VIII.
CAPTAIN GEORGE PERCY.
VIII. President of the Council in Virginia.
VIII. August, 1609, to May, 1610.
President John Smith, enfeebled by an accident to his
person from an explosion of powder, and requiring medical
aid only to be obtained in England, returned thither towards
the close of the year 1609, leaving three ships, seven boats,
upwards of four hundred and ninety persons, twenty-four
pieces of ordnance, three hundred muskets, with other arms
and ammunition, one hundred well-trained and expert soldiers,
a competent supply of working tools, live stock, and ten weeks'
provisions. Jamestown was strongly palisaded, and contained
about sixty houses. Smith, for more than a year, had
maintained his authority, and when forced to embark for
England he delegated his office to Percy. But the colonists,
no longer controlled by an acknowledged authority, abandoned
themselves to improvident idleness.
Nothing could have been more inauspicious for the Colony
of Virginia than the departure of Captain Smith. The provisions
having been wasted after he left, a dreadful famine
ensued, and prevailed to such extremity that this period was
ever afterwards distinguished by the name of "the starving
time." Of nearly five hundred persons left in the Colony by
the late President, sixty only remained at the expiration of
six months.
Captain George Percy passed through a trying experience.
On the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, May, 1610, the colonists
insisted upon sailing for Newfoundland and burning behind
them the town in which they had been so wretched. Gates
prevented this, but they started on their sad return, and
"none dropped a tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happiness."
On the 8th of June, 1610, they fell down the stream
with the tide, but next morning they met Lord De la Warr,
with emigrants and supplies, and he turned the faces of the
fugitives once more towards the deserted Jamestown. It was
on the 10th of June that the restoration of the Colony began.
Under the second charter granted the London Company
for Virginia, May 23, 1609, it was empowered to choose the
Supreme Council in England, and under its instructions and
regulations a Governor was provided, invested with absolute
civil and military authority, with the title of "Governor and
Captain-General of Virginia." The resident council was still
retained. Thomas West, Lord De la Warr, was appointed
First Governor and Captain-General for life, May 23, 1609, but
as he did not reach the Colony until June 10, 1610, Sir Thomas
Gates was authorized to administer the affairs of the colony
until the arrival of Lord De la Warr. When, therefore, Sir
Thomas Gates arrived in Virginia, May 24, 1610, he superseded
Captain George Percy, whose term of office had been such an
eventful one.
George Percy, eighth son of Henry, eighth Earl of Northumberland,
was born September 4, 1580; served for a time in
the Low Countries; sailed for Virginia in the first expedition,
December, 1606; was President of the Colony during "the
starving time," from August, 1609, to May, 1610, and when
Lord De la Warr returned to England in March, 1611, in
recognition of Percy's former services, he was appointed Governor
until the arrival of Dale in May following. Percy left
Virginia, April, 1612, went again to the Low Countries, where
he distinguished himself as a soldier, was captain of a company
in 1627, and died unmarried in 1632. He wrote "A
Trewe Relacyon," in defense of his administration in Virginia.
