USA > Virginia > A history of Virginia : from its discovery and settlement by Europeans to the present time. Vol. I > Part 12
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a Stith, 122; Belknap's Am, Biog., ii. 134; Smith, ii. 10; new Life of Virginea, in Force, i. 12.
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184
MARTIAL LAW.
[CHAP. IV.
nearly surrounded by a bend of the river, about ninety miles above Jamestown; and, in honour of the cherished memory of Prince Henry, he called his new seat Henrico.ª
But finding the people still turbulent, idle, and devoted to their own selfish enjoyments, Dale pre- pared for more vigorous measures. To provide for emergency, Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer of the Council, had sent over by the last arrival, a " code of laws," framed almost entirely upon the model furnished by the martial code then in force in the Low Countries. This was the most rigid school of military discipline existing in Europe, and so stringent were its demands, that even the Spaniards did not enforce them in their colonies, but permitted the civil government to reign para- mount over the martial. We have no reason to believe that this system was regularly adopted by the London Council under the power given them by their charter. It appears to have been sent to Dale upon the sole responsibility of Sir Thomas Smith ;b but before we heap indignant denuncia- tion, either upon these laws or their introducer, we must consider with calmness the existing state of affairs.
All legislators will admit, that human laws must vary according to the character of the subjects of
a This settlement was on the strip
b Compare Stith, 122; Belknap, of land long known as Varina Neck. ii. 103; Bancroft, i. 159. It is in the lower part of the present county of Henrico. See New Life of Virginea, Force, i. 13, 14.
185
MARTIAL LAW.
1611.]
their government. Mild and humane rules may suffice to direct the industrious and the moderate ; but the vicious and the disorderly will openly de- spise them. Motives which are all-powerful with one mind, fall impotently upon another. The fear of disgrace, which will act upon a sensitive soul with resistless power, has no restraining force upon a heart callous alike to contempt and to pity. Wise nations have adapted their laws to the state of their people, and have indulged in no visionary hope that man, in his original depravity, can be governed by a system of refined moral suasion. If it be admitted that the Southern States of the Ame- rican Union have acted wisely in enacting for the slaves, unhappily existing within their borders, laws different from those applied to the whites, then we presume, that none who approve this dis- tinction, can object to the principle upon which the martial law of Sir Thomas Smith was intro- duced. The inhabitants of Virginia, at this time, were among the most ungovernable of mankind : they had the wildness of savages without their simplicity ; to the hatred of control peculiar to the Indian, they added the pride induced by ignorant civilization. Too indolent to work, yet unwilling to starve; seditious in temper, and unscrupulous in their measures for obtaining power; they need- ed a strong and unshrinking arm to govern them ; a hand which would unsheathe the sword, and, if necessary, strike the offender to the earth. It was at this crisis that the military code was introduced. It was wholly at variance with the English com-
186
MARTIAL LAW.
[CHAP. IV.
mon law, dispensed with trial by jury, subjected the accused to arbitrary punishment, and de- nounced instant death against the disobedient. Yet in the mother country, its introduction for her colonial settlements was strongly advised by a noble and liberal mind,ª and when published and carried into effect in Virginia, its happy results were immediately manifest. Sir Thomas Dale used care and discrimination. The worst only were punished, but all were awed; industry re- vived, tumults ceased, and plenty began again to appear. This code, suited to emergency, was not intended to be permanent. It became gradually unnecessary and obsolete; and when it was after- wards revived by Argal, for purposes of oppression, the complaints of the settlers secured from the Council its final abolishment.b
Encouraged by hopes of better conduct in the settlers, the London Company sent out a new sup- ply of three hundred men, with many cattle, hogs, and other comfortable munitions. Sir Thomas Gates, with " six tall ships," arrived early in Au- gust, and cheered the colonists by his seasonable
a Sir Francis Bacon. See his Es- 'See Grahame's judicious note. Co- say on Plantations. " For govern- lon. Hist., i. 451, 452, note iii. ment, let it be in the hands of one, b Robertson's Am. i. 409 ; Mar- shall's Am. Colon., 46; Howe's Hist. Collec., 37. The author of the outline history here found ap- proves of the martial code. Even Stith acknowledges that "these sharp and summary proceedings" at the time were salutary. 123. assisted with some counsel ; and let them have commission to exercise martial law with some limitation." Works, edit. 1824, ii. 337. But it is not certain that Lord Bacon publish- ed this essay before Sir Thomas Smith's martial code was compiled.
