USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 12
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Captain Newport made an ineffectual effort to discover a route to the Salt Sea that was believed to be not far beyond the mountains. Although Smith tried to dissuade him from the attempt he went upon a trip of discovery above the falls of James River, but returned with his party without even reaching the Blue Ridge Mountains. Smith went energetically to work to provide a cargo to send to England, which was composed of tar, pitch, glass and boards; and Newport again started on a home voyage, taking along Ratcliffe. the second deposed president. Captain Smith sent by Newport a letter to the Royal Council in London in which he set forth the mistakes that prevented the success of the colony. In part, he said: 1 . "When you send again I intreat you to send but 30 carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees, roots, well provided, rather than 1,000 of such as we have; for except we be able both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with want of necessaries before they can be good for anything.
"These are the causes that have kept us in Virginia from laying such a foundation as ere this might have given much better content and satisfaction; but as yet you must not look for any profitable returns ; so I humbly rest."
Captain Smith had a very quaint style of expressing his views, but he managed to inform the Royal Council that they were respon-
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sible for the ill success of the colony; and also to tell them they should expect no profitable returns from their venture until a change was made in the character of the emigrants that were being sent across the waters to Virginia. Hc put all the men to work with the assurance that: "He who would not work, might not eat;" and Jamestown began to assume an appearance of life and thrift. We are. told that they "digged and planted" twenty or thirty acres in corn, and cultivated it under the instructions of two friendly Indians. This was a pretty big job, especially the digging of thirty aeres with hoes; and it shows how impractical and careless the Royal Council had been in not providing horses or oxen to plow and culti- vate the land.
At the request of the London Company a new or second charter was, on the 23rd of May. 1609, granted the company, which changed its form of management and made material alterations in the bound- aries of Virginia. The company was changed from a proprietary organization to a corporate body, to be known as the "Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the First Colony in Virginia." All the power of control which was reserved by the king in the first charter was transferred to the com- pany, and the management of the Virginia Colony was committed to a Supreme Council to be chosen by the shareholders and to reside in England. This Supreme Council had authority to legislate for the colony and to appoint a governor and eouneil to conduet its local affairs. The new charter gave to the corporate body "all those Lands, Countries and Territories situated, lying and being in that part of America called Virginia, from the Point of Land called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the Northward 200 miles, and from said Point of Cape Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the Southward 200 miles, and all that space and circuit of Land, lying from the Sea Coast of the Present aforesaid, up into the land, throughout from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest, and all the islands lying within 100 miles along the coast of both Seas of the Precinet aforesaid." This extended the territory of Virginia to the Pacific Ocean, and to the Great Lakes.
Upon its reorganization the company selected Sir Thomas Smith, a prominent London merchant, for treasurer of the corpora- tion, and Thomas West (Lord Delaware) for governor of Virginia. Smith and Lord Delaware were both men of very fine character, and their appointment to these high executive offices bespoke better
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days for the Jamestown colony. As soon as the new charter was secured steps were taken to organize another expedition; and some 500 persons, men, women, and children, were induced to cross the ocean and become settlers in Virginia. A fleet of nine vessels, with ample supplies, was assembled, and Captain Newport, the able mariner, was placed in charge. He sailed with his fleet from Eng- and in June, 1609, and in August the Third Supply, 300 or more persons, reached Jamestown. The balance of the emigrants were on the ship Sea Venture, along with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, who were sent out by the company to give personal supervision to the colony. Their vessel was separated from the balance of the fleet and was wrecked by a storm on the coast of the Bermuda Islands. This part of the expedition had to remain in the Bermudas for nearly a year. They built small vessels and suc- ceeded in getting to Jamestown on May 10th, 1610.
The failure of Gates and Somers to reach Jamestown with the main part of the expedition left the control of the colony in the hands of Captain Smith. He soon found out that the newly arrived . emigrants were very much inferior to the former ones, of whose quality he had complained to the London Company. The new- comers were largely of the shiftless vagabond class, whom Smith described as "unruly gallants packed thither by their friends to escape ill destenies."
