USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 11
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A few days before Christmas, or to be exact as to date, on the 19th of December, 1606, the first colonization expedition of the London Company started from Blackwalls, England; and dropped down the Thames to cross the Atlantic Ocean and settle a colony in Virginia. The fleet consisted of three ships, with the commander, Captain Christopher Newport, sailing on the Susan Constant. The Godspeed was commanded by Bartholomew Gosnold, and the Dis- covery by John Ratcliffe. On board the three vessels, besides the crews, were congregated one hundred and five colonists. On account of "unprosperous winds" the little fleet was detained for more than a week in the Downs, off the Southeast coast of the county of Kent, a large natural harbor in which outward and homeward bound ves- sels took refuge to escape dangerous storms, or to await favorable winds. New Year's day, 1607, the fleet got away on its eventful and momentous voyage, which was eventually to terminate at a peninsula on James River. and where the cradle of the American Nation was decreed to be placed.
Newport was familiar with the course or route which Columbus and the other first explorers of America had followed; and sailed his ships by way of the Canaries and West Indies. During the progress of the voyage very serious dissensions arose among some of the leading spirits of the expedition; and these troubles were much aggravated when it became known that no one among the company was clothed with sufficient authority to quell the disturbances. King James had placed his instructions for the government of the colony,
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with the names of the men who were to constitute the local council, in a sealed box; and had given positive orders that the box was not to be opened until the expedition reached its destination. This left the colonists without any designated leader to act when emergencies came. Trouble arose between Edward Wingfield and John Smith, and Wingfield made an accusation against Smith of plotting a mutiny. Smith was put in iron fetters, which he was forced to wear until the fleet arrived in Virginia.
After a tedious voyage of four months' duration, Captain Newport entered the Chesapeake Bay and landed with a small party at the southern cape, which was named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of Wales, eldest son of King James. The northern cape was afterwards named Cape Charles, from the second son of James I., and whose reign, as Charles I., and as the successor of his father, was the most tragic and eventful in the record of England's mon- archs. Captain Newport took the sealed box on shore with him, and, when opened, the names of the local council were disclosed. Six persons only were named, though the charter had provided for thirteen members of this council. Those appointed were Bartho- lomew Gosnold, John Smith, Edward Wingfield, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. The malignant Wingfield and his associates refused to permit Smith then to act as one of the council, but continued to hold him a prisoner until after their arrival at Jamestown. At Cape Henry the colonists had their first encounter with the Indians. Hon. George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and a member of Newport's landing party, in a graphic account of the occurrences after entering the Chesa- peake thus describes the incident:
"At night when we were going aboard, there came the Savages upon all fours, from the Hills like Bears, with their Bowes in their mouths, charged us desperately in the faces, hurt Captain Gabrill Archer, in both his hands, and a sayler in two places of the body very dangerous. After they had spent their Arrows and felt the sharpenesse of our shot, they retired into the woods with great noise, and so left us."
These natives belonged to the Chesapeake tribe, and were not a part of the Powhatan Confederacy. According to Jefferson's Notes, published in 1809, their principal village was located on Lynhaven River, in Princess Anne County, a small stream which flows north- ward into Chesapeake Bay. Stith says in his history, that they
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were living on the Elizabeth River, which flows into the Chesapeake below Norfolk. They belonged to the Algonquian family of Indians ; and in 1607 were estimated at one hundred warriors, or about three hundred inhabitants. The tribe disappeared as a distinct nation about the year 1669.
The colonists remained for several days in the vicinity of Lyn- haven Bay, and Captain Newport, accompanied by small partics, made short excursions both inland and along the shores. On the 28th of April he launched a shallop and with several companions started out on a trip of investigation. They discovered a point which put them in such "good comfort", that they named it "Cape Comfort". It is now known as Old Point Comfort, is at the entrance to Hampton Roads, and the historic Fort Monroe is located there. On April 30th they brought their ships to "Cape Comfort" ant. continued their explorations from that point, visiting the rude natives and partaking of their hospitality.
