USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 6
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The fleet sailed at the end of May (1609) and went by the Azores. Lord Delaware remained in England, but was to follow a little later, and the ships were un- der command of Smith's old enemy, Newport. In the same vessel with him sailed Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers with the letters-patent; but this ship, called the Sea-Venture, was never to reach Virginia.
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THE SEA-VENTURE.
When the fleet was within about eight days' sail of Virginia, misfortune came. They were "caught in the tail of a hurricane," one of the vessels was lost, and the Sea-Venture, with the rulers and one hundred and fifty persons, men, women, and children, was separated from the rest and went on her way elsewhere.
X.
THE SEA-VENTURE.
LET us follow the lonely Sea-Venture on her path- way through the troubled waters, allowing the rest to make their way to Virginia, where we shall rejoin them.
History is after all a story only - the picture of men and their experiences, the scenes they passed through, their hazards, sufferings, and fortunes, good or bad, in their life pilgrimage. " Purchas his Pilgrimmes " is the title of one of the oldest collections of sea voyages. The adventurers of that age were in fact pilgrims mak- ing their way through unknown lands, stormy seas, and new experiences. The very name of the Sea-Venture expressed the period ; let us therefore glance at this curious episode in the early annals of Virginia, to which it properly belongs.
The rest of the fleet had been driven toward the Chesapeake. The great storm lashing the Sea-Ven- ture, containing the future rulers and the letters-patent, swept her off on her separate way, and " with the vio- lent working of the seas she was so shaken and torn" that she sprung a leak; and then the vivid old chroni- cle by Jordan and others details what followed. The
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crew pumped day and night, but finally gave them- selves up for lost. They resolved to " commit them- selves to the mercy of the sea, which is said to be merciless, or rather to the mercy of Almighty God, whose mercy far exceeds all his works." But hope came at last. Sir George Somers, the brave old Ad- miral, who was seated, like Gilbert, at the helm, "scarce taking leisure to eat nor sleep," saw land, toward which the ship was driven. Would she reach it? That seemed doubtful. Their "greedy enemy the salt water entered at the large breaches of their poor wooden castle, as that in gaping after life they had well-nigh swallowed their death." At last the Sea-Venture struck. She lifted, was carried forward on the sum- mit of a wave, and jammed firmly between two ledges of rock, where she rested.
They were cast away on the Bermudas, " two hun- dred leagues from any continent," and looked with fear on the unknown realm. Now and then the buccaneers had landed, and another English ship had once suffered shipwreck there. One and all had agreed that the islands were "the most dangerous, forlorn, and unfor- tunate place in the world." They were called the " Isles of Devils," says Henry May, and the use has been noticed of this popular belief in regard to them in "The Tempest." On the moonlit strand of these " still vext Bermoothes " the hag-born Caliban might roll and growl ; Sycorax, the blue-eyed witch, might hover in the cloud wracks ; and the voices of the wind whisper strange secrets.1
1 The wreck of the Sea-Venture certainly suggested The Tempest. The phrase "the still vext Bermoothes" indicates the stage, and Ariel's description of his appearance as a flaming light on the shrouds
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THE SEA-VENTURE.
Seen with the real eye the famous Isles of Devils were very innocent in appearance. They might be full of enchantment, but it was the enchantment of tropical verdure, sunshine, and calmn. The fury of the storm had passed away. The Sea-Venture was held fast between the two ledges of rock, and the crew were safely landed in the boats. The summer was at hand, and the air was full of balm. There was food in abun- dance, - fish, turtle, and wild-fowl, witli hogs, left prob- ably by the Spanish buccaneers. The stores of the ship were brought off; huts were built, and thatched with palmetto ; and then the leaders began to devise means of escape. The Sea-Venture was going to pieces, but the long-boat was fitted with hatches, and a party of nine men set out in it for Virginia. They were never again heard of. However the eyes of the shipwrecked mariners might be strained toward the far-off continent, no succor came. It might never come; they were no doubt given up for lost. There was nothing to do but accept their fate and bear it with fortitude.
