History of Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

Delaware, accompanied by Gates, disembarked at Jamestown
on the afternoon of June 20th, 1610; and so soon as his
foot touched the ground, he fell on his knees and offered up a
silent prayer to God. He then walked in state to the church and
listened to a sermon by Rev. Richard Buck, one of the saintly
apostles whose piety and fidelity have cast so much glory over
the early history of the Anglican church in Virginia.

The population now numbered about two hundred persons.
It has been mentioned that the fort was shaped like a triangle,
with its base fronting on the river. The houses stood in a row
along the three lines of this triangle, while, in the open space
between, were situated the market and the store-house; and
not far from the latter arose the chapel, which Delaware soon
adorned with pews and a pulpit of fragrant cedar. A chancel
of cedar was next added, and also a communion table of black
walnut. Daily the fresh flowers which ornamented the altar
and every coign of advantage in the edifice were renewed.
The governor required a strict observance of religious rules.
Two sermons were delivered each Sunday and a third on
Thursday. While attending the services, he always sat in the
choir in a green cloth chair, with a velvet cushion at his feet
on which to kneel; and around him were seated the subordinate
officers of his administration. When he walked about the
town, he was always escorted by a guard of fifty soldiers.

Delaware was a pompous man, who seems to have maintained
a show incongruous with the mean surroundings of the
little town, but it is possible that, in that age, when there was
so much veneration for rank, this formal demeanor had an

Thomas West, Third Baron Delaware

encouraging influence on the spirits of the colonists because
it appeared to be almost regal in its aspect, and, therefore,
suggestive of a power and resource which no previous governor
had ever possessed. The state in which he indulged was
the habit of his class in those times, and not simply a characteristic
of this one nobleman. But the impression is left on
the mind that he was an elderly person singularly devoid
of the faculty of humor. Nevertheless, his course of rule
proved him to have been at bottom a man of sense.

His first step was to continue the rigid laws—ecclesiastical,
political, and martial—which Gates had been instructed
to put in operation in the Colony. This code was the first in
writing that was ever proclaimed in the area of the present
United States. It has been severely criticized as inconsistent
with the free principles which prevailed in England even in
that harsh century, but, in the circumstances which then surrounded
the Colony, its introduction was essential to the
enforcement of the strict discipline through which alone the
infant settlement could hope to survive. It was said at the
time, that, in consequence of these stiff regulations, every man
in Virginia knew his duty and discharged it with alacrity.
Delaware set the vignaroons to work to test the virtue of the
native vines, and he distributed the rest of the population—
when not employed, like the artisans, in specific tasks—among
the fields and woods for the production of supplies for the
support of the colonists. To diminish further the calls upon
the articles of food which he had brought over from England,
he despatched Somers and Argall to Bermuda for two cargoes
of bacon, and Captain Tyndall to Cape Henry for one of fish.

The Indians had never ceased to darken the peace of the
Colony. To punish repeated depredations, Gates was ordered
to extirpate the branch tribe seated at Kecoughtan, which
had recently murdered Lieutenant Humphrey Blunt; and in
order to remove all danger of similar deadly attacks in the
future, in that particular quarter, two forts were erected at
the mouth of the Hampton River in the vicinity. The prospect

of want at Jamestown was dispelled by the return of Argall
from Newfoundland with a load of dried codfish. He had been
driven off his course before he could reach Bermuda. Somers
died in the progress of the voyage; his crew, however, arrived
safely at that island; but, instead of returning to Jamestown
with a cargo of bacon, they collected a large quantity of ambergris
and set sail for England.