President Smith had never approved of the Jamestown site for the colony, because of its unhealthy, marshy surroundings; and he determined to hunt a better situation. With this end in view, In sailed up the James to the Indian village called Powhatan, and purchased from the Powhatan tribe a tract of land close to where the city of Richmond now stands. Because of its beautiful and pleasant location he named the place "Nonesuch". While he was returning to Jamestown, Smith was severely injured by the accr dental explosion of a bag of gunpowder. The wounds he received were so severe that he was compelled to go to England for surgical treatment, and early in October he sailed on the home voyage; and this severed finally his official connection with the first Virginia colony. Smith left George Percy in command, but that gallant gentleman did not have the executive ability or the qualities of leadership needed to control the 500 colonists, most of whom were unruly vagabonds. Trouble arose with the Indians and the red men slew the settlers at every opportunity. The disreputable
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Ratcliffe and thirty of his associates were killed at one time while on a trading visit to the Pamunkey village.
When winter came on more cabins were needed, but the men were too worthless to build them, and some of the colonists died from exposure. Then, what was afterwards called "The Starving Time" came on. The supply of food became exhausted, Percy was sick, Smith was in England, and famine, in most horrid form, took pos- session of the settlement. For a short time the people subsisted on herbs and roots. Then they resorted to the horrible practice of cannibalism. A slain Indian was boiled and eaten, and starving men began to cook and eat their own dead. One brute killed his wife, salted her down, and had eaten a part of her body when his fiendish act was discovered, and he was burned at the stake by outraged though starving citizens. McDonald in his "Life in Old Virginia," says:
"Smith left in Virginia three ships and seven boats, a supply of commodities ready for trade with the Indians, a goodly supply of corn newly gathered, provisions in store for the colony, three hundred muskets with other arms and ammunition, nets for fishing, tools of all sorts for work, apparel to supply their wants, six mares and a horse, more than five hundred hogs, as many hens and chickens and some sheep and goats."
It is almost incredible that nearly five hundred persons could have been gathered together from any part of the world, and espec- ially from England, as incapable and helpless as these colonists. There were four hundred and ninety persons in the colony when Captain Smith left in October, 1610; and when Gates and Somers arrived in May, 1611, only sixty were left. Vice, sickness, indolence, and famine had accomplished their deadly work; and if relief had been delayed a few days longer there would have been none left to tell the deplorable fate of the settlement. Gates and Somers were struck with horror by the conditions they found, and readily con- sented to take the miserable people back to England. Tearfully the captains realized that Virginia must be abandoned, and they got the people aboard their small vessels, with the intention of sailing to the coast of Newfoundland, to get a supply of fish, and then cross the ocean to England. On the 7th of June they dropped with the tide down James River and spent the night at Mulberry Island The next morning anchors were weighed and the expedition started again on the homeward journey; but at noon, when they were
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entering Hampton Roads, they discovered in the distance a small boat approaching. It proved to be the longboat of Lord Delaware, who was coming to take up his work as the first governor of Vir- ginia. He had with him three ships well stocked with supplies, and the colonists were easily persuaded to return to Jamestown and resume the effort to make a permanent settlement in Virginia. On the morning of the 8th they were landed at the desolate place so recently deserted; and Lord Delaware fell upon his knees, raised his hands toward heaven and devoutly thanked God for permitting him to reach Virginia in time to save the life of the colony.
The first act of Lord Delaware upon landing was to have a religious service held. After a sermon had been preached, the governor read his commission and made a speech to all the people, in which he censured the old settlers for their vanities and idleness, and gave them to understand that under his administration the vicious and slothful would receive no mercy. He put the men to work building new fortifications and repairing the houses, and the little church was made neat and attractive again. A bell was hung at a convenient point, to take the place of a clock, and was rung to regulate the hours of work; and system and order were established in the settlement. The winter of 1610-11 was in many respects a hard one for the colony, but was not as severe as the previous one. Still, about 150 of the settlers died during the winter, and Lord Delaware's health was so greatly impaired that he was compelled to return to England. For a short time George Percy was again left in command. Captain Newport made another trip to the colony in March, this time bringing 300 emigrants who were more shift- less and worthless than any of the previous supplies. Sir Thomas Gates was appointed deputy governor, but for some reason could not at that time come to Jamestown; and Sir Thomas Dale, with the title of High Marshal of Virginia, was sent over to take charge.
