CHAPTER III.
1606-1608.
Gosnold, Smith, and others set on foot another Expedition—James I. issues Letters Patent—Instructions for Government of the Colony—Charter granted to London Company for First Colony of Virginia—Sir Thomas Smith, Treasurer—Government of the Colony—Three Vessels under Newport sail for Virginia—The Voyage—Enter Chesapeake Bay—Ascend the James River—The English entertained by the Chief of the Quiqoughcohanocks—Landing at Jamestown—Wingfield, President—Smith excluded from the Council—Newport and Smith explore the James to the Falls—Powhatan—Jamestown assaulted by Indians—Smith's Voyages up the Chickahominy—Murmurs against him—Again explores the Chickahominy—Made prisoner—Carried captive through the country—Taken to Werowocomoco—Rescued by Pocahontas—Returns to Jamestown—Fire there—Rev. Mr. Hunt—Rage for Gold-hunting—Newport visits Powhatan—Newport's Departure—Affairs at Jamestown.
Bartholomew Gosnold was the prime mover, and Captain John Smith the chief actor, in the settlement of Virginia. Gosnold, who had already, in 1602, made a voyage to the northern parts of Virginia, afterwards called New England, for many years fruitlessly labored to set on foot an expedition for effecting an actual settlement. At length he was reinforced in his efforts by Captain Smith; Edward Maria Wingfield, a merchant; Robert Hunt, a clergyman, and others; and by their united exertions certain of the nobility, gentry, and merchants, became interested in the project, and King James the First, who, as has been before mentioned, had, in 1603, succeeded Elizabeth, was induced to lend it his countenance. April 10th, 1606, letters patent were issued, authorizing the establishment of two colonies in Virginia and other parts of America. All the country from 34° to 45° of north latitude, then known as Virginia, was divided into two colonies, the First or Southern, and the Second or Northern.
The plantation of the Southern colony was intrusted to Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, knights; Richard Hackluyt, clerk, prebendary of Westminster; Edward Maria Wingfield, and others, mostly resident in London. This company was authorized to plant a colony wherever they might choose between 34° and 41° of north latitude; and the king vested in them a right of property in the land extending along the sea-coast fifty statute miles on each side of the place of their first plantation, and reaching into the interior one hundred miles from the sea-coast, together with all islands within one hundred miles of their shores. The Second, or Northern colony of Virginia, was in like manner intrusted to Thomas Hanham, and others, mostly residents of Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth. These were authorized to plant a colony wherever they might choose between 38° and 45° of north latitude, and he gave to them a territory of similar limits and extent to that given to the first colony. He provided, however, that the plantation of whichever of the said two colonies should be last effected, should not be within one hundred miles of the other that might be first established. The company of the Southern colony came to be distinguished as the London company, and the other as the Plymouth company. But eventually these names were dropped; and the name of Virginia, which had been at first common to the two colonies, was appropriated to the Southern colony only; while the Northern colony was now called New England.[36:A]
In the charter granted to Sir Thomas Gates and his associates, it was provided that the colony should have a council of its own, subject to a superior council in England. The subordinate council was authorized to search for and dig mines, coin money, carry over adventurers, and repel intruders. The president and council were authorized to levy duties on foreign commodities; the colonists were invested with all the rights and privileges of English subjects, and the lands granted to settlers in free and common soccage.[36:B]
On the 20th of November, 1606, instructions were given by the crown for the government of the two colonies, directing that the council in England should be appointed by the crown; the local council by the superior one in England; the local one to choose a president annually from its own body; the Christian religion to be preached; lands to descend as in England; trial by jury secured in criminal causes; and the council empowered to determine all civil actions; all produce and goods imported to be stored in magazines; a clerk and treasurer, or cape-merchant, to be appointed for the colony. The stockholders, styled adventurers, were authorized to organize a company for the management of the business of the colony, and to superintend the proceedings of the local council. The colonists were enjoined to treat the natives kindly, and to endeavor by all means to convert them to Christianity.[37:A] Sir Thomas Smith was appointed treasurer of the company, and the chief management of their affairs intrusted to him. He was an eminent London merchant; had been chief of Sir Walter Raleigh's assignees; was about this time governor of the East India Company, and had been ambassador to Russia.[37:B]
The frame of government thus provided for the new colony was cumbrous and complicated, the legislative and administrative powers being so distributed between the local council, the crown, and the company, as to involve the danger of delays, uncertainty, conflict, and irresponsibility. By the words of the charter the colonists were invested with the rights of Englishmen; yet, as far as political rights were concerned, there being no security provided by which they could be vindicated, they might often prove to be of no more real value than the parchment on which they were written. However, the government of such an infant colony must, of necessity, have been for the most part arbitrary; the political rights of the colonists must, for a time, have lain in abeyance. Their civil rights were protected in criminal causes by the trial by jury, and lands were to be held by a free tenure.