It did not seem so hard a fate. The voluptuous airs of the most delicious of climates caressed them. The long surges of the Atlantic, rolling from far-off England and Virginia, had tossed them once, but could not harm them now. The islands were green with foliage and of the King's ship is nearly identical with the " little round light like a faint star trembling and streaming along in a sparkling blaze, on the Admiral's ship," mentioned by Strachey in his True Repertory of the Wreck and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight, pub- lished in 1610. The dispersion of both fleets, their arrival in the Chesapeake and the " Mediterranean flote, " the safety of the King's ship and the Admiral's ship, the Sea-Venture, - these and many incidental details clearly indicate that Shakespeare based his drama on the real occurrence, and used Strachey's True Repertory, and the relations of Jordan, May, and others, as his material.
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
alive with the songs of birds, and we are told that " they lived in such plenty, peace, and ease " that they never wished to go back to the hard Old World, with its hard work, any more. It was an earthly paradise, and they were content to live for the senses; but those worthy gentlemen and true Englishmen, Gates and Somers, would have them perform their religious duties. They had a clergyman, Mr. Bucke, to succeed the good Mr. Hunt, who had died in Virginia, and a bell was brought from the Sea-Venture and set up. When this rang, morning and evening, the people assembled and the roll was called, then prayer was offered up ; and on Sunday there was religious service, and two sermons were preached.
So the days went on, and it seemed that the castaways were doomed to remain forever in their enforced para- dise. One " merry English marriage " took place, two children were born, and six persons died, among them the wife of Sir George Somers, who was to die himself in these strange islands where the decree of Providence had cast him ashore. The children, a boy and a girl, received the names Bermudas and Bermuda, and Ber- muda was the daughter of Mr. John Rolfe, who after- wards became the husband of Pocahontas.
At last discord entered into the terrestrial paradise, and marred all the harmony. Gates and Somers had a misunderstanding, and lived apart from each other. The men and women were no doubt weary of their sweet do- nothing, and longed to escape. A new effort was made, and Somers succeeded in constructing, of cedar and the bolts and timbers of the Sea-Venture, a bark of eighty tons, and another smaller, which were named the Pa- tience and the Deliverance. A reconciliation then en-
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THE SEA-VENTURE.
sued between Gates and Somers, - the one celebration of the holy communion may have taken place on this occasion, - and (May 10, 1610) the whole company embarked for Virginia, where they arrived fourteen days afterwards, nearly a year after their departure from England.
The wreck of the Sea-Venture was long remembered as one of the most romantic incidents of a romantic age. It caught the popular fancy as a vivid picture of the adventurous experiences which awaited the mariner on the unknown western sea; and the lonely islands sup- posed to be the haunt of devils and furies, but now known to be full of beauty and tropical delight, became the talk of London, and eventually the site of an Eng- lish colony. They were called indifferently the Somers and the Summer Isles. Either name was appropriate, but the brave Admiral, " a lamb upon land and a lion at sea," was entitled to have them named after him.
Returning from Virginia in his cedar ship, in June of the same year, for supplies, he was taken ill, and " in that very place which we now call St. George's town, this noble knight died, whereof the place taketh the name." We are told that, " like a valiant captain," he exhorted his men to be true to duty and return to Vir- ginia, but they " as men amazed, seeing the death of liim who was cven as the life of them all, embalmed his body and set sail for England ; " and " this cedar ship at last, with his dead body, arrived at Whitchurch, in Dorsetshire, where, by his friends, he was honorably buried, with many volleys of shot and the rites of a soldier."
So the good English soldier and admiral ended.
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
XI.
THE LAST WRESTLE OF THE FACTIONS.
WHILE the castaways were idly dreaming, all these nine long months, under the blue skies of Bermuda, a fierce drama was in progress in Virginia. The old ad- versaries, except Newport, were face to face there once more, and a stormy struggle was taking place, - the old struggle of 1607-8 over again.
The seven ships which had been separated from the Sea-Venture in the storm managed to ride through, and reach the Chesapeake, though in a fearfully shattered condition. But they were safe at last in Hampton Roads, and made for Jamestown. As they were seen coming up the river they were taken for Spaniards, and the settlers ran to arms. Even some Indians who were at the town volunteered to fight the supposed Spaniards, which indicated the entente cordiale between them and the English now. The mistake was soon plain. The culverins in the fort were about to open on the ships, when they ran up the English flag. The vessels' came to anchor, and a boat brought on shore Ratcliffe, Mar- tin, and a new confederate, Archer.