Before the expedition sailed from England the Royal Council had Rev. Richard Hakluyt prepare lengthy written instructions for the guidance of the officers after their arrival in America. In these instructions the officers were urged to select a site for the permanent settlement that was healthful in its surroundings and that could be easily defended against attacks made by the natives or the Span- iards. It was thought that Spain might possibly resent and resist the planting of an English colony in Virginia. Therefore the instructions to the Local Council, in part, said:
"You must take especial care that you choose a seat for habita- tion that shall not be overburthened with woods near your town, for all the men you have shall not be able to cleanse twenty acres a year, besides that it may serve for a covert for your enemies round about.
"Neither must you plant in a low or moist place, because it will prove unhealthful. You shall judge of the good air by the people, for some part of that coast where the lands are low have their people blear eyed, and with swollen bellies and legs, but if the naturals be strong and clean made it is a true sign of a wholesome soil".
On the 13th of May, after a number of locations had been visited and inspected, the leaders chose the little peninsula as the proper spot for permanently establishing the colony. In most respects the site was the very opposite of that which the letter of instructions
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urged the officers to select. It was so low and damp that it was necessarily a breeder of malaria; and at high tide one half the point of land was covered with water. There was no running water on or about it, except the river, which was so brackish at high tide that it was unfit to drink. Possibly it might have been deemed well situated for defence against the Indians, but that was later shown to be not true. This peninsula, which is ealled Jamestown Island, is situated on the north side of James River, in James City County, and is thirty-two miles above the mouth of that river. It contains about seventeen hundred acres, and averages two and a half miles in length and three-fourths of a mile in width. On the east, west and south sides it is surrounded by James River, and on the north by Baek River, the latter separating the peninsula from the main- land. From its founding, in 1607, until 1698, Jamestown was the seat of the Virginia Colonial Government. In 1698 the government was removed to Williamsburg.
As soon as Captain Newport had landed the colonists, the mem- bers of the council, with the exception of John Smith, took the oath of office and organized, eleeting Edward Wingfield president for the first year. On the following day, it is said, the couneil put the men to work to build a fort and houses for the settlers. The work accomplished in that direction appears to have been in keeping with the indolent and thriftless character of the greater number of the emigrants. In one of his narratives about the settlement, Captain John Smith said: "When I went first to Virginia, I well remember we did hang an awning which is an old sail to three or four trees to shadow us from the sun; our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees till we cut planks; our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees; in fine weather we shifted into an old rotten tent for we had no better. The best of our houses were of the like euriosity but for the most part, much worse workman-ship that neither eould well defend wind or rain." Captain Smith in his narrative said nothing about the fort. It is likely that the experienced soldier was either so amused or disgusted by the thing Wingfield and his associates called a fort that he seorned to men- tion it. Henry Howe, in his History of Virginia, thus speaks of the so-called fort: "The President, who seems to have been a very weak man, and ill suited for his station, was too jealous of his own men to allow exercises at arms or a fortification to be erected; and the only protection provided, was a sort of half-moon formed of the boughs of trees.".
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In the written instructions given by the London Council was one which said: "You must observe if you can whether the river on which you plant doth spring out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be out of any lake the passage to the other sca will be the more easy."
The minds of the best informed men of England, as well as of Continental Europe, still clung to the fatnous belief that the dis- tance from the Atlantic to the other sea (the Pacific Ocean) was not very great ; and that a water route across the North American Continent, connecting the two oceans, would surely be found. This was one of the chief motives the English merchants had for identify- ing themselves with exploring expeditions that came to America. All commercial Europe was then eagerly reaching out for the trade of India and other Asiatic countries.