Unfortunately, Delaware, like all his predecessors, except
Captain John Smith, was possessed with the delusion that the
country was rich in precious metals, and this will o' the wisp
diverted his attention from more practical enterprises. Captains
Yeardley and Brewster were sent off towards the region
above the Falls, where traces of gold and silver had been
formerly discovered; but the expedition did not succeed in
penetrating far, owing to the murderous hostility of the savages,
who killed fifteen of the men at the mouth of the Appomattox,
and tomahawked young West, a nephew of Delaware,
in the woods higher up the Powhatan. Owing to these and
the like disasters, the garrisons of all the outside stations,
with the exception of Point Comfort, were drawn into Jamestown,
and an attempt was made to obtain supplies for the people
there by voyages under the energetic Argall to the Indian
villages situated on the great streams towards the north. But
not only did the food begin to run low again, but sickness
with the arrival of summer showed its destructive presence.
Delaware was one of the first attacked. He fell a victim to
ague, which was followed by dysentery, and this in turn by
cramp, gout, and scurvy—a succession of ailments which, in
the end, prostrated him. His life, perhaps, was only saved
by his departure from Virginia. He set out in the ship commanded
by Argall for the West Indies in order to take the
hot baths of Mevis, but the vessel was driven by a storm to
the Azores, and as the pure air of the sea had before his
arrival there restored his health, he decided to make for England.

Percy had been instructed to hold the deputy-governorship

until Sir Thomas Dale should come. Although his health was
always infirm, he had never succumbed to the malignant influences
of the climate, and was always in the physical condition
to step in whenever an official vacancy through either deposition
or absence occurred. While Delaware was stopping at
the Falls in the company of the members of the expedition
which was to explore the country of the Monacans for gold
and silver, Percy was left at Jamestown as the governor's
substitute and representative. During this interval, he led
an attack on the Paspaheigh town. Many of the Indians there
were killed, and the Queen and her little children captured.
The children were thrown from a boat into the water and
cruelly shot like so many mad dogs, while the wretched Queen
was taken back to Jamestown, and there held—Delaware
being sick on board of one of the vessels in the river—until
she was led out into the woods, after a weak protest from
Percy, and murdered in cold blood.[1] It was during Percy's
temporary administration that Lieutenant Puttock, who was
in command of the block-house on the mainland, suffered himself
to be drawn into an Indian ambuscade nearby, in which
he lost his own life and the lives of many of his men as the
result of his ill-timed hardihood and overconfidence.

Sir Thomas Dale was expected to relieve Percy after
Delaware's departure, and to hold the position of deputy-governor
until the lieutenant-governor, Sir Thomas Gates, should
come back to Virginia. Dale was now employed as an officer
in the wars in the Low Countries; he was a favorite of Prince
Henry, the heir to the throne; and it was through the latter,
who was deeply interested in the success of the Virginia
enterprise, that he was granted a furlough which would allow
him to serve for a time in the Colony. He was a pious and
upright man, a brave and faithful soldier, but a stern disciplinarian.

It seems that, when Gates returned to England in September,

1610, leaving Delaware firmly established in his government,
he had greatly encouraged the Company by his description
of the resources of Virginia, and this body in January
(1611) issued a broadside in order to obtain a large number
of emigrants, and adopted other measures, such as a lottery,
for assuring the future prosperity of the Colony. They had
already taken steps to acquire a new charter which would
bring the Bermudas or Somers Isles under the same jurisdiction
as Virginia.

In March, 1611, a small fleet, with Dale on board, set sail
from England; and these vessels were, after an interval, to be
followed by others carrying Gates, and also a large quantity
of supplies and many emigrants. It was not thought to be
prudent to despatch both sets of ships at the same time. A
new charter known as the charter of 1612, was drafted by Sir
Edwin Sandys, and its most important clause was the one
which transferred the transaction of the principal business of
the Company from the treasurer and council to the quarterly
sessions of treasurer, council, and stockholders. This provision
made the Company a more popular body, which was, no
doubt, the purpose which Sandys, the most republican statesman
of that day, had expressly in mind; but he really brought
into being a dragon which, in the end, was to devour the Company
itself. A party spirit was now generated within its bowels
that had previously hardly existed. A faction soon arose
which was in favor of continuing the operation of the martial
laws which Gates had introduced, Delaware approved, and
Dale was to enforce. The other faction declared in favor of
their abrogation, and the establishment of a system in harmony
with the government in England. One faction was led
by Sir Robert Rich, afterwards the Earl of Warwick; the
other by Sir Edwin Sandys, Lord Southampton, and others
of the like liberal principles. The manner in which these
antagonistic policies, which pursued many ramifications, developed,
will be recorded by us at a later stage of our
narrative.

[1]

An account of these brutal incidents is given by Percy in his Relation.