Thus the bad old times were coming back. It was melancholy and exasperating. Of the return of these people to Virginia to resume authority there, it might be said that it could not and it would not come to good. It is not good for the wounded battle-horse, when the vultures have been scared off, to have them swoop back. These birds of ill-omen were now hovering again over Jamestown, or rather had alighted. One is tempted to
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THE LAST WRESTLE OF THE FACTIONS.
thus characterize the ill crew who had the fate of the colony again in their hands. Thanks to the vivid old chronicles we know the men well. The writers who describe them are not generalizing historians, but paint- ers ; with their rude pen-strokes they draw portraits. We see the men themselves, their faces and gestures ; the very tones of the voices come up out of the mist which for nearly three centuries has wrapped the figures ; and the combatants matched against each other on the old arena are actual people, not mere ghosts.
The men who fought for the mastery in Virginia, from 1607 to 1609, were the hard workers and the sluggards. Smith was at the head of the first ; Wingfield, Ratcliffe, and their associates at the head of the last. Of these, Wingfield was an imbecile, Newport a tale-bearer, Rat- cliffe a mutineer, who even bore a false name; and these had drawn into their counsels, by a sort of nat- ural selection, Archer an agitator, Martin a cat's-paw, and all that loose and floating element found in every society, which hangs on and waits, and instinctively takes the side which promises to be the strongest. The antagonists had declared war from the very first ; had gone on wrangling with each other all through the years 1607 and 1608, and the hard workers and fighters had crushed the sluggards. One by one they had been shot, or deposed, or banished. They had gone to England then, and effected by intrigue what they had failed to effect by force. Ratcliffe and Newport had taken their revenge for Smith's unceremonious treatment of them. They had gained the ear of the Company, laid the blame of the whole failure in Virginia on his shoulders, and the result was soon seen. Between the lobbyists in London, bowing low to the Right Honorables, and the
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
brusque soldier in Virginia, writing them "rude an- swers" and rough, discourteous intimations that they were altogether absurd people, the choice was promptly made. The Company listened to the lobbyists, not to the fighting man, with his unkempt manners. It was plain that all the mismanagement in Virginia was due to him ; the incompetent servant should be discharged, and the true men reinstated.
This indication of the state of things in Virginia at the moment (August, 1609) will explain what followed. Ratcliffe, coming on shore from the ships, claimed au- thority in the colony as the representative of the new rulers, who would soon arrive. The old government was done away with, he said; Smith was no longer Presi- dent ; and he summoned all men to yield to his author- ity. If Smith's "old soldiers " had been left to decide, the decision of the question would doubtless have been prompt. Ratcliffe was extremely unpopular, and Smith extremely popular; but there were the new-comers. These were Ratcliffe's people, and were about three hun- dred in number. There were among them " divers gen- tlemen of good means and great parentage," but also "many unruly gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill destinies." These unruly gallants could be counted on with tolerable certainty to oppose a hard master like Smith. He was not to their fancy, and they promptly sided with Ratcliffe.
Then all Jamestown was suddenly in commotion. Ratcliffe went about the town denouncing Smith as a usurper. His men followed him through the narrow streets in loud discussion ; drank deep at the " taverne ; " uttered threats and curses ; and their leader nursed the storm, and inflamed them more and more against the
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THE LAST WRESTLE OF THE FACTIONS. 65
tyrant. Smith looked on and listened in huge weari- ness and disgust, - chaos had come again. Those "unruly gallants would dispose and determine of the government sometimes to one, sometimes to another : to-day the old commission must rule; to-morrow the new; the next day neither; in fine, they would rule all or ruin all." The soldier grew bitter, and utter hopelessness took possession of him. He would have nothing further to do with affairs, but "leave all and return to England," - not before the arrival, however, of some duly empowered successor. The term of his presidency had not yet expired; he was still the head of the colony, and he would hold to strict account those who disobeyed his orders.
Smith was a man of few words, and could always be counted on to do what he said he would do. Ratcliffe continued his agitation, still inflaming the minds of his followers, when Smith suddenly arrested him with other leaders in the disturbance, and placed them in confine- ment to await trial. This at once suppressed the disor- der, and there was no further opposition to the soldier's will ; but he was weary of his position. He surren- dered it to Martin, who, it seems, had taken no part in the riot ; but to this the old settlers would not consent, and he was compelled to resume it. He was not to exercise authority long. The end was near, and to the very last the vivid contrast between utter incompetence and real ability was plain to all. An incident showed the inefficiency of Martin. Smith sent him to Nanse- mond to form a branch settlement in that region ; but the Indians saw that he was "distracted with fear," and he fled to Jamestown, "leaving his company to their fortunes."