For the next five years Dale ruled the colony, Lord Delaware, the governor, remaining in England during the time. The High Marshal proved himself well suited for the task given him. Bv his great energy, indomitable will and splendid common sense. he brought order out of chaos, and put the Virginia colonv once more on the road to permanency. When he reached Jamestown he found the men idling away their time playing games, instead of planting and cultivating the soil. A severe code of laws was immediately prepared and put in force to stay the idle and vicious dispositions of the men; and a number of offenses were punished with death. A
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plot to overthrow and kill Dale was formed by Jeffrey Abbot and other desperate characters. The plot was discovered and Abbot and four of his companions were executed. In the fall of 1611, six months after Dale took charge, another supply of settlers was brought over, and the colony then numbered about eight hundred persons. A good stock of cows, oxen and goats was also added to the increasing resources of the colony. The idea of expansion from the Jamestown colony followed, and a settlement was made at the mouth of James River where the present town of Hampton is now located. This is the oldest continuous settlement, save two, in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It seems that Sir Thomas Dale thought, as did Captain Smith, that a more favorable site should be selected for the colony. So believ- ing, he selected the Dutch Gap peninsula farther up the James and built a town there. He called the place Henricus, after the then Prince of Wales, and erected fortifications and houses for three hundred persons. Other settlements were made at Bermuda and Shirley Hundreds on James River, and at Dale's Gift near Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The establishment of these new settlements was a strong assurance that the colonization of Virginia had become permanent.
The London Company applied to King James for a new charter. and on the 12th of March, 1612, it was granted by the king, and is known as the Third Charter. The company wanted to get posses- sion of the Bermuda Islands and to secure for its members fuller and more direct management of the affairs of the corporation; and these two things as well as many others of importance were secured by the Third Charter. In this same year another important event in the history of Virginia occurred, it being the marriage of John Rolfe, the English gentleman, to Pocahontas, the uneducated Indian girl, the daughter of Powhatan. Rolfe and his English wife were among the emigrants who were cast on the Bermuda Islands when the Sea Venture was wrecked on the coast of those islands. They came from the Bermudas to Jamestown with Gates and Somers in May, 1610. Soon after they arrived in Virginia, Mrs. Rolfe died; and later on her widowed husband became the lover of the dusky Indian girl, who had been made a captive by Captain Argall and held as such at Jamestown. Rolfe did not wish to marry a heathen ; and Pocahontas was baptized into the Christian faith and given the Bible name, Rebekah. The marriage was celebrated in the church
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at Jamestown, and witnessed by a mixed company of Indians and Englishmen.
It is said that Rolfe was the first Englishman who cultivated tobacco for commercial purposes. He and his Indian wife went to England in 1616 in the same vessel with Sir Thomas Dale after he vacated the office of High Marshal of Virginia. Pocahontas became a popular society rage in London, where she was entertained and banqueted by English royalty and nobility. In 1617, when Argall was appointed deputy governor of Virginia, Rolfe was made secretary for the colony. On the eve of his sailing for Vir- ginia, Pocahontas became suddenly ill and died at Gravesend, and was buried in the parish church at that place. She had one child, Thomas Rolfe, who remained in England with an unele until he attained his manhood. He then came to Virginia and settled per- manently, and became the ancestor of some of the most prominent families in the State.
In 1616 George Yeardley was in Virginia as deputy governor, and succeeded Sir Thomas Gates as acting governor; and adminis- tered the affairs of the colony until Captain Samuel Argall was appointed deputy governor in 1617. Argall's administration was brief and very unsatisfactory. He ruled with as much severity as his predecessor, Dale, but his conduct of the office was unserupulous and dishonest. After serving one year, Argall was recalled by the company, and Lord Delaware was directed to again take personal charge of the colony. Delaware sailed from England in the spring of 1618 to resume his duties as governor. He was accompanied by 200 emigrants and traveled by way of the Azores. While they were making a short stay at St. Michael Island, Lord Delaware and thirty of his companion voyagers became violently ill and died. There was a strong suspicion that they were poisoned by the Span- iards who entertained them at St. Michael's.
