 | The Old Dominion |  |
II
JAMESTOWN, THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE
"In Kingdoms the first Foundation or Plantation is of more
Dignitie and Merit than all that followeth."
—Sir Francis Bacon
I
CLOSE to the northern bank of the winding
and placid James, some three score miles
above where it pours its waters through Hampton
Roads into that inland sea, the Chesapeake,
into which flow well-nigh a score of rivers,
some of them among the noblest on the globe,
lies a narrow island. Steeped in the sunshine,
or soaked by the rains, it has until but yesterday,
as it were, lain asleep for the last two centuries
and more, just as it had lain, with the
exception of about seventy years, since the
Powhatan at flood cut it from its neighboring
shore. At the upper end, on the river side,
in a clump of trees, and what was until lately
a tangle of shrubbery, on the edge of which are
piled the remains of an old redout, a relic of the
surviving fragment of the first Protestant church
built in America. About it lie the traces of a once
extensive graveyard, where of late the pious
zeal of loyal women of the Land has uncovered
and preserved a few broken tombs graved with
armorial escutcheons and bearing the names of
a very few among those whose ashes have lain
for nearly three hundred years embosomed in
Virginia's soil.
The foundation of a later State-House has
been exhumed near by; and the eye of the born
antiquary may detect out on the plateau in the
sun the faint traces of ancient streets and houses,
but to the ordinary passer-by, there has been
until just now nothing to distinguish it from the
ordinary Virginia river-plantation dozing in the
sunshine.
Yet, here on this very spot, at the head of this
little island was Jamestown, the Birthplace of
the American People: the first rude cradle in
which was swaddled the tiny infant that in time
has sprung up to be among the leaders of the
nations; the torch-bearer of civilization, and
the standard-bearer of popular government
throughout the world. Here was planted three
hundred years ago the first surviving colony
of the English-speaking Race which has since
globe. Here was established the first outpost
and earliest settlement of the American nation,
since then dedicated to the principle that "Government
of the People, by the People, and for
the People shall not perish from the earth."
And this in brief is the story of it, and the
manner in which it came about.
On the morning of the 13th day of May,
1607, James I. being then King of England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and Philip III.
being King of Spain, the American Continent
when the sun rose belonged absolutely to Spain.
When the sun set, could the eyes of men have
read the future, they would have seen that it
belonged to England. This was accomplished
by a little band of six score men who "after long
toil and pain" landed that day about the hour
of four from three small ships: the Discovery,
the Good Speed, and the Sarah[1]
Constant, and
planted the flag of the Anglo-Saxon on the point
which they promptly proceeded to fortify and
call "James Fort" or "James Town," after their
king.
The day that a besieged city capitulates is not
so truly the day of its capture as the day on
the walls never again to be taken down. So,
much more here. The approach had been long
and arduous. Effort after effort, attempt after
attempt, had been made to make a breach in
Spain's extensive defenses. As has been described
in the previous paper, a break had
actually been made under Sir Walter Raleigh's
inspiring direction twenty-odd years before by a
gallant and devoted band on Roanoke Island,
some score of leagues to the southward. But
the assault had finally failed; the little band on
Roanoke Island had disappeared into the mysterious
limbo of Croatan, that vague land of
Romance. It was this new band of settlers who
on this May day, 1607, finally seized and permanently
held the outpost, which was the key to
the continent, and led to the supremacy of the
Saxon Race, with its laws, its religion and its
civilization in North America.
As a matter of mere history, it ought to be
known that North America was firmly settled
by the English people, and the Anglo-Saxon
civilization was established in this country before
the Mayflower, under the encouragement
and charter of the Virginia Company, brought
her body of devoted Pilgrims to the shores of
North Virginia.
This happened at Jamestown. And unless
this had happened at Jamestown, it is far from
improbable, that the French colonies planted
under the charter of Louis XIII., on what is
now the coast of Maine, which were rooted out
in 1612-13, by the expeditions under Samuel
Argall, sent for that purpose by Sir Thomas
Dale, Governor of Virginia, might by 1620 have
extended so far to the southward as to seize
the coast and prevent any settlement of the
English between them and the Dutch colony
on Manhattan Island. Moreover, but for the
development of the Virginia colony, in which the
People and Church of England were so deeply
interested, the destinies of the nations might
have been changed, and under the pusillanimous
James, who even as late as 1618 sacrificed Sir
Walter Raleigh to the enmity of the Spaniard,
Spain, with her civilization, might have so firmly
established herself on the shores of Virginia that
no English settlement could have taken root.
By this time the colony of Virginia, first
rooted at Jamestown, and fertilized with the
ashes of over three thousand English settlers,
had spread until it had become a Commonwealth,
with settlements extending almost unbrokenly
over a hundred miles into the interior;
with several towns, one of them with houses
of the rivers; with a charter which secured forever
to all colonists in Virginia, and their
posterity from sea to sea, the rights, privileges
and immunities of native-born citizens of Great
Britain; with a Vice-Regal Court, a Legislative
Assembly composed of twenty-two burgesses
elected by the people, with an Established
Church, Monthly Courts, a University projected
and endowed with ten thousand acres of land,
and a College already begun for the education of
the Indian population, under a competent master,
endowed with a thousand acres of land, for
which over fifteen hundred pounds (equal to ten
times the amount now) had been subscribed;
with a hospital "containing fourscore lodgings
and beds sent to furnish it." In fine, with a
civilization which, though at the time it lacked
the comforts and the expansion which it later
attained, contained the substantial principles of
the later civilization which throughout her entire
Colonial period, and for over a half century
afterwards, made Virginia the first colony in
America in influence, as she was in time, and
more than any other contributed to the making
of this nation.
That this happened at Jamestown, and that
Cavalier and Roundhead, Churchman and Puritan
colony, the historian can now show; not from
partisan histories, but from the facts taken from
the original records, many of which have only
of late become generally known.
In consequence of Columbus's discovery of
the New World and of the discoveries and explorations
of the southern parts of the new-found
hemisphere by Spanish navigators, Spain had
grown until, by the middle of the sixteenth century,
she was not only the richest kingdom of
the world, but the most arrogant, and the most
powerful. She promised to become greater than
Rome had been under the Cæsars. Her empire
covered twice as great an extent of land as that
over which Rome's eagles ever flew, and her sway
extended over many times as broad a main. She
made it death to fly any other flag than her own
in those seas which have retained almost to our
own days the name of the Spanish Main. Indeed,
she had it in her power to have been Mistress of
the World in a far larger sense than Rome ever
was. But she lacked the wisdom of Rome.
Not content with commanding the actions of her
teeming myriads of subjects stretching from the
Baltic to the Pacific, she undertook to assert
her imperial sovereignty over their minds as
well, and this sovereignty was already becoming
prelatical ecclesiasticism, bent on perpetuating
its power and prepared to put to the sword every
one who did not bow abjectly before its dogmatism
and arrogance.
Happily for the world, just at this time the
Crown of England fell on the brow of the able
and hard-headed daughter of Henry VIII. and
Anne Boleyn, the great Elizabeth, and yet more
happily, she found herself at the head of an
awakened and eager people alive in every fibre
of their being and most of all alive to the peril
of allowing Spain to go on unchecked in her
career of conquest over body and mind.
The rest of Europe was growing anxious under
Spain's advancing power, and Francis I. had
sent his powerful rival, Charles V., a message
asking by what right he claimed the earth.
There was some sort of claim to discovery
under the patronage of England by John Cabot
and his sons. This was the ostensible peg on
which was now hung the right of further exploration
and settlement. But it is probable
that even had the Cabots never sailed beyond
the Downs, the Sea Dogs of Devon and Cornwall,
of Bucks and Kent and Surrey with their
Norse blood, would have set their prows into
the west where El Dorado, the Fountain of
mythical Fountain of Youth. Within a few
years Fame was filling her trump with the names
of a score of these captains—of whom many
survive to-day: John Hawkins, Sir Francis
Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Captain Christopher
Newport, Sir Richard Grenville and the
brave Gilberts, Sir Adrian, Sir Humphrey and
Sir John, half-brothers of Walter Raleigh, and
Sir Walter himself, bold adventurer; fine gentleman;
patron of explorers; favorite of Queen
Elizabeth; godfather and first president or governor
of Virginia.
Almost the whole of the sixteenth century
was spent in one long contest between the two
civilizations: the Latin and the Saxon. Into
the contest entered every principle that two
widely diverse civilizations represent, and every
feeling that can animate nations. Patriotic zeal;
religious fervor; bigotry; personal adherence,
or hostility; lust of power and lust of gold—
all united to make the contest one of continuous
war between the two peoples, if not the
governments of the two countries. The wealth,
the power and the arrogance of Spain, with her
bigotry, aroused the people of England to a
pitch which had possibly not been known since
the Norman Conquest.
Although England claimed the middle zone of
North America by virtue of the discovery made
in 1497 by John Cabot and his sons, under
patent of Henry VII., of which event the only
official record is the item noted in the "Privy
Purse" of Henry VII., "Ten pounds to hym
who found the New Land," the continent
was won a hundred years later in the war with
Spain, which lasted substantially through the
latter half of the sixteenth century.
For a generation the great sea captains of
England had been training in Western waters
and garnering up implacable hate against Spain.