187
THIRD CHARTER OF JAMES.
1612.]
aid. He seconded Dale in his efforts for Henrico, and a salutary check to the Indians gave them lei- sure for their schemes.
When Captain Matthew Somers had arrived in England with the body of his uncle, inflated ac- counts of the beauty and richness of the Bermuda Islands had been given, and the public mind had been additionally excited by news of an enormous fragment of ambergris, accidentally found by the two men left on the island when Sir George So- mers first left it to sail to Virginia.ª The London Company, anxious at once to secure this prize, ap- plied to the King for an extension of their patent; and his majesty granted them a third charter on the 11th March, 1612.b
After giving, in a most ample manner, all the islands in the Atlantic within three hundred leagues east of Virginia, and thus securing to them the Bermudas, the sovereign proceeds to grant privi- leges to the company, of the extent of which he does not seem to have been himself fully apprised, and the exercise of which afterwards undoubtedly drew down upon the head of the corporation a deathblow from the royal hand. The council, though elected by and dependent upon the com- pany, yet in the long intervals between the corpo- rate sessions, had possessed great power ; but now the king creates a huge democratic assembly for governing the settlement. He gives the company
a See ante, page 167; Jordan's Narrative, in Smith, ii. 124.
Hazard's State Papers, i. 72-81, in Stith. Appen., iii. 23-32, and in
b This charter is given fully in Hening's Stat. at Large, i. 98-110.
188
LOTTERIES.
[CHAP. IV.
authority to sit once a week, or oftener if they thought proper,ª and appoints four solemn General Courts to be held quarterly during the year, at which all the members might attend, and might debate and decide great questions relative to their officers, their ordinances, and the colony.b From this time until its dissolution, we note in the de- bates of the London Company a freedom, a saga- city, and a spirit of inquiry very little acceptable to James. Their quarter courts were attended by masses of members, all eager to claim their privi- leges, and for a time the English Solomon seems to have held the position appropriate to Satan, who is said to have power to raise a tempest which he is wholly impotent to allay.
The charter further provides for raising money by lotteries, giving the company full power to use this pernicious mode of gaming. This authority they afterwards resorted to, and sufficient folly existed in England to bring twenty-nine thousand pounds into the treasury of the corporation from this source alone." James long upheld his lottery system, and justly claimed it as the first ever known in England; but when, in 1621, the House of Commons presented it as among the grievances
a Charter, sec. vii., in Hening, i. statement of one of these gaming 102.
schemes, which, with its prizes, ca- b Charter, sec. viii., in Hening, i. pitals, welcomes, rewards, and large 103; Bancroft, i. 162.
round numbers, might be used to c Stith, 191; Belknap, ii. 114. In grace a lottery office of the present Smith, ii. 23-25, may be seen a day.
189
SEIZURE OF POCAHONTAS.
1612.]
of the English people, his timid heart at once gave way, and it was suppressed by proclamation.a
Early in this year two ships arrived, bringing more men, but a scanty store of food. Argal, who commanded them, determined to supply the defect by a bold stroke of policy, highly congenial to the firmness and the craft of his character. Since the departure of Captain Smith, the Indian maiden Pocahontas had withdrawn from Werowocomoco, and lived concealed among her friends on the Po- tomac. Argal, having learned this fact from Japa- zaws, the king of this region, gained him over to his purposes, and sailed up the river in one of his barks. The deed of perfidy was soon complete. A copper kettle, given by Englishmen and received by Indians, was the price paid for the betrayal of one of the noblest of human beings-of her who had offered her own life to save a stranger-who had encountered the anger of her father to shield his enemies, and who had finally fled from his presence to avoid the sight of butchered colonists ! By false pretences she was enticed into the gun- room of Argal's ship, and then, immediately weigh- ing anchor, he carried the innocent and helpless girl a prisoner to Jamestown.b
Powhatan was informed of her capture, and told
a Grahame's Colon. Hist., i. 61; ried to Jamestown, makes no allu- Belknap, ii. 114.
sion to it, but strongly intimates b Smith, ii. 14; Stith, 128; Burk, i. that the conduct of the English to- 169. It is singular that Dr. Robert- son, who must have known the trea- chery by which Pocahontas was car.
wards her was wholly unexception- able. Amer. i. 410. See Purchas, iv. 1765; Oldmixon, i. 365.