Up to 1612, no member of the colony was permitted to enjoy private ownership of land. Sir Thomas Dale then became con- vinced that the community system, which had been enforced since the founding of the colony, had proved the principal cause of the suffering from starvation, in that it discouraged the industrious and encouraged the lazy in their indolent habits. Acting upon thi- belief, he made distribution of small portions of land to each settler to work for his own benefit, but required that a certain portion of the products should be turned into a general store to be used for the common benefit in an emergency.
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George Yeardley was knighted and appointed governor of Vir- ginia to succeed Lord Delaware. In 1619 the colony had increased to 2,000 persons; and the people demanded that they should be accorded local self-government, and the request was granted. Gov- ernor Yeardley was directed to issue writs for the election of a General Assembly in Virginia. Writs were issued for an election of representatives from eleven local constituencies or boroughs, which were designated as City, Plantation, and Hundred; and each con- stituency was given two representatives, who were called burgesses. This gave the name, House of Burgesses, to the Assembly, which name continued in use from 1619 until the Revolutionary War in 1776. The eleven boroughs that sent representatives were James City, Charles City, the City of Henricus, Martin Brandon, Martin's Hundred, Lawne's Plantation, Ward's Plantation, Argall's Gift, Flowerdien Hundred, Smith's Hundred, and Kecoughtan. Soon after- wards the name of Smith's Hundred was changed to Southampton Hundred and Kecoughtan was changed to Hampton. The assembly. in addition to the twenty-two elective members, had an upper housc, which was composed of the governor, deputy governor and an assist- ant council, and altogether they constituted a General Assembly. The body was invested with both legislative and judicial functions and had full authority for legislating for the colony ; but its acts had to be approved by the General Court of the London Company before ~ they were enforced. On July the 30th, 1619, the General Assembly of Virginia met for organization and business in the church at Jamestown, and was the first legislature that assembled in the English colonies of America.
During the year 1619, other events of importance affecting the future of the colony and Virginia occurred. One of these was the introduction of African slaves, which came soon after the right of local self-government had been accorded the colony, and a short time after the first sitting of the General Assembly. John Rolfe. who was then secretary of the colony, said: "About the last of August there came in a Dutchman of warre that sold us twenty negars." Five years later a census showed that there were only twenty-two negroes in the colony, and the increase of slaves came very slowly in Virginia.
The next most important event was the bringing of a ship-load of young women-spinsters, selected with care as to character and in charge of matrons, to become wives for the unmarried men who
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were greatly in the majority in the colony. These young women were left free to select their own husbands, and had no trouble finding plenty of suitors; but no accepted suitor could marry his girl until he had paid the company 120 pounds of tobacco to cover the expense of transporting her to Virginia. This matrimonial experiment resulted so happily that the practice of bringing over wives for the bachelors was continued; and the following year "Sixty young maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended", were imported. This resulted in the estab- lishing of many pleasant homes, and naturally increased immigra- tion. In 1622 the population had become four thousand, the culti- vation of tobacco had been made an important and profitable industry, domestic ties were strengthened, habits of thrift super- seded the indolent and wasteful customs that had prevailed, and cheerful comfort chased away the gloom and squalor that threatened the life of the colony.
Other incidents of importance in this eventful year of the colony occurred. A college was established in Henrico for the purpose of educating and converting the native children to Christianity. King James, through the various Bishops of England, collected a fund of fifteen thousand pounds for endowing the institution; and the London Company donated 10,000 acres of land to enlarge the design of the college by providing for the education of the white children of the colony.