Sir Philip Sidney had written vigorously of
England's opportunity and duty; Hawkins,
Drake, the Gilberts, Grenville, and others had
flouted Spain and fought her from Cadiz to
Peru. And now Sir Walter Raleigh and his half-brothers,
the Gilberts, gentlemen of Devon, bred
on traditions of sea-fighters, and hereditary haters
of Spain, had definitely set before themselves the
colonization of the region claimed by England.
It was a perilous business. Spain had declared
it piracy to sail the western seas under
any other flag than her own. Menendez, the
Spanish Governor, had ruthlessly butchered
Coligny's Huguenot colony started at St. Augustine
on the St. John's River.
The struggle was on between Spain and England—and
not only between the countries and
the governments, but between the two races and
the two schools of thought; the two forms of
religion. The Latin and the Saxon had locked
in a wrestle which was to end only with the
absolute supremacy of the one and the subjection
of the other. And Spain was now seeking
to destroy England's power forever.
Menendez's ferocity was destined to make
such a lodgment in the minds of Englishmen
as to be mentioned as a warning in the instructions
given to the first colonists of the race who
effected a permanent settlement.
The treachery of the Spaniards at St. Juan
d'Ulua arrayed against her two of the most
potent enemies she ever had to face: Among
John Hawkins's men was one, who from his fury
against Spain came to be known later as the
"Dragon of the Seas," young Francis Drake.
To the other, who later came to be known as
"The Shepherd of the Seas," more, possibly, than
to any other one man in England, Spain owed
the wresting of North America from her grasp.
For Sir Walter Raleigh inspired and equipped and
dispatched the fleets which opened the way to the
settlement of Virginia and of America. He gave
Virginia her name and was her first governor.
Previous to the final and successful effort there
had been several attempts to plant here colonies
fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh, which failed.
That on Roanoke Island might have succeeded
had not the Spanish war and the peril of the
Spanish Armada kept supplies from being sent
over seas to their relief.
The destruction of the Spanish Armada left
the seas open for England's schemes for colonization
to go into effect.
The victory of England was complete; but it
had been at the cost of her utmost resources.
March 7, 1589, Raleigh signed an indenture
as Chief Governor of Virginia with Thomas
Smith and others, merchants of London, and
John White and others, gentlemen, transferring
the Colony in Virginia and the planting thereof
in his domain to this Company, and contributing
100 pounds towards the planting of the
Christian religion there, and reserving one-fifth
part of the gold and silver for his share.
When, on August 27, 1587, White, the governor
of Raleigh's new colony on Roanoke
Island, sailed for England for supplies he left
behind him eighty-nine men, seventeen women,
and eleven children, among them his daughter,
Eleanor, and her infant daughter, Virginia Dare,
the first English child born on this hemisphere.
war had, as we have seen, become flagrant with
Spain, and he was unable to return until after
the destruction of the Spanish Armada left the
sea once more comparatively open and England
once more free to give her attention to the
work of expansion. Before leaving Roanoke
White had provided that in case the colonists
should have any reason to change their seat,
the place to which they should move should be
so posted that he might be able to follow them.
White was not able to get away finally to his
colony until 1590, when three ships, furnished
at the charge of Mr. John Watts, being ready
to sail for the Indies, "to make spoil of the
Spaniards," being detained under the orders
prohibiting ships from sailing, Raleigh obtained
permission for them to sail on condition that
they should take White back to Virginia. They
would, however, take no one but White himself,
and so he returned alone to Virginia. They
cast anchor off Hatorask on the 15th of August,
but there was no one there; the settlement had
been abandoned. The settlers had not been
murdered; for they had buried boxes containing
books, etc., which some one had found and dug
up afterwards. "Some tracks of feeting they
found upon a sandy bank," says old Strachey
on a tree curiously carved these Roman letters,
C. R. O., which gave them hope that they might
be removed to Croatan." This White interpreted
to mean that the colony had moved to the
Island of Croatan, from which they had previously
taken the friendly Indian, Manteo. White
begged the Captain to take him to Croatan,
which he agreed to do, but a violent storm prevented
him and he determined to sail straight
for England, where they arrived October 24,
1590. This was White's fifth and last voyage
(as he stated to Hackluyt in a letter in 1593).
He fell into a despondency after his disappointment.
There appears to have been a tribe of
Croatans in the interior, at some distance from
the coast, but diligent search failed to find trace
of the lost settlers at that time. And since that
day the researches of investigators have scarcely
been more successful. The little Virginia colony
with the babe, Virginia Dare, simply faded
away into the mystic Land of Romance. Some
effort has been made to prove that there exists
in the interior of North Carolina a body of
people who are rather assumed than shown to
have the mixed blood of the Indian and the
White, and have vague traditions of being thus
descended. Twenty years later when a permanent
James, one hundred miles to the northward,
one boy was found with yellow hair and a lighter
skin than the Indians have, and it has been conjectured
that he might have been the offspring
of some one of the colonists, but his age did not
admit of this explanation, and no man knows
to this day what became of them.
The blotting out of this colony was a heavy
blow to English enterprise, and as one of the old
writers declared, "all hopes of Virginia thus abandoned,
it lay dead and obscured from 1590 to this
year, 1602." By this time, the end of the long war
with Spain was in sight, and the English public,
the English Church, and the English Government
once more turned their eyes to that far off,
but "sweet, wholesome and fruitful country."
Though the efforts made had all failed, the
spirit still remained. Even the death of the
great Queen in 1603 was not able to quench it.
National pride; religious zeal; the spirit of adventure
and of cupidity, all combined to make
the effort time after time to establish a foothold
where all previous efforts had failed.
Just as in our fathers' time, adventure and
the love of gold drew the Argonauts and their
followers around the Horn and across the arid
plains of the West to California, and in our own
Alaska and South Africa; so then the trophies
of Spain's fortune-hunters would not let the
adventurers of Great Britain rest. Hatred of
Spain and envy of the plate-ships of Peru drew
them from the Devon coast. The tales of
Spain's El Dorado untied the purse-strings of
the London companies. But there was another
and loftier motive. The zeal of the children of
those who had suffered at Smithfield and Tower
Hill under the Queen of Philip II. could not
with languor see the church of Torquemada and
Alva bringing vast tribes within their fold.
The cities of England were full of soldiers returned
from the wars in the Low Countries; the
spirit of adventure was abroad, and much more
the hatred of Spain. The State reflected it;
the poet sang of it; the writers wrote of it.
About 1590 Elizabeth granted a commission
to Richmond Greynville of Stow and others,
for discovering lands in the Arctic Ocean to the
domains of Great Cam of Cathaia. August 26,
1591, Captain Thomas Cavendish sailed from
England on his last fatal voyage. In 1592
(January 25), Captain Christopher Newport
sailed from England with three ships and a pinnace
for the West Indies, where he took and
"spoiled" several Spanish towns. In this same
on the Spanish settlements at Panama, the nearest
way to the South Sea, and the key to the possessions
of Spain and America. The adventurers
provided thirteen vessels and the Queen two
ships of war. Sir Walter Raleigh was to have had
command of the expedition as Admiral; but he was
again balked in his enterprise by the peremptory
order of the Queen to resign and return forthwith
to Court. He, however, laid off the plan of the
expedition, and Sir John Burrough, his vice-admiral,
and Captain Christopher Newport, with
other vessels, captured the great carrack, the
Madre de Dios, which Edwards in his "Life of
Raleigh" says "was in one sense the most brilliant
feat of privateering ever accomplished, even
in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and a piece of
mercantile enterprise pregnant with results."
All through '93 and '94 the adventures to the
American shores went on under the influence of
Raleigh's enterprising genius. In '94 he sent a
small expedition to Guiana, in South America,
and in '95 (February 6) he sailed himself on
his famous voyage to that coast. The interest
in America increased throughout '96, '97, '98
and '99, and many new adventurers were enlisted,
some to invest their property, and others
to adventure their persons in the work of making
his interest in the work, and vessel
after vessel sailed to Guiana, or to some other
point on the coast in his interest. In 1602
he sent Samuel Mace of Weymouth on a vessel
to Virginia, and in that same year Captain
Bartholomew Gosnold and others voyaged
to our New England coast. On the 24th of
March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died at Richmond,
and on the same day James VI. of Scotland
was proclaimed King of England as James
I. That day Raleigh fell. He made the mistake
of opposing James and espousing the cause
of Arabella Stuart, and James never forgave
him. "I have heard of you but rawly, Sir Walter,"
he said to him acridly when later on Raleigh
went to him to offer him his submission. In time
he pretended to receive his submission, but it
was Raleigh's first offense, coupled with James's
cowardly fear of Spain, which afterwards sacrificed
the greatest colonizer whom England has
ever known, to the hatred of Spain. Raleigh,
however, had set on foot too great a work for even
James to undo, and on the 10th of May Captain
Bartholomew Gilbert set sail for the Chesepian
Bay in the country of Virginia. Gilbert, his surgeon,
and several officers and men went on shore
on their arrival, and were all killed by the Indians.
In 1605 Captain George Weymouth and
others, some of whom had been with Raleigh in
Guiana, visited again the North Virginia, later
the New England coast, and that same year
Champlain entered the present harbor of Plymouth
on that coast.
Peace was signed by Philip III. and Lord
Howard at Valadolid in 1605 (June 25).
This Treaty of Peace opened the way to
the immediate colonization of America by the
English.
Indeed, peace had already become assured
for England, and, under the conviction that
Spain must make peace, steps were already
being taken to recover the lost land.
