USA > Virginia > A history of Virginia : from its discovery and settlement by Europeans to the present time. Vol. I > Part 6
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a Blackstone's Commen. (by
b John viii. 1-11.
c See Stith's remarks in his Hist. Chitty), iv. 46. This was in 1650.
Va., 41-42.
d It is surprising that Mr. Gra.
88 PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. [CHAP. II.
But notwithstanding the defects and deformities of a charter which, in modern times, would have been indignantly rejected as an invasion of the rights of man,ª the London Company eagerly pre- pared for their proposed scheme of settlement. Sir Thomas Smith was elected treasurer,-a gentle- man who had amassed great wealth by merchan- dise, who was one of the assignees under Raleigh's patent, and was soon afterwards made governor of the East India Company.b Much has been said against him; but he was a man of public spirit and expanded views, and urged forward the enter- prise with his influence and his contributions. The means of the company were at first very limited; three ships only were prepared, the largest of which was of not more than one hundred tons burden, and Christopher Newport was select- ed for the command. He was a navigator of some renown, principally derived from a voyage of de- struction against the Spaniards in 1592; but he was a vain and affected character, little calculated for decisive and manly action. Instructions were prepared, but the King, with his accustomed pro- fundity of folly, directed that they should be sealed in a box, and not opened until the voyagers arrived upon the coasts of Virginia. In the vessels, there embarked, beyond the regular crews, one hundred and five persons, to form the settlement. And it
hame, generally so discriminating a lover of liberty, should assert that " these regulations, in the main, are creditable to the sovereign who com- posed them." Colon. Hist. i. 36.
a Robertson's America, i. 403. b Belknap's American Biog. ii. 110; Stith's Virginia, 42.
1
89
A COLONY OF GENTLEMEN.
1606.]
does not seem extravagant to assert, that Virginia has felt, through all her subsequent history, the influence of these first settlers in giving a peculiar bias to her population. Besides the six gentlemen intended for the council, and Mr. Robert Hunt, a minister of the Gospel, we find the names of more than fifty cavaliers, who are carefully reckoned in the shipping-list as " gentlemen,"ª and who were better fitted for the adventures of the drawing-room than for the rude scenes of the American forest. Disappointed in hope and reduced in fortune, these restless wanderers sought the new world with de- sire for exciting adventure and speedy wealth. Among them was George Percy, a member of a noble family and brother to the Earl of Northum- berland.' In this singular band we note but eleven professed labourers, four carpenters, one black- smith, one bricklayer, and one mason; but we are not surprised to find a barber to aid in making the toilet of the "gentlemen," a tailor to decorate their persons, and a drummer to contribute to their mar- tial aspirations !
Thus prepared with the elements of a refined colony, Newport set sail from Blackwall the 19th December, 1606. Adverse winds kept him long upon the coast of England, and with disappoint- ment came discord and murmuring among the voyagers. The preacher suffered with weakening disease, but his soothing counsels alone preserved
a The list may be found in Smith's Grimshaw's U. S., 26; Grahame's Virginia, i. 153.
Colon. Hist., i. 36.
b Burk's Hist. Va., i. 95, note ;
90
CHESAPEAKE BAY.
[CHAP. II.
peace among this wild company.ª Instead of fol- lowing Gosnold's former voyage immediately across the Atlantic, they sailed by the Canaries and West Indies; and while in full route, the dissensions among the great men raged so furiously that Cap- tain John Smith was seized and committed to close confinement on the false charge that he intended to murder the council and make himself king of Vir- ginia. Arriving at length near the coast of America, their false reckoning kept them in suspense so alarming, that Ratcliffe, commander of one of the barks, was anxious to bear away again for England.
But heaven, by its storms, contributed more to the settlement of Virginia, than men by their in- fatuated counsels. (1607.) A furious tempest drove them all night under bare poles, and on the 26th April, they saw before them the broad inlet to the Bay of Chesapeake. The cape to the south they honoured with the name of Henry, from the Prince of Wales, a noble youth, whose character gave the fairest promise of a career of high-souled action, whose love to Raleigh was only exceeded by his father's hatred, and whose early death gave Eng- land cause for unaffected mourning.b The north- ern headland was called Charles, from the king's second son, who afterwards succeeded to his throne.
As they passed the first cape, a desire for recrea- tion possessed them,-and thirty, without arms, went on shore; but they were soon attacked by five
a Smith's Va., i. 150; Stith, 44. Belknap's Am. Biog., i. 359, 360, b Hume's England, iv. 241, 242; additions by Hubbard.