Cordial relations had existed between the Indians and colonists for several years previous to 1622. Powhatan died in 1618, and was succeeded as head-chief of the confederacy by his brother Opechancanough. The latter was never friendly to the whites, but had been held in restraint by Powhatan. Early in 1622 Opechan- canough secretly planned the destruction of the colony. He and his people had become very restless and resentful as they witnessed the growing strength of the colony and saw the best lands of the Indians appropriated by the white settlers. An Indian chief, to whom the English had given the name of Jack of the Feather, killed one of the colonists, and he was killed by the whites in requital. Opechancanough and his associates then formed a con- spiracy to destroy the entire colony on a certain day. On the 22nd of March, 1622, the Indians made a concerted attack upon the colonists, and killed 347 persons. The red men failed to accom- plish their fell purpose, as two thousand five hundred persons were saved from the general massacre. However, the colonists were so
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fearful of another attack that they abandoned seventy-two of their plantations and huddled together on eight. They also abandoned their college and their infant manufacturing establishments, and confined their cultivation of the soil to such a limited area that enough food could not be produced to support the people. Again much sickness and want prevailed in the colony. But the London Company came to the partial relief of the colony by sending over supplies of food, and King James sent them a lot of old muskets. In a short while the colonists recovered from their panic, and sent a military expedition of three hundred men to punish the Indians for the brutal massacre of the settlers. The natives fled from their homes on the approach of the avenging expedition, taking with them most of their corn; but the whites destroyed many of their villages and a great deal of their property. At the following ses- sion of the General Assembly a law was enacted which directed that at the beginning of the next July the inhabitants should attack and kill all savages in their respective neighborhoods. This war of extermination, or driving back of the natives to the wild forests, was continued without intermission until a peace was coneluded with the Indians in 1632. By the provisions of this treaty the whites retained all the habitations and cleared lands they had taken from the natives, who were forced to take refuge in the forests and marshes.
In 1623 the London Company realized that the affairs of the colony had not been successfully managed, and sought to correct the management by a reorganization of the corporation. During the sixteen preceding years ten thousand persons had been trans- ported to Virginia and only a little more than two thousand remained after the massaere by the Indians. From a business standpoint the colony had proved a decided failure, as the annual exports amounted to no more than one hundred thousand dollars. King James, who was greatly displeased with the liberal democratie government the company had given the colonists, determined to annul the charter and establish a royal government in Virginia. His plans to this end were carried out through the employment of five commissioners, who were sent to Jamestown to investigate the management of the colony from the time the first settlement was made. These commissioners were appointed by the king, and were: John Harvey, John Pory, Abraham Piersey, Samuel Matthews and John Jefferson. They were instructed: "To make more particular and diligent inquiry touching divers matters, which concerned the state of Virginia ; and
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in order to facilitate the inquiry, the governor and council of Vir- ginia were ordered to assist the commissioners, in this scrutiny, by all their knowledge and influence." Thus began the artful scheme of the crafty king to take from the Virginia colony its right of self-government.
The commissioners, as appointed, came to Jamestown and tried to get the General Assembly to petition the king for a revocation of the charter of the company. Failing to secure the petition from the General Assembly, the commissioners returned to England and made a false and defamatory report as to existing conditions in Vir- ginia. To this report the General Assembly made a spirited denial and drafted a petition to the king in which it was prayed, "that the governors may not have absolute power, and that they might still retain the liberty of popular assemblies, than which, nothing could more conduce to the public satisfaction and public utility." This petition, however, never reached King James, as Mr. Pountis, a member of the Colonial Council, to whose care it was entrusted, died while on his passage to England to deliver it to the king. The king instituted quo warranto proceedings in the King's Bench for the purpose of divesting the London Company of its corporate privi- leges and powers, and for the dissolution of the company. The cause was tried at the Trinity Term of the court in 1624, and all the demands of King James were granted by a decree of Lord Chief Justice Ley, who was a mere creature of the king. Dissolu- tion of the company occasioned very little change in the government of the colony. A committee was appointed by the king to exercise the functions previously performed by the London Company. Sir Francis Wyatt was reappointed governor, and he and his council were empowered to govern the colony "as fully and amply as any governor and council resident there, at any time within the space of five years last past". Strange to relate, King James refused to appoint as members of the new council for Virginia any of the extreme partisans of his court faction, but selected men of conserva- tive views for the government of the colony.
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