A month later Captain George Weymouth,
who had been cruising along the coast of North
Virginia, returned to England taking with him
five Indians; "which accident," says Sir Ferdinando
Gorges, later President of the Plymouth
Company, "must be acknowledged as the means,
under God, of putting on foot, and giving life to
our Plantations." Weymouth was arrested afterwards
under suspicion of setting forth to betray
the Virginia Colony to Spain, but at this time he
was engaged in trying to enlist others in American
colonization. So great was the interest in
Virginia that two companies were formed and two
shores of Virginia, the other on the northerly.
Thus, in 1606, despite the failure of all earlier
attempts, an expedition was ready to set forth to
try to seize once more the American continent
for England, her King and People.
A great obstacle had been the difficulty of
securing the active co-operation of the Government
in the work. Experiment had abundantly
proved that such aid was necessary for final
success. This was now partly secured.
On April 10/20, 1606, the warrant for the proposed
Virginia charter was prepared by the
Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, and was
passed under the great seal of the Lord Chancellor,
Sir Thomas Egerton. It was stated to
be "for the furtherance of so noble a work as
the planting of Christianity among the Heathens,"
and claimed for the Crown of England
the whole of North America between 34 and
45 degrees north latitude, "commonly called
Virginia."
All England was now astir, and on the 10th
day of April, 1606, letters patent were granted
Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard
Hakluit, Edward Maria Wingfield, Raleigh
Gilbert and others, for two separate colonies
and plantations to be made in Virginia, and
companies were incorporated by this one charter.
The first colony was authorized to seat their
plantation in some convenient place between 31
(about Brunswick, Ga.) and 41 degrees North
latitude (about New York City), and when
so located they were to have fifty miles north
and fifty miles south of said location, as well as
one hundred miles to sea, and one hundred
miles within the land. The second colony
was authorized to seat their plantation between
38 (about the southern point of Maryland)
and 45 degrees north latitude (about
Halifax, N. S.), and were granted the same extent
of territory with the first, provided, however,
that they should not plant within one
hundred miles of each other. This charter set
forth, among other things, the privileges and
franchises which Raleigh had obtained before
for his first colony, and on which our liberties
are based to-day.
Preparations which were, no doubt, already
on foot were pressed forward rapidly to send out
the colony immediately to take possession and
occupy the goodly land which Raleigh had so
long been trying to reach, and to secure the land
of the Thespians or Chesepians. It was a
dangerous adventure, for the Spaniards were
fate of the last colony at Roanoke must have
been still a matter of constant discussion and
conjecture, which kept very fresh in the minds
of men the perils of adventure in those distant
shores. Cupidity, ambition, the chance of
sudden wealth and power, and fame, like those
which had come to Frobisher and Drake, to
Hawkins and the Gilberts; religious zeal, patriotism,
all combined to turn men's minds to the
new, and, as yet, unknown land.
The Stage is ever apt to reflect the current
feeling of the time, and Virginia became the
theme of the Stage. The play, "Eastward
Hoe," written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson,
and John Marston, was entered for publication
at "Stationers Hall," on the 4th of September,
1605, and gives, though in the form of comedy
and of exaggeration, what was no doubt in the
minds of many men at that time. "Quicksilver,"
"Sea-Gull," "Spendall," "Scape-Thrift,"
were among the characters. "Sir Petronel
Flash" was the first of a long and illustrious
line of Virginian colonels, and their talk was
so racy that the authors presently got themselves
into prison, not indeed for lampooning
Virginia or Virginia colonels, but for their gibes
at the Scots, which was a matter which lay much
King. I venture to quote from the second scene
of the third act.
Enter Sea Gull, Spendall and Scape-Thrift in the
Blewe Anchor Tavern with a Drawer:
Come, Drawer, pierce your neatest
Hogshead and let's have cheer not fit for your Billingsgate
Tavern, but for our Virginian Colonel who will
be here instantly.
Drawer.
You shall have all things fit, sir; please
you have any more wine?
Spendall.
More wine, slave, whether you drink
it or spill it; drawe more.
Sea Gull.
Come, boys, Virginia longs 'till we
share the rest of her maidenhead.
Spendall.
Why, is she inhabited already with any
English?
Sea Gull.
A whole country of English is there,
man, bread of those that were left there in '79, they
have married with the Indians, and make 'em to bring
forth as beautiful faces as any we have in England,
and, therefore, the Indians are so in love with them
that all the treasure they have they lay at their feet.
Scape-Thrift.
But is there such treasure there
as I have heard?
Sea Gull.
I tell thee that gold is more plentiful
there than copper is with us, and for as much red
copper as I can bring, I will have thrice the weight
in gold. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure
their streets are massie gold; all the prisoners they
take are fettered in gold, and for rubies and diamonds
they go forth on holy days and gather them up by the
sea-shore to hang on their children's coats, and stick
in their children's caps, as commonly as our children
wear saffron gilt groates with holes in them.
Scape-Thrift.
And is it a pleasant country with all?
Sea Gull.
As ever the sun shined on. Full of all
kinds of excellent viands, wild boar is as common
there as our tamest bacon is here; venison as mutton,
and then you shall live freely there without sergeants
or courtiers or lawyers, and intelligenceers; (only a
few industrious Scots, perhaps, who are, indeed, dispersed
over the face of the whole earth, but as for them,
there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England
when they are out on 't in the world, and, for my part,
I would a hundred thousand of them were there; for
we are all one-countrymen now you know, and we
should find ten times more comfort of them there than
here. Then for your means to advancement; there
it is simple and not preposterously mixed. You may
be an alderman there, and never be a scavenger; you
may be any other officer there and never be a slave;
you may come to preferment and never be a pandar;
to riches and fortune, and have never the more villany
nor the less wit. Besides, there we shall have no more
law than conscience, and not too much of either; serve
God enough; eat enough; drink enough, and "enough
is as good as a feast."
It was this last speech of Captain Sea Gull
which got Ben Jonson and his friends in jail.
The close of the wars had left London full
of soldiers out of employment, who had returned
and were ready for anything which promised
them the bettering of their fortunes. To these
men Virginia must have commended herself,
and one of them was to become in the first colony
the most able and noted soldier and administrator.
He had returned from a youth of adventure
in the south-eastern part of Europe,
and had influence enough to have himself appointed
one of the first Council of the colony
about to set forth.
It was with reference to this expedition, perhaps,
that Michael Drayton's "Ode to the Virginia
Voyage" was written. It begins:
Worthy your country's name; that honor still pursue,
Go and subdue,
Whilst loytering hinds
Lurk here at home with shame.
Successe you still intice
To get the pearle and gold,
And ours to hold,
Virginia
Earth's only paradise.
The Northern Virginia Company had trouble
from the first, according to Sir Ferdinando
Gorges; because so many merchants were of the
Council that the gentlemen and great adventurers
withdrew from it. The Southern Virginia
Company was more fortunate. It escaped, at
least, this difficulty; for the great majority of
its members were men of the upper class and
almost without exception members of Parliament.
The expedition designed to settle North Virginia
got off first.
August 22, 1606, a ship, the Richard (fiftyfive
tons), was dispatched by Chief Justice
Popham, under Mr. Henry Challons, with
twenty-nine Englishmen and two of Weymouth's
Indians, to settle a colony in North Virginia,
and two months later another ship was dispatched
by him under Captain Thomas Hanham,
and Martin Prinne, "for the seconding of
Captain Challans and his people." Captain
Challans, however, and his people had been
captured by the Spaniards in the West Indies,
and were taken over to Bordeaux, where some
escaped and others became the subject of diplomatic
correspondence, and by Lord Bacon's
Report, were left in prison because, for England
to request their release might be considered a
accident, it is possible that the first colony
in America might have settled in North Virginia.
As it was, the first colony that made good their
footing, settled in Southern Virginia and established,
on the banks of the noble James, the
"Mother Christian town," of the English-speaking
race in America: Jamestown.
On the 20th day of December, 1606, after
many prayers, and sermons in various churches,
three small vessels, the Sarah Constant (of one
hundred tons), Captain Christopher Newport,
Admiral; the Goodspeed (forty tons), Captain
Bartholomew Gosnold, Vice-Admiral; and a
pinnace, the Discovery (twenty tons), Captain
Ratcliffe, all under command of Captain Christopher
Newport as Admiral, dropped down
the river from London, with six score souls
on board besides some fifty-odd mariners, on
their way to Southern Virginia. They carried
with them the destinies of nations.
Three weeks later, on January 16, 1607,
the ships anchored in the Downs, where "the
winds continued contrary so long that they
were forced to stay some time, where they suffered
great storms." The record of the voyage
shows that there was a strong inclination to turn
back then, but they were held to their duty
Master Hunt"; the simple parson, the first
apostle of the Anglo-Saxon race to the Americas,
whose name never appears in the sombre, and
often squalid, records of that time that it does
not illuminate it with the light of a heroic spirit,
wholly devoted to the service alike of his fellowman
and the Most High God. For many weeks
the little ships tossed at anchor within twenty
miles of the coast where lay his home; and many
a heart failed; but not his, this faithful soldier
of Christ whose heart was stayed on Him.
Whether it was in encouraging his fellow-voyagers
in the midst of great storms in which
his own bodily sickness was so severe as to be
deemed worthy of mention, or whether it was in
the even darker hour at Jamestown, when factions
and contentions threatened the destruction
of the colony, he is always mentioned with that
appellation: "Worthy Master Hunt," who endeavored
to calm the troubled spirits of his cosufferers
amid the turbulence alike of the
Atlantic and of the new plantation.
