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The King's commissioners gained nothing. They could only go back to England and report that the col- ony was badly managed, and that all the ills of Virginia sprung from popular government there. It was a gen- eral but sufficient report, since it pleased the King and his party. It was not of much importance, however ; he
132 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
had already struck at the Company. He had suddenly issued a writ of quo warranto against them, and sup- pressed the meetings of the great courts. The writ was tried in the King's Bench, at Trinity term, 1624; de- cided by the King's judges, as all the world foresaw it would be, in favor of the King ; and the London Com- pany fell.
It was a heavy fall for the great party in England representing popular rights. In all London there had been no doubt at all what the issue meant. Royal pre- rogative and liberal ideas were in direct conflict; the decision of the judges was to decide which should rule in England, and the judges declared that the royal pre- rogative should rule. It was only twenty-five years afterwards, when the head of Charles I. went to the block, that the Royalists in the halls of the London Company in the year 1624 found what harvest had sprung up from the seed thus sown.
It was a very great corporation which thus fell, and was destroyed at one blow. Its stockholders were about a thousand in number, and embraced fifty noble- men, several hundred knights, and countless gentlemen, merchants, and citizens of the highest rank - the very flower of the kingdom. They had spent one hundred and fifty thousand pounds on Virginia, sent nine thou- sand colonists thither, and granted the colony free gov- ernment. Thus America owes them a great debt; but the fact ought not to blind us to the further fact that, in the nature of things, their time had come. A stock- company could not continue to rule a continent three thousand miles off. If we imagine such a company in London ruling the United States of to-day, passing laws for its government, and issuing regulations for the con-
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THE FIRST VIRGINIA AUTHORS.
duct of the most intimate affairs in America, we shall have an idea of the anomaly which such a state of things began to present in 1624. The Company, with such men as Edwin Sandys and Southampton at the head of it, no doubt realized that it was an anomaly, and has- tened to provide for coming trouble by the gift of the Assembly to Virginia. With that very great gift, which drew upon its head the mortal displeasure of the King, its career ended, and ended nobly.
The career of James was suddenly to end, too; he and the Company were to go together. He set about composing, with his own pen, a new code of laws for Virginia, but, in the midst of his work, death stopped him. He died in March, 1625, and Charles I. became King of England.
XXIII.
THE FIRST VIRGINIA AUTHORS.
THE books written by Virginians during the period of the Plantation demand notice. The literature of a coun- try is a part of its history, since the printed thought moulds opinion ; and these writings by the early adven- turers have an importance of their own. They are the sole authorities for the first years of American history. What is not found in them remains unknown. Until the coming of the New England Pilgrims there is no American historic writing but that by Englishmen liv- ing in Virginia.
The writers are properly classed as Virginia authors, since the character of a book does not depend on the writer's birthplace. It depends much more on his en- vironment. The men of the seventeenth century who
134 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
set out in search of adventures had a new experience as they came into the great Chesapeake Bay from the ocean. Right and left were wooded capes, thrusting their low cut-waters into the crawling foam; beyond was the " Mother of Waters," a sea of itself, and the mouths of great rivers descending from blue mountains ; and going up the largest of these streams, between the tree-fringed shores, the new-comers saw at last the little group of reed-thatched huts called Jamestown.
Virginia was a new land, and, coming to live in it, the English adventurer was forced to adapt himself to new conditions, which shaped the development of all his faculties. Every object fertilized and planted new ideas in his mind. He was face to face with nature in her freshest loveliness ; with pathless woods, broad rivers, and long lines of blue mountains ; with sunsets burning with a richer splendor than the sunsets of England, and storms of thunder and lightning such as were " seldom either seen or heard in Europe." He was face to face with peril, too. This group of cabins on the banks of James River was the advance guard of civilization -- a sentinel posted on the look-out. It would not do for the little band of English to relax their vigilance. Hu- man wolves were lurking around them, ready to spring upon them at any moment, and life was a hard struggle with disease and famine.