At length three vessels were fitted out for the expedition, one of twenty tons, one of forty, the third of one hundred tons, and they were put under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, a navigator experienced in voyages to the New World. Orders being put on board inclosed in a sealed box, not to be opened until their arrival in Virginia, they set sail from Blackwall on the 19th of December, 1606. For six weeks they were detained by headwinds and stormy weather in the Downs, within view of the English coast, and during this interval, disorder, threatening a mutiny, prevailed among the adventurers. However, it was suppressed by the interposition of the clergyman, Robert Hunt. The winds at length proving favorable, the little fleet proceeded along the old route by the Canaries, which they reached about the twenty-first of April, and on the twenty-sixth sailed for the West Indies, upon arriving at which it appears that Captain Smith was actually in command of the expedition, for,[38:A] writing afterwards in 1629, he says: "Because I have ranged and lived among those islands, what my authors cannot tell me, I think it no great error in helping them to tell it myself. In this little Isle of Mevis, more than twenty years ago, I have remained a good time together, to wood and water, and refresh my men." This isle was, on this occasion, the scene of a remarkable incident in his life, and one which appears to have escaped the notice of our historians. "Such factions here we had as commonly attend such voyages, that a pair of gallows was made; but Captain Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded to use them. But not any of the inventors but their lives by justice fell into his power to determine of at his pleasure, whom, with much mercy, he favored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayed him."
After passing three weeks in the West Indies they sailed in quest of Roanoke Island, and having exceeded their reckoning three days without finding land, the crew grew impatient, and Ratcliffe, captain of the pinnace, proposed to steer back for England.
At this conjuncture a violent storm, compelling them to scud all night under bare poles, providentially drove them into the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. The first land that they came in sight of, April 26th, 1607, they called Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James, as the opposite point, Cape Charles, was named after the king's second son, then Duke of York, afterwards Charles the First. A party of twenty or thirty, with Newport, landing here, found a variety of pretty flowers and goodly trees. While recreating themselves on the shore they were attacked by five of the savages, who came creeping upon all-fours from the hills like bears, and with their arrows wounded two, but retired at the discharge of muskets.[39:A]
That night the sealed box was opened, when it appeared that the members of council appointed were—Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. They were instructed to elect, out of their own number, a president for one year; he and the council together were invested with the government; affairs of moment were to be examined by a jury, but determined by the council.
Seventeen days were spent in quest of a place for the settlement. A point on the western side of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay they named Point Comfort, because they found a good harbor there, which, after the recent storm, put them in good comfort. Landing there, April 30th, they saw five Indians, who were at first alarmed; but seeing the captain lay his hand upon his heart, they came boldly up and invited the strangers to Kecoughtan, now Hampton, their town, where they were entertained with corn-bread, tobacco and pipes, and a dance. May 4th, the explorers were kindly received by the Paspaheghs. The chief of a neighboring tribe sent a guide to conduct the English strangers to his habitation. Percy calls them the Rappahannas; but as no such tribe is mentioned by Smith as being near the James River, they were probably the Quiqoughcohanocks, who dwelled on the north side of the river, about ten miles above Jamestown.[39:B] Upon the arrival of the English this chief stood on the bank of the river to meet them, when they landed, "with all his train," says Percy, "as goodly men as any I have seen of savages, or Christians, the Werowance [chief] coming before them, playing on a flute made of a reed, with a crown of deer's hair, colored red, in fashion of a rose, fastened about his knot of hair, and a great plate of copper on the other side of his head, with two long feathers, in fashion of a pair of horns, placed in the midst of his crown. His body was painted all with crimson, with a chain of beads about his neck; his face painted blue, besprinkled with silver ore, as we thought; his ears all behung with bracelets of pearl, and in either ear a bird's claw through it, beset with fine copper or gold. He entertained us in so modest a proud fashion, as though he had been a prince of civil government, holding his countenance without laughter, or any such ill behavior. He caused his mat to be spread on the ground, where he sate down with a great majesty, taking a pipe of tobacco, the rest of his company standing about him. After he had rested awhile he rose, and made signs to us to come to his town: he went foremost, and all the rest of his people and ourselves followed him up a steep hill, where his palace was settled. We passed through the woods in fine paths having most pleasant springs, which issued from the mountains [hills.] We also went through the goodliest corn-fields that ever were seen in any country. When we came to Rappohanna town, he entertained us in good humanity." While this hospitable, unsophisticated chief was piping a welcome to the English strangers, how little did he anticipate the tragic scenes of war and blood which were so soon to ensue!
