responsibility for it,
it is necessary to examine all the witnesses. Smith is unrestrained
in his expression of his contempt for Wingfield. But in the diary of
Wingfield we find no accusation against Smith at this date. Wingfield
says that Captain Newport before he departed asked him how he thought
himself settled in the government, and that he replied “that no
disturbance could endanger him or the colony, but it must be wrought
either by Captain Gosnold or Mr. Archer, for the one was strong with
friends and followers and could if he would; and the other was troubled
with an ambitious spirit and would if he could.”
The writer of Newport's “Relatyon” describes the Virginia savages as a
very strong and lusty race, and swift warriors. “Their skin is tawny;
not so borne, but with dyeing and painting themselves, in which they
delight greatly.” That the Indians were born white was, as we shall see
hereafter, a common belief among the first settlers in Virginia and New
England. Percy notes a distinction between maids and married women: “The
maids shave close the fore part and sides of their heads, and leave it
long behind, where it is tied up and hangs down to the hips. The married
women wear their hair all of a length, but tied behind as that of maids
is. And the women scratch on their bodies and limbs, with a sharp iron,
pictures of fowls, fish, and beasts, and rub into the 'drawings' lively
colors which dry into the flesh and are permanent.” The “Relatyon” says
the people are witty and ingenious and allows them many good qualities,
but makes this exception: “The people steal anything comes near them;
yea, are so practiced in this art, that looking in our face, they would
with their foot, between their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, or
any indifferent light thing, which having once conveyed, they hold it
an injury to take the same from them. They are naturally given to
treachery; howbeit we could not find it in our travel up the river, but
rather a most kind and loving people.”