Argall attacks the French
and warns the Dutch.
Other foes than red men called for Dale's attention. In the neighbourhood of the Gulf of St. Lawrence the French were as busily at work as the English in Virginia. The 45th parallel, the northern limit of oldest Virginia, runs through the country now called Nova Scotia. At Port Royal, on the Bay of Fundy, a small French colony had been struggling against dire adversity ever since 1604, and more lately a party of French Jesuits had begun to make a settlement on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine. In one of his fishing excursions Captain Argall discovered this Jesuit settlement and promptly extinguished it, carrying his prisoners to Jamestown. Then Dale sent him back to patrol that northern coast, and presently Argall swooped upon Port Royal and burned it to the ground, carrying off the live-stock as booty and the inhabitants as prisoners. The French ambassador in London protested and received evasive answers until the affair was allowed to drop and Port Royal was rebuilt without further molestation by the English. These events were the first premonition of a mighty conflict, not to be fully entered upon till the days of Argall's grandchildren, and not to be finally decided until the days of their grandchildren, when Wolfe climbed the Heights of Abraham. We are told that on his way back to Jamestown the unceremonious Argall looked in at the Hudson River, and finding Hendrick Christiansen there with his colony of Dutch traders, ordered him under penalty of a broadside to haul down the flag of the Netherlands and run up the English ensign. The philosophic Dutchman quietly obeyed, but as soon as the ship was out of sight he replaced his own flag, consigning Captain Argall sotto voce to a much warmer place than the Hudson River.
Visit of Pocahontas to London, 1616.
Her interview with Smith.
In 1616 George Yeardley, who was already in Virginia, succeeded Sir Thomas Gates as deputy-governor, and Dale, who had affairs in Europe that needed attention, sailed for England. He had much reason to feel proud of what had been accomplished during his five years' rule. Strict order had been maintained and the Indians had been pacified, while the colony had trebled in numbers, and symptoms of prosperity were everywhere visible. In the ship which carried Dale to England went John Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas. Much ado was made over the Indian woman, who was presented at court by Lady Delaware and everywhere treated as a princess. There is a trustworthy tradition that King James was inclined to censure Rolfe for marrying into a royal family without consulting his own sovereign. In the English imagination The Powhatan figured as a sovereign; and when European feudal ideas were applied to the case it seemed as if in certain contingencies the infant son of Rolfe and Pocahontas might become "King of Virginia." The dusky princess was entertained with banquets and receptions, she was often seen at the theatre, and was watched with great curiosity by the people. It was then that "La Belle Sauvage" became a favourite name for London taverns. Her portrait, engraved by the celebrated artist, Simon Van Pass,[86] shows us a rather handsome and dignified young woman, with her neck encircled by the broad serrated collar or ruff characteristic of that period, an embroidered and jewelled cap on her head, and a fan in her hand. The inscription on the portrait gives her age as one-and-twenty, which would make her thirteen at the time when she rescued Captain Smith. While she was in England, she had an interview with Smith. He had made his exploring voyage on the New England coast two years before, when he changed the name of the country from North Virginia to New England. In 1615 he had started in the service of the Plymouth Company with an expedition for colonizing New England, but had been captured by French cruisers and carried to Rochelle. After his return from France he was making preparations for another voyage to New England, when he heard of Pocahontas and called on her. When he addressed her, as all did in England, as Lady Rebekah, she seemed hurt and turned away, covering her face with her hands. She insisted upon calling him Father and having him call her his child, as formerly in the wilderness. Then she added, "They did always tell us you were dead, and I knew not otherwise till I came to Plymouth."[87]
Death of Pocahontas, 1617.
A baffled census-taker.
Early in 1617 Argall was appointed deputy-governor of Virginia and sailed in March to supersede Yeardley. Rolfe was made secretary of the colony and went in the same ship; but Pocahontas fell suddenly ill, and died before leaving Gravesend. She was buried in the parish church there. Her son, Thomas Rolfe, was left with an uncle in England, where he grew to manhood. Then he went to Virginia, to become the ancestor, not of a line of kings, but of the families of Murray, Fleming, Gay, Whittle, Robertson, Bolling, and Eldredge, as well as of the branch of Randolphs to which the famous John Randolph of Roanoke belonged.[88] One cannot leave the story of Pocahontas without recalling the curious experiences of a feathered chieftain in her party named Tomocomo, whom The Powhatan had instructed to make a report on the population of England. For this purpose he was equipped with a sheaf of sticks on which he was to make a notch for every white person he should meet. Plymouth must have kept poor Tomocomo busy enough, but on arriving in London he uttered an amazed grunt and threw his sticks away. He had also been instructed to observe carefully the king and queen and God, and report on their personal appearance. Tomocomo found it hard to believe that so puny a creature as James Stuart could be the chief of the white men, and he could not understand why he was not told where God lived and taken to see him.
Tobacco.