190
JOHN ROLFE AND POCAHONTAS. [CHAP. IV.
that she should be returned when he restored all his English captives, and all the arms stolen by Indians from the settlement. A struggle now com- menced between paternal affection and savage ava- rice, and the result, for many months, was doubt- ful.ª But Providence, by a divine alchemy, can transmute even the crimes of men into the sweet joys of social happiness. The Indian maiden was treated by her captors with all the respect and tenderness she deserved. Her gentle nature fully sympathized with the refined emotions of polished life ; her confidence was easily won by kindness; and we cannot doubt that she found her present position more congenial to her taste than the rude scenes of an Indian wigwam.
Among the settlers now at Jamestown, was John Rolfe, a young gentleman to whom his cotempo- raries assign good abilities and a spotless character. Attracted by the beauty of Pocahontas, and by that native dignity which graced this daughter of an Indian monarch, his own affections became deeply enlisted, and by his constant proof of ten- derness he gained a heart which the best of men might have prized. He now earnestly desired to be united to her in marriage ; and when Sir Tho- mas Dale communicated this proposal to Pow- hatan, his majesty gave a gracious answer, and sent his brother Opachiseo, and two of his sons, to attend the nuptial ceremony.
(1613.) Early in April their union was solemnized -the Indian princess became the wife of an English
a Burk, i. 169; Beverley, 25; Smith, ii. 14; Stith, 128.
191
PEACE WITH THE INDIANS.
1613.]
gentleman; and we may say with truth that few marriages have ever produced more tranquil happi- ness in the parties themselves, or more lasting be- nefit to others connected with them. Powhatan no longer regarded the English as his enemies, but during the rest of his life, himself and his people maintained with them the most amicable relations. And the powerful tribe of Chickahominies, who had always hated and feared his dominion, finding that he would now have time to reduce them to subjection, voluntarily came forward and sought the friendship of the settlers. They concluded with them a treaty of peace, agreeing to take the name of "New Englishmen,"-to aid them in war-never to molest them or their property-to enter none of their towns without notice-to give an annual offering of two bushels of corn for every fighting man, receiving as many hatchets in ex- change-and finally, that eight chiefs of this tribe should see that the articles were performed; and that these chieftains should be considered King James's noblemen, and should each receive his pic- ture, a red coat, and a copper chain.ª
Thus the colony was at peace, and Dale had an opportunity of reforming abuses and improving existing customs. A great and most salutary change took place in the mode of holding pro- perty. We have seen that, under the original charter of James, all things were to be held,
a The treaty is detailed in full in Smith, ii. 16, 17; Stith, 130, 131; Keith, 127, 128.
192
COMMUNITY OF GOODS.
[CHAP. IV.
during five years, in common, and all were to be supplied from one common store. Under this un- wise system, the most powerful motives to private industry were taken from the colonists. The in- dolent slept or gamed away their hours, with the comfortable assurance that the magazine would feed them; the enterprising had no stimulant to labour, the fruits of which they were not to enjoy, and, between these conflicting views, the united result was scarcity and starvation. Bees may work diligently for a common stock, (though it has never been shown that each one of these ex- emplary insects has not her own private cell,) but it is certain that men will never labour with zeal, unless the benefits of their industry are to be re- flected directly or indirectly upon themselves.ª The intervention of a common fund did not long survive the apostolic age,' and has never been suc- cessfully revived in subsequent times.
Five years in Virginia had tested this scheme and proved its evils. Sir Thomas Dale deter- mined gradually to change it. He allotted to each man three acres of cleared ground, and required him to labour eleven months for the common store and one month for himself. This was but a slight improvement ; but upon his own extensive planta-
a See remarks of Chancellor Kent, fiut monachorum impudentia qui re- in his commentaries on Am. Law, gulam Apostolicam se tenere pro- ii. 255, 256; edit. 1827.
fessi sunt, quia nihil nominent pro- b " Nam ista communitas ad cir- pirum."-I. Calvini, Comment. In cumstantiam qua mox additur res- Acta Apostol., cap. ii. 43, 45. tringi debet. * * Ridicula autem
193
PORT ROYAL.
1613.]
tion on the river, known as the Bermuda Hundred, more favourable terms were granted. Each man laboured one month for the community, and appro- priated the remaining eleven to his own purposes. Even these imperfect reforms produced the best results. Industry revived; property accumulated; famine was no longer feared;ª and when, a few years afterwards, all restrictions upon the enjoy- ment of private property were removed, Virginia assumed every feature of a flourishing colony.