In the midst of such surroundings the characters of the adventurers grew robust and earnest, and their traits are reflected in their writings. They are such as might have been expected : rude and forcible compositions, without the polish and nice finish which are the results of a ripe civilization, but full of passion and a brusque vigor. The involved sentences often stumble, but the
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thought is there, and not to be mistaken. The sharp phrases cling to the memory ; for the writers have had no time to round their periods and dilute their mean- ing. Earnest men are seen scratching the quick pages in the huts at Jamestown. Their swords are lying be- side them, and what they write is to go in the ships which will sail to-morrow for England. They must hurry and fold the sheets. They will be fortunate if the Indian war-whoop does not burst in suddenly, and terminate their literary occupations.
At the head of these vigorous writers stood John Smith. He was the author of the first books which gave Englishmen an idea of Virginia, and collected the detached narratives of his companions in the " General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles," covering the whole history of the colony to 1624. His works, with the dates of publication, were :
I. A True Relation of Virginia. 1608.
II. A Map of Virginia with a Description of the Country, Commodities, People, Government, Religion, etc. 1612.
III. New England's Trials. 1620.
IV. The General History of Virginia, New Eng- land, and the Summer Isles. 1624.
V. An Accidence or the Pathway to Experience nec- essary to all Young Seamen. 1625. A Sea Grammar. 1627.
VI. The True Travels, Adventures, and Observa- tions of Captain John Smith in Europe, Asia, Afric, and America. 1630.
VII. Advertisements for the Inexperienced Planters of New England or Anywhere. 1631.
At the time of his death he was engaged on his " His- tory of the Sea."
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Smith's writings bear the impress of a man of large nature, and have the tone of the actor rather than the student. The soldier-author expresses his meaning in the directest manner, with a rugged force often, some- times with humor, always honestly and without mincing his phrases. Many passages of his works are charac- terized by a noble and lofty eloquence, like his descrip- tion of the causes of the rise and fall of the ancient monarchies, which he holds up as an example and warn- ing to his contemporaries. But his books are nearly all narrative, except his "Sea Grammar" and the de- scription of Virginia, and reflect the character of the writer, especially in the prefaces and dedications. More than once he explains why he has taken up his "rough pen," and apologizes for his "poor ragged lines." Sir Robert Cotton and many others had requested him to write an account of liis "fatal tragedies," which the playwrights had "racked at their pleasure." So he wrote "for the satisfaction of his friends and of all generous and well disposed readers," and meant to give his old comrades their just dues. "I cannot leave them unburied in the fields," he says, "whose lives begot me the title of a soldier; for as they were companions with me in my dangers, so shall they be par- takers with me in this Tombe." Elsewhere he writes : "I have deeply hazarded myself in doing and suffer- ing, and why should I stick to hazard my reputation in recording? . . . Let emulation and envy cease; I ever intended my actions should be upright."
The works of Smith, original and compiled, occupy a prominent place in the literature of his time. They were used by the historian Purchas and others as the basis of their own narratives, and are the most impor
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THE FIRST VIRGINIA AUTHORS.
tant authorities on the early history of America. The first accounts, both of Virginia and New England, are contained in the "General History ; " and Smith's name as ruler and writer is inseparably connected with the first years of the country ..
One of the earliest of the old relations is " A Dis- course of the Plantation of the Southern Colony in Virginia," by George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and one of the original adventurers. His work is a fragment, but is interesting for its striking description of the sufferings of the colonists in 1607. The writings collected by Smith in the " General History" refer to the same time. The authors were rough sol- diers, for the most part, and write vigorously. They have strong loves and hates ; praise warmly or de- nounce bitterly ; and having seen what they relate, they describe it vividly. Hence the value of their nar- ratives, which are history in its original essence, and remain the chief original authorities for the events of the settlement.
These first annalists are succeeded by William Strach- ey, author of a " History of Travel in Virginia Britan- nia " and " A True Repertory of the Wrack and Re- demption of Sir Thomas Gates." Strachey was a pious man, and takes for his motto, " This shall be written for the generations to come, and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord." The " History of Travel " was dedicated to Sir Allen Apsley, the father of Lady Hutchinson, and induced him, it is said, to advise the Pilgrim emigration to America. The " True Repertory " suggested "The Tempest," which entitles it to a place in literary history, and is remarkable for the force, almost the magnificence, of its picture of the storm which wrecked the Sea-Venture.