On the 8th of May the English went farther up the river to the country of the Appomattocks, who came forth to meet them in a most warlike manner, with bows and arrows, and formidable war-clubs; but the whites, making signs of peace, were suffered to land unmolested.[40:A] At length they selected for the site of the colony a peninsula lying on the north side of the James River, and about forty miles from its mouth. The western end of this peninsula, where it is connected by a little isthmus with the main land, was the spot pitched upon for the erection of a town, which was named, in honor of the king, Jamestown. Some contention occurred between Wingfield and Gosnold in regard to the selection of this place, Gosnold objecting to it. Smith conceived it a fit place for a great city. Gosnold exhibited in this matter the better judgment. The situation, eligible in some points, was extremely unhealthy, being low and exposed to the malaria of extensive marshes covered with water at high-tide. The bank of the river there is marked by no striking or picturesque feature. According to the terms of the charter, the territory now appropriated to the colony comprised a square of a base of one hundred miles, and including an area of ten thousand square miles, of which Jamestown was the centre, so to speak.
The settlers landed at Jamestown on the 13th day of May, 1607. This was the first permanent settlement effected by the English in North America, after the lapse of one hundred and ten years from the discovery of the continent by the Cabots, and twenty-two years after the first attempt to colonize it, made under the auspices of Walter Raleigh. Upon landing, the council took the oath of office; Edward Maria Wingfield was elected president, and Thomas Studley, cape-merchant or treasurer of the colony.[41:A] Smith was excluded from the council upon some false pretences. Dean Swift says: "When a great genius appears in the world, the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
All hands now fell to work, the council planning a fort, the rest clearing ground for pitching tents, preparing clapboard for freighting the vessels, laying off gardens, and making fishing-nets. The Indians frequently visited them in a friendly way. The president's overweening jealousy would allow no military exercise or fortification, save the boughs of trees thrown together in a semicircle by the energy of Captain Kendall.
On the fourth of June, Newport, Smith, and twenty others were dispatched to discover the head of the river on which they were seated, called by the Indians, Powhatan, and by the English, the James. The natives everywhere received them kindly, dancing, and feasting them with bread, fish, strawberries, and mulberries, for which Newport requited them with bells, pins, needles, and looking-glasses, which so pleased them that they followed the strangers from place to place. In six days they reached a town called Powhatan, one of the seats of the great chief of that name, whom they found there. It consisted of twelve wigwams, pleasantly situated on a bold range of hills overlooking the river, with three islets in front, and many corn-fields around. This picturesque spot lies on the north bank of the river, about a mile below the falls, and still retains the same name.
On the day of their arrival, the tenth of June, the party visited the falls, and again on the day following, Whitsunday, when they erected a cross there to indicate the farthest point of discovery. Newport, in return for Powhatan's hospitality, presented him with a gown and a hatchet. Upon their return, the Indians first gave occasion for distrust at Weyanoke, within twenty miles of Jamestown. Arriving there on the next day, June the twentieth, they found that a boy had been killed, and seventeen men, including the greater part of the council, had been wounded by the savages; that during the assault a cross-bar shot from one of the vessels had struck down a bough of a tree among them and made them retire, but for which all the settlers there would probably have been massacred, as they were at the time of the attack planting corn in security, and without arms. Wingfield now consented that the fort should be palisaded, cannon mounted, and the men armed and exercised. The attacks and ambuscades of the natives were frequent, and the English, by their careless straggling, were often wounded, while the fleet-footed savages easily escaped.