The storms having abated, the ships lost the
coast of England about the 18th of February,
and after a sorry passage reached by the end of
February the southwest part of the great
Canaries. There they stayed several days, taking
for Virginia, taking the old route by the West
Indies. They reached Dominica by the 24th
of March, where they did some little exploration,
and where one of the leading adventurers
appears to have fallen under some suspicion of
stirring up a mutiny, for he was arrested, and
because of it, to quote his own account, was "unjustly
restrained as a prisoner" until June 20,
when he suddenly emerges from his obscurity
into the fame which has for three hundred
years surrounded the name of "Captain John
Smith: President of Virginia, and Admiral of
New England."
The names Sarah and Susan are both used in the earlier
records, but Sarah is the name found in reports of the Company.
II
Once again they set forth, and after three
weeks more, on the 26th of April, about four
o'clock in the morning, they reached the mouth
of the Chesapeake and anchored inside of the
Capes of Virginia, the nearest one of which
was immediately named Cape Henry, after the
promising son of James I., whose chief distinction
is, that he was Sir Walter Raleigh's friend,
and received the dedication of his "History of
the World." They anchored Europe to America;
the old they made fast to the new.
Having landed here, they planted a cross,
taking possession in the name of England; and,
it being Sunday, having, no doubt, under the
direction of "Worthy Master Hunt," first offered
up devout thanksgiving for their escape from the
perils of the sea, which even to-day in our Church
service thankful voyagers occasionally render,
they undertook a little exploration.
It is a curious fact, and speaks for their joy
at reaching land, that, although they found the
aborigines extremely hostile and two of the
ship's company were grievously wounded by
them, so great was their delight on reaching
these shores, clad in fresh vernal garb that, in
their reports, the attack on their men is only incidentally
mentioned, while their records are full
of the memories of the charm of this Virginia
shore, with its clear streams running through
the woods, in that spring season.
Here, that night, the box containing their
sealed orders was opened, and they discovered
who were to be thenceforth their rulers.
The first president was to be elected by the
Council, which was composed of gentlemen the
most noted of whom in after time was this same
young captain who just then was a prisoner.
The first president elected was Edward Maria
Wingfield, a brave and high-minded gentleman,
to deal with the situation that confronted them.
The first Council was composed of the president,
Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John
Ratcliffe, Captain George Archer, Captain John
Martin, Captain John Smith, George Kendall
and George Percy, all old soldiers, and men of
force.
The colonists learned, moreover, even if they
did not know it before, that they were to have
the privileges of British subjects, which, after
all, was the fundamental basis on which the
possibility of a permanent settlement of this
country rested. Many matters were detailed in
their instructions which were in the main sound
and sensible. Among other things the settlers
were ordered, with wise forethought on the part
of the London Council, to establish themselves at
some spot up one of the rivers sufficiently high—
at least one hundred miles—to prevent the Spaniard,
who is ever on the horizon, from coming
on them as Melindus had done on the Huguenots,
and pulling them out of their seats. And,
with this view, they were directed to select a
place where the river would be narrow enough
to enable them to prevent with their ordnance
the Spaniard from reaching them. The broad
James then, as now, but under another kingly
the newcomers, seeking a secure abiding place,
quickly discovered this noble river. Their first
investigations, however, disheartened them, owing
to the discovery that the water was too shoal
for their ships, and when, exploring further, they
discovered that close to the northern bank there
was a channel deep enough for their ships, their
comfort was so great that they named that shore
"Point Comfort," the name it bears to-day.
For many days they worked their way up
the broad stream which was to become so historical
in after time; until, on the 13th day of
May, three hundred years ago, on this small
island in this Virginia river, that little band of
sea-worn adventurers disembarked and planted
the flag of the Anglo-Saxon Race, which, though
often threatened, and sometimes endangered,
has never since been lowered.
The manner of their going is told interestingly
enough in the quaint and virile Elizabethan
English. Having, on May 9, set up a
cross "at Chesupioc Bay," claiming the land for
the Crown of England, and named the place
"Cape Henry" for their young Prince, who
was ever a patron of Virginia colonization, on
May 10 they brought their ships into the river
at "Cape Comfort" channel there. "Leaving
Newport in his shallop going before them, they
went to Kecoughton, now Hampton, and on
from day to day up the stream which they called
"King James his River," looking for "a suitable
seating place." On the 13th/23d of May, after
having "explored up the river" as far as the
mouth of the Appomattox, they moored their
ships to the trees "in six fathom water," and
thus made fast to Jamestown Island and the
American continent.
The account of the landing given at the time
tells how, "After much and weary search (with
their barge coasting still before, as Virgil writeth
Æneas did, arriving in the region of Italy called
Latium, upon the banks of the River Tyber) in
the country of a Warrawance called Wowinchapuncha
(a ditionary to Powhatan) within this
faire River of Paspiheigh, which we have called
the King's River, they selected an extended
plaine and spot of earth which thrust out into
the depth and middest of the channel making a
kinde of Chersonesus or Peninsula. The Trumpets
sounding, the Admirall strooke saile and
before the same the rest of the fleet came to
an ancor, and here to loose no further time the
colony disimbarked, and every man brought his
particular store and furniture together with the
certain canton and quantity of that little half
island of ground was measured which they
began to fortifie, and thereon in the name of God
to raise a Fortresse with the ablest and speediest
meanes they could."
The landing on this spot that day of that little
band of some six score sea-worn men (not counting
fifty or sixty seamen) and the planting of the
English flag was the date of the establishment
of the Anglo-Saxon Race in this hemisphere, and
the true date of the capture of this continent for
the English-speaking people. To employ their
own phrase, they "brake the ice and beat the
paths," and all who came after them found it
easier. For, as Lord Bacon says, "In Kingdoms,
the First Foundation or Plantation is of
more noble dignitie and merit than all that
followeth."
There were bickerings and contentions and
quarrelling, disheartening enough; there were
heart-burnings and backslidings; movements to
give up and return to the flesh-pots of Egypt,
rebellious and weak enough. There were occasions,
and even periods when it appeared as
though almost all spirit had deserted them, and
their great enterprise must fail. But in the
providence of God they survived them all.
Time fails to go into the vicissitudes and struggles
of this little colony, which, like the Spartan
band, held the gateway by the sea against the
seemingly overwhelming forces which ever
pressed on and on.
In this age, when well-nigh the whole earth
lies just outside of our neighborhood; when
every morning's dispatches bring us news of
almost every portion of the globe; when the
heart of Africa and the frozen regions of the
Arctic zone have been explored and charted;
when there is scarcely a region in which a traveller
may not venture with security, it is difficult to
realize just what the conditions were amid which
this colony was founded. Our imagination has
been almost destroyed by the destruction of the
standards by which we form our conceptions.
The wonders of the world are scarcely any longer
wonderful, and the labors of Hercules are excelled
by the work of thousands of enterprising
companies every day of our life. We may now
coast for pleasure where three hundred years ago
it was more dangerous to venture than to beard
the Nemean lion roused. The vast terra incognita
that stretched illimitably before the eager
eyes of those settlers is as familiar to us as a
city park to the inhabitants about it; and the
trackless wild, which seemed to swallow them
public. But on that May day three
hundred years ago, when the company of those
little ships debarked and made their final landing
on American soil, they faced every peril and
danger that the human mind can imagine.
Every tree and bush and patch of weeds might
conceal a crafty Indian with his deadly arrow.
The Spaniard with sword and stake was ever
on the horizon. The shadow of "Melindus"
was yet black.
No one who has the least conception of what
those men endured will question their courage.
It is possible, however, that had they known
what they had to face in their new home the
stoutest hearted of them might have quailed.
To face death was nothing to such men, it was
an incident of the life of every man as it is to-day
of the life of the soldier in the field. Indeed,
this little band was the forlorn hope of volunteers
sent to seize a continent. They made the
breach and held it against all odds, and it is to
the lasting renown of the English Race that as
fast as their numbers failed they were replaced.
On their maintaining their position hung the
fate of North America, and possibly of the world.
They had reached a charmed but an unknown
land with a changeable and an untried climate.
could seed and harvest a new crop, had been
wasted during their long voyage and would not
last them out. Their form of government, under
which the president could always be removed
by a majority of the Council, was one well
framed to breed faction. The community of
interest which was imagined to be necessary in a
new land placed the industrious at the mercy
of the idle, and the zealous supported the shirker.
But it is well for the Anglo-Saxon Race to pause
and take note of the one great fact, that, however
their perils may have alarmed them, however their
vast isolation may have awed them, there always
survived spirit enough to preserve them, and they
remained in this far and perilous outpost of the
Anglo-Saxon civilization, and with the devotion
of the vestal virgin of old, kept the fire, however
dim its spark, ever alight on the sacred shrine.
Before the first summer was out sixty men of
the one hundred and four whom Newport left
when he returned to England were dead, and,
though others came in their place, before two
years had passed another large section of them
had been laid away on the shores of the James,
whose current has borne away their ashes as the
current of time has borne away their memory.
In fact, of all that brave company scarcely one
that for which he set forth, save, haply, "Worthy
Master Hunt," who counted nought so that he
might win souls to Christ, and Captain John
Smith, who owes his fame even more to his pen
than to his sword.
