| [22] | Born about 1595; died, 1617. Daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan. Smith reports that when he was taken prisoner by Powhatan and was about to be put to death, Pocahontas placed her own head in the way of the executioner’s club. This may have been a sign that she wished to have Smith spared that he might become her husband. It is at least certain that Smith was sent back to Jamestown, and that Pocahontas afterward befriended the colonists. She was converted to Christianity in 1613, and christened Rebecca; married John Rolfe in 1614; went to England in 1616, and was presented at the court of James I. as Princess Lady Rebecca. From her have descended many illustrious families of Virginia. |
| [23] | The Privy Council ordered Nicholas Ferrar, deputy treasurer of the Company, to hand over all books and papers of the corporation. Ferrar, having in view the future justification of his colleagues and himself, had the records copied and intrusted to the keeping of the Earl of Southampton, the Company’s treasurer, who had been elected against the wishes of King James. In 1667 the copy was sold to William Byrd of Virginia. Then it passed to Rev. William Stith, one of the earliest Virginian historians, then to Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress, then to Thomas Jefferson, and finally, in 1814, on the sale of Jefferson’s library, to the government of the United States. It is now in the Library of Congress and fills two folio volumes. See Fiske’s Old Virginia and Her Neighbors, I. chap. vi. |
| [24] | Harvey came to Virginia in 1629, but by 1635 he was ousted from office by the Burgesses, and forced to go to England to appeal to the king, who sent him back. Four years later, however, Charles, in order to ingratiate himself with his tobacco-growing subjects, removed Harvey. |
| [25] | One of the boldest of English navigators, born about 1580; explored the coast of Greenland in 1607; in 1609 skirted the coast of Labrador, and turning southward discovered the Hudson; in 1610 entered the strait and bay which were named for him; but his crew mutinied and put him, with seven companions, adrift. They were never heard of again. |
| [26] | It is worth noting that the Mayflower was not the only vessel of this expedition as it was first arranged. The companion ship, Speedwell, had an accident, and was obliged to return. |
| [27] | It should be remembered that while the Pilgrims were Puritans, most of the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts were far from being Pilgrims. The importance attaching to the Pilgrims in American history is due mainly to the priority of their landing and to the picturesqueness of their early history. |
| [28] | Born about 1588; died, 1665. In 1628 came to Massachusetts Bay as governor, in which capacity he acted till the Company was established and transferred to New England in 1630; from 1641 to 1644 and from 1651 to 1665 (except 1654) was deputy governor; in 1645 was appointed to the highest command of the colonial army, and in 1658 was president of the colonial commissioners. |
| [29] | Born, 1588; died, 1649. Graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge; opposed the Stuarts; was made governor of Massachusetts in 1629; arrived at Salem and Boston in 1630; opposed the younger Vane, but was governor again from 1637 to 1640, and a third time from 1646 to his death. His journal “History,” and his letters are among the most valuable historical documents of New England. |