University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE V.

The Parish of James City.—No. 3.

The history of Rolph and Pocahontas is so identified with that
of Virginia, and with the Church of Virginia, that it deserves more
than a passing notice. The account usually given of it is too
often considered as an interesting and highly-exaggerated romance,
though founded on the fact of the first marriage of an Englishman
with an Indian. From an accurate examination of all the early
statements concerning the two persons, and the circumstances of
their marriage, we are persuaded that there is as little of romance
or exaggeration about it as can well be. On the part of Pocahontas,
she was the daughter of the noblest and most powerful of
the native kings of North America, who by his superior wisdom
and talents had established his authority over all the tribes from
James River to the Potomac, from Kiquotan or Hampton to the
falls of James River, or what is now Richmond, with the exception
of that on the Chickohomini. We read of two of his sons, and
another of his daughters, who also rose superior to the rest of their
race. Of one of the sons, Nantaquaus, Captain Smith says that
he was "the most manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in
a savage," and of his sister, Pocahontas, that she had "a compassionate
pitiful heart." The other daughter Sir Thomas Dale endeavoured
without success to obtain, with a view to another alliance
with some English gentleman. But Pocahontas was acknowledged
by all to be cast in one of the first of nature's moulds, both as to
person and character. She was declared to be the "nonpareil"
of Captain Smith and his associates. Nor is it wonderful. At
the age of twelve or thirteen, after using all her powers of persuasion
to obtain the release of Captain Smith, and to save him from
the sentence of death, but in vain,—when his head was laid upon
the stone, and her father's huge club was uplifted by his arm, and
ready to fall on the head of the prisoner, she threw herself upon
him, laying her head on his, and folding her arms around him,
thus moving the heart of her father, and, as Smith himself declared
to the Queen, "hazarding the beating out of her own brains instead
of mine." After this, her interest in Smith and the Colony

was displayed in frequent visits to it. "Jamestown with her wild
train (of attendants) she as frequently visited as her father's habitation,"
says Smith, in a letter to the Queen, and often, by her
timely warnings saved the Colony from destruction. On one occasion,
when Smith and a number with him were in most imminent danger,
she came along through the woods some miles, outstripping those
who were seeking their destruction: "the dark night (he says in
the same letter) could not affright her, but, coming through the irksome
woods, with watered eyes gave me intelligence." "She was,"
he adds, "the first Christian of that nation; the first who ever
spake English, or had a child in marriage." Her meeting with
Smith also, in London, was very characteristic. It was unexpected
by her, for she had been told that he was dead some years before.
She was in the circle of the great when Smith came into her presence,
and he thought it prudent and right to address her with
more ceremony and state than formerly in America, out of respect
to those around. This distressed her much, and she resented it,
and upbraided him with not calling her his child, as he did in
America, and allowing her to call him father, as she used to do;
nor could he convince her to the contrary, she declaring that she
would call him father. In relation to Mr. Rolph, there can be no
doubt that he had conceived a strong affection for her, on account
of her person, and deeply-interesting qualities, which affection was
fully returned. There is extant a long and most affecting letter
from Mr. Rolph to Sir Thomas Dale, declaring his wish and deter
mination to marry her, assigning his reasons, describing his feelings,
and asking the Governor's approbation. He seems to have
been much concerned and troubled in mind on the subject, and
calls God to witness the purity of his motives, and how deeply his
conscience had been engaged in the decision, and that not until
much suffering had been endured was the determination made.[24]
The letter can only be understood by considering the character and
position of Mr. Rolph. Here was a young Englishman, of family,
education, and reputation, about to engage himself to an Indian
girl, of a different and despised colour, of different manners, uneducated,
of a hated nation, not one of whom had ever yet been
married to one of the meanest of the Colonists; his children, and
children's children, to be regarded as an inferior race, his own prospects
in life as to preferment all blasted, himself, perhaps, to be a
byword and proverb. Such, doubtless, were his feelings when
penning this letter.

Principle, religious principle, as well as pure love of female excellence,
prevailed and was rewarded. Not only did Sir Thomas
Dale approve and encourage the alliance, but, after writing home
most favourably of it, carried them with him to England, where
they were most honourably received. It is said that King James
was even a little jealous of them, lest, on returning to America,
they might think, by right of inheritance from Powhatan, (a far
nobler monarch than himself,) to establish themselves in rule over
his Virginia territory. This was only one of the vain thoughts
which found a seat in that weak and conceited monarch's mind.
Nothing but good resulted from the union, and much more than is
seen or acknowledged may have resulted. Instead of a race of
despised semi-savages being the issue of this union, Mr. Burk, the
historian of Virginia, after giving the names of some of his descendants,
which have been already recorded, adds:—"so that this
remnant of the imperial family of Virginia, which long ran in a
single person, is now increased and branched out into a very numerous
progeny. The virtues of mildness and humanity, so eminently
distinguished in Pocahontas, remain in the nature of an inheritance
to her posterity. There is scarcely a scion from this stock which
has not been in the highest degree amiable and respectable." He
also adds, "that he is acquainted with several members of this
family, who are intelligent and even eloquent, and, if fortune keep
pace with their merits, should not despair of attaining a conspicuous
and even exalted station in the Commonwealth." This was
written in the year 1804, when Mr. Randolph of Roanoke, one
of the descendants of Pocahontas, was just entering upon public
life.

