USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
-
CHAPTER V.
1608-1609.
Smith visits Pamaunkee-Seizes Opechancanough-Goes back to Werowocomoco -Procures Supplies-Returns to Jamestown-Smith's Rencontre with Chief of Paspahegh-Fort built-" The Old Stone House"-Colonists dispersed to procure Subsistence-Tuckahoe-root-Smith's Discipline-New Charter- Lord Delaware appointed Governor-Fleet dispatched for Virginia-Sea-Ven- ture; cast away on Island of Bermuda-Seven Vessels reach Virginia-Disor- ders that ensued-Smith's Efforts to quell them-He Embarks for England- His Character, Life, and Writings.
SMITH and his party had no sooner set sail from Werowoco- moco, up the river, than Powhatan returned, and dispatched two of the Dutchmen to Jamestown. The two emissaries, by false pretences and the assistance of some of the colonists, who con- federated with them, succeeded in procuring a supply of arms and ammunition, which were conveyed to Powhatan by some of his people who were at hand for that purpose. In the mean time the other Dutchman, who had been retained by Powhatan as a host- age, provided him with three hundred stone tomahawks. Edward Boynton and Thomas Savage, discovering the treachery, at- tempted to make their escape back to Jamestown, but were ap- prehended and taken back, and expected every moment to be put to death.
During this interval, Smith having arrived at Pamunkey, at the junction of the Pamunkey and the Matapony, landed with Lieutenant Percy and others, to the number of fifteen, and pro- ceeded to Opechancanough's residence, a quarter of a mile back from the river. The town was found deserted by all, except a lame man and a boy, and the cabins stripped of everything. In a short time the chief of the warlike Pamunkies returned, accom- panied by some of his people, armed with bows and arrows. After some conference, Smith finding himself deceived as to the supply of corn which had been promised, reproached the chief
(70)
71
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
for his treachery. Opechancanough, to veil his designs, agreed to sell what scanty commodities he then had, at Smith's own price, and promised to bring on the morrow a larger supply. On the next day Smith, with the same party, marched again up to Opechancanough's residence, where they found four or five In- dians, who had just arrived, each carrying a large basket. Soon after the chief made his appearance, and with an air of frankness began to tell what pains he had been at to fulfil his promise, when Mr. Russel brought word that several hundred of the In- dians had surrounded the house where the English were. Smith, perceiving that some of his party were terrified, exhorted them "to fight like men and not die like sheep." Reproaching Ope- chancanough for his murderous designs, he challenged him to de- cide the dispute in single combat on a neighboring island. The wily chief declining that mode of settlement, endeavored to in- veigle Smith into an ambuscade, when his treachery being mani- fest, the president seized him by the forelock, and with a cocked pistol at his breast, led him, trembling, in the midst of his own people. Overcome with terror, Opechancanough surrendered his vambrace, bow, and arrows; and his dismayed followers threw down their arms. Men, women, and children, now brought in their commodities to trade with the English. Smith, overcome with fatigue, retired into a cabin to rest; and while he was asleep, a party of the Indians, armed with swords and tomahawks, made an attempt to surprise him, but starting up at the noise, he, with the help of some of his comrades, soon put the intruders to flight.
During this time, Scrivener, misled by letters received from England, began to grow ambitious of supplanting Smith, who was cordially attached to him; and setting out from Jamestown for Hog Island, on a stormy day, in company of Captain Waldo, Anthony Gosnold, and eight others, the boat was sunk and all were lost. When no one else could be found willing to convey this intelligence to Smith, Richard Wyffin volunteered to under- take it. At Werowocomoco he was shielded from danger by Po- cahontas, who, in every emergency, still proved herself the tutelary angel of the colony. Wyffin having overtaken Smith at Pamunkey, he concealed the news of the recent disaster from his
72
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
party, and, releasing Opechancanough, returned down the river. On the following morning, a little after sunrise, the bank of the river swarmed with Indians, unarmed, carrying baskets, to tempt Smith ashore, under pretence of trade. Smith, landing with Percy and two others, was received by Powhatan at the head of two or three hundred warriors formed in two crescents; some twenty men and a number of women carrying painted baskets. Smith attempted to inveigle Powhatan into an ambuscade, but the savages, on a nearer approach, discovering the English with arms in their hands, fled. However, the natives, some days afterwards, from all parts of the country, within a circuit of ten or twelve miles, in the snow brought, on their naked backs, corn for Smith's party.
