It was necessary to follow for a time the fortune of the Virginia
colony after the departure of Captain Smith. Of its disasters and speedy
decline there is no more doubt than there is of the opinion of Smith
that these were owing to his absence. The savages, we read in his
narration, no sooner knew he was gone than they all revolted and spoiled
and murdered all they encountered.
The day before Captain Smith sailed, Captain Davis arrived in a small
pinnace with sixteen men. These, with a company from the fort under
Captain Ratcliffe, were sent down to Point Comfort. Captain West and
Captain Martin, having lost their boats and half their men among the
savages at the Falls, returned to Jamestown. The colony now lived upon
what Smith had provided, “and now they had presidents with all their
appurtenances.” President Percy was so sick he could neither go nor
stand. Provisions getting short, West and Ratcliffe went abroad to
trade, and Ratcliffe and twenty-eight of his men were slain by an ambush
of Powhatan's, as before related in the narrative of Henry Spelman.
Powhatan cut off their boats, and refused to trade, so that Captain West
set sail for England. What ensued cannot be more vividly told than in
the “General Historie”:
“Now we all found the losse of Capt. Smith, yea his greatest maligners
could now curse his losse; as for corne provision and contribution from
the salvages, we had nothing but mortall wounds, with clubs and
arrowes; as for our hogs, hens, goats, sheep, horse, or what lived,
our commanders, officers and salvages daily consumed them, some small
proportions sometimes we tasted, till all was devoured; then swords,
arms, pieces or anything was traded with the salvages, whose cruell
fingers were so oft imbrued in our blouds, that what by their crueltie,
our Governor's indiscretion, and the losse of our ships, of five hundred
within six months after Capt. Smith's departure, there remained not past
sixty men, women and children, most miserable and poore creatures;
and those were preserved for the most part, by roots, herbes, acorns,
walnuts, berries, now and then a little fish; they that had starch in
these extremities made no small use of it, yea, even the very skinnes
of our horses. Nay, so great was our famine, that a salvage we slew and
buried, the poorer sort took him up again and eat him, and so did divers
one another boyled, and stewed with roots and herbs. And one amongst the
rest did kill his wife, poudered her and had eaten part of her before it
was knowne, for which he was executed, as he well deserved; now whether
she was better roasted, boyled, or carbonaded, I know not, but of such a
dish as powdered wife I never heard of. This was that time, which still
to this day we called the starving time; it were too vile to say and
scarce to be believed what we endured; but the occasion was our owne,
for want of providence, industrie and government, and not the barreness
and defect of the country as is generally supposed.”
This playful allusion to powdered wife, and speculation as to how she
was best cooked, is the first instance we have been able to find of what
is called “American humor,” and Captain Smith has the honor of being the
first of the “American humorists” who have handled subjects of this kind
with such pleasing gayety.
It is to be noticed that this horrible story of cannibalism and
wife-eating appears in Smith's “General Historie” of 1624, without a
word of contradiction or explanation, although the company as early as
1610 had taken pains to get at the facts, and Smith must have seen their
“Declaration,” which supposes the story was started by enemies of the
colony. Some reported they saw it, some that Captain Smith said so, and
some that one Beadle, the lieutenant of Captain Davis, did relate it. In
“A True Declaration of the State of the Colonie in Virginia,” published
by the advice and direction of the Council of Virginia, London, 1610, we
read:
“But to clear all doubt, Sir Thomas Yates thus relateth the tragedie:
“There was one of the company who mortally hated his wife, and therefore
secretly killed her, then cut her in pieces and hid her in divers parts
of his house: when the woman was missing, the man suspected, his house
searched, and parts of her mangled body were discovered, to excuse
himself he said that his wife died, that he hid her to satisfie his
hunger, and that he fed daily upon her. Upon this his house was again
searched, when they found a good quantitie of meale, oatmeale, beanes
and pease. Hee therefore was arraigned, confessed the murder, and was
burned for his horrible villainy.”
This same “True Declaration,” which singularly enough does not mention
the name of Captain Smith, who was so prominent an actor in Virginia
during the period to which it relates, confirms all that Smith said
as to the character of the colonists, especially the new supply which
landed in the eight vessels with Ratcliffe and Archer. “Every
man overvalueing his own strength would be a commander; every man
underprizing another's value, denied to be commanded.” They were
negligent and improvident. “Every man sharked for his present bootie,
but was altogether careless of succeeding penurie.” To idleness and
faction was joined treason. About thirty “unhallowed creatures,” in the
winter of 1610, some five months before the arrival of Captain Gates,
seized upon the ship Swallow, which had been prepared to trade with the
Indians, and having obtained corn conspired together and made a league
to become pirates, dreaming of mountains of gold and happy robberies. By
this desertion they weakened the colony, which waited for their return
with the provisions, and they made implacable enemies of the Indians by
their violence. “These are that scum of men,” which, after roving the
seas and failing in their piracy, joined themselves to other pirates
they found on the sea, or returned to England, bound by a mutual oath to
discredit the land, and swore they were drawn away by famine. “These are
they that roared at the tragicall historie of the man eating up his dead
wife in Virginia”--“scandalous reports of a viperous generation.”