91
CHESAPEAKE BAY.
1607.]
1
savages, and two of the English were dangerously hurt. This inhospitable treatment promised but little for future peace. The sealed box was now opened, and it was found that Bartholomew Gos- nold, John Smith, Edward Maria Wingfield, Chris- topher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall, were named as members of the Provincial Council.
Sailing leisurely up the beautiful expanse of water to which the Indians have given a name that Europeans have never violated,a the voyagers were charmed with the prospect before them. The sea- son was mild, and nature had fully assumed the
emerald robe of spring. On either side, the distant land presented a scene of tranquil verdure, upon which the eye might rejoice to repose. The noble bay received into its bosom the waters of many broad streams, which descended from the highlands faintly visible in the dim horizon. Green islands saluted them at times as they advanced, and invited their approach by their peaceful loveliness.b
At length they reached the mouth of a magnifi- cent river, that tempted them too strongly to be resisted. This was the "Powhatan" of the In- dians; and no true lover of Virginia can cease to
waters." See Howe's Hist. Collec., 22, and note at bottom of the page .. b Purchas's Pilgrims, iv. 1686. " The six-and-twentieth day of April, about four o'clock in the morning, we descried the land of Virginia; the same day we entered into the * then we Bay of Chesapioc ;
a Chesapeake, "the mother of the landed and discovered a little way,- but we could find nothing worth the speaking of but fair meadows and goodly tall trees, with such fresh water running through the woods as I was almost ravished at the first sight thereof." Stith, 45; Bancroft's U. S., i. 141, 142 ; Nova Britannia, 11, in vol. i. P. Force's Hist. Tracts.
92
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
[CHAP. II.
deplore the change which robbed this graceful stream of a title pregnant with all the associations of Indian valour and of the departed glory of their empire, and bestowed a name that can only recall a royal pedant and a timid despot !
Seventeen days were employed in searching for a spot suited to a settlement. (May 13.) At length they selected a peninsula, on the north side of the river, and about forty miles from its mouth, and immediately commenced the well-known city of Jamestown.
A commendable industry seems at first to have prevailed. The Council contrived a fort,-the set- tlers felled the trees, pitched their tents, prepared gardens, made nets for the fish which abounded in the river, and already began to provide clapboards to freight the ships on their return to England.
But these fair promises of good were destined to a 'speedy betrayal. Already discord prevailed in their counsels, and a flagrant act of injustice had been committed, which soon recoiled upon the heads of its authors. We have heretofore men- tioned the name of John Smith among the persons nominated for the Council, and have spoken of the violent imprisonment to which he was subjected during the outward voyage. Jealousy of his merit and commanding talents did not stop at this point. He was excluded from his place in the Council, and an entry was made in their records detailing the alleged reason for this act.2
Doctor William Simons, in made why Capt. Smith was not ad- Smith, i. 151, says, " An oration was mitted of the counsell as the rest."
93
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.
1607.]
John Smith is the hero of the romantic destinies that attended the early life of Virginia ; and the his- torian who would attempt to tell of her fortunes and yet neglect his story, would be recreant to his trust. Nations have generally owed their brightest days of power or of happiness to the genius of a single person,-directing their energies, subduing their follies, enlightening their seasons of early ignorance. Assyria has had her Semiramis, China her Confucius, Arabia her Mohammed, England her Alfred; and were we required to point to the man to whom America is principally indebted for the care of her infant years, we would not hesitate to name the heroic spirit who now ap- pears before us.
His life deserves, and shall receive from our hands, something more than the passing notice be- stowed upon the vulgar herd. He was born at Willoughby, in Lincolnshire of England, in the year 1579,ª and lived during a period of the world's career rare in adventure and excitement. His parents died when he was thirteen, leaving him competent means of support. Even at this tender age he pined for a voyage, and, as he informs us, " the guardians of his estate, more regarding it than him, he had libertie enough, though no means to get beyond the sea." A spirit so restless could not long be restrained. His friends (friends after the fashion of the world) gave him ten shillings out of his own estate " to be rid of him," and in a short
ª Burk's Virginia, i. 76.
94
HIS EARLY ADVENTURES.