Smith next went up the Youghtanund (now Pamunkey) and the Matapony. On the banks of this little river the poor Indians gave up their scanty store of corn with such tears and lamenta- tions of women and children as touched the hearts of the English with compassion .*
Returning, he descended the York as far as Werowocomoco, intending to surprise Powhatan there, and thus secure a further supply of corn; but Powhatan had abandoned his new house, and had carried away all his corn and provisions; and Smith, with his party, returned to Jamestown. In this expedition, with twenty- five pounds of copper and fifty pounds of iron, and some beads, he procured, in exchange, two hundred pounds of deer suet, and delivered to the Cape-merchant four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn.
At Jamestown the provision of the public store had been spoiled by exposure to the rain of the previous summer, or eaten by rats and worms. The colonists had been living there in indo- lence, and a large part of their implements and arms had been trafficked away to the Indians. Smith undertook to remedy these disorders by discipline and labor, relieved by pastimes and recrea- tions; and he established it as a rule, that he who would not work,
* The word Matapony is said to signify " no bread at all." The four con- fluents of this river, on modern maps, are whimsically named Ma, Ta. Po, and Ny, being the four component syllables of the word. Captain Smith calls it the Matapanient.
.
73
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
should not eat. The whole government of the colony was now, in effect, devolved upon him-Captain Wynne being the only other surviving councillor, and the president having two votes. Shortly after Smith's return, he met the Chief of Paspahegh near James- town, and had a rencontre with him. This athletic savage at- tempting to shoot him, he closed and grappled, when, by main strength, the chief forced him into the river to drown him. They struggled long in the water, until Smith, grasping the savage by the throat, well-nigh strangled him, and, drawing his sword, was about to cut off his head, when he begged for his life so piteously that Smith spared him, and led him prisoner to Jamestown, where he put him in chains. He was daily visited by his wives, and children, and people, who brought presents to ransom him. At last he made his escape. Captain Wynne and Lieutenant Percy were dispatched, with a party of fifty, to recapture him, fail- ing in which they burned the chief's cabin, and carried away his canoes. Smith now going out to "try his conclusions" with "the salvages," slew some, and made some prisoners, burned their cabins, and took their canoes and fishing weirs. Shortly afterwards the president, passing through Paspahegh, on his way to the Chickahominy, was assaulted by the Indians; but, upon his firing, and their discovering who he was, they threw down their arms, and sued for peace. Okaning, a young warrior, who spoke in their behalf, in justifying the escape of their chief from imprisonment at Jamestown, said: "The fishes swim, the fowls fly, and the very beasts strive to escape the snare, and live." Smith's vigorous measures, together with some accidental circum- stances, dismayed the savages, that from this time to the end of his administration, they gave no further trouble.
A block-house was now built in the neck of the Jamestown Peninsula; and it was guarded by a garrison, who alone were au- thorized to trade with the Indians; and neither Indians nor whites were suffered to pass in or out without the president's leave. Thirty or forty acres of land were planted with corn; twenty additional houses were built; the hogs were kept at Hog Island, and increased rapidly ; and poultry was raised without the necessity of feeding. A block-house was garrisoned at Hog Island for the purpose of telegraphing shipping arrived in the
-
74
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
river. Captain Wynne, sole surviving councillor, dying, the whole government devolved upon Smith. He built a fort, as a place of refuge in case of being compelled to retreat from James- town, on a convenient river, upon a high commanding hill, very hard to be assaulted, and easy of defence. But the scarcity of provisions prevented its completion .* This is, no doubt, the diminutive structure known as "the Old Stone House," in James City County, on Ware Creek, a tributary of York River. It stands about five miles from the mouth of the creek, and twenty- two from Jamestown. It is built of sandstone found on the bank of the creek, and without mortar. The walls and chimney still remain. This miniature fortress is eighteen and a half feet by fifteen in size, and consists of a basement under ground, and one story above. On one side is a doorway, six feet wide, giving entrance to both apartments. The walls are pierced with loop- holes, and the masonry is exact. This little fort stands in a wil- derness, on a high, steep bluff, at the foot of which Ware Creek meanders. The Old Stone House is approached only by a long, narrow ridge, surrounded by gloomy forests and dark ravines overgrown with ivy. It is the oldest house in Virginia; and its age and sequestered situation have connected with it fanciful stories of Smith and Pocahontas, and the hidden treasures of the pirate Blackbeard.
