1.

The call was seconded by the wishes of the best and wisest of CHAP. the colonists; and, aided as much by the vigour of his own character, as by the co-operation of these individuals, Smith once more assumed his natural ascendant and official supremacy, and declared his intention of retaining the authority created by the old commission till a legal revocation of it, and legitimate successors to himself, should arrive. With decisive energy, he imprisoned the chief promoters of tumult; and having restored order and obedience, endeavoured to prevent a recurrence of the former mischiefs by detaching from James-Town a portion of the new colonists to form a subordinate settlement at some distance from this place. This was an unfortunate step; and it is remarkable that the only signal failure in the policy of this eminent commander was evinced in the only instance in which he seemed to distrust his own vigour and capacity. The detachments which he removed from James-Town conducted themselves so imprudently as to convert all the neighbouring Indians into enemies, and to involve themselves in continual difficulty and danger. The Indians assailed him with complaints; the detached settlers with requisitions of counsel and assistance: and Smith, who never spent in lamenting misfortunes the time that might be employed in repairing them, was exerting himself with his usual vigour and good sense in redressing these disorders, when he received a dangerous wound from the accidental explosion of a quantity of gunpowder. Completely disabled by this misfortune, Captain and destitute of surgical aid in the colony, he was compelled Smith reto resign his command, and take his departure for England1. England. He never returned to Virginia again. It was natural that he October. should abandon with regret the society he had so often preserved, the settlement he had conducted through difficulties as formidable as those which obstructed the infant progress of Carthage or Rome, and the scenes which he had dignified by so much wisdom and virtue. But our sympathy with his regret is abated by the reflection, that a longer residence in the colony would speedily have consigned him to very subor

Smith. Stith.

turns to

1.

1

BOOK dinate office, and might have deprived the world of that stock of valuable knowledge, and his own character of that accession of fame, which the publication of his travels has secured and perpetuated.

.1609.

2

See Note II. at the end of the volume.

2 He became so famous in England before his death, that his adventures were dramatised and represented on the stage, to his own great annoyance. Stith.

CHAPTER II.

The Colony a Prey to Anarchy-and Famine.-Gates and Somers arrive from Bermudas.-Abandonment of the Colony determined-prevented by the Arrival of Lord Delaware. - His wise Administration—his Return to England.- Sir Thomas Dale's Administration.-Martial Law established. Indian Chief's Daughter seized by Argal-married to Rolfe.-Right of private Property in Land introduced into the Colony.-Expedition of Argal against Port Royal and New York.-Tobacco cultivated by the Colonists.-First Assembly of Representatives convened in Virginia.-New Constitution of the Colony.-Introduction of Negro Slavery.- Migration of young Women from England to Virginia.-Dispute between the King and the Colony.-Conspiracy of the Indians.-Massacre of the Colonists.-Dissensions of the London Company.— The Company dissolved.—The King assumes the Government of the Colonyhis Death.-Charles I. pursues his Father's arbitrary Policy.-Tyrannical Government of Sir John Harvey.-Sir William Berkeley appointed Governor,— The provincial Liberties restored.-Virginia espouses the Royal Cause-subdued by the Long Parliament.-Restraints imposed on the Trade of the Colony.Revolt of the Colony.-Sir William Berkeley resumes the Government.-Restoration of Charles II.

СНАР.

II.

1609.

AT the period of Smith's departure, the infant commonwealth was composed of five hundred persons, and amply provided with all necessary stores of arms, provisions, cattle, and implements of agriculture1: but the sense to improve its opportunities was wanting; and, with him, its good fortune departed. For a short time the command was entrusted to George Percy, a man of worth, but devoid of the vigour that gives efficacy to virtue: and the direction of affairs soon relapsed into the same mischievous channel from which Smith had recalled it. The colony was delivered up to the wildest The colony excesses of a seditious and distracted rabble, and presented a a prey to scene of riot, folly, and profligacy, strongly invoking vindic- anarchytive retribution, and speedily overtaken by it. The magazines of food were quickly exhausted; and the Indians, incensed by repeated injuries, and aware that the man whom they so

1 Stith.

I.