Thus the colonists endured continual hardships, guarding the workmen by day and keeping watch by night. Six weeks being passed in this way, Newport was now about to return to England. Ever since their departure from the Canaries, save for a while in the West Indies, Smith had been in a sort of duress upon the false and scandalous charges of some of the principal men in the expedition, who, envying his superiority, gave out that he intended to usurp the command, murder the council, and make himself king; that his confederates were distributed in the three vessels; and that divers of them, who had revealed it, would confirm it. Upon these accusations Smith had been arrested, and had now lain for several months under the cloud of these suspicions. Upon the eve of Newport's departure, Smith's accusers affecting through pity to refer his case to the council in England, rather than overwhelm him on the spot by an exposure of his criminal designs, he defied their malice, defeated their base machinations, and so bore himself throughout the whole affair, that all saw his innocence and the malignity of his enemies. The very witnesses suborned to accuse him charged his enemies with subornation of perjury. Kendall, the ringleader of them, was adjudged to pay him two hundred pounds in damages, which Smith contributed to the common stock of the colony. During these disputes Hunt, the chaplain, used his exertions to reconcile the parties, and at his instance Smith was admitted into the council on the twentieth day of June, and on the next day they all received the communion. The Indians now sued for peace, and two days after Newport weighed anchor, leaving at Jamestown one hundred settlers, with provisions sufficient, as was supposed, for more than three months.[43:A]
Not long after his departure a fatal sickness began to prevail at Jamestown, engendered by the insalubrity of the place, the exposure of the settlers, and the scarcity and bad quality of their food. Hitherto they had procured provisions from the vessels, but now, for some time, the daily allowance of each man was a pint of damaged wheat or barley. "Our drink was water, and our lodgings castles in the air." By September fifty of them, being one-half of the colony, died; the rest made out to subsist upon sturgeon and crabs. Among the victims of disease was Bartholomew Gosnold, the projector of the expedition, whose name is well worthy to be ranked with Smith and Raleigh. The sick, during this calamitous season, received the faithful attentions of Thomas Wotton, surgeon-general.
Wingfield, the president, after engrossing, as it was alleged, the public store of provisions to his own use, attempted to escape from the colony in the pinnace, and return to England. This baseness roused the indignation even of the emaciated survivors, and they deposed him, and appointed Captain John Ratcliffe in his place, and displaced Kendall, a confederate of Wingfield, from the council.
In a manuscript journal of these early incidents, written by Wingfield himself, and preserved in the Lambeth Library, he undertakes to exculpate himself from the charge of engrossing the common store in the following terms: "As I understand, by report, I am much charged with starving the colony; I did always give every man his allowance faithfully, both of corn, oil, aquavitæ, etc., as was by the council proportioned; neither was it bettered after my time, until toward the end of March a biscuit was allowed to every workingman for his breakfast, by means of the provision brought us by Captain Newport, as will appear hereafter. It is further said I did much banquet and riot; I never had but one squirrel roasted, whereof I gave a part to Mr. Ratcliffe, then sick; yet was that squirrel given me. I did never heat a flesh-pot but when the common-pot was so used likewise; yet how often Mr. Presidents and the councillors have, night and day, been endangered to break their backs, so laden with swans, geese, ducks, etc. How many times their flesh-pots have swelled, many hungry eyes did behold, to their great longing; and what great thieves and thieving there hath been in common store since my time, I doubt not but is already made known to his majesty's council for Virginia."
At length their stores were almost exhausted, the small quantity of wine remaining being reserved for the communion-table; the sturgeon gone, all further effort abandoned in despair, and an attack from the savages each moment expected. At this hopeless conjuncture, a benignant Providence put it into the hearts of the Indians to supply the famished sufferers with an abundance of fruits and provision. Mankind, in trying scenes, render an involuntary homage to superior genius. Ratcliffe, the new president, and Martin, finding themselves incompetent and unpopular, intrusted the helm of affairs to Smith, who, acting as cape-merchant, set the colonists to work, some to mow, others to build houses and thatch them, he himself always performing the heaviest task. In a short time habitations were provided for the greater part of the survivors, and a church was built. Smith next embarked in a shallop to go in quest of supplies. Ignorance of the Indian language, the want of sails for the boat, and of clothing for the men and their small force, were discouraging impediments, but they did not dishearten him. With a crew of six or seven he went down the river to Kecoughtan, a town of eighteen cabins. Here he replied to a scornful defiance, by a volley of musketry and capturing their okee—an idol stuffed with moss, and painted and adorned with copper chains—so terrified them, that they quickly brought him a supply of venison, wild-fowl, and bread. Having procured a supply of corn, on his return he discovered the town and county of Warrasqueake, where he procured a further supply. After this, in several journeys, he explored the borders of the Chickahominy River. During his absence, Wingfield and Kendall, leaguing with the sailors and others, seized the pinnace in order to escape to England; but Smith, returning unexpectedly, opened so hot a fire upon them as compelled them to stay or sink. For this offence Kendall was tried by a jury, convicted, and shot.[45:A] Not long after, Ratcliffe and Captain Gabriel Archer made a similar attempt, and it was foiled by Smith's vigilance and resolution.