The store of provisions at Jamestown was so wasted by rats, introduced by the vessels, that all the works of the colonists were brought to an end, and they were employed only in procuring food. Two Indians that had been some time before captured by Smith, had been until the present time kept fettered prisoners, but made to perform double tasks, and to instruct the settlers in the cultivation of corn. The prisoners were released for want of provision, but were so well satisfied as to remain. For upwards of two weeks the Indians from the surrounding country supplied the colony daily with squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other game, while the rivers afforded an abundance of wild-fowl. Smith also bought from Powhatan half of his stock of corn. But, never- theless, it was found necessary to distribute the settlers in dif-
* Smith, i. 227.
75
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
ferent parts of the country to procure subsistence. Sergeant Laxon, with sixty or eighty of them, was sent down the river to live upon oysters; Lieutenant Percy with twenty, to find fish at Point Comfort; West, brother of Lord Delaware, with an equal number, repaired to the falls, where, however, nothing edible was found but a few acorns. Hitherto the whole body of the colonists had been provided for by the courage and industry of some thirty or forty.
The main article of their diet was, for a time, sturgeon, an abundant supply of which was procured during the season. It not only served for meat, but when dried and pounded, and mixed with herbs, supplied the place of bread. Of the spontaneous pro- ductions of the soil, the principal article of sustenance was the tuckahoe-root, of which one man could gather enough in a day to supply him with bread for a week. The tockawhoughe, as it is called by Smith, was, in the summer, a principal article of diet among the natives. It grows in marshes like a flag, and re- sembles, somewhat, the potato in size and flavor. Raw it is no better than poison, so that the Indians were accustomed to roast it, and eat it mixed with sorel and corn-meal .* There is another root found in Virginia called tuckahoe, and confounded with the flag-like root described above, and erroneously supposed by many to grow without stem or leaf. It appears to be of the convolvu- lus species, and is entirely unlike the root eaten by the James- town settlers. t
Such was the indolence of the greater number of the colonists, that it seemed as if they would sooner starve than take the trouble of procuring food; and at length their mutinous discon- tents arose to such a pitch that Smith arrested the ringleader of the malecontents, and ordered that whoever failed to provide daily as much food as he should consume, should be banished from Jamestown as a drone. Of the two hundred settlers, many were billeted among the Indians, and thus became familiar with their habits and manner of life.
* Smith, i. 123; Beverley's Hist. of Va., iii. 15. I refer to the first edition of 1705, which does not differ materially from the second edition of 1722.
Farmer's Register for April, 1839, ix. 3; Jefferson's Notes on Va., 33; Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Tuckahoe; Fremont's Report, 135, 160.
.
76
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
Sicklemore, who had been dispatched to Chowanock, returned, after a fruitless search for Sir Walter Raleigh's people. He found the Chowan River not large; the country generally over- grown with pines; pemminaw, or silk-grass growing here and there. Two other messengers, sent to the country of the Man- goags in quest of the lost settlers, learned that they were all dead. Guides had been supplied by the hospitable chief of the Quiyoughcohannocks to convoy the messengers. This chief was of all others most friendly to the whites; although a superstitious worshipper of his own gods, yet he acknowledged that they were as inferior to the English God in power as the bow and arrow were inferior to the English gun; and he often sent presents to Smith, begging him. "to pray to the English God for rain, else his corn would perish, for his gods were angry."