Christopher Newport, who was the guardian
angel of the colony, and preserved it from extirpation
in more than one crisis, has no
monument in all this State of Virginia. It is
questionable if even the name with which he
is supposed to be associated, actually was derived
from him. He explored the seas of both
the East and West; and, having had sole command
of the first five voyages which brought the
earlier colonists here and subsequently relieved
their necessities when they were about to perish,
his shotted hammock was swung at the last
in the long surges of the Indian Seas.
Bartholomew Gosnold, that "worthy and
religious gentleman," bold discoverer and explorer
of both coasts of Virginia, was laid in an
unmarked grave somewhere there at Jamestown
where the waters have cut into the shore, and
his heroic dust has long since been swept away
by the waters of the James, like that of so many
another brave and devoted soldier and mariner.
Years afterwards Captain John Smith declared
"not the very house he had builded; not the
land he had digged with his own hands."
But though these men and their followers are
not known save to a few historical students, their
work is written large upon the history of the
world. They laid the foundation for what we
call North America. Truly, "they brake the
ice and beat the paths," and the rest was comparatively
easy. One of them, Captain John
Smith, has, indeed, through the skill of his pen,
found imperishable fame, but of all the rest there
is scarcely one whose name is known at present
except to the small class of historical scholars
whose pleasure is to delve among musty records,
and whose reward is the joy of finding the jewel,
Truth. A high-minded and "valiant gentleman"
like Edward Maria Wingfield, successor to Sir
Walter Raleigh as first governor of Virginia; a
scholarly man like George Percy, brother to
the Duke of Northumberland, who wrote in
his hut at Jamestown the heartrending accounts
of the "starving time"; bold seamen and explorers
like Newport, Gosnold and Argall,
who explored the coast and repelled intruders,
and made the crossing of the sea in their frail
boats so common that in a few years all might
adventure there; devoted and faithful servants
Bucke and "Excellent Mr. Whittaker," the
"First Apostle to the Americans": bold soldiers
of Christ, whose names never appear in the
dim records of that time that they do not
illuminate them with the reflected glory of their
Master's service; and all the long following who
through the first fifteen years of the colony's
history faced death in every form, and faced it
bravely, because it was "for the Kingdom of
God and the Kingdom of England"—who, except
the small class of seekers for historic truth,
knows anything of their fortitude, sacrifices and
heroic deeds? The histories which have circulated
for nearly a century have dealt mainly with
what they deemed blemishes on the colony. A
few picturesque episodes like the rescue of John
Smith by Pocahontas, or the shipment of the
"chaste maids" as wives for some of the
settlers, or the appearance of Newport at the
crucial time, or the wreck of the Sea Venture
on the "still vext Bermoothes," have been perpetuated.
The occasional shipment of wild
characters and criminals convicted under the
hard laws of the period have been seized on and
made the subject of exegesis as protracted as it
is often inaccurate. But the great and epochmaking
work that this first colony of Jamestown
which they endured are scarcely known
at all to the world at large.
Yet the Virginia Colony not only planted
and developed Virginia; they seized and held
the continent, explored and charted and protected
its shores from Florida to Nova Scotia;
established thereon the Saxon civilization and
the Protestant religion, and finally gave America
its distinctive form of government.
The first month was spent in fortifying against
the savages, of whom they had already experience
on their first landing and were to have yet bitterer
experience, until they themselves became well-nigh
as crafty and revengeful as the savages; and
afterwards in "exploring the King's River" as they
had been urged to do by the Council in London.
The first night after their landing, "about
midnight some savages came prying at them."
Two weeks later, on May 28, the Werrowance
of Paspaha came himself with one hundred
armed savages and made signs to the English to
lay their arms away, but they would not trust
him so far. Two days later he sent forty of
his men with a deer, as a present, and "they
faine would have laine in the Fort all night."
But the English knew their business better than
to trust them.
The last day of that month Newport took with
him George Percy, John Smith, who was still
under arrest, and four other "Gentlemen,"
Francis Nelson, and three other mariners, and
Jonas Poole and thirteen other sailors and set
forth in his shallop "to discover up the river."
Captain John Smith later claimed this as one of
his exploring expeditions, but in fact, Smith was
still restrained as a prisoner and so remained
until the 26th of June, twenty days after their
return to Jamestown, when he was discharged.
They named the north side of the river
"Popham Side," doubtless in allusion to the
North Virginia Colony which had sailed the
summer before under Sir John Popham's
patronage; the south side they called "Salisbury
Side," and though the name is lost in Virginia,
men still speak, and are spoken of as coming
from "The South Side." As the explorers proceeded
up the river, "so much they were ravisht
with the admirable sweetnesse of the streame,
and with the pleasant land trending along on
either side, that their joy exceeded, and with
great admiration they praised God."
Whenever they encamped the Indians met
them and danced for them and "took tobacco"
with them, but when they reached Jamestown on
their return they discovered that the Indians to
king, had attacked the fort and killed a boy and
wounded eleven men in a fight, "which endured
hot about an hour," and in which the Council
were in front "in mayntayning the Forte," and
four of the five present were wounded (Gosnold,
Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall), and "our President,
Mr. Wingfield (who showed himself a valiant
gentleman) had an arrow shot clean through
his bearde, yet escaped hurte."
On their trip the explorers learned from an
Indian at Turkey Island, who laid out with a
pen given him the whole river, that at a great
distance were the mountains, and beyond them
that which they "expected," the South Sea.
On Whit Sunday, June 3, they reached "the
Falles," where they "feasted the King Pawhatah,
giving him beer, aqua vite and sack
to drink, and made him very sick with their
hot drinks." After dinner Captain Newport,
"upon one of the little ilets at the mouth of the
Falls," where Richmond now stands, "set up a
crosse with this inscription: "JACOBUS REX,
1607, and his owne name belowe."
When on Monday, June 2, Newport, in the
Sarah Constant, departed from James Fort
for England, accompanied by the Goodspeed,
he took with him "the First Report of His
Virginia to His Majestie's Counsel for Virginia
in England"; the "First Relatyon" of the
discovery up James River, with a "dearnall of
our voyage," a "draughte of our river"; and
also a number of letters, among which was one
to the Earl of Salisbury. In this letter the
writer, William Brewster, says:
"This is all I will saye to you, that suche a
Baye, a Rivar, and a land, dide nevar the eye
of man behould; and at the head of the Rivar,
which is 160 myles longe ar Rokes and mountaynes,
that prommyseth Infynyt Treasure, but
our Forces be yet too weake, to make further
discovery: Nowe is the King's Majesty offered,
the most statlye, Riche Kingdom in the woorld,
nevar posseste by anye Christian prynce; be you
one meanes amonge manye to further our
secondinge, to conquer this land, as well as you
were a meanes, to further the discovery of it:
and you, yet maye lyve to see Ingland, moore
Riche & Renowned, than anye Kingdom, in all
Europa * * *."
Virginia in the Spring is a prospect to gladden
the heart.
The quarrels and contentions were enough to
have swamped a much stronger colony than
that which had found a resting place on this
of God there was always found enough wisdom
and courage when the final issue came to decide
in favor of maintaining the position which had
been secured.
Time fails to go into a detailed history of the
long struggle. The wrangle that began then
has continued even down to the present time,
and polemists are engaged to-day in discussing
with something of the rancor of the original contestants
whether Captain John Smith was the
greatest man of the early period of the English
settlement of the continent, or whether he was
simply a braggart and a blusterer, who had the
good fortune to survive most of his opponents,
and lived to write a history which damned them
all as a parcel of incompetents and fools. Those
who have the time will find it mighty interesting
reading if they will take the trouble to follow the
original accounts of this earliest plantation of the
English-speaking race on the continent. Possibly
they will not agree with the advocates on
either side. My own study of the case has led
me to the conclusion that, as in most discussions
of the kind, feeling has been allowed to usurp the
place of calm, judicial investigation. I do not
find that Edward Maria Wingfield was what
his opponents in that first King's Council of
weak, incompetent man, and what later generations
of historians have accepted him as being
on their statement. And neither do I find proof
that Captain John Smith was the one man who
accomplished everything of worth that was done
in those first years to establish this colony, any
more than I find it that he was simply a braggart
and a robber of the reputation of others.
Wingfield's report, on the truth of which he
offered to stake his life, as well as his reputation,
sets him before the world as an honorable and
high-minded gentleman, a faithful and unselfish
administrator, and it bears on its face the stamp
of truth which cannot be countefeited.
Captain John Smith had many grievances and
many real wrongs to right, and, no doubt, when
he came to act as his own advocate, he set others
who were opposed to him in a more unenviable
light than the simple facts would have justified.
But for all that, after the long lapse of years, he
stands forth on all the evidence which we have
as being undoubtedly, though not the only
notable man, yet the most notable of all that
ship's company who remained behind when
Newport sailed away. But for him, it is possible,
if not probable, that at more than one crucial
moment the enterprise might have failed; actually
accomplishment of that colony, though the
actors were at times unable to see it, contained
glory enough for all who participated in it.
III
Scarcely had Newport left when the worst
enemy that the new settlers had to encounter,
more lurking and more deadly than the "salvages,"
came upon them. About the 5th of July,
appears the record, "Many of our men fell
sick," and before that season was out, sixty
men of the one hundred and four left by Newport
were in their graves. They had pitched
upon a landing place simply because of the
security which it offered against their enemies,
without knowing aught of the climate and its
perils, and it proved to be a spot so malarial
that before the first summer was out, sixty men
were dead of wounds and disease, as later many
more perished. The sounds of their sufferings
so impressed itself on that scholarly historian,
George Percy, fourth president of the colony, that
he pictured it in one of his reports whose virility
is to-day the wonder of all English writers.