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
Meanwhile Smith had sailed up James River to in, spect the site of another subordinate colony about to be established near the present city of Richmond. Here the last soldierly incident of a soldierly career took place. He found that the site selected was on marshy ground and unsuitable : he therefore fixed on the old " place called Powhatan," on a range of hills a little lower down - a situation so beautiful that he gave it the name of " Nonsuch." But the men who had prob- ably built huts on the marshy site rebelled. They were stronger than his own party, - probably friends of Rat- cliffe, - and attacked and drove him back to his boats. Then a curious sequel came. A force of Indians at- tacked them, and they fled to Smith for protection. He arrested the leaders, removed the colony to " Non- such," and then left them to their fortunes. Worn and weary with all this dissension and bitter blood, he sailed down the river again, bent on finally leaving Virginia.
An incident hurried his departure. On his way down the James a bag of gunpowder exploded in his boat, "tearing the flesh from his body and thighs in a most pitiful manner." The pain so "tormented " him that he leaped overboard, and came near drowning. His men dragged him back, and in this state he reached Jamestown, where he was taken to a bed in the fort, " near bereft of his senses by reason of his torment."
His position was now dangerous. He was entirely disabled, but his will was unbroken, and he continued, in the midst of the fierce pain, to issue his orders, “caus- ing all things to be prepared for peace or war." It was obvious that if he recovered he would surely bring Rat- cliffe and the rest to account for their misdeeds ; and an attempt was made to murder him in his bed. One
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THE LAST WRESTLE OF THE FACTIONS.
of the malcontents came into the room and placed the muzzle of a pistol on his breast, but his heart, it seems, failed him. When this became known, Smith's old soldiers gave way to fierce wrath. They offered to " take their heads who would resist his command," but he refused to permit violence. He was going away from Virginia, and meant, if he could, to go in peace.
A pathetic picture is drawn of his situation, and the sense of injustice rankling in his mind. He was lying on his bed suffering agonies, with no surgeon to care for his hurts. His past services were forgotten, and his enemies had triumphed over him. His commission as head of the colony was "to be suppressed he knew not why, himself and soldiers to be rewarded he knew not how, and a new commission granted they knew not to whom." It was plain that his day had passed, and that it was useless to struggle further. His severe wounds required treatment, and there was no one in the colony who was competent. To end all, he would go away, carrying with him no more than he had brought, - his stout heart and good sword.
An opportunity to return to England presented itself. The ships were about to sail, and Smith was carried on board, still persisting in his refusal to resign his author- ity to the Ratcliffe party. In this dilemma a compro- mise was resorted to. George Percy, who had also meant to return to England for his health, consented to remain and act as President. Smith was hopeless of the ability of this sick gentleman to control the factions, but he no longer made any opposition. " Within an hour was this mutation begun and concluded," says the chronicle; and then the ships set sail, and Smith took his depar- ture, never again to return to Virginia.
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XII.
THE FIRST AMERICAN RULER AND WRITER.
SMITH thus disappeared from the stage of affairs in Virginia, but he had played a great part in the first scenes of American history, and his character and sub- sequent career deserve some notice.
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He returned to London at thirty, and died there at fifty-two; but these twenty last years, like his early life, were marked by restless movement or continuous toil. He had left Virginia poor, and profited nothing from all his toils and sufferings in the New World. He said with noble pride that he " had broke the ice and beat the path, but had not one foot of ground there, nor the very house he builded, nor the ground he digged with his own hands." It does not appear, however, that he had ever expected to profit by the Virginia enterprise. It had given him a field for the exercise of his energies, and finding that his services were no longer welcome there he turned with all his old ardor to the life of a voyager and writer. The nature of the man was unresting, and craved action. The colonization of America was still his dream, and in the year 1614 he made a voyage to New England, where he gave the names of Boston, etc., to points on the coast, and made a partial exploration of the country. The result of this voyage was a great popular interest in New England, which is said to have led to its settlement by the Puritan Pilgrims. In the following year he set out on a second voyage, but was arrested by one of those incidents which abounded in his checkered career. He was attacked off the island of
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FIRST AMERICAN RULER AND WRITER.