At the approach of winter the rivers of Virginia abounded with wild-fowl, and the English now were well supplied with bread, peas, persimmons, fish, and game. But this plenty did not last long; for what Smith carefully provided the colonists carelessly wasted. The idlers at Jamestown, including some of the council, now began to mutter complaints against Smith for not having discovered the source of the Chickahominy, it being supposed that the South Sea or Pacific Ocean lay not far distant, and that a communication with it would be found by some river running from the northwest. The Chickahominy flowed in that direction, and hence the solicitude of these Jamestown cosmographers to trace that river to its head. To allay this dissatisfaction of the council, Smith made another voyage up that river, and proceeded until it became necessary, in order to pass, to cut away a large tree which had fallen across the stream. When at last the barge could advance no farther, he returned eight miles and moored her in a wide bay out of danger, and leaving orders to his men not to venture on shore until his return, accompanied by two of his men and two Indian guides, and leaving seven men in the barge, he went still higher up in a canoe to the distance of twenty miles. In a short time after he had parted from the barge the men left in her went ashore, and one of them, George Cassen, was surprised and killed. Smith, in the mean while, not suspecting this disaster, reached the marshy ground toward the head of the river, "the slashes," and went out with his gun to provide food for the party, and took with him one of the Indians. During his excursion his two men, Robinson and Emry, were slain; and he himself was attacked by a numerous party of Indians, two of whom he killed with a pistol. He protected himself from their arrows by making a shield of his guide, binding him fast by the arm with one of his garters. Many arrows pierced his clothes, and some slightly wounded him. Endeavoring to reach the canoe, and walking backward with his eye still fixed on his pursuers, he sunk to his waist in an oozy creek, and his savage with him. Nevertheless the Indians were afraid to approach, until, being now half-dead with cold, he threw away his arms, when they drew him forth, and led him to the fire where his two companions were lying dead. Here the Indians chafed his benumbed limbs, and having restored the vital heat, Smith inquired for their chief, and they pointed him to Opechancanough, the great chief of Pamunkey. Smith presented him a mariner's compass; the vibrations of the mysterious needle astonished the untutored sons of the forest. In a short time they bound the prisoner to a tree, and were about to shoot him to death, when Opechancanough holding up the compass, they all laid down their bows and arrows. Then marching in Indian file they led the captive guarded, by fifteen men, about six miles, to Orapakes, a hunting town in the upper part of the Chickahominy swamp, and about twelve miles northeast from the falls of James River (Richmond.) At this town, consisting of thirty or forty houses, built like arbors and covered with mats, the women and children came forth to meet them, staring in amazement at Smith. Opechancanough and his followers performed their military exercises, and joined in the war-dance. Smith was confined in a long house under a guard, and an enormous quantity of bread and venison was set before him, as if to fatten him for sacrifice, or because they supposed that a superior being required a proportionately larger supply of food. An Indian who had received some toys from Smith at Jamestown, now, in return, brought him a warm garment of fur—a pleasing instance of gratitude, a sentiment often found even in the breast of a savage. Another Indian, whose son had been mortally wounded by Smith, made an attempt to kill him in revenge, and was only prevented by the interposition of his guards.
Opechancanough meditating an assault upon Jamestown, undertook to entice Smith to join him by offers of life, liberty, land, and women. Being allowed to send a message to Jamestown, he wrote a note on a leaf of a book, giving information of the intended assault, and directing what means should be employed to strike terror into the messengers, and what presents should be sent back by them. Three men dispatched with the note returned with an answer and the presents, in three days, notwithstanding the rigor of the season; it being the midst of the winter of 1607, remarkable for its extraordinary severity, and the ground being covered with snow. Opechancanough and his people looked upon their captive as some supernatural being, and were filled with new wonder on seeing how the "paper could speak." Abandoning the design of attacking Jamestown, they conducted Smith through the country of the Youghtanunds, Mattapanients, Payanketanks, Nantaughtacunds, and Onawmanients, on the banks of the Rappahannock, and Potomac. Thence he was taken to Pamaunkee, at the junction of the Matapony and Pamunkey—the residence of Opechancanough. Here, for three days, they engaged in their horrid orgies and incantations, with a view to divine their prisoner's secret designs whether friendly or hostile. They also showed him a bag of gunpowder, which they were reserving till the next spring, when they intended to sow it in the ground, as they were desirous of propagating so useful an article.