"Burning fevers destroyed them," says the
historian, "some departed suddenly, but, for
were never Englishmen left in a foreign country
in such misery as we were in this new discovered
Virginia." "There was groaning in every corner
of the fort most pitiful to hear." "If there
was any conscience in men, it would make
their hearts to bleed to hear the pitiful murmurings
and outcries . . . some departing out
of the world, sometimes three and four in a
night; in the morning their bodies trailed out
of the cabins like dogs to be buried." Among
the first losses was the brave Bartholomew Gosnold—mariner,
explorer, soldier and administrator,
who had in 1602 crossed the sea direct
from the Azores to what is now the Newfoundland
coast, and then sailed home again with accounts
of those shores, which led subsequently
to their settlement. His ashes lie with those
of "Worthy Master Hunt" and many another
brave gentleman, mingled with Virginia's soil
in some unmarked spot at Jamestown, or borne
like Wickliffe's "far as the waters be," but his
work remains. He may have been an element
of peace in the settlement, for soon after his
death, according to the record, dissensions began,
which ceased not until every one of his
fellow-members of the Council had disappeared
from the scene.
By the last of September Wingfield had been
deposed from the presidency by Ratcliffe, Smith
and Martin, and was succeeded by Ratcliffe;
and a few days later Kendall was shot for conspiracy
to seize and run off with a pinnace to
the Newfoundland fisheries.
Captain John Smith himself, who, released
from the unjust restraints of his liberty, had developed
extraordinary energy as an explorer, and
from the 6th of December, 1607, to the 12th of
January, 1608, had been absent exploring the
Chickahominy, or in captivity to Powhatan, and
whose life had been saved by the young Pocahontas,
was, on his return, immediately indicted
for the loss of his companions and condemned to
be executed. But to quote his own words: "It
pleased God to send Captain Newport unto us
that same evening."
Newport, who had reached London on August
18, returned (on the John and Francis,
with the Phœnix; Captain Nelson and forty
men in consort) and reached Jamestown, Saturday
evening, January 12, having separated
from his consort, which had gone to the West
Indies, and did not arrive until the end of
April.
Of the one hundred and four men left by
him at the end of June, Newport found only
like seventy in his ship.
An interesting entry, notwithstanding its
brevity, relates to his arrival. "By his comyng
was prevented a Parliament, which ye new
Counsailor, Mr. Recorder, intended thear to
summon." "Mr. Recorder" was Captain Archer,
who had been the first man wounded on American
soil, and whose name is thus associated with
the first mention in any record of an elective
assembly in America. He with Martin and
others were among the first protestants against
the evils of the form of government established by
the King's Charter, and their protests led later
to the amended charters of 1609 and 1612, which
last was the Magna Charta of American liberties.
The protests set forth by them became the
battle-cry between the "Patriot Party" and the
"Court Party" in the long contest which then
began, and which bore its part in leading to the
great struggle in England.
Thus, these men, who have had scant justice
done them in history, were the first of the long
and illustrious list of American patriots who
stood for the increase of personal liberty against
the domination of the Crown. Smith himself
took extreme ground against them.
The order in which the governors were selected
Smith and Percy. And undoubtedly the
others were more highly esteemed at first than
the young Captain.
A man may be an excellent gentleman and a
brave soldier, and yet may lack administrative
ability and the precise qualities needed for the
management and government of such a company
as that which came to settle in Virginia. Undoubtedly
it appears that among the brave and
honorable gentlemen who came as leaders of
this colony, while others may have been of nobler
character and of more unselfish ambition, the
most enterprising and resourceful among them
was this young Willoughby adventurer, who,
having served with some distinction in Southern
Europe, had now come to seek new adventures
under the Western Star. He appears to have
been gey ill to deal with as a subordinate, but
to have been prompt, bold and efficient as a
governor. By his own account, he is entitled to
the credit of most of what was accomplished
during the brief period of his stay, extending
over only a little more than two years. He declares
it was he who preserved the lives of the
colonists again and again from the conspiracies of
their Indian enemies; that it was he who forced
them to work, and thus saved the little colony
them by going among the Indians intimidating
those who were hostile and securing the friendship
of those who were simply indifferent.
He unquestionably did not "discover up the
King's River in May," as he claimed to have
done. For although he accompanied Newport
on this expedition, he was, by his own account,
still "restrained of his liberty," because of the
plot at Nevis on the way over, and was not discharged
until June 26.
One incident which he relates has of late years
been made the point of attack by a hostile faction
among the historians, who, for one reason or
another, can see no good in him. He relates in
his account written in 1616, and repeats it in
that of 1624, that having been captured in
December, 1607, during the exploration of the
head-waters of the Chickahominy, he was taken
to Werowocomoco, the residence of King Powhatan,
and was about to be executed by having
his brains dashed out, when, at the moment of
his execution the King's dearest daughter, Pocahontas,
shielded him and preserved his life at
the hazard of the beating out of her own brains.
The point is urged, that had this episode
really occurred, Smith would never have waited
so long to record it, but would have mentioned
Francis Nelson fetched back to England in the
Phœnix in June, 1608.
It is no part of my intention to enter fully into
this discussion, though the weight of argument
appears to be so overwhelmingly on the side of
the truth of Smith's report, that the arguments
against him seem to me to have but little weight.
Two facts may be mentioned to establish this view.
The first is, that "I. H.," who edited the "True
Relation" when it was printed, states that "somewhat
more was written, which being as I thought
fit to be private, I would not adventure to make
it public." The second is, that at the time
when Smith wrote the report of 1616, there were
a number of his fellow-colonists yet living, some
of them in England, who loved him none too
well, and would have been ready enough to
attack him had he written such a story without
foundation.
It has been conjectured by Smith's advocates
that the omission in the "True Relation" referred
to by the editor, related to his arrest and
imprisonment on the charge of being implicated
in the conspiracy of Nevis.
I hazard a conjecture which does not appear
to have been esteemed as weighty as I deem it.
Pocahontas was the daughter of a king who
extent, with its dependencies, as England itself.
It was a period when it behooved men to go delicately
where they were concerned with matters
relating to other kings and the daughters of other
kings than those of England.
Sir Walter Raleigh, first president and earliest
patron of Virginia, lay pining in the Tower
of London because of alleged dealings with a
Royal Princess, the Lady Arabella Stuart.
Many a man had gone to the block or to the
gallows for showing too much interest in the
cause of some scion of the royal house. Time
and again in the history of the colony crops up
the suggestion of Pocahontas's royal pedigree
being an element of danger. Had he been less
discreet it would have been boldly charged that
Smith, who was believed to have a vaulting
ambition, had aspirations, which, exhibited with
a little more plainness, might have led him
promptly to the block or to the gallows.
Two of his fellow-colonists who were on the
spot, Pots and Phittiplace, in their account of
the arrival of the third supply in 1609, show the
fact.
"Some prophetical spirit," they wrote, "calculated
hee had the Salvages in such subjection,
hee would haue made himselfe a king, by marrying
true she was the very Nomparell of his kingdome,
and at most not past 13 or 14 yeares of
age. Very oft shee came to our fort, with what
shee could get for Captaine Smith; that ever
loued and vsed all the Countrie well, but her
especially he euer much respected, and she so
well requited it, that when her father intended
to haue surprized him, shee by stealth in the
darke night came through the wild woods and
told him of it. But her marriage could in no
way haue intitled him by any right to the kingdome,
nor was it ever suspected hee ever had
such a thought; or more regarded her, or any
of them, than in honest reason and discretion he
might. If he would, he might haue married
her, or haue done what him listed; for there was
none that could haue hindered his determination."
Here then we have a hint of a good reason for
his not dwelling on this adventure, and of I. H.'s
omission of it if Smith himself related it.
When a little later John Rolph won the young
woman's affection, although Dale readily acquiesced
in the plan, Rolph felt it necessary as
she was a princess to write and ask for permission
to marry her.
Although the young councillor had enemies
way of making the lazy work or go hungry, to
bring a swarm about his ears, the balance is
immensely in his favor. He was hated by his
opponents, and adored by his old soldiers. Returning
from his expedition to the Falls, where
now stands the capital of Virginia, while he was
asleep in his boat a bag of powder in his pocket
was accidentally exploded, which tore his flesh
from his body and thighs in a "most pitiful
manner." He sprang overboard to prevent himself
from burning to death and came near being
drowned. While he lay suffering from this accident
a plot was formed to murder him in his bed,
but the assassin's heart failed him. His old
soldiers rallied about him and importuned him
to permit them to put his enemies to death, but
this he refused, and took order with the masters
of the ships for his return to England, and later
on in life he was able to make the proud boast
that, whatever provocations he had had, he had
never put any man to death.
Among his followers, one writing of his departure
said: "What shall I say? but thus we
lost him that, in all his proceedings, made
Iustice his first guid[e], and experience his
second; ever hating baseness, sloth, pride, and
indignitie more than any dangers; that never
him; that vpon no danger, would he send them
where he would not lead them himselfe; that
[he] would never see us want what he either
had, or could by any means get vs; that would
rather want than borrow, or starue then not pay;
that loved actions more then wordes, and hated
falshood and cous[e]nage worse then death;
whose adventures were our liues, and whose
losse our deathes."