[CHAP. II.
time he found himself in Paris. Here one David Hume made some use of his purse, and in return gave him letters of strong recommendation to King James of Scotland. But before he sought the shores of Caledonia, he passed several years in learning the practical duties of a soldier in the bloody wars now raging in the Netherlands, where Philip of Spain was yet struggling to restore his hateful dominion.ª Arriving, at length, in Scot- land, he found the duties of a courtier too onerous to be endured, and returning to his native seat, he passed a season in perfect seclusion, employing his mind upon Marcus Aurelius and Machiavel's Art of War,' and his body in vigorous exercise with horse and lance. But he soon returned to active life. Having recovered a portion of his estate, he was enabled to revisit France in the train of a Frenchman, who held forth fair promises in the day, and at night joined in a scheme to plunder the unsuspecting Englishman of his trunks and bag- gage. This treachery he afterwards visited upon the author, and in single combat left him despe- rately wounded upon the field. Wandering through various provinces, he at length reached Marseilles, and embarked for Italy in a ship con- taining many pilgrims possessed of the very demon
a Tytler's Gen. History, 217-219. affected his treatment of the savages. The most eloquent of English essay-
b If Captain Smith was familiar with the writings of Machiavel, it is ists has not been able to cover Ma- not impossible that he may have in- sensibly imbibed some of the loose principles taught by the Florentine statesman, and that these afterwards chiavel with a garb more respectable than that of an open and unscrupu- lous advocate of national knavery .- Macaulay's Miscel. Essays. .
95
HIS EARLY ADVENTURES.
1600.]
of religious intolerance. On the passage a fierce storm arose, and with it arose the fears of the Pa- pists, who firmly believed that their danger was caused by the presence of the heretic Briton. With many pious curses upon himself and his queen, they seized the victim and threw him into the troubled waters; but his strength and skill at swimming preserved his life : he landed in safety, was carried by a vessel to Egypt, sailed in the Le- vant, pleased his restless soul by a fight with a rich Venetian ship, which he captured, and was at length put on shore at Antibes, with a treasure amounting to nearly one thousand sequins. The excitement of war had greater charms for him than the acquirement of wealth, and in a short time we find him in the employ of Austria, and accompany- ing the Transylvanian army in their march against the Turks.
No traits in the character of this remarkable man appear more prominently than that readi- ness of invention and promptitude in danger which made him invaluable to those he served. The Turks assembled an immense army around Olum- pagh, and shut out all communication. Smith offered to his general a plan by which to con- verse with the governor of the city, and it was most ingeniously executed. First a signal was given by raising and lowering three torches on a neighbouring hill, and this was duly acknowledged from the town. Then a brief message was written, and the alphabet divided into two parts. The let- ters from A to L were indicated by showing and
96
THREE DUELS.
[CHAP. II.
hiding one torch as many times as there were letters from A to the one intended to be expressed; the letters from M to Z, by showing and concealing trvo torches in like manner; as each letter was formed, it was acknowledged by a single torch in the town, and at the end of each word, all three torches were exhibited.a By this plan Smith con- veyed to the governor a message-" On Thursday at night I will charge on the east; at the alarum, sally you." Ebershaught answered simply, "I will." At the appointed time false fires were shown ; the Christians without and within fell with resist- less fury upon the Turkish trenches; confusion and dismay seized upon them; nearly one-third of the besiegers on that side of the town were slain, and many others drowned. So great was the panic thus produced, that the Turks raised the siege, and the garrison was relieved.b
But achievements awaited him more glorious than signals with torches, or destruction with fire- works. Count Meldritch, a nobleman of Transyl- vania, had laid siege to a strong town on the fron- tiers of his patrimonial estate, then in possession of the Turks. Smith was in his army; and the in- fidel garrison, grown bold in supposed impunity, employed a new mode of insult. The Lord Tur- bashaw challenged any Christian, who had the rank of commander, to single combat, each for his antagonist's head. Lots being cast, the die fell to Smith, who joyfully prepared for the lists. Fair
b Smith's Travels, i. 9; Campbell's Virginia, i. 80.
a Smith's Travels, i. 8-9; Burk's
Virginia, 28.
97
THREE DUELS.
1600.]
ladies and men at arms in glittering attire graced the ramparts. The Turk entered with the sound of hautboys, clad in gorgeous array, and shining with jewels and gold. The English combatant bore only his lance; but at the first terrible shock the infidel was pierced through the brain, and the victor alighting, bore away his head in triumph.ª Another Turk soon met him, and encountered a similar fate. But Bonamalgro was yet alive, and wounded pride forced him to accept a challenge from the heroic Briton. Each entered the lists armed with pistols, battle-axe, and falchion; the first were discharged without effect; but when they closed, the Turk dealt Smith so fearful a blow upon the crest, that he reeled in his saddle and his axe fell from his hand. But the triumph of the Turk was brief. Summoning all his strength, and ma- naging his horse with matchless skill, he avoided the blows of the infidel, and at last pierced him through with his falchion, and added his head to the two already laid at the feet of Count Moyses of Transylvania.b
Exploits so remarkable called for reward. A
a Smith's Travels, i. 16-17.
b Smith's Travels, i. 16-18; Burk's Virginia, i. 81.