138 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
Among the earliest and most interesting works writ- ten in the colony was Raphe Hamor's "True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia." This reaches to the summer of 1614, and contains an account of affairs in the colony, and of the expedition of Sir Thomas Dale to restore Pocahontas. Hamor, like Strachey, was wrecked in the Sea-Venture, and came to Virginia in 1610, where he became secretary of the Council. He was " for five years a personal workman there," and writes: "I know no one country yielding without art or industry so many fruits - sure I am, England doth not." Many of his descriptions are en- thusiastic. He is struck by " the great fields and woods abounding in strawberries, much fairer and more sweet than ours ; maricocks of the fashion of a lemon, whose blossom may admit comparison with our most delight- some and beautiful flowers; " and on the subject of con- verting the Indians, he breaks forth with, "When these poor heathen shall be brought to entertain the honor of the name and glory of the Gospel of our blessed Sav- viour they shall cry with the rapture of so inexplicable mercy ' Blessed be the King and Prince of England, and blessed be the English nation and blessed forever be the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, that sent these English as angels to bring such glad tidings amongst us!'" It was rather a flight of fancy to imagine the poor heathen bursting forth in that man- ner. At the time the English angels were destroy- ing angels, pursuing them with fire and sword, burn- ing their towns and fishing-wears, and putting them to death.
Some good men, however, had the better aim in view; and while Dale and Argall were sailing to and
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fro, doing the hard work of rulers in the new country, a quiet student in the " Rock Hall" parsonage, at the City of Henricus, was writing "Good News from Vir- ginia," -an appeal for the conversion of the Indians, which appeared in London in 1613. The author was that worthy " Apostle of Virginia," Alexander Whita- ker, who had left a good estate ("his warm nest") and a quiet parish in England, to come out and do his life- work in Virginia, where work was most needed. We have caught a glimpse of him "exercising" on Saturday nights at Sir Thomas Dale's house, preaching and teach- ing the catechism on Sunday in the church ; and we read his words now, "I will abide in my vocation until I be lawfully called from hence." Three years after- wards he was called. He was drowned in James River ; and his title of " Apostle " and this " Good News from Virginia," with its earnest cry: "Awake, you true- hearted Englishmen ! remember that the plantation is God's, and the reward your country's," are his epitaph.
Finally, there came to Virginia with Governor Wyat in 1621, George Sandys, brother of Sir Edwin, who translated Ovid's "Metamorphoses," on the banks of James River. Dryden calls him " the best versifier of the former age," and his friend Drayton, when he sailed from England, sent this salute and farewell after him :
" And worthy George, by industry and use Let's see what lines Virginia will produce, Entice the muses thither to repair, Entreat them gently ; train them to that air : For they from hence may thither hap to fly."
This prophecy that Virginia might one day shine in poesy, had at least a beginning of fulfillment. George Sandys enticed his muse to the virgin land, but it was a
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bad time for poetic dreams. The very year after his arrival came the Indian massacre. The poet, lost in a dream of Ovid and the fine shapes of Greece, was startled by savage yells. He tells of the interruption, and the conditions under which he wrote. His book was "limned by that imperfect light which was snatched from the hours of night and repose - sprung from the stock of the ancient Romans but bred in the new world - hav- ing wars and tumults to bring it to light instead of the muses." Nevertheless it was brought to light, taken to England and printed there, and admired by the greatest poets of the time. Sandys also translated a part of the ÆEneid, and wrote " A Paraphrase of the Psalms of David," which Charles I. "delighted to read in, while prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle." He was treasurer of the colony ; introduced the first water-mill into America; and his portrait is attractive. He was "an accomplished gentleman, with sable silvered hair, eyes mild and intelligent," and in his " slashed doublet and lace collar, was a combination of the scholar, the courtier, and the soldier." Thus the rude first years with their rude soldier-authors writing prose relations had flowered into an Augustan era of lace collars and poesy.
This glance at some of the works written in Virginia during the Plantation period will convey a general idea of their character. It is impossible to speak of them in more detail in this place, and only a careful exam- ination will indicate their merit. They possess not only a special value as the original authorities for the earliest American history, but a virile and sinewy force, which entitles them to rank with the best English literature produced during the seventeenth century.
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OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 141
XXIV.
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I.