But while the worthy marshal was thus kind to the interests of his own colony, he showed a stern opposition to the just rights of another. As early as 1605, the French had sent settlers to Acadia, and planted a colony at Port Royal, which had now obtained some permanence. England and France had long been at peace, and the preamble to James's first patent had expressly excluded from his proposed grant any land then actually possessed by a Christian prince or people .. But Dale, con- ceiving this French settlement to be an invasion of the rights of Virginia, because it was between thirty-four and forty-five degrees of latitude, deter- mined to attack it. Argal was an agent well suited
a Stith, 132; Grahame's Colon. and even of the French vessels found Hist., i. 63-65; Bancroft's U. S., i. at the port, " was agreeable to the 161; Robertson's Am., i. 411. powers granted in the charter of b See page 77, ante. 1609," inasmuch as that charter could not be construed to affect un- favourably the rights of foreign na- tions which had been secured by the
c Preamble in Hening, i. 57, 58 ; Stith, Appen. i. 1. This clause must have escaped Dr. Belknap's attention, or he surely would not have asserted first patent .- See Am. Biog., ii. 151, that Argal's seizure of Port Royal, 152.
VOL. I.
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194
CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL. [CHAP. IV.
for his purposes. Bold and unscrupulous, greedy of gain, and little careful as to the means of ac- quiring it, he regarded a piratical expedition, co- vered by the forms of law, as falling within his peculiar province. (1614.) Early in the year, he sailed to the north, attacked Port Royal, shot many of the garrison with musketry, killed a gallant Jesuit who resisted him, drove the settlers into the woods, seized upon all the provisions, furniture, and apparel he could find, and turned his bow again to the southward. But, by way of com- pleting the work of reform, he entered the sound at the mouth of the Hudson, and summoned the Dutch settlements on Manhattan Island to sur- render, on the absurd pretence that Captain Hud- son, who discovered this country in 1609, while lawfully in the service of Holland, was an Eng- lishman, and could not deprive his native land of the benefit of his adventure. Unable to resist, the fort surrendered ; but soon afterwards, a reinforce- ment having arrived, the phlegmatic Dutchmen hoisted their colours and pursued their intended course as though it had not been interrupted.
These exploits of Argal had every distinctive trait of piracy, and we have no reason to believe that they were approved by the English govern- ment. James, indeed, in 1621, granted Port Royal to one of his subjects;ª but Nova Scotia was still
a Belknap's Am. Biog., ii. 152; Bancroft date this expedition in see Smith, ii. 18; Stith, 132; Ban- 1613, but Stith says 1614, and he is croft's U. S., i. 165, 166; Grahame's a safe guide. Colon. Hist., i. 65; Belknap and
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195
MESSAGE TO POWHATAN.
1614.]
retained by the French, and Manhattan by the Netherlanders.
The natives were now at peace with the colo- nists, and their friendly relations began to be pro- ductive of good to both parties. But Dale feared the consummate art of Powhatan; and, seeing the powerful check upon his hostile views which the presence of Pocahontas among the English se- cured, he wished to obtain another valued host- age. Ralph- Harner was sent to the king, and, after a due exchange of courtesies, he asked that the youngest daughter of Powhatan, a handsome girl, much beloved by her father, might be sent to Jamestown, where a husband, well suited to her taste, would speedily be provided. The old mo- narch immediately perceived the distrust of the colonists, and, after various excuses, he delivered to Harner a speech, in which the tender feelings of a father's heart are exhibited with touching simplicity. He asked why his brother desired to bereave him of his two children at once. He had already a pledge of his friendship in his oldest daughter; and even though no pledge at all ex- isted, they need fear no injury from him. He had seen enough of blood ; his people had been slain ; his country had been wasted ; and now, in his old age, when he was soon to go to the grave, he de- sired nothing but "peace and quietness."ª With this answer, the messenger returned to the fort.
a Smith, ii. 20; Stith, 135 ; Harner's Narrative, in Smith ; Grahame's U. S., 33, 34.
196
POCAHONTAS BAPTIZED.
[CHAP. IV.
Meanwhile, Pocahontas became daily an object of greater interest to her new friends, and of ever- growing affection in her husband. Her gentle and susceptible mind easily received the impress of that lovely religion, taught in its purity by Christ and his disciples; and she signified her desire to be baptized, in testimony of her Christian faith. This interesting ceremony was performed during the month of June. She received the name of Re- becca ; and as she was the first native converted to Christianity, so was she perhaps the most sincere and most exemplary, in all the virtues of her pro- fession.ª It has not been amiss, that American ge- nius has selected the scene of her baptism for adorning the national hall of the country, whose infancy was preserved by her courage, and cherished by her love.