1610. and fa

mine.

BOOK so much respected had ceased to govern the colonists, not only refused them all assistance, but harassed them with continual attacks. Famine ensued, and completed their misery and degradation by transforming them into cannibals, and compelling them to support their lives by feeding on the bodies of the Indians they had killed, and of their own companions who perished of hunger or disease. Six months after the departure of Smith, there remained no more than sixty persons alive at James-Town, still prolonging their wretchedness by a vile and precarious diet, but daily expecting its final and fatal close.1

May.

Gates and

Bermudas.

In this calamitous state was the colony found by Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and Captain Newport, who Somers ar- at length arrived from Bermudas, where the shipwreck they rive from encountered had detained them and their crew for ten months.2 The bounty of nature in that happy region maintained them in comfort while they constructed the vessels that were to transport them to James-Town, and might have supplied them with ample stores for the use of the colony; but they had neglected these resources, and arrived almost empty-handed, in the expectation of receiving from the magazines of a thriving settlement the relief that was now vainly implored from themselves by the famishing remnant of their countrymen. Their disappointment was equalled only by the difficulty of ascertaining the causes of the desolation they beheld, amidst the mutual and contradictory accusations of the surviving colonists. But there was no time for deliberate inquiry, or Abandon- adjustment of complaints. It was immediately determined the colony to abandon the settlement; and with this view all the people embarked in the vessels that had arrived from Bermudas, and set sail for England. Their stores were insufficient for so long a voyage; but they hoped to obtain an additional supply at the English fishing station on the coast of Newfoundland. Such horror was entertained by some of the colonists for the scene of their misery that they were importunate with the commanders for leave to burn the fort and houses at James-Town. But Sir Thomas Gates could not find in their or his own distresses any reason for demolishing the buildings, that might afford shelter to future settlers;

ment of

deter

mined

II.

and happily, by his interposition, they were preserved from CHAP. destruction, and the colonists prevented from wreaking additional vengeance on themselves.1

1610.

For it was not the will of Providence that this settlement should perish the calamities with which it had been visited were appointed to punish merely, but not utterly to destroy; and the more worthless members being now cut off, and a memorable lesson afforded both to the patrons who collect2, and the members who compose such communities, a deliverance no less signal was vouchsafed by the Disposer of all events, just when hope was over, and the colony advanced to the very brink of annihilation. Before the fugitives had prevented by the arreached the mouth of James River, they were met by Lord rival of Delaware, who arrived with three ships, containing a large Lord Desupply of provisions, a considerable number of new settlers, and an ample stock of every implement and commodity requisite for defence or cultivation.3

Lord Delaware, who now presented himself as captaingeneral of the colony, was singularly well fitted for the exigency of the situation in which he was thus unexpectedly involved. To an ancient lineage and a title of nobility, in an age when such distinctions were regarded with much veneration, he joined a dignified demeanour, a disinterested character, respectable sense, and a resolute temper. The hope of rendering an important service to his country, and the generous pleasure of co-operating in a great design, had induced him to exchange his ease and splendor at home for a situation, of the general difficulties of which he was perfectly aware: and the same firmness and elevation of purpose preserved him undaunted and unperplexed by the unlooked-for scene of calamity which he encountered on his arrival in Virginia. Stemming the torrent of evil fortune, he carried back the fugitives to James-Town, and began his administration by attendance on Divine worship. After some consultation on the affairs of the settlement, he summoned all the colonists to

1 Smith. Stith.

2 The fate of this settlement probably suggested to Lord Bacon the following passage in his essay on Plantations. "It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of the people, and wicked condemned men, to be the people with whom we plant: and not only so, but it spoileth the plantation; for they will ever live like rogues, and not fall to work, but be lazy, and do mischief, and spend victuals." 3 Smith. Stith.

laware.