We are now approaching a deeply-interesting, eventful, and decisive

period in the history of the Colony. Until about the year
1616, when Sir Thomas Dale returned to England, Jamestown,
Henrico, and Bermuda Hundred formed nearly all of the Colony;
and at that time it is probable that Mr. Bucke, at Jamestown, and
Mr. Whittaker, with his curate, Wickham, were the only ministers
of the Colony. During the three following years, infant settlements,
planted by Sir Thomas Dale on James River, and others,
by his successors, Argal and Yeardley, began to increase, and assume
the forms of villages, called Hundreds, and several new ministers
came over. We ascertain the names of Stockam, Meare,
Hargrave, and Scale. In the year 1619, Yeardley, having visited
Europe, returned with new instructions and enlarged authority.
He was directed to convene the first legislative body ever held in
Virginia. Eleven boroughs sent delegates, called Burgesses, to it.
Mr. Bucke was still the minister at Jamestown, and opened the
meeting with solemn prayers in the choir of the church, the Governor
sitting in his accustomed place, the Councillors on each side
of him, and the Burgesses around; after which they all went
into the body of the church, and proceeded with the work of legislation.
The laws, martial, moral, and divine, were now superseded
by some of a different character. The Church of England was
more formally established than it ever had been before.[25] Now all
things began to assume a more regular and promising aspect.
More especially was the attention of the Company in London and
of pious friends in England directed to the cause of education in
the Colony. Many years before this, King James had, through
the Archbishop of Canterbury, called upon the Bishops and clergy
of England to take up collections for a University in Virginia, for
the benefit of both natives and Colonists, and the sum of £1500
had been raised for the purpose. Now an influx of charity poured
in upon Virginia, especially for this object. I have before me a
paper, copied from an English record, containing a list of the following
donations, during the years 1619-20-21:—"Mrs. Mary
Robinson, for a church in Virginia, £200. An unknown person,
£20 for communion-service, and other things for the same. A
person unknown, £30, for the College communion-service, &c. A
person with the signature of Dust and Ashes sent £550, in gold,
to Sir Edward Sandys, for the instruction of the natives in religion
and civility. Nicholas Ferrar, £330 for the same, and £24 annually.
An unknown person, £10 for the Colony. For a free
school in Virginia, by persons returning from the East Indies, to
be called the East India School, £70. Ditto for the same, by an
unknown person, £30. Ditto by a person unknown, £25. Ditto
a Bible, Prayer Book, and other books worth £10." The Rev.
Mr. Hargrave also gave his library. The place selected for the
College was Henrico City, before mentioned as settled by Sir Thomas
Dale and Mr. Whittaker, on the north side of James River,
about fifteen miles below Richmond. Not less than 15,000 acres
of land were given as College lands, and for purposes connected
with the Church and College, between the settlement and Richmond,
by the Company in England. The East India School was
to be established at Charles City,—a place somewhere in what is
now the county of Charles City, and probably not far from Henrico
City. The Rev. Mr. Copland, chaplain of the East India
Company, who had proposed the East India School in Virginia
and contributed liberally to it, was appointed by the Company to
be President of the College, and general manager of all its property.
The East India School, in Charles City, was to be a preparatory
one to the College. On the 13th of April, 1622, the
Rev. Mr. Copland was requested by the Company to deliver a
thanksgiving sermon, in London, for all the late mercies of God to
the Colony, and for the bright prospects before them; but in about
one month before that time, on the 22d of March, those prospects
had been blasted by one of the most unexpected and direful calamities
which had ever befallen the Colony. Since the marriage of
Pocahontas all had been peace with the natives. The Colonists
had settled themselves in various places along James River, from
Kiquotan (Hampton) to Henrico, fearing no evil, although the
dreadful massacre which then ensued had been secretly resolved
upon for some years. On one and the same day the attack was
made on every place. Jamestown, and some few points near to it,
alone escaped, having received warning of the intended attack
just in time to prepare for defence. Besides the destruction of
houses by fire, between three and four hundred persons were put
to death in the most cruel manner. Such was the effect of this
assault, both in Virginia and in England, that a commission was
sent over to the Governor, Sir George Yeardley, to seek for a settlement
on the Eastern Shore of Virginia for those who remained.
That plan, however, was never put in execution, though steps were
taken toward it. The hopes of the best friends of the Colony,
and of the natives, were now overwhelmed. This, added to all
preceding conflicts with the natives, and the continual defence required
before the marriage of Pocahontas, produced a change in
the feelings and language of many toward the natives, which we
should scarce credit if the records of the same were not too well
authenticated. In unison with the feelings of the English, Captain
Smith, who was still alive and in England, offered himself as
the commander of a company of young and valiant soldiers, to be
a standing army in Virginia, going in among the tribes, inflicting
vengeance for the past, and driving them out of their possessions
to some place so distant from our people as to render them harmless.
The Company itself, hitherto so strong in its injunction of
mild measures and the use of means for the conversion of the Indians,
now says, "We condemn their bodies, the saving of whose
souls we have so zealously affected. Root them out from being
any longer a people,—so cursed a nation, ungrateful for all benefits
and incapable of all goodness,—or remove them so far as to be
out of danger or fear. War perpetually, without peace or truce.
Yet spare the young for servants. Starve them by destroying
their corn, or reaping it for your own use. Pluck up their weirs,
(fishing-traps.) Obstruct their hunting. Employ foreign enemies
against them at so much a head. Keep a band of your own men
continually upon them, to be paid by the Colony, which is to have
half of their captives and plunder. He that takes any of their chiefs
to be doubly rewarded. He that takes Opochancono (the chief
and brother of old Powhatan, who was now dead) shall have a
great and singular reward." At a somewhat later period, either
an order in council or a law was passed, that "the Indians being
irreconcilable enemies, every commander, on the least molestation,
to fall upon them."