Smith was hospitably entertained by Opitchapan, (Opechancanough's brother,) who dwelt a little above, on the Pamunkey. Finally, the captive was taken to Werowocomoco, probably signifying chief place of council, a favorite seat of Powhatan, on the York River, then called the Pamaunkee or Pamunkey. They found this chief in his rude palace, reclining before the fire, on a sort of throne, resembling a bedstead, covered with mats, his head adorned with feathers and his neck with beads, and wearing a long robe of raccoon skins. At his head sate a young female, and another at his feet; while, on each side of the wigwam, sate the men in rows, on mats; and behind them as many young women, their heads and shoulders painted red, some with their heads decorated with the snowy down of birds, and all with strings of white beads falling over their shoulders. On Smith's entrance they all raised a terrific yell; the queen of Appomattock brought him water to wash, and another, a bunch of feathers for a towel. After feasting him, a long consultation was held. That ended, two large stones were brought, and the one laid upon the other, before Powhatan; then as many as could lay hold, seizing Smith, dragged him to the stones, and laying his head on them, snatched up their war-clubs, and, brandishing them in the air, were about to slay him, when Pocahontas, Powhatan's favorite daughter, a girl of only twelve or thirteen years of age,[48:A] finding all her entreaties unavailing, flew, and, at the hazard of her life, clasped the captive's head in her arms, and laid her own upon his. The stern heart of Powhatan was touched—he relented, and consented that Smith might live.
Werowocomoco, the scene of this celebrated rescue, lies on the north side of York River, in the County of Gloucester, about twenty-five miles below the fork of the river, and on a bay into which three creeks empty.[48:B] This is Timber-neck Bay, on the east bank of which stands a remarkable old stone chimney, traditionally known as "Powhatan's chimney," and its site corresponds exactly with the royal house of that chief, as laid down on Smith's Map of Virginia. Werowocomoco is only a few miles distant from the historic field of Yorktown, which is lower down the river, and on the opposite side. The lapse of time will continually heighten the interesting associations of Werowocomoco, and in ages of the distant future the pensive traveller will linger at the spot graced with the lovely charms of nature, and endeared by recollections of the tender heroism of Pocahontas.
Within two days after Smith's rescue, Powhatan suffered him to return to Jamestown, on condition of sending him two great guns and a grindstone, for which he promised to give him the country of Capahowosick, and forever esteem him as his own favorite son Nantaquoud. Smith, accompanied by Indian guides, quartered at night in some old hunting cabins of Paspahegh, and reached Jamestown on the next morning about sunrise. During the journey, as ever since his capture, he had expected at almost every moment to be put to death. Returning, after an absence of seven weeks, he was joyfully welcomed back by all except Archer and two or three of his confederates. Archer, who had been illegally admitted into the council, had the insolent audacity to indict Smith, upon a chapter of Leviticus, for the death of his two men slain by the Indians on the Chickahominy. He was tried on the day of his return, and sentenced to be hanged on the next day, or the day after the next, when Newport's opportune arrival on the very night after Smith's return, providentially saved him from this ignominious fate. Wingfield attributes the saving of his life likewise to Newport, who released him from the pinnace, where he was in duress.[49:A]
Smith now treated his Indian guides kindly, and showing Rawhunt, a favorite servant of Powhatan, two pieces of cannon and a grindstone, gave him leave to carry them home to his master. A cannon was then loaded with stones, and discharged among the boughs of a tree hung with icicles, when the Indians fled in terror, but upon being persuaded to return, they received presents for Powhatan, his wives and children, and departed.
At the time of Smith's return to Jamestown, he found the number of the colonists reduced to forty. Of the one hundred original settlers,[49:B] seventy-eight are classified as follows: fifty-four gentlemen, four carpenters, twelve laborers, a blacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, a drummer, and a "chirurgeon." Of the gentlemen, the greater part were indolent, dissolute reprobates, of good families; and they found themselves not in a golden El Dorado, as they had fondly anticipated, but in a remote wilderness, encompassed by want, exposure, fatigue, disease, and danger.
