The portrait of Pocahontas, which is still preserved among her descendants, represents her in the costume which was worn by the higher class of English in the time of Elizabeth; but the stiff Indian plaits of hair which hang down her cheeks from beneath her head-dress betray her descent. The countenance has an affecting expression of child-like goodness and innocence, and the eyes have a melancholy charm. The portrait was taken in 1616, and bears the inscription, Matoakeals. Rebecca potentiss. Princ. Powhatan Imp. Virginæ.
The consequence of this alliance was peace with the Indians, not alone with the Powhatans, but with the powerful Chickahominies. The Indians wished the two nations to blend in one, and proposed more general intermarriage, but the English, who despised the Indians as savages, and abhorred them as heathens, would not promote such union, and by degrees the old animosities were revived.
The same year that Pocahontas was married, her bold abductor, Captain Samuel Argall, who had the spirit of a pirate, sailing up the eastern coast in an armed vessel, discovered that the French had established a little settlement called St. Savieur, near Penobscot, on Mount Desert Island. At once he cannonaded the intrenchments and speedily gained possession. The poor settlers clung to the cross in the middle of the village, while their houses, and their ship lying peacefully in harbour, were pillaged; some of the colonists he sent off to France, others he carried to Jamestown, and among these one of their Jesuit priests, the other being killed.
The colonists of Virginia, jealous of any French settlement on their coasts, despatched Argall again to the north, with the Jesuit prisoner as his pilot; and on this expedition he dispersed the settlement at Port Royal; the place itself, he burned, and the settlers took shelter in the woods. On his return, he entered the harbour now called New York, and compelled the Dutch settlement on the island of Manhattan to acknowledge the English supremacy, and this, although England was then at peace with France and Holland. No sooner, however, was Argall gone, than the French returned to Port Royal, and the Dutch hoisted again their flag on Manhattan.
The prosperity and the anticipated glories of Virginia were now themes of exultation in England; and the theatre, which had formerly made the colony a subject of derision, rang with its praises, and lauded King James as the patron of colonies.
In 1614, Sir Thomas Gates left the colony, appointing Sir Thomas Dale his successor. A few words must now be said regarding the land-law of Virginia. The original grant had allowed all persons coming to Virginia, or sending others, one hundred acres of land for each person so arriving in the colony. This allowance was now reduced to fifty, and so it remained as long as Virginia was a British colony; two shillings for each hundred acres being paid annually as quit-rent. Such emigrants as were sent out at the expense of the company were its servants, bound by indenture to labour for the company, receiving three acres of land each, and being allowed one month’s service for themselves, with a small allowance of two bushels of corn from the public store; the rest of their labour belonged to their employers. This class gradually wore out. Others were tenants of the company, and paid two barrels and a half of corn as an annual contribution to the public store, and gave one month’s labour in the twelve to the public service; but this, however, neither in seed time nor harvest. Other lands were granted as rewards of real or pretended merit, none, however, to exceed two thousand acres to one person. And here it may be mentioned, that to John Smith, the greatest benefactor of the infant colony, not a single acre of land was ever awarded, and he, whose unselfishness was only equal to his merit, never demanded it. To the governor was appointed a plantation to be cultivated for him by the company’s servants; and the other colonial officers were remunerated in the same manner. Twelve pounds ten shillings paid into the company’s treasury, gave a title also to one hundred acres, with a reserved claim for as much more.
Such were the earliest land-laws of Virginia; and imperfect and unequal as they were, they yet enabled the cultivator to become the proprietor of the soil. The cultivation of corn in a few years had become so great, that the colonists, from buyers of corn, had become sellers to the Indians. Tobacco also was cultivated with great success; potash, soap, glass, tar, all gave place now to tobacco. Seeking for gold was happily at an end; fields and gardens, nay, even the public squares and streets of Jamestown, grew tobacco. Tobacco, which was the life of Virginian industry, became its staple produce and finally its currency.
In the midst of all this growing prosperity, the discontents of the colony were justly raised by evils incident to their position under a corporate body, through whom interested parties obtained posts for which they were wholly unfitted, without the colony having a voice in the appointment. Hence, in 1616, Sir Thomas Dale, an able though stern governor, having returned to England, leaving George Yeardley deputy-governor, the notorious Captain Samuel Argall, through the influence of Lord Rich, afterwards Earl of Warwick, was sent out, not only as deputy-governor, but admiral. A more unfit man could not have been selected. Martial law was again the law of the colony. The return of Lord De la Ware was petitioned for, and that excellent man embarked to resume his office, but died on the voyage. Unlimited power was in the rapacious hands of Argall; the labour of the colonists was enforced for his benefit; even life itself was insecure against his capricious passions. The colony appealed to the company on behalf of an innocent man, who for merely speaking freely against his tyranny, was condemned by him to death. Fortunately for the colony, Argall had also defrauded the company; he was therefore deposed, and George Yeardley, a mild and popular man, was appointed captain-general; Argall in the meantime, disappeared from the colony, having fled with the fruits of his peculation to the West Indies, and thence to England, where, strange to say, his partisans, of whom he had many in the company, prevented his being called to account.
Under the administration of Yeardley, who was now knighted, the colony prospered greatly; martial law was abolished; the planters were released from further service to the colony, and the first colonial assembly ever held in Virginia took place at Jamestown, in June, 1619. The exactions and abuses of Argall had led to the concession of law and justice by the company. A great step was gained. This was the dawn of legislative liberty in America. “The colonists, now become willing to regard Virginia as their future home,” says the old chronicler, “fell to building houses and planting corn.”
Fortunately, also, the treasurer of the company in London, Sir Edwin Sandys, a man of great judgment and firmness, investigated the affairs of the colony, and carried out the reform of many abuses. It was now twelve years since the foundation of Jamestown, yet the colony consisted but of six hundred persons, men, women, and children; and in this present year of 1620, Sir Edward Sandys sent out twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. The character of his emigration is also worthy of consideration. Hitherto but few persons going to the colony had done so with the intention of settling; their purpose had been to make money and then return home; few women, therefore, had ventured across the ocean;—now, however, everything was changed for the better; Virginia offered a desirable home for families, therefore “ninety agreeable young women, of incorrupt lives,” through the influence of Sandys, were sent out at the expense of the company, sure of a cordial welcome in the colony, but only to be married to men well able to support them, and who would willingly pay the cost of their passage. This adventure answered so well in every respect, that the next year sixty more “maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended,” went out; and so great was the demand for them, that their price rose from one hundred and twenty pounds weight of tobacco, to one hundred and fifty each; and so much was the worth of a man increased by his being married, that the company gave employment by preference to men with wives. The result of this new element in the colony was great, but not more so than was natural. Now commenced the existence of domestic life, and with it virtuous sentiments and habits of thrift. Within three years, so greatly had emigration increased under these circumstances, that 3,500 persons landed in the colony, amongst whom were many Puritan refugees.