It may perhaps seem to some, that in giving such details of massacre
and revenge I am departing from that line of ecclesiastical
notices hitherto pursued. A few words will, I hope, suffice for my
justification, and show that I have a sufficient reason for it. In the first
fifteen years of the Colony, it must be admitted that, so far as
the few ministers who belonged to it, and a good proportion of the
laity taking part in it, are concerned, there is as large a share of
the true missionary spirit in its conduct as is anywhere to be found,
not excepting any missionary movements since apostolic days and
men. But this massacre, following others which had taken place,

and the little success attending the conversion of the natives in
this country, or in England, whither some had been sent for Christian
instruction, produced a sad revolution in public feeling. The
missionary effort was considered as a failure; the conversion, or
even civilization, of the Indian, was regarded as hopeless. The
Company began, and probably continued, to appropriate £500 annually
to the support of such men as Hunt, Bucke, Clover, Whittaker,
and other religious purposes; but that Company was, in the
year 1624, dissolved by the covetous and tyrannical act of James.
Where now are to be found the considerations sufficient to move
other such devoted missionaries to fill up the ranks made vacant
by their death? The Indians were now objects of dread, of hate,
of persecution. A sentiment and declaration is ascribed to one of
the last of the ministers who came over, "that the only way to
convert the Indians was to cut the throats of their chief men and
priests." It must also be acknowledged that the experience of
two hundred and fifty years has proved that the North American
Indian is the most unlikely subject for conversion to our religion
of all the savage tribes on whom the missionary has bestowed his
labour. Cowper may have poured out his soul of piety and poetry
over some instance of conversion among them:—

But how many of such have there been? Pocahontas, at the end
of seven or eight years, was perhaps the only trophy of the missionary
labours of the Virginia Colony. In forming a judgment,
therefore, of our Mother-Church, in regard to the ministers sent
forth by, or issuing from her, from the time of this great failure, we
must inquire into the arguments by which her clergy could henceforth
be urged to come over to this Macedonia. The only persons
who could be brought under their pastoral care in Virginia were
now the same kind of rich and poor who abounded so much more
in the country they would leave, and these were placed under the
greatest imaginable difficulties of access,—scattered at great distances
from each other, and along the margins of wide rivers,
with scarce a village, or village church, to be seen. To the present
day, how great the impediment this to the full trial of the Gospel
ministry! As to the salaries and residences of ministers, we shall

hereafter show that the former were most scanty and precarious,
and the latter uncomfortable. For a long time, all things were
most unfavourable for usefulness as well as comfort. Let us suppose
that the present missionaries to China and Africa were sent
merely to minister to the English and Americans scattered through
those lands, no opening whatever being had to the natives, and,
moreover, that, besides much and painful travelling through dark
forests, they were most meagrely supplied with the means of subsistence,
with clothing, and homes, so that scarce any of them
could venture to assume the relation of husbands and fathers; can
we suppose that such men as those we now send out as missionaries
would be ready to engage in the work, when there are so many
stations at home furnishing larger opportunities of usefulness? Let
us not, therefore, be surprised, if, in subsequent notices, we should
find an inferior order of men supplying the churches of Virginia,
Nor let any denomination of Christians boast itself over the
Church of Virginia, since, under similar circumstances, it might
not have done better.