The return of Smith, and his report of the plenty that he had witnessed at Werowocomoco, and of the generous clemency of Powhatan, and especially of the love of Pocahontas, revived the drooping hopes of the survivors at Jamestown. The arrival of Newport at the same juncture with stores and a number of additional settlers, being part of the first supply sent out from England by the treasurer and council, was joyfully welcomed. Pocahontas too, with her tawny train of attendants, frequently visited Jamestown, with presents of bread, and venison, and raccoons, sent by Powhatan for Smith and Newport. However, the improvident traffic allowed between Newport's mariners and the natives, soon extremely enhanced the price of provisions, and the too protracted detention of his vessel made great inroads upon the public store. Newport, not long after his arrival, accompanied by Smith, Scrivener, newly arrived, and made one of the council, and thirty or forty picked men, visited Powhatan at Werowocomoco. Upon their arrival, Smith landed with a party of men, and after crossing several creeks on bridges of poles and bark, (for it appears that he had mistaken the right landing place, having probably passed up a little beyond the mouth of Timberneck Bay,) they were met and escorted to the town by Opechancanough, Nantaquaus, Powhatan's son, and two hundred warriors. Powhatan was found seated on his bedstead throne of mats, with his buckskin pillow or cushion, embroidered with beads. More than forty trays of bread stood without, in rows on each side of the door. Four or five hundred Indians were present. Newport landed on the next day, and some days were past in feasting, and dancing, and trading, in which last Powhatan exhibited a curious mixture of huckstering cunning, and regal pride. Smith gave him a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a hat. Charmed with some blue beads, for one or two pounds of them he gave in exchange two or three hundred bushels of corn. Newport presented him a boy named Thomas Salvage, in return for an Indian named Namontack. Smith acted as interpreter.
The English next visited Opechancanough, at his seat, Pamunkey. The blue beads came to be in great request, and none dared to wear them save the chiefs and their families. Having procured a further supply of corn at this place, Newport and his party returned to Jamestown, which was now destroyed by an accidental fire. Originating in the public storehouse, the flames spread rapidly over the cabins, thatched with reeds, consuming even the palisades, some eight or ten yards distant. Arms, apparel, bedding, and much of their private provision, were consumed, as was also a temporary church, which had been erected. "The minister, Hunt, lost all his library, and all that he had but the clothes on his back; yet none ever heard him repine at his loss. Upon any alarm he was as ready for defence as any, and till he could not speak, he never ceased to his utmost to animate us constantly to persist; whose soul, questionless, is with God."[51:A] As no further mention is made of him at Jamestown, it is probable that he did not live long after this fire. Dr. Hawks, however, conjectures that he survived long enough to officiate in the first marriage in Virginia, which took place in the year 1608.[51:B] He appears to have resided in the County of Kent, England, where, in January, 1594, he was appointed to the vicarage of Reculver, which he resigned in 1602. But he probably still continued to reside there, or to consider that his home, until he embarked for Virginia, because when in the Downs, which are opposite to Kent, he was only twenty miles "from his habitation." Of his appointment as chaplain to the expedition, Wingfield, in his journal referred to before, gives the following account: "For my first work, (which was to make a right choice of a spiritual pastor,) I appeal to the remembrance of my Lord of Canterbury's Grace, who gave me very gracious audience in my request. And the world knoweth whom I took with me, truly a man, in my opinion, not any way to be touched with the rebellious humor of a papist spirit, nor blemished with the least suspicion of a factious schismatic." My Lord of Canterbury was that persecuting prelate, Archbishop Bancroft, who persecuted the Puritan dissenters till they desired to come over to Virginia to get out of his reach, and which they were prohibited from doing by a royal proclamation, issued at his instance. Rev. Robert Hunt, by all the notices of him that are given, appears to have been a pious, disinterested, resolute, and exemplary man.
When the English first settled at Jamestown, their place of worship consisted of an awning, or old sail, suspended between three or four trees, to protect them from the sun; the area covered by it was inclosed by wooden rails; the seats were unhewed trees, till plank was cut; the pulpit was a wooden crosspiece nailed to two neighboring trees. In inclement weather an old decayed tent served for the place of worship. After awhile, by the zeal of the minister Hunt, and the assistance of Newport's seamen, a homely structure like a barn was erected, "set upon crachets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth," as likewise were the sides, the best of the houses being constructed after the same fashion, and the greater part of them worse than the church, so that they were but a poor defence against wind or rain. Nevertheless, the service was read daily, morning and evening, and on Sunday two sermons were preached, and the communion celebrated every three months, till the Rev. Mr. Hunt died. After which prayers were still said daily, and a homily read on Sunday, and so it continued until the arrival of other preachers some two or three years afterwards. The salary allowed Mr. Hunt appears to have been £500 a year, appropriated by the council of the Virginia Company in England, consented to by the council in Virginia, and confirmed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1605, to Richard Hackluyt, Prebend of Westminster, who, by his authority, sent out Mr. Hunt, "an honest, religious, and courageous divine, during whose life our factions were oft qualified, our wants and greatest extremities so comforted, that they seemed easy in comparison of what we endured after his memorable death."[52:A]
The stock of provisions running low, the colonists at Jamestown were reduced to a diet of meal and water, and this, together with their exposure to cold, after the loss of their habitations, cut off upwards of one-half of them. Their condition was made still worse by a rage for gold that now seized them. "There was no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Smith, not indulging in these empty dreams of imaginary wealth, laughed at their infatuation in loading "such a drunken ship with gilded dust."