BEFORE passing from the period of the Plantation to that of the Colony, let us see what Virginia was like at the end of the first quarter of the seventeenth century. It is only by going away from the world of the present into the world of the past, that we are able to under- stand the past, to live again in its scenes, and learn any lesson which it has to teach us. Mere statements of historical events in the annals of a people are of secondary value. What we wish is to have a picture of the men themselves ; of their daily lives, their oc- cupations, their peculiar views, and all that makes them a distinct study. Any other theory of history is commonplace and conventional.
Let us attempt then to catch a glimpse of this old land and people, - of Virginia and the Virginians at the death of James I. Only a silhouette is possible liere ; but the outline will be accurate, and based on ample authority.1. If we take the chronicles for guide-books, and descend James River from near the present city of Richmond to Chesapeake Bay, we shall see, as we float on the broad current, nearly the whole of what was then Virginia pass before us.
This up-country is the frontier. Around the "Falls " on the seven hills, where the capital of Virginia is going to be built in time, adventurous settlers have erected
1 The details in this chapter are derived from the inestimable vol- umes of Hening, and the old cotemporary publications which present many indications of the life of the time.
142 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
their cabins, encircled with stockades as a defense against Indians. Below, are the plains of what will be Chesterfield, clothed with forest; in front verdurous islands dipping their foliage in the foam of the falls ; behind toward the mountains is the Monacan country, that is the unknown. As we float down James River, which is the great artery of the colony, we see first the range of hills on the left bank, once the site of tlie Emperor Powhatan's summer court, and then of "Non- such," tlie settlement begun by Smitlı. Here, about fifteen thousand acres are laid out as public land for the use of the " University of Henrico ; " but as yet there are few tenants. Passing " Powhatan " or Non- such, on its hill, we see yonder on the right bank the settlement of Falling Creek, or rather the . blackened brands of the burnt buildings, for the Indians recently destroyed it. Master Berkeley was erccting a furnace here to smelt iron and lead, before the massacre; but he is dead now, and the exact locality of his valuable lead-minc is a secret which has died with him. More than a hundred years hence, an enterprising Virginian, Colonel Byrd of Westover, will be curious about this mine; will bribe a vagrant Indian to secretly drop his tomaliawk on the spot, which the Indian declares he can point out; but the tomahawk is not dropped, or drops in the wrong place, and the lead-mine will not be found then, or afterwards.
Passing this old locality, to become the site of " Ampthill," the residence of Archibald Cary, who will threaten to stab Patrick Henry, we glide on by the present Drury's Bluff, which is going to jar one day with the thunder of cannon, and come to the "Cork- screw " and the " Dutchi Gap." Here is the City of
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 143
Henricus. It has not suffered much from the massacre of 1622; the place was too strong. Without, in "the main," is a palisade two miles in length, reaching from river to river, dotted here and there with the stockade forts of the " commanders ; " and across the narrow neck is another palisade still stronger. On the plateau within the peninsula is the city with its three streets, its Indian college, its church, and Dale's old residence rising above the rest. If we follow the winding cur- rent, we shall see pass before us Coxendale and Hope- in-Faith; forts Charity, Elizabeth, Patience, and Mount Malado ; and Rock Hall, the parsonage of the good Apostle of Virginia, drowned some years since in the James. Here he and the martial Dale talked of con- verting Pocahontas, catechised the Indian children, and Pocahontas herself came often, no doubt, when she lived in the neighborhood. All are dead now but the High Marshal, who has gone away to England ; and we pass on, catching sight of the third settlement at Bermuda, of Flower de Hundred, Wyanoke, Westover, and all the old plantations which keep the same names to-day, nearly three centuries afterwards.
When we look at these old localities in the first quar- ter of the seventeenth century, they are rude settle- ments nearly encircled by forest. The houses are primitive, and sentinels are posted, according to law, to watch against an Indian attack. The stalwart planters go to and fro on horseback, looking at their grain and tobacco fields ; stopping to exchange words with some vagrant Indian, who has ventured into the settlements ; or to give directions to the uncouth laborers with black faces purchased from the Dutch ship at Jamestown. For the African has arrived, and three races are now
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144 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
on the soil of Virginia : the whites, to remain the domi- nant race; the blacks, to increase in numbers and enter into politics after a while ; the red-faces to fade away toward the sunset, until the Pacific stops them, which will not be for a long time.