In obedience to the instructions of the Royal Council, Captain Newport took prompt steps for exploring the noble James and finding the source of the river. Though the local council, under the control of Wingfield, still refused to allow Captain Smith to enter upon the discharge of his duties as a member of the council, Newport had become impressed with Smith's ability, and took him along on the trip up the James. The exploring party, in addition to Newport and Smith, consisted of four other gentlemen, four skilled marines, and fourteen common sailors. Six days were occupied by Newport and his company in making the voyage from Jamestown to the head of tidewater at Richmond. They found an Indian village at the falls of the river. and learned that the name of the village was Powhatan (that is "Falling Waters"). The village consisted of about a dozen houses "pleasantly seated on a hill", and the buildings were large clan houses, framed with wooden beams, the roofs and sides being covered with bark. Newport and his companions were kindly treated by these natives, and learned from them that Pow- hatan was the head-chief of a confederacy, consisting of a number of tribes or clans ; and that his principal town and place of residence was called Werowocomoco, which was afterwards found to be sit- uated on the north side of York River in the present county of Gloucester.
Upon their return from their trip up the river, Newport and Smith found that during their absence the colonists had been attacked by hostile Indians; and that one Englishman had been killed and eleven wounded. For two weeks or more after this attack the settlers were greatly annoyed by the red men. They
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would eoneeal themselves in the tall grass near the fort, and with their bows and arrows pick off a white man at every opportunity. Relief was offered by friendly natives of the Powhatan tribe, who made the proffer of an alliance with the Englishmen to drive away the hostiles. The Powhatans also suggested that security could be obtained by cutting and burning the grass near the fort. This was done, and present relief resulted. The hostiles were not of the Powhatan Confederaey, and it is likely were a band of the Chesa- peake warriors.
Captain Smith, who had waited so patiently for a trial on the charges Wingfield had made against him, demanded that he be given an opportunity to have a hearing before a jury of his peers. Wingfield objected very strenuously to a trial, but it was aceorded, and Smith was honorably acquitted of all the charges. Thereupon, on the 10th of June, he was sworn in as a member of the council and became the most efficient and useful member of that official body. The fort was completed on the 15th, and Captain Newport sailed for England on the 22nd, carrying baek on his ships a cargo of sassa- fras and fine wood for wainscoting. At that time sassafras was very much in demand in England for its supposed medicinal quali- ties, and for preparing a pleasant beverage from the bark or roots of the shrub. The beverage was sold at daybreak by venders in the streets of London, under the name of Saloop.
When Captain Newport sailed for home he promised to return to Virginia in twenty weeks. It was found that there was barely enough food on hand, and that of a very poor quality, to sustain the colony for fifteen weeks. This made it necessary to put every one on redueed rations until Newport's return. By an order of the London Company all supplies sent over from England, and all produced by the labor of the colonists, were to be kept in a common stock, from which each member of the colony was to share equally. This community system was to continue for five years ; and the lazy and worthless were put upon the same footing as the industrious and helpful. Under such conditions, it is no wonder that horrible suffering followed and continued until Newport returned from England with fresh supplies. The most of the settlers were too indolent to avail themselves of the abundant supplies which nature had placed about them. That there was an abundance, which a Trans-Alleghany pioneer would have used to advantage, is shown by Hon. George Perey, one of the gentlemen of the colony. In a letter sent by him to a relative in England, he said:
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"This river which we have discovered is one of the famousest Rivers that was ever found by any christian, it ebbes and flowes a hundred and three score miles where ships of great burthen may harbour in safetie. Wheresoever we landed upon this River, we saw the goodliest woods as Beach, Oke, Cedar, Cypress, Walnuts, Sassafras, and Vines in great abundance, which clusters on in many trees, and all the grounds bespread with strawberries, mulberries, Rasberries, and Fruits unknown, there are many branches of this River which runne flowing through the Woods with great plentie of Fish of all kinds, as for Sturgeon, all the World cannot be com- pared to it. There is also a great store of Deer both Red and Fallow. There are Beares, Foxes, Otters, Beavers, Muskrats and wild beasts unknowne."
