The timely and unexpected arrival of the Governor was greeted with frantic shouts of welcome and joy by the discouraged colonists. His coming immediately infused new life, and their affectionate embraces of one another gave way to fervent prayer. Their story was related to Lord Delaware, and, as he landed, he fell upon the ground and offered thanks to God that his arrival had saved Virginia.
Following that memorable day in 1610, there was never a question concerning the continuance of the Virginia colony. Before the arrival of Lord Delaware, the settlement had been ruled by more or less despotic measures. Under Smith, the despotism had been beneficent, if not benevolent. Following the rule of Delaware and Sir Thomas Dale, a more liberal policy was inaugurated, with the administration of Yeardley, and Virginia began to make gigantic strides. Cattle and sheep were raised; crops were planted; poultry and domestic animals received attention; horses were brought over and utilized for farming and travel. In addition to these necessaries of life, tobacco, which was destined to become the standard of value and exchange, was extensively cultivated. From out of a condition of chaos, everything became plentiful, and Virginia began to offer attractive inducements to immigrants. The pioneers had conquered dangers and enjoyed comparative affluence.
Finally, the colonists insisted on the right of self-government, and received limited recognition. In the old church, at James Town, June, 1619, Governor Yeardley summoned the first legislative body ever assembled in America, and formally opened the General Assembly of Virginia. It was modeled after the English Parliament, an upper and lower house, called the House of Burgesses and the Council.
WESTERN VIEW OF COPPER, SILVER AND WOOD-WORKING SHOPS.
Copyright, 1906. Jamestown Official Photograph Corporation, Norfolk
This legislative body had the effect of making the people proud of their home and confident of themselves. From James Town grew all the settlements that overspread Virginia, and its prosperity induced the settlements which dotted the coast from Florida to Canada.
It is the great achievements intervening between the founding of this settlement and the present period that the Jamestown Ter-Centennial will commemorate by a historic, educational and industrial exhibition, in conjunction with the greatest naval and military display ever witnessed in the world, to be held this year on the waters and historic shores of Hampton Roads, near Norfolk, Virginia.
The heroic deeds and collateral events in all the colonies will be fully and faithfully portrayed, and place before the people a contrasting picture of seventeenth century civilization with that of the nineteenth. It will be a veritable epilogue of the nation’s development from the little Virginia village to a republic of nearly one hundred million people, stretched from ocean to ocean, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, with insular possessions in both tropics, and an empire in the frozen Arctic.
In observing the three hundredth anniversary of this important historical event, the State of Virginia, very properly, took the initiative, and, by a joint resolution of the General Assembly, provided that a fitting ceremonial should attend the event. President Roosevelt issued a proclamation inviting all the nations of the world to participate, and declared that “The first settlement of English-speaking people on American soil, at Jamestown, in 1607, marks the beginning of the United States. The three hundredth anniversary of the event must be commemorated by the people of our Union as a whole.”