No higher tribute could be paid, and it has
the smack of having been paid to worth.
On the 17th of January, 1608, a new misfortune
befell the settlement: Jamestown was
burned to the ground with the store-house full
of supplies, the church, and the library of "Worthy
Master Hunt," and the store of ammunition.
Newport employed his mariners to rebuild the
church, but the winter was severe in America
and in Europe also, and many deaths occurred
from cold.
Newport, having with Smith, Tyndall, the
surveyor, and others explored and made "a
draught" of York River, and got corn, wheat
and beans for the colonists, whom the fire had
reduced to great straits, sailed for England
again on April 20, taking with him Wingfield,
claims before the Council, and what is more, to
make them good. For the personal reports of
Wingfield, Martin, Archer, Nelson, Ratcliffe and
others, and of Newport himself, showed those in
England who were interested in the colony the
gross defects in the system when put into practical
operation. And in January, 1609, soon
after Newport's arrival from Virginia, after his
third voyage, a new charter was drawn up by
Sir Edwin Sandys, a name ever memorable in
the annals of America and of all lands where
liberty has her home.
This charter, in which the rights of the
colonists were declared inalienable, and which
guaranteed them to be theirs forever, extended
the borders of Virginia to the furthest sea.
Moreover, the government thenceforth was to
be vested in the Virginia Council in London, instead
of in the Crown. And this was the first
victory of the Americans over the Crown.
Meantime Virginia had seen evil days. About
three hundred and thirty settlers had come over
by this time, and only a hundred or so were left,
while these were reduced to the greatest straits.
It was a dark hour for the colony and for the
British people; but light was soon to come.
Newport, who was the good angel of the colony,
lives than that of Captain John Smith, and on
his third voyage he took over a number of
women, the most valuable part of his valuable
cargo.
The new charter gave great joy to the colony.
Lord Delaware was chosen Governor and
Captain-General; Sir Thomas Gates, a bold
captain, whose name stands first in the Charter,
Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Admiral
of Virginia; and Captain Christopher
Newport, Vice-Admiral of Virginia; all notable
men whose history is that of the making of
America.
The company was strengthened by the accession
of a large number of the members of the
North Virginia Company, who accepted the
invitation to co-operate in establishing the
Southern colony, thus doing away, at least
temporarily, with the first sectional lines which
were drawn touching America. In fact, "of
the forty-three members of His Majesty's First
Council for New England formed some years
afterward, at least thirty had assisted in founding
the First Colony on James River."
The prospects of the colony were now brightening,
at least in England. A large fleet of nine
ships was now got ready to send under Sir
a single ship had been dispatched under
Captain Samuel Argall, "a pleasant, ingenius,
and forward young gentleman," to find a more
direct route to Virginia; avoiding the land of
the pirates [the West Indies]; and to "make
an experience of the winds and currents which
have affrighted all undertakers by the North."
Argall did his work thoroughly, and arriving
in the Chesapeake after only a nine weeks'
voyage, in which he was becalmed fourteen days,
established the fact that there were no currents
nor constant winds to prevent a direct crossing,
thus shortening the distance and escaping not
only the "Pyrates," but the calenture, which
was the most deadly foe that the new colonists
encountered.
Of the fleet of nine vessels, six arrived duly,
two with their masts cut away; but the Sea
Venture, with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George
Somers, was driven ashore on the coast of an
island, which had theretofore been deemed so
stormy that it had been called the "Isle of
Devils." It was, however, a fortunate wreck,
not only for the little colony in Virginia, but for
the whole English-speaking race; for the following
summer, when the settlers were reduced to
the last straits, not only did Sir Thomas Gates
vessels which they had built to take them to
Virginia and relieve their immediate necessities,
but the romantic story of the Sea Venture gave
a London playwright an idea on which to base
one of his immortal dramas.
So reduced were the settlers at the time of the
arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, that having only
fourteen days' provision in all, they started to
set sail for New Foundland, where they knew
the fishing fleet could be met, and had actually
buried their cannon and started down the river,
when they were met by Lord Delaware, who
had come over with new succors, and, having
learned at Cape Comfort of their distress, had
sent ahead of him his long boat, the little pinnace
Virginia, the first boat of even that size
which had been built on the American shores.
Lord Delaware landed at Jamestown on the
10th day of June, 1610, and Sir Thomas Gates
was drawn up with his soldiers to receive him at
the South Gate. His first act on landing was to
kneel and offer up prayer and thanksgiving.
He immediately took steps to place the colony
on a sounder foundation than had yet existed,
and though he set up a style of living which
was deemed at the time rather out of place in a
wilderness, he knew the effect of order, and even
acts was to build a good and suitable church,
sixty by twenty-four feet, with chancel and pews
of cedar and two bells in the west end. Here
he attended services escorted by all his high
officials, and fifty halberdiers in red cloaks;
sitting in the choir in a velvet chair, and kneeling
on a velvet cushion.
In the beginning it was claimed by some that,
"a good soldier who knew how to use a pick
was worth many knights who could only break
a lance," but the lances that Sir Thomas West
broke were pointed against the enemies of good
government, and when having been seized with
a violent ague which undermined his health, he
was forced to leave Virginia, he left behind him
such a character and such fruits of his rule, that
long afterwards he was cited as a model by those
who asked that some nobleman of rank, or of
scarcely less high order, might be appointed
governor of the new commonwealth.
Lord Delaware's successor was Sir George
Yardley, who has been spoken of as "the mild
Yardley." His mildness, however, was that of
a broad-minded and high-minded gentleman,
and, possibly, more than any other one who held
rule in Virginia, he contributed to liberalize her
government. For a while he was superseded by
was better suited at the time for the control of
a young colony filled with "wild gallants" and
holding at bay wilder Indians: Sir Thomas
Dale, "a man skilled in divinity and of a good
conscience in all things" but withal an old
soldier. He was at the time in service in the Low
Countries, but was lent to the Virginia Company
by his Dutch employers as a man well fitted for
the work in hand. He quickly proved the stuff
of which he was made, and under the iron rule
which he set up, the new plantation took a long
leap forward. He found men playing at bowls
in the streets, but he soon put a stop to this.
His government became unpopular enough for a
conspiracy to be hatched, but discovering it he
arrested the leaders and inflicted the death penalty,
in what was charged to be "a cruel, unusual
and barbarous one, at one time customary in
France." In 1624 a number of Burgesses signed
an account of what they had witnessed. "One
man had a bodkin thrust through his tongue and
was chained to a tree until he perished, others
were put to death by hanging, shooting, breaking
on the wheel and the like." But, cruel as this
punishment was, it was deemed that Dale prevented
the utter subversion of the colony.
During all this period Spain was far from
cause constant anxiety, her diplomacy was steadily
at work, and only the deep feeling of the
English people prevented the timid James from
yielding to her threats. Zuñiga, wiliest and
most active of ambassadors, was ever seeking his
ear, with mingled promises and threats, and
again and again he left the royal closet and even
the royal table to send dispatches to his master,
urging him to lose no time to uproot the new
plantation in Virginia, and cut the planters'
throats. The correspondence in cipher between
the Spanish Ambassador in London, Zuñiga,
and his master at home, has only recently
been published.[2]
Zuñiga was, in strict obedience to orders from
home, using his utmost diligence to prevent the
success of the English colonization schemes, and
we find him now seeking interviews with James
and now reporting progress to his master. We
find James putting him off on one pretext or
another, doubtless under the advice of ardent
haters of Spain, and men with interests in the
Virginia adventures, and when run down and
cornered, using all sorts of evasive replies; much
as one in high government position might do
monarch and ignorance of what was going
on, then claiming a right to colonize, and again
shiftily disavowing the acts of the colonists,
and, altogether, giving a very good picture of
his mean and miserable self. We find Zuñiga
declaring to him that "this invention of going to
Virginia for colonizing purposes was seen in the
wretched zeal in which it was done, since the
soil is very sterile, and that hence there can be
no other purpose connected with that place than
that it appears to them good for pirates," and
the King telling him in reply that "they are
terrible people, and that he desired to correct the
matter." Zuñiga in this same letter assures his
master that he would be "very careful to find
out about what was going on," and adds a
significant hint, "but I should consider it
very desirable that an end should now be made
of the few who are there, for that would be
digging up the root, so that it could come up
no more."
On the 16th of October, 1607, he wrote to
his master, urging dispatch on his part, and
quoting the King as reported to him by a Count
Salisbury, to the effect that it seemed to him,
after full consideration, that the English might
not go to Virginia, and that thus if evil should
since to him this would not appear to be contrary
to friendship and peaceful disposition. (Certainly,
if he was correctly quoted, a most damning
statement.) And then Zuñiga adds for
himself, "it will be serving God and `Y. M.'
to drive these villains out from there, hanging
them in time, which is short enough for the purpose."
This hint was taken promptly, as appears
from a copy of the report of the Spanish
Consul of State, dated November 10, 1607, declaring
Virginia a part of the Indies, and providing
that "the fleet stationed to the windward
should be instantly made ready, and forthwith
proceed to drive out all who are now in Virginia,
since their small number will make this an easy
task, and this will suffice to prevent them from
again coming to that place." On this report
the King of Spain endorses his "Royal decree,"
"Let such measures be taken as may now and
hereafter appear proper." Happily for the
Saxon civilization, Spain had enough to do just
then in Europe, and however factions may have
divided the plantation and led to the cutting of
throats, the throats were not so easily cut by
a foreign power.
