Thus, when sickness compelled Lord Delaware to return to England in the following March, he left Jamestown thoroughly resuscitated and on the highroad to prosperity. On the way home, the retiring governor passed Sir Thomas Dale coming to the colony with three ships and a full year’s supplies. If he did not make much progress, Dale at least preserved the advance which had been effected by Delaware until, at the beginning of August, Gates’s return as Governor marked the inception of a new era for Virginia.
Gates brought out three large ships, a number of cattle, horses, three hundred men, and so great a quantity of supplies as to put the question of starvation out of mind, for the first time in the history of the colony. Gates was well adapted by character, if not by experience, to rule the American possession. His emigrants were, for the most part, of a sort to benefit the settlement—men of good morals, accustomed to work and adept at various handicrafts. There were now a number of women in the country and family life began to make its appearance. Jamestown soon assumed the appearance of an orderly town, with a public hall, a church, store-house and neat dwellings. Along the river banks farms, plantations and cattle ranches appeared in time.
The rapid spread of the practice of smoking in England brought about the greatest changes in the condition of the colony of Virginia. Tobacco commanded good prices, with a constantly increasing demand, and soon every other enterprise in the colony was abandoned in favor of the production of the narcotic plant. The settlers went tobacco mad as in earlier days they had given themselves up to the gold frenzy. Nothing else was thought of. Fields were neglected, buildings and fortifications were allowed to fall into decay. It was said in England that the very streets of Jamestown were planted in tobacco. Every man saw in the leaf a prospect of speedy wealth, and readily sacrificed the demands of the present to the pursuit of a golden future. The Company was delighted with the rich cargos that poured into England and promised to fill their coffers to overflowing. Every encouragement was given the colonists to persist in their short-sighted policy. Smith, with true wisdom, warned the proprietors and the public that the result could not be anything but disaster, but he was scouted as a croaker, envious of the good fortune of his successors.
During the four years that the tobacco madness was at its height the former discipline was utterly relaxed. There was little disorder because everyone was busy in the tobacco fields from morning till night. But the defences were entirely neglected and no guard was maintained by day or night. Indeed, there did not appear to be any need for such precaution. The Indians had been friendly for years and many of them lived in the fort and even in the homes of the settlers. Opechancanough was now the Chief of the tribe, Powhatan being dead. The former was ever the implacable enemy of the whites but had up to this time hidden his true feelings under a cloak of cordiality. Secretly and patiently, meanwhile, the cunning savage was plotting the destruction of all the whites in Virginia, now numbering several thousands of men, women and children, scattered over a wide range of country.
The blow fell suddenly. On the same day the Indians attacked the settlers at different points and found them quite unprepared for resistance. Nearly four hundred were slain, and the massacre would have been much more extensive but for the fact that in many cases natives who had acquired a real regard for their white neighbors warned them in time and in some instances defended them. The tobacco planters now huddled in Jamestown, anxious only for their lives. Hurriedly the place was put in better condition to withstand assault and provisioned against a siege. But Opechancanough was too astute to attack Jamestown and an armed peace ensued.
The tidings of the massacre horrified England. The Company was panic-stricken and at a loss what to do. Smith called upon them with a proposal for the effective defence of the colony, and offered to go out and put it into operation himself. The proprietors hesitated to incur the expense and, in the meanwhile, their perplexity was relieved by the cancellation of their charter. The colony was attached to the crown and the settlers were left to their own resources. Under these conditions they seem to have fared better than when subject to proprietary interests at home, for from the year of the massacre, 1622, Virginia enjoyed a century and a half of uneventful prosperity.
THE END.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.