Viewed in the light of all the circumstances, it is difficult to avoid seeing in Claiborne's occupation of Kent Island a strategic move. Considered as such, it was bold and not ill-judged. With his far-reaching schemes the Susquehanna River was a highway which would enable him to compete with the Dutch for the northwestern fur trade. By establishing himself on Kent Island he might command the approach to that highway. The maxim that actual possession is nine points in the law was in his favour. If the Star Chamber had decided to uphold Virginia's wholesale claim to the territory granted her in 1609, Claiborne would have been master of the situation. Even with the decision as rendered, his own case was far from hopeless. In the autumn of 1633 he petitioned the king to protect his interests and those of Virginia in Kent Island. He contended that Baltimore's charter gave jurisdiction only over territory unsettled and unimproved,—hactenus in culta,—whereas Kent Island had been settled as a part of Virginia and heavy expenses incurred there before that charter had been issued. In sending this petition it was hoped that by resolutely keeping hold upon the strategic point it might be possible to make Lord Baltimore reconsider his plans and take his settlers to some other region than the shores of Chesapeake Bay. But this hope was dashed in February, 1634, when Leonard Calvert with the first party of settlers arrived in those waters. Claiborne's petition had not yet been answered, but Lord Baltimore's instructions to his brother were conceived in a conciliatory spirit. Leonard was to see Claiborne and offer him all the aid in his power toward building up the new settlement on Kent Island, at the same time reminding him that the place was in Baltimore's territory and not a part of Virginia. In other words, Claiborne was welcome to the property, only he must hold it as a tenant of the lord proprietor of Maryland, not as a tenant of the king in Virginia. While the Ark and the Dove were halting at anchor off Old Point Comfort, and while Leonard Calvert was ashore exchanging courtesies with Governor Harvey, he communicated this message to Claiborne. At the next meeting of the council, Claiborne asked his fellow-councillors what he should do in the matter. In reply they wondered that he should ask such a question. Was not the case perfectly clear? Was there any reason why they should surrender Kent Island, more than any other part of Virginia? No, they would keep it until his Majesty's pleasure should be known, and meanwhile they would treat the Maryland company civilly and expected to be so treated by them. Behind this answer there was much bad feeling. Not only were the Virginians angry at the curtailment of their domains, not only were they alarmed as well as angry at the arrival of Papists in their neighbourhood, but they were greatly disgusted because Lord Baltimore's charter gave him far more extensive trading privileges than they possessed. Calvert's message to Claiborne had signified that before trading any further in the upper parts of Chesapeake Bay he must obtain a license from Maryland. Assured now of support from Virginia, Claiborne returned an answer in which he refused in any way to admit Lord Baltimore's sovereignty.
Complications with the Indians.
Leonard's instructions had been in case of such a refusal not to molest Claiborne for at least a year. But soon complications arose. The settlers at St. Mary's observed indications of distrust or hostility on the part of a neighbouring Algonquin tribe, known as the Patuxents; so they appealed to one Captain Henry Fleete, who understood the Algonquin language, to learn what was the matter. This Captain Fleete wished to supplant Claiborne in the fur trade and may have welcomed a chance of discrediting him with the Marylanders. At all events, he reported that the Indians had been told that the Marylanders were not Englishmen but Spaniards, and for this calumny, which might have led to the massacre of the new-comers, he undertook to throw the blame upon Claiborne. In the substance of this story there is a strong appearance of truth. On the Virginia coast in those days common parlance was not nice as to discriminating between Papists of any kind and Spaniards, and one can easily see how from ordinary gossip the Indians may have got their notion. There is no reason for casting atrocious imputations upon Claiborne, who was examined in June, 1634, by a joint commission of Virginians and Marylanders, and completely exonerated. But before the news of this verdict reached London, the charge that Claiborne was intriguing with the Indians had been carried to Lord Baltimore and evidently alarmed him. Convinced that forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, he sent word to his brother to seize Kent Island, arrest Claiborne, and hold him prisoner until further instructions.
Reprisals and skirmishes.
This was in September, 1634. News of the message came to the ears of Claiborne's London partners, Clobery & Company, and they petitioned the king for protection in the possession of their island. Charles accordingly instructed Lord Baltimore not to molest Claiborne and his people, and he sent a letter to the governor and council of Virginia, in which he declared that the true intention or the charter which he had granted to Baltimore would not justify that nobleman in any interference with Kent Island and its settlers. So the winter wore away without incident, but early in April, 1635, one of Claiborne's ships, commanded by one Thomas Smith, was seized in the Patuxent River by Captain Fleete; she was condemned for trading without a license, and was confiscated and sold with all her cargo. Claiborne then sent out an armed sloop, the Cockatrice, to make reprisals upon Maryland shipping; but Calvert was wide awake and sent Cornwallis with a stronger force of two armed pinnaces, which overtook the Cockatrice in Pocomoke River and captured her after a brisk skirmish in which half a dozen men were killed and more wounded. That was on April 23, and on May 10 there was another fight in the harbour of Great Wighcocomoco, at the mouth of the Pocomoke, in which Thomas Smith commanded for Claiborne and defeated the Marylanders with more bloodshed.
Complaints against Governor Harvey.
In the midst of these unseemly quarrels the kingdom of Virginia witnessed something like a revolution. We have already had occasion to mention Sir John Harvey, the governor who came in March, 1630, after the brief administration of that versatile practitioner, Dr. John Pott. Harvey was not long in getting into trouble. It was noticed at first that his manners were intolerably rude. He strutted about Jamestown as if he were on a quarter deck, and treated the august members of the council with as little ceremony as if they had been boot-blacks. On his own confession he once assaulted a councillor and knocked out some of his teeth "with a cudgel."[137] But it presently appeared that arrogance was not his worst fault. He was too fond of money, and not particular as to how it came to him. He had a right to make grants of land to settlers for a consideration to be paid into the public treasury; it was charged against him that part of the consideration found its way into his own pockets. Nor was this all, for it happened, after the fashion of his royal master, that some of the lands which he granted were already private property. Besides this, he seems to have undertaken to draw up laws and proclaim them of his own authority without submitting them to the assembly; he refused to render an account of the ways in which he spent the public money; he had excessive fees charged, multiplied the number of fines beyond all reason, and took the proceeds or a part of them for his private use and behoof. In short, he seems to have been a second and more vulgar Argall.
Rage of Virginians against Maryland.
Five years of this sort of thing had driven the men of Virginia to the last pitch of desperation, when the Claiborne imbroglio brought on a crisis. In obedience to the king's instructions, Harvey showed such favour as he could to the Maryland settlers, and thus made himself the more fiercely hated in Virginia. The Kent Island question was one that bred dissension in families, separated bosom friends, and sowed seeds of distrust and suspicion far and wide. To speak well of Maryland was accounted little less than a crime. "Sell cattle to Maryland!" exclaimed the wrathful planters, "better knock them on the head!" From pious people this near approach of the Scarlet Woman drew forth strong words. We are told that one day Captain Samuel Mathews, that brave gentleman and decorous Puritan, on reading a letter from England, dashed his hat upon the ground and stamped in fury, shouting "A pox upon Maryland!"[138]
An angry parson.