"Smith's treacherous lance to atoms flew, But Bonamalgro's proved more true ; Our hero from his horse was thrown, The Turk was reeling from his own, When Smith uprose with sparkling eye, And drew his falchion from his thigh ; Before the Turk could forward spring The falchion made his morion ring, And gleaming with the lightning flash, Deep in his neck had left a gash,
That hurled him from his startled horse To earth, a bleeding, lifeless corse !" LAND OF POWHATAN. Canto II.
I have reason to believe that this poem (published in 1821) is from the pen of St. Leger Landon Carter, Esq., of Virginia. It has some spi- rited passages, but it is disfigured by irregular versification. Mr. Carter has written better poetry since its appearance.
VOL. I.
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98
A COAT OF ARMS.
[CHAP. II.
triumphal procession of six thousand men attended the conqueror to the general's tent; three Turkish horses were led before him, and three spears, with a Turk's head affixed to each, were carried in the van. Moyses received him with rapture, and pre- sented to him a beautiful horse, richly caparisoned, and a scimitar and belt worth three hundred ducats; and after the capture of the town, Sigismund, the Duke of Transylvania, granted to the English knight a patent, vouching in high terms his valour, and appointing him a shield of arms bearing the device of three Turks' heads, to which Smith after- wards added his own chosen motto, " Vincere est vivere." These letters patent were duly examined and approved in the office of the heralds of arms in England, as appears by the certificate of registry in 1625.ª Besides this insubstantial honour, Sigis- mund bestowed a pension of three hundred ducats annually, and his miniature set in gold.
(1602.) In the fatal battle of Rotenton the Turks were victorious, and Smith was left severely wounded upon the field. He was eagerly seized by the pillagers as a person whose appearance and dress held forth promises of heavy ransom. When his wounds were cured, he was carried with other captives to the market of Oxopolis, and sold to a bashaw, who sent him immediately to his fair mis- tress, Charatza Tragabizanda, at Constantinople. The noble adventurer excited in the tender heart of this Turkish lady so much of interest and affec-
a The patent, in the original Latin, i. 19-21; Stith's Va., 110; Burk, may be seen in Smith's Travels, i. 82.
99
ESCAPE FROM TARTARY.
1602.]
tion that she treated him with the utmost kindness; and to preserve him from the danger of being again sold, she sent him to her brother, the Timor of Nal- brits in Tartary, urging him to use the captive with all care and gentleness. But the Tartar chief had no responsive chord of mercy in his bosom, and his brutality was increased by the suspicion of his sis- ter's tenderness. Stripped of his own garments, and clothed in a coat of the coarsest hair, with a belt of " undressed skin" to encompass it, his head shaved, and his neck encircled by an iron ring, with a long handle like a sickle attached to it, the wretched captive was driven to the fields for labour among his hapless companions. But the nature of the lion could not endure the slavery of a meaner animal. The savage Timor sometimes visited him only "to beat, spurne, and revile him;" and in one interview the enraged Briton rose upon his op- pressor, and dashed out his brains with the thresh- ing-flail with which he laboured.a
Escaping from Tartary by a series of wonderful adventures, he afterwards travelled through Ger- many, France, and Spain, visited the kingdom of Morocco, enjoyed a furious naval engagement in the Atlantic, off the African coast, and finally arrived in England with one thousand ducats in his purse, and a spirit still eager for farther adven-
a Smith's Travels, i. 41; Burk's Va., i. 83; Stith, 111.
"The wanton lash he fiercely raised, And in his eye his passions blazed ;
Now-now-the venture cannot fail- Smith swings around his sweeping flail, The bashaw's brain is scattered on the gale !"
LAND OF POWHATAN. Canto II.
100
WINGFIELD ELECTED PRESIDENT. [CHAP. II.
ture.ª Here Bartholomew Gosnold communicated to him the plan for colonizing Virginia, and he en- tered upon it with all the enthusiasm of his nature.