The same gentleman, Mr. Percy, who wrote the above about the famous river and country, was one of the number who endured the terrible sufferings through which the colony passed while New- port was over in England; and he afterwards wrote this about it:
"There were never Englishmen left in a foreigne Countrey in such miserie as wee were in this new discovered Virginia. We watched every three nights, lying on the bare ground what weather soever came; and warded all the next day; which brought our men to be most feeble wretches. Our food was but a small Can of Barlie sodden in water to five men a day. Our drink cold water taken out of the River, which was at floud very salt; at a low tide full of slime and filth; which was the destruction of many of our men. Thus we lived for the space of five months in this miserable distresse, not having five able men to man our Bulwarkes upon any occasion. If it had not pleased God to have put a terrour in the Savages hearts, we had all perished by those wild and cruell Pagans, being in that weak estate as we were; our men night and day groan- ing in every corner of the Fort most pitiful to hearc. If there were any conscience in men, it would make their harts bleed to heare the pitifull murmerings and outcries of our sick men without relief, every night and day for the space of six weeks; some departing out of the World, many times three or foure in a night; in the morning their bodies being trailed out of their Cabines like Dogges, to be buried. In this sort did I see the mortalitie of divers of our people."
This eccentric but graphic account of the miseries of the unfor- tunate colonists shows clearly their unfitness for the work they had been selected to perform. And it emphasizes the hateful greed and
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criminal carelessness of the London Company for thus placing these incapable men in such a deplorable situation. There were but very few of them who had been trained to work in any way, most of them being of the then idle class called gentlemen. They didn't know how to work, and, if they had known how, they were so inadequately supplied with implements and tools for doing agricultural or mechanical labor that they could have accomplished but little. It is not surprising, with so little food, of such a poor quality, and located as they were at a place reeking with miasma, that the colonists became the victims of deadly diseases. In August, Captain Gosnold died from fever, and thereupon the quarrel between Wing- field, president of the council, and Captain Smith was renewed.
Shortly thereafter charges were made that Wingfield was con- cealing and taking from the scanty stores various luxuries, including wine and spirits, for the use of himself and friends. This and other unpopular acts caused the council to depose him, and John Ratcliffe was elected president in his stead. A short time afterwards, Wing- field and Kendall were accused of trying to escape from the colony in a pinnace, and they were removed from the council. This left only three of the council in office, Ratcliffe, Martin and Smith. Though the charter of the London Company authorized and directed them to fill vacancies in the official body, they declined to exercise that power. It seems that Ratcliffe and Martin were both very unpopular with the colonists, and Smith was looked to as the leader and controller of the affairs of the settlement. He accepted the responsibilities of leader, and succeeded in getting affairs in order. ·The men were put to work, and built more comfortable dwellings; and Smith secured a supply of corn from the Indians, which relieved the people from a continued period of starvation.
Being again supplied with ample provisions, the indolent and thriftless remnant of the colony returned to their former habits of idleness and wastefulness. Captain Smith saw that more supplies would have to be secured from the Indians, and he made several trips in the pinnace up the Chickahominy, and possibly the James, and purchased an abundance of corn from the natives. Cold weather came on and supplies of game were obtained. Smith again ascended the Chickahominy, this time chiefly on an exploring expedition, and it was then he was made a captive and was rescued from imminent death by the Indian girl, Pocahontas. He was in captivity some five or six weeks, and upon his release returned to Jamestown. On the day of his return, which was the 8th of January, 1608, Captain
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Newport with his relief ship reached the landing at the settlement, bringing what was called the First Supply of men and provisions. Of the 105 colonists Newport left there in June, there were only 38 surviving, sixty-seven had died from disease and want during his absence of six months. The First Supply added 120 to the colony, bringing the entire number up to 158 persons. Smith and Newport realized that the supplies brought over from England, with the corn on hand added, would not be sufficient to feed the colony through the winter; and they determined to try to purchase more corn from Powhatan. A party consisting of Smith, Newport, and others not mentioned, paid a visit to the old Indian chief at his home, Werowo- comoco, where they were cordially received and hospitably enter- tained. The Englishmen, Smith and Newport, succeeded in getting a good supply of corn, exchanging therefor glass beads and other trinkets that struck Powhatan's fancy.