If further evidence were wanting, we have it in “The New Life of
Virginia,” published by authority of the Council, London, 1612. This is
the second part of the “Nova Britannia,” published in London, 1609. Both
are prefaced by an epistle to Sir Thomas Smith, one of the Council and
treasurer, signed “R. I.” Neither document contains any allusion to
Captain John Smith, or the part he played in Virginia. The “New Life of
Virginia,” after speaking of the tempest which drove Sir Thomas Gates
on Bermuda, and the landing of the eight ships at Jamestown, says:
“By which means the body of the plantation was now augmented with such
numbers of irregular persons that it soon became as so many members
without a head, who as they were bad and evil affected for the most part
before they went hence; so now being landed and wanting restraint, they
displayed their condition in all kinds of looseness, those chief and
wisest guides among them (whereof there were not many) did nothing but
bitterly contend who should be first to command the rest, the common
sort, as is ever seen in such cases grew factious and disordered out
of measure, in so much as the poor colony seemed (like the Colledge of
English fugitives in Rome) as a hostile camp within itself; in which
distemper that envious man stept in, sowing plentiful tares in the
hearts of all, which grew to such speedy confusion, that in few months
ambition, sloth and idleness had devoured the fruit of former labours,
planting and sowing were clean given over, the houses decayed, the
church fell to ruin, the store was spent, the cattle consumed, our
people starved, and the Indians by wrongs and injuries made our
enemies.... As for those wicked Impes that put themselves a shipboard,
not knowing otherwise how to live in England; or those ungratious sons
that daily vexed their fathers hearts at home, and were therefore thrust
upon the voyage, which either writing thence, or being returned back to
cover their own leudnes, do fill mens ears with false reports of their
miserable and perilous life in Virginia, let the imputation of misery
be to their idleness, and the blood that was spilt upon their own heads
that caused it.”
Sir Thomas Gates affirmed that after his first coming there he had seen
some of them eat their fish raw rather than go a stone's cast to fetch
wood and dress it.
The colony was in such extremity in May, 1610, that it would have been
extinct in ten days but for the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir
George Somers and Captain Newport from the Bermudas. These gallant
gentlemen, with one hundred and fifty souls, had been wrecked on the
Bermudas in the Sea Venture in the preceding July. The terrors of the
hurricane which dispersed the fleet, and this shipwreck, were much
dwelt upon by the writers of the time, and the Bermudas became a sort of
enchanted islands, or realms of the imagination. For three nights,
and three days that were as black as the nights, the water logged Sea
Venture was scarcely kept afloat by bailing. We have a vivid picture of
the stanch Somers sitting upon the poop of the ship, where he sat three
days and three nights together, without much meat and little or no
sleep, conning the ship to keep her as upright as he could, until he
happily descried land. The ship went ashore and was wedged into the
rocks so fast that it held together till all were got ashore, and a good
part of the goods and provisions, and the tackling and iron of the ship
necessary for the building and furnishing of a new ship.
This good fortune and the subsequent prosperous life on the island and
final deliverance was due to the noble Somers, or Sommers, after whom
the Bermudas were long called “Sommers Isles,” which was gradually
corrupted into “The Summer Isles.” These islands of Bermuda had ever
been accounted an enchanted pile of rocks and a desert inhabitation for
devils, which the navigator and mariner avoided as Scylla and Charybdis,
or the devil himself. But this shipwrecked company found it the most
delightful country in the world, the climate was enchanting, delicious
fruits abounded, the waters swarmed with fish, some of them big enough
to nearly drag the fishers into the sea, while whales could be heard
spouting and nosing about the rocks at night; birds fat and tame and
willing to be eaten covered all the bushes, and such droves of wild hogs
covered the island that the slaughter of them for months seemed not to
diminish their number. The friendly disposition of the birds seemed
most to impress the writer of the “True Declaration of Virginia.” He
remembers how the ravens fed Elias in the brook Cedron; “so God provided
for our disconsolate people in the midst of the sea by foules; but with
an admirable difference; unto Elias the ravens brought meat, unto our
men the foules brought (themselves) for meate: for when they whistled,
or made any strange noyse, the foules would come and sit on their
shoulders, they would suffer themselves to be taken and weighed by our
men, who would make choice of the fairest and fattest and let flie the
leane and lightest, an accident [the chronicler exclaims], I take it
[and everybody will take it], that cannot be paralleled by any Historie,
except when God sent abundance of Quayles to feed his Israel in the
barren wilderness.”