The Virginia Company in England, mainly intent on pecu- niary gain and quick returns, were discouraged by the disasters that had befallen the colony, and disappointed in their visionary hopes of the discovery of gold mines, and of a passage to the South Sea. They therefore took measures to procure from King James a new charter, abrogating the existing one, and investing them with ampler powers. Having associated with themselves a numerous body of additional stockholders, or adventurers, as they were then styled, including many persons of rank, and wealth, and influence, they succeeded in obtaining from the king a new charter, dated May 23d, 1609, transferring to the Company several important powers before reserved to the crown. By this charter the extent of Virginia was much enlarged, the eastern boundary being a line extending two hundred miles north of Point Comfort, and two hundred miles south of it, the northern and southern boundaries being parallels drawn through the extremi- ties of the eastern boundary back to the South Sea or Pacific- the western boundary being the Pacific.
By the provisions of the new charter the Virginia Company became indeed apparently more independent and republican, but under the new system the governor of the colony was indued with arbitary power, and authorized to declare martial-law; and the condition of the colonists became even worse than before. This sudden repeal of the former charter evinced an ingratitude for
77
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
the services of Smith and his associates, who, under it, had en- dured the toil, and privations, and dangers of the first settlement.
The Supreme Council in England, now chosen by the stock- holders themselves, appointed Sir Thomas West, Lord Delaware, Governor and Captain-General of Virginia. He was the third Lord Delaware, and the present (1843) Earl Delaware, John George West, is his lineal descendant. Sir Thomas Gates was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and Sir George Somers, Admiral. Sir George was a member of Parliament, but upon being ap- pointed to a colonial post his seat was declared vacant.
Nine vessels were speedily fitted out, with supplies of men and women, five hundred in number, and provisions and other stores for the colony. Newport, who was entrusted with the command of the fleet, and Gates and Somers, were each severally authorized, whichever might happen first to reach Jamestown, to supersede the existing administration there until the arrival of Lord Dela- ware, who was not to embark for several months, and who did not reach Virginia until the lapse of more than a year. This abundant caution defeated itself, for Newport, and the lieutenant- governor, and the admiral, finding it impossible to adjust the point of precedence among themselves, embarked together by way of compromise, in the same vessel, the Sea-Venture .*
The expedition sailed from Plymouth toward the end of May, 1609, and going, contrary to instructions, by the old circuitous route, via the Canaries and the West Indies, late in July, when in latitude thirty degrees north, and, as was supposed, within eight days' sail of Virginia, they were caught "in the tail of a hur- ricane," blowing from the northeast, accompanied by an appalling darkness, that continued for forty-four hours. Some of the ves- sels lost their masts, some their sails blown from the yards, the sea breaking over the ships.
* The following is a list of the vessels and their commanders: the Sea-Adven- ture, or Sea-Venture, Admiral Sir George Somers, with Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Christopher Newport; the Diamond, Captain Ratcliffe and Captain King; the Falcon, Captain Martin and Master Nelson; the Blessing, Gabriel Archer and Captain Adams; the Unity, Captain Wood and Master Pett ; the Lion, Cap- tain Webb; the Swallow, Captain Moon and Master Somers. There were also in company two smaller craft, a ketch and a pinnace.
-
78
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
" When rattling thunder ran along the clouds, Did not the sailors poor and masters proud A terror feel, as struck with fear of God ?"*
A small vessel was lost, July twenty-fourth, and the Sea-Ven- ture, with Newport, Gates, Somers, and one hundred and fifty settlers, destined for Virginia, was separated from the other ves- sels of the expedition. The other vessels, shattered by the storm, and having suffered the loss of the greater portion of their sup- plies, and many of their number by sickness, at length reached Jamestown in August, 1609. They brought back Ratcliffe, or Sicklemore, who had been remanded to England on account of his mutinous conduct, also Martin and Archer, together with sundry other captains, and divers gentlemen of good means and high birth, and about three hundred settlers, the greater part of them profligate youths, packed off from home to escape ill des- tinies, broken-down gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, and the like, "decayed tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and long peace."
Upon the appearance of this fleet near Jamestown, Smith, not expecting such a supply, took them to be Spaniards, and pre- pared to encounter them, and the Indians readily offered their assistance. The colony had already, before the arrival of the fleet, been threatened with anarchy, owing to intelligence of the premature repeal of the charter, brought out by Captain Argall, and the new settlers had now no sooner landed than they gave rise to new confusion and disorder. The factious leaders, although they brought no commission with them, insisted on the abrogation of the existing charter, rejected the authority of Smith, whom they hated and feared, and undertook to usurp the government. Their capricious folly equalled their insolence; to-day the old commission must rule, to-morrow the new, the next day neither- thus, by continual change, plunging all things into anarchy.