(1615.) From views of domestic pleasure, we turn to the general interests of a colony which may now at last be considered as permanent. Virginia had heretofore had no staple which promised to yield regular returns to her productive industry. Plank was liable to injury, and required much labour. Tar, pitch, and turpentine, pot and pearl ashes, were produced in Europe far cheaper than inexpe- rienced hands in the settlement could make them ; vines and silk-worms demanded a dense population and technical skill; gold and silver had at length,
a Her real name was Matoax, or that by a knowledge of her true Matoaka; but the Indians always name they would be enabled to do spoke of her as Pocahontas to the her some injury. Stith, 136; Pur- English, from a superstitious fear chas, iv., 1769.
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197
TOBACCO.
1615.]
though most reluctantly, been abandoned as dreams. In this juncture the colonists turned their eyes upon a weed, of which the history deserves an ex- alted place among the records of human vagaries. Revolting to an unviolated taste, abhorred by the brute creation, fatal even to the insects that men profess most to dislike, this weed has yet gained its way from the pouch of the beggar to the household stores of the monarch upon his throne. It has affected commerce through her every vein, caused disputes between a king and his subjects, and ex- cited royal genius to unwonted literary effort; and, with equal truth may we say, that it has often en- veloped the brave in smoke, and stimulated the drooping and the despondent. We need scarcely mention the name of Tobacco. Walter Raleigh first made it fashionable in England, and smoked so vigorously, that his servant, in alarm, poured over his head and face the generous ale intended to aid in its effect.ª Elizabeth paid her favourite a wager, which he fairly won, by weighing the smoke produced from a certain quantity of this weed; and her majesty has been suspected of hav- ing regaled her own royal system with a pipe from time to time.' James hated it with unquenchable fury-drew upon it his pen, and shot forth a " Counterblast against Tobacco," to convince the world that it was the appropriate luxury of the
a Oldys' Life of Raleigh, xxxii .; Belknap's Am. Biog., i. 318 ; Burk's Va., i. 61; Stith, 21.
b Belknap, i. 318; Oldys' Life of Raleigh, xxxii .; Grahame's Colon. Hist., i. 26, in note.
198
TOBACCO.
[CHAP. IV.
Evil One, and that its smoke was as the vapour of the bottomless pit.a
This plant was known to the Indians throughout almost the whole of the American continent. The French navigator, Cartier, had found it in Canada, in 1535;b but it then excited in his crews nothing but disgust. Ralph Lane carried it from Carolina to England in 1586 ; and it soon became a luxury, used by the rich, and coveted by the poor. The Spaniards in the south had long cultivated it, and made it a source of profitable traffic. The Vir- ginians, finding men more willing to pay for the exciting and the agreeable than the useful, now de- termined to make this weed the staple of their land ; and from the year 1615 to the present time, it has been always her product, sometimes her support, often her bane. Her rich soil and warm suns were well adapted to its wants. Instantly all were full of diligence and commotion in raising the new sta- ple ;- fields were opened and prepared, trees were felled, and every spot of cleared land was appropri- ated to the precious weed. Corn, and other grain, were so much neglected, that they were again threatened with scarcity, and driven to endanger their peace with the Indians, by demanding from them supplies. So violent was the tobacco mania, that Dale thought it necessary to restrain it by
a Stith, 21; Burk's Va., i. 61; clamation dated in 1604. See a Belknap, i. 318; Grahame, i. 66. curious poem against tobacco, writ- ten by Rev. Charles I. Adams, and published in Boston, in 1838, p. 9. The reader will find in Hazard's State Papers, i. 49, much abusive language poured out by James b Belknap's Am. Biog., i. 318. against this devoted weed, in a pro-
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199
1616.]
DALE'S WISE ADMINISTRATION.
law; and yet when, two years afterwards, Argal came from England as governor to Virginia, he found the church in decay, and the yard, the mar- ket square, the very streets of Jamestown full of the plants of this much-esteemed commodity.ª The people were glowing with the belief that they had discovered a superior mode of drying by suspend- ing it on lines, instead of piling it in heaps; and it is related that by large importations for this pur- pose, the demand for small cord became great in the mother country.b
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