Flores by a French squadron, his vessel was captured, and he was taken as a prisoner to Rochelle, whence he escaped to England. Here he met with a warm wel- come. On board the French ship he had passed his time in writing his " Description of New England," and James I. now conferred on him the title of " Admiral " of that country.
Little more is known of him. He seems to have spent his last years in London, industriously engaged on his histories ; is said to have married, and died in London in the year 1631. He was buried under the chancel of St. Sepulchre's church, and on the slab above his tomb was carved his shield with three Turks' heads, conferred on him by Sigismund, and a poetical inscription, beginning, " Here lies one conquered, that hath conquered kings," and ending with the prayer that "with angels he might have his recompense."
So snapped the chords of a stout heart, and a remark- able life ended. The character of the man must have appeared from his career. He was brave as his sword, full of energy, impatient of opposition, and had all the faults and virtues of the dominant class to which he be- longed. His endurance was unshrinking, and his life in Virginia indicated plainly that he had enormous re- coil. Pressure brought out his strength, and showed the force of his organization. He was probably never really cast down, and seems to have kept his heart of hope, without an effort, in the darkest hours, when all around him despaired. He is said to have been cordial and winning in his manners, and even his critics de- clared that he had "a prince's heart in a beggar's purse ; " it is equally certain that he was impatient of temper, had large self-esteem, and was fond of applause.
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
But his aims were high, and his career shows that he re- garded duty as his watchword. He detested idleness, and was convinced that the only way to do a thing is to do it ; not to determine to do it at some future time if con- venience permits. The result was utter impatience with sloth in every form, and he treated the sluggards with little ceremony. He scoffed at them as " tuftaffty hu- morists," and when they would not work he compelled them to do so by sheer force of will, setting them the example himself. When there was no more work for him to do in Virginia he went elsewhere, knowing that everywhere something was to be done.
This is the picture of a vigorous personality, and such was Smith. He was positive in all things, and loved and hated with all his energy. Those who knew him were either his warm friends or his bitter enemies. What his "old soldiers " thought of him may be seen in the verses attached to the " General History." These testify to his greatness as a leader and the perfect truth of his statements. One writer hails him as his "dear noble captain and loyal heart;" another as " wonder of nature, mirror of our clime ; " another as a soldier of " valorous policy and judgment ; " and a third exclaims, "I never knew a warrior but thee, from wine, tobacco, debts, dice, oaths, so free." What his enemies, on the contrary, thought of the soldier is equally plain. He was a tyrant and a conspirator, bent on becoming " King of Virginia;" and failing to crush him, they returned to England and vilified him. Am- ple evidence remains that he enjoyed the friendship of eminent contemporaries, among them of Sir Robert Cot- ton, John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's, the Earl of Pem- broke, Purchas, the historian, and others. But the
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FIRST AMERICAN RULER AND WRITER.
men whom he had disgraced spared no effort to blacken his name. He was a boaster and pretender ; his fame rested on his own statements; and modern critics have echoed these attacks. One of these describes his writ- ings as " full of the exaggerations and self-assertions of an adventurer," and the man himself as "a Gascon and a beggar."
He was not the author of the "General History," on which his fame rests. This was merely a compilation made at the request of the London Company - a fact stated in the work. It consisted of narratives written by about thirty persons connected with the events, many of which had already been published, and Smith only contributed the description of Virginia and the account of his rescue by Pocahontas, when no other Englishman was present. This is the main point of attack. The incident is declared to be a mere invention, since nothing is said of it in Smith's first work, the "True Relation." The reply is that this pamphlet is not known with absolute certainty to have been written by Smith, since some copies purport to be by " Thomas Walton," and others by "a gentleman of said colony." He probably wrote it, but in either case a part of the original manuscript was omitted. The statement of the London editor is : " Something more was by him written which being as I thought (fit to be private) I would not adventure to make it public." There is little doubt that the omitted portions referred to Smith's adven- tures on the Chickahominy and York, and that the editor struck them out in order not to discourage colo- nization. The first necessity was to attract settlers, and these pictures of imminent peril were not calculated to effect that object.
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