Captain Newport, after a delay of three months and a half, being now ready to sail for England, and the planters having no use for parliaments, places, petitions, admirals, recorders, interpreters, chronologers, courts of plea, nor justices of the peace, sent Master Wingfield and Captain Archer home with him, so that they, who had ingrossed all those titles to themselves, might seek some better place of employment. Newport carried with him twenty turkeys, which had been presented to him by Powhatan, who had demanded and received twenty swords in return for them. This fowl, peculiar to America, had been many years before carried to England by some of the early discoverers of North America.[53:A]
After Newport's departure, Ratcliffe, the president, lived in ease, peculating on the public store. The spring now approaching, Smith and Scrivener undertook to rebuild Jamestown, repair the palisades, fell trees, prepare the fields, plant and erect another church. While thus engaged they were joyfully surprised by the arrival of the Phœnix, commanded by Captain Nelson, who had left England with Newport, about the end of the year 1607, and after coming within sight of Cape Henry, had been driven off to the West Indies. He brought with him the remainder of the first supply, which comprised one hundred and twenty settlers. Having found provisions in the West Indies, and having economically husbanded his own, he imparted them generously to the colony, so that now there was accumulated a store sufficient for half a year.
Powhatan having effected so advantageous an exchange with Newport, afterwards sent Smith twenty turkeys, but receiving no swords in return, he was highly offended, and ordered his people to take them by fraud or force, and they accordingly attempted to seize them at the gates of Jamestown. The president and Martin, who now ruled, remained inactive, under pretence of orders from England not to offend the natives; but some of them happening to meddle with Smith, he handled them so roughly, by whipping and imprisonment, as to repress their insolence.
Pocahontas, in beauty of feature, expression, and form, far surpassed any of the natives; and in intelligence and spirit "was the nonpareil of her country." Powhatan, hearing that some of his people were kept prisoners at Jamestown, sent her, with Rawhunt, (who was as remarkable for his personal deformity, but shrewd and crafty,) with presents of a deer and some bread to sue for their ransom. Smith released the prisoners, and Pocahontas was dismissed with presents. Thus the scheme of Powhatan to destroy the English with their own swords, was happily frustrated.
The Phœnix was freighted with a cargo of cedar, and the unserviceable, gold-hunting Captain Martin, concluded to return with her to England. Of the 120 settlers brought by Newport and Nelson, there were 33 gentlemen, 21 laborers, (some of them only footmen,) 6 tailors, 2 apothecaries, 2 jewellers, 2 gold-refiners, 2 goldsmiths, a gunsmith, a perfumer, a surgeon, a cooper, a tobacco-pipe maker, and a blacksmith.[54:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[36:A] See charter in Stith's Hist. of Va., Appendix; "Notes as to the Limits of Virginia," by Littleton Waller Tazewell, in Va. Hist. Register, No. 1.
[36:B] Hening's Statutes at Large, i. 57.
[37:A] Hen. 67; Stith, 36, and in Appendix.
[37:B] Stith, 42.
[38:A] Smith's Hist. of Va., ii. 276.
[39:A] Narrative (in Purchas' Pilgrims, iv. 1685,) by George Percy, brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and one of the first expedition. See Hillard's Life of Smith in Sparks' Amer. Biog., 211 and 214 in note. (Hillard in the main follows Stith.) Smith's Newes from Virginia.
[39:B] Smith, i. 140-41.
[40:A] Percy's Narrative.
[41:A] Stith, 46.
[43:A] Smith, i. 153; Newes from Virginia; Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, i. 217.
[45:A] Newes from Va., 7.
[48:A] Smith, ii. 30. In Newes from Va., Smith calls her "a child of ten years old." This was a mistake.
[48:B] Stith, 53; Newes from Virginia, 11.
[49:A] Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, i. 221, referring to Wingfield's MS. Journal.
[49:B] List of the first planters, Smith, i. 153.
[51:A] Purchas, iv. 1710, cited in Anderson's History Col. Church, i. 222.
[51:B] Hawks' Contributions, 22.
[52:A] Captain John Smith's "Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or anywhere," etc. A rare pamphlet, written at the house of Sir Humphrey Mildmay, in the Parish of Danbery, Essex County, England, dedicated to the excellent Archbishop Abbot, and published in 1631. Cited in Anderson's History of Col. Church, ii. 747.
[53:A] Grahame's Col. Hist. U. S., Amer. ed., i. 28, in note.
[54:A] Smith, i. 170.