In the spring Newport sailed for England again, taking with him Edward Wingfield, the deposed and disgraced first president of the council. Captain Smith spent the summer of 1608 making explorations of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac, Patapsco, and Susquehanna rivers. During his absence from Jamestown the affairs of the colony again got in a wretched condition, owing, it is said, to the incompetency and unpopularity of Ratcliffe, who was the successor of Wingfield as president of the council. On his return in September, Smith was chosen president of the council, and put things in pretty good shape by the time Newport got back from England with the Second Supply of men and provisions. Newport arrived on the 8th of September, and brought over 70 persons. The colony had lost 28 of its members, leaving only 130 of the 158 left by Newport in the spring. With the 70 new arrivals the colony then numbered 200. There were two women in the last company, a Mrs. Forrest and her maid, Anne Burroughs. The maid soon gave up her maidenhood by marrying John Laydon. This was the first recorded English marriage solemnized on the American Continent.
Newport on this trip brought instructions from the London Com- pany which proved that its members were not satisfied with the progress of their get-rich-quick scheme. In promoting the Virginia colony they believed they were embarking in a very lucrative enter- prise; but instead it was proving a grave trouble, and a heavy loss as a financial proposition. So, Newport was ordered to discover a new passage to the South Sea, to find a large lump of gold, to trace the lost Roanoke colony, or not to dare to return to England. When
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Newport showed these instructions to Captain Smith, the valiant captain very aptly pronounced the London Company a lot of fools. There was another absurd instruction given Newport, which the historian Fisk says: "Was grotesque enough to have emanated from the teeming brain of James I. after a mickle noggin of his native Glenlivat." This ridiculous instruction was to the effect that Powhatan should be crowned as a king, and be made a vassal of the King of England. Smith and Newport, after preliminary arrangements with the Indian chief, went to Werowocomoco and there, in the chief's wigwam, performed a burlesque coronation cere- mony. They put a scarlet robe on the greasy old man, and placed a tinsel crown on his head. The newly crowned forest monarch sent his old raccoon-skin cloak as a present to his royal brother, King James I. Smith and Newport were very elaborately entertained by King Powhatan. A wonderful masquerading performance that was presented before the English visitors was described as follows by one of the party :
"In a fayre playne field they made a fire, before which we sitting upon a mat, suddainly amongst the woods was heard * * *
a hydeous noise and shrieking. * * Then presently we were pre- sented with this anticke; thirtie young women came nearly naked out of the woods, their bodies all painted, some white, some red, some black, some particolour, but all differing; their leader had a fayre payre of buck's horns on her head, and an otter's skin at her girdle, and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows at her back, a bow and arrow in her hand; the next had in her hand a sword, another a club, *
* all horned alike * * These fiends with most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, cast themselves in a ring about the fire, siging and dauncing with most excellent ill varietie; * * having spent near an houre in this mascarado, as they entered in like manner they departed. Having reaccomodated themselves, they solemnly invited us to their lodg- ings, where we were no sooner within the house but all these nymphes more tormented us than ever, with crowding, pressing, and hanging about us, most tediously crying, Love you not me? This salutation ended, the feast was set, consisting of fruit in baskets, fish and flesh in wooden platters; beans and peas there wanted not, nor any salvage dainty their invention could devise. Some attend- ing, others singing and dancing about us; which mirth and banquet being ended, with firebrands for torches they conducted us to our lodging."
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These impersonators of the wood nymphs were Pocahontas and other maidens of the tribe. The Indian princess was then just enter- ing her teens; and had no thought at the time she was "Masca- radoing" for the amusement of a company of English adventurers, that she would very soon thereafter become a leading character in a drama, with a continent for its stage and a mighty nation its theme. She saved the life of Captain John Smith by placing her own head upon his to shield him from the impending blows of Indian bludgeons; and helped him save the life of the Jamestown colony when threatened with destruction from starvation and other perils. Nor did the dusky maiden dream when cooing to a pale-faced guest of her father, "Love you not me?" that in a little while she would be made the bride of a white gentleman and have introduction to proud Albion's nobility and royalty ; and would become the historic ancestress of some of Virginia's most distinguished sons, and even of the beautiful wife of a President of the United States.
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