The rescued voyagers built themselves comfortable houses on the island,
and dwelt there nine months in good health and plentifully fed. Sunday
was carefully observed, with sermons by Mr. Buck, the chaplain, an
Oxford man, who was assisted in the services by Stephen Hopkins, one of
the Puritans who were in the company. A marriage was celebrated between
Thomas Powell, the cook of Sir George Somers, and Elizabeth Persons,
the servant of Mrs. Horlow. Two children were also born, a boy who was
christened Bermudas and a girl Bermuda. The girl was the child of Mr.
John Rolfe and wife, the Rolfe who was shortly afterward to become
famous by another marriage. In order that nothing should be wanting to
the ordinary course of a civilized community, a murder was committed. In
the company were two Indians, Machumps and Namontack, whose acquaintance
we have before made, returning from England, whither they had been sent
by Captain Smith. Falling out about something, Machumps slew Namontack,
and having made a hole to bury him, because it was too short he cut off
his legs and laid them by him. This proceeding Machumps concealed till
he was in Virginia.
Somers and Gates were busy building two cedar ships, the Deliverer,
of eighty tons, and a pinnace called the Patience. When these were
completed, the whole company, except two scamps who remained behind and
had adventures enough for a three-volume novel, embarked, and on the
16th of May sailed for Jamestown, where they arrived on the 23d or 24th,
and found the colony in the pitiable condition before described. A few
famished settlers watched their coming. The church bell was rung in
the shaky edifice, and the emaciated colonists assembled and heard the
“zealous and sorrowful prayer” of Chaplain Buck. The commission of Sir
Thomas Gates was read, and Mr. Percy retired from the governorship.
The town was empty and unfurnished, and seemed like the ruin of some
ancient fortification rather than the habitation of living men. The
palisades were down; the ports open; the gates unhinged; the church
ruined and unfrequented; the houses empty, torn to pieces or burnt;
the people not able to step into the woods to gather fire-wood; and the
Indians killing as fast without as famine and pestilence within.
William Strachey was among the new-comers, and this is the story that he
despatched as Lord Delaware's report to England in July. On taking stock
of provisions there was found only scant rations for sixteen days, and
Gates and Somers determined to abandon the plantation, and, taking all
on board their own ships, to make their way to Newfoundland, in the hope
of falling in with English vessels. Accordingly, on the 7th of June they
got on board and dropped down the James.
Meantime the news of the disasters to the colony, and the supposed loss
of the Sea Venture, had created a great excitement in London, and a
panic and stoppage of subscriptions in the company. Lord Delaware, a man
of the highest reputation for courage and principle, determined to go
himself, as Captain-General, to Virginia, in the hope of saving the
fortunes of the colony. With three ships and one hundred and fifty
persons, mostly artificers, he embarked on the 1st of April, 1610, and
reached the Chesapeake Bay on the 5th of June, just in time to meet the
forlorn company of Gates and Somers putting out to sea.
They turned back and ascended to Jamestown, when landing on Sunday, the
10th, after a sermon by Mr. Buck, the commission of Lord Delaware was
read, and Gates turned over his authority to the new Governor. He swore
in as Council, Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers,
Admiral; Captain George Percy; Sir Ferdinando Wenman, Marshal; Captain
Christopher Newport, and William Strachey, Esq., Secretary and Recorder.
On the 19th of June the brave old sailor, Sir George Somers, volunteered
to return to the Bermudas in his pinnace to procure hogs and other
supplies for the colony. He was accompanied by Captain Argall in the
ship Discovery. After a rough voyage this noble old knight reached the
Bermudas. But his strength was not equal to the memorable courage of his
mind. At a place called Saint George he died, and his men, confounded at
the death of him who was the life of them all, embalmed his body and
set sail for England. Captain Argall, after parting with his consort,
without reaching the Bermudas, and much beating about the coast, was
compelled to return to Jamestown.
Captain Gates was sent to England with despatches and to procure more
settlers and more supplies. Lord Delaware remained with the colony less
than a year; his health failing, he went in pursuit of it, in March,
1611, to the West Indies. In June of that year Gates sailed again, with
six vessels, three hundred men, one hundred cows, besides other cattle,
and provisions of all sorts. With him went his wife, who died on the
passage, and his daughters. His expedition reached the James in August.
The colony now numbered seven hundred persons. Gates seated himself at
Hampton, a “delicate and necessary site for a city.”
Percy commanded at Jamestown, and Sir Thomas Dale went up the river to
lay the foundations of Henrico.
We have no occasion to follow further the fortunes of the Virginia
colony, except to relate the story of Pocahontas under her different
names of Amonate, Matoaka, Mrs. Rolfe, and Lady Rebecca.