(1607.) Such was the man who now stood upon the soil of America, and contemplated with joy her natural riches. The believer in a special Provi- dence will not marvel that such a character should have been selected by the Deity to give life to such an enterprise, and, among all whom the his- tory of that age will introduce to our knowledge, we find not one, besides this rarely-gifted man, fitted for the task that devolved upon him. In the prime of manhood, with a body active, healthful, and inured to toil and suffering; with a mind acute, vigorous, and inventive ; possessed of cou- rage which knew no fear ; of energy which shrank from no obstacles ; of self-possession which failed not in any danger; he entered the wilderness of the West, and left an impression never to be erased.
His talent for command excited the mean jeal- ousy of inferior souls, only that his merit might appear brighter by contrast. If we have aught to urge against him, it is, that he met the treachery of the Indians with a severe spirit, but too 'much akin to that of the Spaniards in the South. Yet we cannot reproach him with undeserved cruelty, or with deliberate falsehood, and the stern demands of his circumstances often rendered inevitable acts which would otherwise have been ungrateful to his soul.
When the Council was constituted, Edward Maria a Burk's Va., i. 84.
101
SMITH VISITS POWHATAN.
1607.]
Wingfield was elected President, - a man who always proved an inveterate enemy to Smith, and who speedily attracted the hatred even of his ac- complices by his rapacity, his cowardice, and his selfish extravagance. Smith demanded a trial, but the Council feared to trust their wretched charge to an impartial jury, and pretended, in mercy to him, to keep him under suspension. But their own incompetence soon brought his talents into demand. He accompanied Newport upon an ex- ploring voyage up the river, and ascended to the residence of King Powhatan, a few miles below the falls, and not far from the spot now occupied by the city of Richmond.ª The royal seat con- sisted of twelve small houses, pleasantly placed on the north bank of the river, and immediately in front of three verdant islets. His Indian majesty received them with becoming hospitality, though his profound dissimulation corresponded but too well with the treacherous designs of his followers. He had long ruled with sovereign sway among the most powerful tribes of Virginia, who had been successively subdued by his arms, and he now re- garded with distrust the advent of men whom his experience taught him to fear, and his injuries to detest.
On their return to Jamestown, they found that, during their absence, the Indians had made an attack upon the settlement, had slain one boy, and wounded seventeen men. The coward spirit of Wingfield had caused this disaster. Fearful of
a Stith's Va., 46; Burk's Va., i. 98.
102
NEWPORT RETURNS TO ENGLAND. [CHAP. II.
mutiny, he refused to permit the fort to be palisa- doed, or guns to be mounted within. The assault of the savages might have been more fatal, but happily a gun from the ships carried a crossbar- shot among the boughs of a tree above them, and, shaking them down upon their heads, produced great consternation. The frightened wretches fled in dismay from an attack too mysterious to be solved, yet too terrible to be withstood.a
After this disaster, the fears of Wingfield were overruled,-the fort was defended by palisades, and armed with heavy ordnance, the men were exer- cised, and every precaution was used to guard against a sudden attack or a treacherous ambus- cade.
Smith had indignantly rejected every offer of pardon held out to him by the mean artifices of the Council. He now again demanded a trial in a manner that could not be resisted. The examina- tion took place, and resulted in his full acquittal. So evident was the injustice of the president, that he was adjudged to pay to the accused two hun- dred pounds, which sum the generous Smith im- mediately devoted to the store of the colony.b Thus elevated to his merited place in the Council, he immediately devised and commenced active schemes for the welfare of the settlers, and, on the 15th June, Newport left the colony, and set forth on his voyage of return for England.
Left to their own resources, the colonists began
a Dr. Simons's account in Smith, i. b Simons, in Smith, i. 152; Stith's 151, 152.
Va., 47.
103
WANT, DISEASE, AND DEATH.
1607.]
to look with gloomy apprehension upon the pros- pect before them. While the ships remained, they enjoyed many sea-stores, which to them were real luxuries, but now they had little whereupon to feast, except a miserable compound of wheat and barley boiled with water, and even to the larger portion of this, the worms successfully laid claim. Crabs and oysters were sought with indolent gree- diness, and this unwholesome fare, with the in- creasing heats of the season, produced sickness, which preyed rapidly upon their strength. The rank vegetation of the country pleased the eye, but it was fatal to health. In ten days hardly ten settlers were able to stand. Before the month of September, fifty of their number were committed to the grave, and among them we mark, with sor- row, the name of Bartholomew Gosnold.ª The gallant seaman might have passed many years upon the stormy coasts of the continent, but he sank among the first victims who risked their lives for colonization.
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