Before the close of the month of August, the governor was compelled to sail to England for supplies; but war in Europe interfered with the expectation of the colonists, and it was not till 1590 that another expedition reached Virginia. They beheld a scene similarly dreadful with that which had been before presented. The houses were demolished, though still surrounded by a palisade, and a great part of the stores was found buried in the earth; but, as no trace was ever found of this unfortunate colony, there is every reason to apprehend that they must have miserably perished. Thus after a period of one hundred and six years from the time that Cabot discovered North America, in the service of Henry VII., not a single Englishman remained in the new world.
In the last year of Elizabeth a new impulse was given to the spirit of emigration by Bartholomew Gosnold. He sailed in a small bark from Falmouth, steering directly west, and was the first Englishman who came in a direct course to this part of America. He anchored at a point which he called cape Cod. Attempting a settlement on an island which they named Elizabeth, they built a fort and storehouse, but shortly abandoned their design and returned to England. Two vessels were afterwards fitted out by the merchants of Bristol, to examine the discoveries of Gosnold, and ascertain the correctness of his statements. They were also subsequently confirmed by a similar expedition equipped and despatched by lord Arundel.
An association of able and influential men was now formed to attempt a settlement, and a petition for leave was favorably received by king James. But as the extent as well as value of the American continent began now to be better known, a grant of the whole of such a vast region to any one body of men, however respectable, appeared to him an act of impolitic and profuse liberality. For this reason he divided that portion of North America, which stretches from the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, into two districts nearly equal; the one called the first or south colony of Virginia, the other, the second or north colony. He authorized Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, Richard Hakluyt, and their associates, mostly resident in London, to settle any part of the former which they should choose, and vested in them a right of property to the land extending along the coast fifty miles on each side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into the interior country a hundred miles. The latter district he allotted, as the place of settlement to sundry knights, gentlemen, and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of the west of England, with a similar grant of territory. The supreme government of the colonies that were to be settled, was vested in a council, resident in England, named by the king, with laws and ordinances given under his sign manual; and the subordinate jurisdiction was committed to a council, resident in America, which was also nominated by the king and to act conformably to his instructions.
The charter, while it thus restricted the emigrants in the important article of internal regulation, secured to them and their descendants all therights of denizens, in the same manner as if they had remained or had been born in England; and granted them the privilege of holding their lands in America by the freest and least burdensome tenure. The king permitted whatever was necessary for the sustenance or commerce of the new colonies to be exported from England, during the space of seven years, without paying any duty; and, as a farther incitement to industry, he granted them liberty of trade with other nations; and appropriated the duty to be levied on foreign commodities, as a fund for the benefit of the colonies, for the period of twenty-one years. He also granted them liberty of coining for their own use, of repelling enemies, and of detaining ships that should trade there without their permission.
We may regard the colonies of North and South Virginia, or Virginia and New England, as they were subsequently denominated, as forming, from this period, the subject of two distinct and continuous histories; that of the former, being earliest in point of time, will continue to occupy our attention during the remainder of this division.
The proprietors of the royal patent lost no time in carrying their plans into effect. It cannot, however, be said, that they commenced their operations on a scale at all worthy of the magnitude of the undertaking, as their fleet consisted only of three ships, conveying one hundred emigrants; and, although some persons of rank were among the number of proprietors, their pecuniary resources were but scanty. The charge of this embarkation was committed to Christopher Newport, already famous for his skill in western navigation. He sailed from the Thames on the 20th of December, 1606, having, in a sealed box, the royal instructions, and the names of the intended colonial council, with orders not to break the seal till twenty-four hours after the expedition had effected a landing; to which singular policy, may be attributed the dissensions which soon commenced among the leaders, and which continued to distract them during a voyage long and disastrous.
Captain Newport had designed to land at Roanoke; but fortunately, being driven by a storm to the northward, he stood into the spacious bay of Chesapeak, that grand reservoir into which are poured almost countless tributaries, which not only fertilize the country through which they flow, but open to it a commercial intercourse which can scarcely be said to be surpassed in any portion of the globe. The promontory on the south of the bay was named cape Henry, in honor of the prince of Wales; and that on the north, cape Charles, after the then duke of York. At night the box, containing the sealed instructions, was opened, in which Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall, were constituted the council of government, with power to elect a president from among their number. The adventurers were employed in seeking a place for settlement until the thirteenth of May, when they took possession of a peninsula, on the north side of the river Powhatan, called by the emigrants James river, about forty miles from its mouth.
To make room for their projected town, they commenced clearing away the forest, which had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives. The members of the council, while they adhered to their orders in the choice of their president, on the most frivolous pretences excluded from a seat, among them, the individual, who was probably of all others the bestfitted for the office, captain Smith,[98] though nominated by the same instrument from which they derived their authority. His superior talents, and the fame he had previously acquired in war, excited their envy, while possibly they induced him to assume, that a greater deference was due to his opinion than his coadjutors were willing to admit. At length, however, by the prudent exhortations of Mr. Hunt, their chaplain, the animosities which had arisen were composed, Smith was admitted into the council, and they all turned their undivided attention to the government of the colony. In honor of their monarch, they called the town, the erection of which they now commenced, Jamestown. Thus was formed the first permanent colony of the English in America.
The vicinity of the settlement was a vast wilderness, though a luxuriant one, inhabited by a race of Indian savages, possessing both the virtues and the vices peculiar to their state. At first, they treated the colonists with kindness; but misunderstandings, from various causes, ere long interrupted the peace, and annoyed the proceedings of the English. Nor was the hostility of the natives the only occasion of discomfort; the extreme heat of the summer, and the intense cold of the succeeding winter, were alike fatal to the colonists. From May to September, fifty persons died, among whom was Bartholomew Gosnold, a member of the council. The storehouse at Jamestown accidentally taking fire, the town, thatched with reeds, burned with such violence, that the fortifications, arms, apparel, bedding, and a great quantity of private goods and provision, were consumed.
These distresses naturally led them to reflect upon their situation; and having become sensible of their injustice to Smith, his personal talents and activity were, in their adversity, appealed to with that regard and deference which, in prosperous times, are yielded only to vested authority and official station. From some unaccountable jealousy on the part of the governor, the fort had been left in an unprotected state, but, by the advice of Smith, it was now put into a state to defend them against the attacks of the Indians. To procure provisions and explore the country, he made frequent and distant excursions into the wilderness. In one of these, he seized an Indian idol, made with skins stuffed with moss, for the redemption of which as much corn was brought him as he required. Some tribes he gained by caresses and presents, and procured from them a supply of provisions; others he attacked with open force, and defeating them on every occasion, whatever their superiority in numbers might be, compelled them to impart to him some portion of their winter stores. As the recompense of all his toils and dangers, he saw abundance and contentmentre-established in the colony, and hoped that he should be able to maintain them in that happy state, until the arrival of ships from England in the spring. But in the midst of his energetic measures, while exploring the source of the river Chickahominy, he was surprised and attacked by a party of Indians. He defended himself bravely until his companions were killed, when he took to flight; but running incautiously, he sunk up to his shoulders in a swamp, and was taken prisoner.