Here is the homestead of the planter, on the bank of the river. Let us land and look at the place and its master. It is a house built of wood, protected by a palisade, and the windows have stout shutters, - the palisade is prescribed by law. The interior is ample and conveniently furnished, but Virginia has supplied little. The furniture, the table-service, the books, and almost every article have been imported from England. The books are not paper-bound novels, but ponderous folios or stout duodecimos encased in embossed leather. There is " Purchas his Pilgrimmes " and the " General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles," which have recently appeared in London. Less pretending works are lying near the larger : Master Hamor's " True Discourse of the Present Estate of Vir- ginia," and Master Strachey's "True Repertory " of the wreck of the Sea-Venture, which is said to have fur- nished material to Master William Shakespeare for his fine drama of "The Tempest." This excellent play- writer is now dead, but yonder is the folio containing his dramas, collected by his fellow-actors, Heminge and Condell, and brought over in the last ship. This Shakespeare was only a writer of plays, but his plays are entertaining, and will probably remain popular for years to come. The Virginia planters are fond of the drama, and Master Jordan, at Jordan's Point, has named his house "Beggar's Bush," after the play by Fletcher.
OUTLINE OF VIRGINIA UNDER JAMES I. 145
Here is the smiling lady of the manor in a huge ruff, with high-heeled shoes and a short skirt, coming to wel- come us ; and behind her is her spouse, the hearty planter himself. He is a commander, and head of a hundred, so he wears " gold on his clothes " as the law entitles him to do (1621), - others are forbidden that. His official duties are responsible ones. They are to " see that all such orders as heretofore have been, or hereafter shall be given by the Governor and Council, be duly executed and obeyed " in the hundred which he commands (1624). He is also a "commissioner," or justice of the peace, to determine all controversies under the value of one hundred pounds of tobacco. Thus the worthy who advances to meet us is military commander and civil magistrate, executive and judge of the little community : a royalist in sentiment, as everybody is, a Church of England man, and hearty hater of things papistical and of dissent.
He meets us with friendly smiles, and offers us the best he has : beef, bacon, a brown loaf, Indian corn- cakes, strong ale and strong waters - there is no tea or coffee as yet. A pipe of tobacco is also presented, and you are requested to drink it, which is the phrase of the time. Sir Walter Raleigh, you are informed, drank a pipe before his execution. This Indian weed is a great solace. The proper manner of preparing and using it is to cut it upon a maple log, to keep it in a " lily pot," which is a jar of white earth, and to light the pipe with a splinter of juniper, or, if you prefer, with a coal of fire in a pair of silver tongs, which are made for the purpose. The weed has had its enemies. In his " Counter-blast to Tobacco " (1616), which is lying vonder, his majesty King James I. writes : " Is it not
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146 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
the greatest sin of all that you should disable yourself to this shameful imbecility, that you are not able to ride or walk the journey of a Jew's Sabbath, but you must have a reeky coal brought you from the next pot- house, to kindle your tobacco with !" But kings are not infallible, and the jus divinum gives no laws to taste. A thousand pounds of the imbecility-producing weed are consumed in England every day now, and in one year (1619) Virginia sent over twenty thousand pounds of it.
If you will tarry with him, the worthy planter tells you, he will show you some good sport. There are plenty of bears, deer, and wolves, in the woods of the Blackwater and Chickahominy, and there is no finer di- vertisement than to tie a live wolf to your horse's tail, and drag him at full gallop, "never faltering in pace," until he is dead. There is little danger now of meeting Indian enemies in the woods ; the massacre, following the massacre, has quite cowed them, and the bloody on- slaught of 1622, by the savages, was not so unfortunate, - " it will be good for the Plantation, because now we have just cause to destroy them by all means possible." They ought to be converted, of course, if practicable, and made members of the Church of England ; and that was an excellent deed of Master Gabriel Barber, one of the Company, to secretly bestow five hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the purpose, signing his name " Dust and Ashes." But the savages are hard material. " Though many have endeavored by all means they could by kindness, to convert thiem, they find nothing from them but derision and ridiculous answers ; and till their priests or ancients have their throats cut, there is no hope to bring them to conversion " (1621).
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