Smith, filled with disgust, would cheerfully have embarked for England, but seeing little prospect of the arrival of the new com- mission, (which was in the possession of Gates on the Island of Bermudas,) he resolved to put an end to these incessant plots and
* Smith's Hist of Va.
79
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
machinations. The ringleaders, Ratcliffe, Archer, and others, he arrested; to cut off another source of disturbance, he gave permission to Percy, who was in feeble health, to embark for England, of which, however, he did not avail himself. West, with one hundred and twenty picked men, was detached to the falls of James River, and Martin, with nearly the same number, to Nansemond. Smith's presidency having expired about this time, he had been succeeded by Martin, who, conscious of his incompe- tency, had immediately resigned it to Smith. Martin, at Nanse- mond, seized the chief, and, capturing the town, occupied it with his detachment; but owing to want of judgment, or of vigilance, he suffered himself to be surprised by the savages, who slew many of his party, rescued the chief, and carried off their corn. Mar- tin not long after returned to Jamestown, leaving his detachment to shift for themselves.
Smith going up the river to West's settlement at the falls, found the English planted in a place not only subject to the river's inundation, but "surrounded by many intolerable incon- veniences." To remedy these, by a messenger he proposed to purchase from Powhatan his seat of that name, a little lower down the river. The settlers scornfully rejected the scheme, and be- came so mutinous that Smith landed among them and arrested the chief malecontents. But overpowered by numbers, being sup- ported by only five men, he was forced to retire on board of a vessel lying in the river. The Indians daily supplied him with provisions, in requital for which the English plundered their corn, robbed their cultivated ground, beat them, broke into their cabins, and made them prisoners. They complained to Captain Smith that the men whom he had sent there as their protectors, "were worse than their old enemies, the Monacans." Smith embarking, had no sooner set sail for Jamestown than many of West's party were slain by the savages.
It so happened, that before Smith's vessel had dropped a mile and a half down the river, she ran aground, whereupon, making a virtue of necessity, he summoned the mutineers to a parley, and they, now seized with a panic, on account of the assault of a mere handful of Indians, submitted themselves to his mercy. He again arrested the ringleaders, and established the
80
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
rest of the party at Powhatan, in the Indian palisade fort, which was so well fortified by poles and bark as to defy all the savages in Virginia. Dry cabins were also found there, and nearly two hundred acres of ground ready to be planted, and it was called Nonsuch, as being at once the strongest and most delightful place in the country. Nonsuch was the name of a royal residence in England.
When Smith was now on the eve of his departure, the arrival of West again threw all things aback into confusion. Nonsuch was abandoned, and all hands returned to the falls, and Smith, finding all his efforts abortive, embarked in a boat for Jamestown. During the voyage he was terribly wounded while asleep, by the accidental explosion of a bag of gunpowder, and in the paroxysm of pain he leapt into the river, and was well-nigh drowned before his companions could rescue him. Arriving at Jamestown in this helpless condition, he was again assailed by faction and mutiny, and one of his enemies even presented a cocked pistol at him in his bed; but the hand wanted the nerve to execute what the heart was base enough to design.
Ratcliffe, Archer, and their confederates, laid plans to usurp the government of the colony, whereupon Smith's faithful soldiers, fired with indignation at conduct so infamous, begged for permis- sion to strike off their heads; but this he refused. He refused also to surrender the presidency to Percy. For this, Smith is censured by the historian Stith, who yet acknowledges that Percy was in too feeble health to control a mutinous colony. Anarchy being triumphant, Smith probably deemed it useless to appoint a governor over a mob. He at last, about Michaelmas, 1609, embarked for England, after a stay of a little more than two years in Virginia,* to which he never returned.
Here, then, closes the career of Captain John Smith in Vir- glnia, "the father of the colony," and a hero like Bayard, "without fear and without reproach." One of his comrades, in deploring his departure, describes him as one who, in all his actions, made justice and prudence his guides, abhorring baseness, idleness, pride, and injustice; that in no danger would he send others where
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.