King James had at his side as sturdy a people
and body of councillors, and as far-sighted a body
had leaned. When Challons's party, which had
sailed to settle North Virginia, were captured
and held by Spain, their petitions for deliverance
were long ignored, because any request for
their release on the part of England might, it
was deemed, be held an acquiescence in the
rights which Spain asserted.
Dale's method of dealing with some conspirators,
who had attempted to run away with
a boat caused opposition. Yet, he was an able
administrator, and not only enforced order, but
enlarged the plantation and built the new town
of Henrico, in the loop of the James, which soon
became a flourishing settlement, and was the seat
of the first college and the first hospital ever
founded on American soil. Moreover, he quelled
the Indians and made alliances with them, not
only public alliances, but personal alliances. It
was under his governorship that a marriage was
brought about between John Rolfe and Powhatan's
favorite daughter, Pocahontas; which
had a decided effect in reducing the hostility of
the Indians so long as Powhatan lived, and secured
a truce which lasted with some exceptions
till the great massacre of April, 1622, in which
it is said even John Rolfe fell a victim.
Dale offered himself to espouse the Indian
Powhatan declined on account of her youth.
It was Dale who abolished communism and
the general store, and allotted to every man in
the colony land: "three acres of clear corn
ground," on a rent of two and one-half barrels
of corn, exempting them from all service or
labor for the colony, "more than one month in
the year." But Dale did more than merely
extend the colony of Virginia into the interior.
He defended the entire territory of Virginia
against encroachments by other powers.
It having been learned that the French had settled
a colony at Mount Desert, in North Virginia,
he sent that same "forward young gentleman,"
Captain George Argall, with an expedition to
"root up the colony," which was effectively
done. And, but for this, it is possible that
France might have seized and held what a little
later was called "New England." It is certain
that the destruction of the French colony made
the New England coast safe, not only for the
English fishermen who now came in numbers to
the northwestern waters, but for the English
settlers who seven or eight years later followed
in their wake.
At the Michaelmas quarter court, of 1619, Sir
Edwin Sandys recalled "how by the admirable
Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale, the colony
was set forward in a way to great perfection;
whereof the former, Sir Thomas Gates, had the
honour to all posterity to be the first named in
His Majesty's patent of a grant to Virginia, and
was the first who, by his wisdom, valour and
industry, accompanied with exceeding pains and
patience in the midst of so many difficulties, laid
a foundation of that prosperous estate of the
Colony, which afterward in the virtue of those
beginnings did proceed.
"The latter, Sir Thomas Dale, building upon
those foundations with great and constant severity,
had reclaimed almost miraculously those
idle and disordered people and reduced them to
labour and an honest fashion of life; and proceeding
with great zeal to the good of this
Company."
Dale was succeeded in 1617 by Captain
Samuel Argall, now "Admiral of Virginia, and
Vice-Governor"; a man of parts, as we have
seen. He was, like Dale, a man of prompt
action; and, like Dale, he passed stern laws
and enforced them.
He forbade "the teaching of Indians to shoot
guns on pain of death to learner and teacher";
forbade all trading with them and set up
man was to set two acres with corn or forfeit his
corn and tobacco, and "be a slave to ye Colony."
Every person must go to church on Sundays and
Holidays or "lay neck and heels on the corps de
garde ye night following and be a slave ye week
following." For a second offense, he was to
be a slave for a month; and for the third, for a
year and a day.
The Governor was so pleased with the effect
of his laws touching slavery to the colony that he
introduced a few slaves on his own account, and
the ship which in 1619 first introduced negro
slaves into the colony, and has generally been
called a "Dutch Man-of-War," was really Argall's
ship, the Treasurer, which engaged in
something very like piracy, and thereby came
near bringing on a war with Spain. The term
employed for a privateer was, "Dutch Man-of-War,"
because they commonly hoisted the
Dutch colors.
It was, however, possibly the severity of the
laws of Dale and Argall which brought about
the greatest blessing that had hitherto happened
to Virginia: the liberalizing of her government.
Two parties now existed in the Virginia Company
in England, "the Court Party" and "the
Patriot Party," and the latter had begun to prevail.
became the talk of England and were spoken of
as the "Virginia Parliaments."
The broad-minded and liberal Yardley was
reinstated as Governor by the patriot party in
the Company, and on his return he brought over
the announcement that the people of Virginia
were to have an elective assembly, and thenceforth
were to rule themselves. It was the greatest
step yet taken for the new country.
In pursuance of this far-reaching measure,
Yardley, on his arrival at Jamestown, ordered a
general election of burgesses by the freemen of
the colony, and issued writs to the eleven boroughs
now existing in the colony for the election.
In pursuance thereof, on Friday, the 30th
day of July (old style), the 9th day of August,
1619 (new style), convened at Jamestown, the
first elective assembly that ever sat on the
American continent. From the first they claimed
the privileges of members of the British House
of Commons, and, though the session was held in
the church, they asserted their right to sit with
their hats on. And among their first acts was
the appointment of a committee to consider the
new charter, and determine whether it was
adapted to their needs. In fact, thenceforth
Virginia was herself a Commonwealth, and
Commonwealth she has remained to the present
time: the first Commonwealth that sprang from
England's loins, and mother of many Commonwealths
herself.
This freedom thus growing up in Virginia
was understood; and, largely in consequence
thereof, the Puritan congregation at Leyden,
after long negotiation with the Virginia Company,
set sail in the summer of 1620 to settle in
Virginia, possibly about the mouth of the
Delaware; quite certainly south of the mouth
of the Hudson. They were, however, blown or
drifted farther northward than they intended to
go, and finally, after trying to work southward,
finding shoals, turned northward again and
landed on Massachusetts Bay in December.
James, who had long been warned by the
Spanish Ambassador that his Virginia "Courts"
were a "seminary for a seditious parliament,"
awoke to the danger of so much liberty in his
"fourth kingdom," but it was too late. The
Virginians had tasted the sweets of popular
government and stood on their liberties.
Under Sir Francis Wyat, who came over in
1621, everything appeared prosperous in Virginia,
when, without warning, on the morning of
April 1, 1622, the Indians throughout the colony
over four hundred of them. Jamestown, the
seat of government, was saved through a warning
given the night before by an Indian named
Chanco; but from the Falls of the James to the
Chesapeake the plantations were devastated.
The flourishing town of Henrico was destroyed,
and with it went the hospital, with its fourscore
beds, and the projected university, with its endowment
of ten thousand acres and two thousand
pounds. Six members of the Council fell
victims, including Mr. Thorpe, the deputy for
the college, and probably John Rolph, the former
husband of Pocahontas.
Had Virginia not already been established
on a firm foundation, this blow must have destroyed
her. As it was, it only served to excite
both the company and the colony to renewed
efforts. The massacre was the death-blow of
the Powhatans and their allied tribes. The
settlers from this time applied themselves to the
work of clearing all that region of a people who
had proved so "subtile," and the leader of the
movement was the "Mild Yeardley." From
now on we find the settlers going on "marches"
three times a year to harry and do the Indians
all the damage in their power.
In the confusion and disturbance consequent
space by the exercise of tyrannical power to
suppress the Virginia charter, but it was not
for long. He arrested Sir Edwin Sandys, the
chief spirit of the Patriot party, and a number
of others, and when the Commons protested
against this violation of their privilege, he went
to Westminister, and, in the presence of his
Privy Council, tore with his own hands from the
records of the House the leaves on which they
had spread their protest. He sent commissioners
to Virginia to investigate, and they demanded
the surrender of the records there, but the House
of Burgesses refused to obey the order, and when
their clerk, Edward Sharpless, in disobedience
to their orders, gave up copies, they stood him in
the pillory and cut off his ear.
From this time the people were aroused.
They soon extorted their charter again from
Charles, and not many years later, when one of
their governors, Sir John Harvey, failed to
espouse as warmly as they thought proper the
cause of William Claibourne, "the Rebel," in
his war with the Lord Proprietor of the new
colony of Maryland, they rose in arms and
"thrust him out of the Government." He appealed
to Charles I., who reinstated him as
Governor; but the Virginians, though they received
Sir William Berkeley, were now well aware of
the strength of their position. They withstood
Cromwell to the point of exacting what was
really a treaty with his commissioners; but they
readily assimilated the defeated Royalists who
came over after Edge Hill and Naseby and
Worcester, and the exiled Republicans who
sought homes among the planters after the Restoration.
They were loyal subjects of the Stuarts,
as they were a hundred years later loyal
subjects of George III., but they were more
loyal yet to their ideal of popular government.
Their petitions were filled with expressions of
devotion; but with equally plain declarations
of their chartered rights. They viewed the
death of Charles I. with horror, and offered a
realm to his son when in exile. But with it all
went enthusiastic devotion to the cause of self-government,
and whenever this was assailed
they flamed into revolution.
The "rebellion," led by Nathaniel Bacon in
1676, was at bottom for the same cause as that
which a hundred years later was led by George
Washington. The immediate occasion was
different, but the basic cause was the same in
both: the inalienable right of British subjects
to have self-government. Both of them were
Virginia was planted. Both of them were
founded in the liberty-loving character of Englishmen
expanded under the broad skies of the
Old Dominion.
| The Old Dominion | |