USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 28
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In the year 1587 Raleigh sent out another fleet, carrying a number of families destined to augment the Roanoke colony, but when they arrived, no trace of the fifteen men who remained on the island could be found, they having been murdered by the Indians, and it was only by the promise of the commander to hasten back to England and return with reinforce- ments that they could be prevailed upon to remain upon the island. Shortly after the fleet sailed on the homeward voyage an event occurred which is worthy of note in a history of this country. This was no less than the birth of the first white child in North America. The child was the daughter of Ananias and Eleanor Dare. She was christened " Vir- ginia," in honor of their adopted country. She was born August 18th, 1587. Her fate is involved in the mystery which enshrouds the fate of the entire colony. Scarcely had the ships returned to Europe when a war broke out between England and Spain, and the " Island Empire" brought every available force to bear upon her powerful rival, both on land and sea. The invincible Armada had to be overcome and the safety of Eng- land secured, before Raleigh could send aid to his colony on Roanoke. It was 1590 when the vessels were dispatched, and when they arrived at the island the commander was alarmed to find that the colony had forever disappeared. What their fate was must ever remain a profound mystery.
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That they all fell victims to savage ferocity is most probable. Some writers have indulged the idea that they were merged into the tribe of Tuscarora Indians; but while humanity may dictate such a hope, " cre- dulity must entertain a doubt of the hypothesis." This was the last attempt of the noble Raleigh to colonize America. Thus he saw the cherished hope of his life a signal failure. Soon after, an ignominious death upon the scaffold put an end to all his ambitions.
THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.
With the discovery of America were discovered the Indians inhabiting the continent-nations having an unwritten history. Who the first inhab- itants were we do not know; for all the ages through which the New World passed, prior to its discovery by Columbus, are destitute of history and chronology. But that a race, far superior to the Indians, once existed on this continent, there can not be the least doubt. From the Atlantic on the east to the Pacific on the west, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, in every portion of the continent, we trace them by their vast monumental ruins, rivaling in magnitude those of the eastern continent. Here they built cities which may have flourished while the Pyramids were being built, or they may have been in ruins when Cleopatra's needle was being fashioned. But who were they? What their origin and what their fate? Alas! we shall never know. Contemporary history furnishes no aid, for they were isolated from all the world beside. They have disappeared from the earth with not a vestige of history left behind them.
"Antiquity appears to have begun, Long after their primeval race was run." Campbell.
Whether they were the ancestors of the Indians is a question; it is not probable that they were. Perhaps no problem has ever attracted so much attention from historians and scientists as that of the origin of the Amer- ican Indians.
Hundreds of thousands of individuals existing in all the various stages of society, from the lowest stage of barbarism to that of the half-civilized state, were found roaming over the vast domain of both the Americas. They were altogether ignorant of the country from which their ancestors had come, and of the period at which they had been transplanted to the New World; and although there were traditions among them seeming to cast some light upon those subjects, yet when thoroughly investigated they tended rather to bewilder than to lead to any satisfactory conclusions ; and the origin of these nations has ever been a subject of curious specu- lation among the learned. Conjecture has succeeded conjecture, hypoth- esis has yielded to hypothesis, as wave recedes before wave ; still it remains involved in a labyrinth of inexplicable difficulties, from which the most
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ingenious minds will perhaps never be able to free it. Of the many theories which have been advanced, we select the following :
Gregoria Gracia, one of the first missionaries in Mexico, after long as- sociation with them, has formed the opinion that they are the descend- ants of many nations, and therefore thinks it absurd to attempt to trace their origin to any one nation.
John De Laet, a celebrated Flemish writer, maintains that America received its first inhabitants from Scythia. "The resemblance" of the North American Indians, in features, complexion, customs, and mode of' life is more nearly like those of the ancient Scythians than any other nation.
Moreaz, in his history of Brazil, says that the continent was certainly peopled by the ancient Carthagenians.
George Huron, like Laet, supposes that the primitive American colo- nies were Scythian, but is of opinion that the Phoenicians and Carthage- nians subsequently reached the continent, and still later that the Chinese and other eastern peoples reached these shores, either voluntarily or have been driven on the coast by tempests. He thus accounts for the difference existing among the numerous tribes.
Charlevoix is clearly of the opinion that they are of Tartar extrac- tion, and Adair says he has been forced to believe that they have de- scended directly from the Israelites.
Major Carver, who was an officer in the Provincial army, supports the theory that they have descended from the Tartars and Chinese. He is the first writer, with whose writings the author is acquainted, to maintain the theory that they reached America by way of Behrings Straits, a theory since advocated by Mr. Jefferson and many others.
Dr. Robertson, the able philologist, traces their origin to the Tartars, by a similarity of language. He says that many of the names of Ameri- can chieftains are of Tartar origin, for instance: Tartarax, who formerly reigned in Quiavira, means the Tartar; Manew, the founder of the Peru- vian empire, most probably came from the Manchew Tartars; Montezume. the title of the Mexican emperors, is of Seythian origin, for according to some authors, it was the appellation of the Scythian chieftains. But the most recent of all is that of Mr. Wallace, who claims that they are the remains of the inhabitants of a great Pacific continent now submerged. and that they escaped to America at the time of the subsidence of their native continent. In opposition to this theory Rev. Wyatt Gill, for many years a missionary to the Hervey Islands, Polynesia, declares that there is not the least resemblance in feature, complexion, mode of life or lan- guage existing between the South Sea Islanders and the Indians of North America.
Then, among this maze of theories are we nearer a solution of the vexed problem than we were before a solution had been attempted?
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That they came from Europe is altogether improbable; that they are descended from the Israelites has little or nothing to support it, whilst it is highly probable that they are descended from some of the tribes of Southern Asia.
That they are the descendants of the ancient Scythians, seems to the author to be the most probable. The following facts appear to be almost conclusive :
First. Both the Scythians and Indians belong to the Ganowanian, or bow-and-arrow family of men. It will be remembered by those who claim them to be the descendants of the tribes of North-eastern Asia, that those tribes are spearmen.
Second. The Scythians wandered over a wide extent of country, but not tilling it, they claimed no property in land; the Indians did the same, and both held in abhorrence and scorn the confinement of a fixed habitation.
Third. The entire absence of anything like a fixed system of law, ex- cept that the strictest honesty characterized both.
Fourth. The dress of both was similar, being made from the skins of the animals belonging to the fauna of their respective countries.
Fifth. War was the delight of both, and mercy and humanity were alien to their warfare.
Sixth. Mounds, or tumuli, which constitute the remains of the earliest inhabitants of America, are found nowhere in Asia except in ancient Scythia, beyond the Indus. Herodotus, "the father of history," says the Scythians threw earth upon the tombs of their deceased relatives until they resembled a high mound or artificial mountain.
Seventh. The same author informs us that the Scythians were the only people of antiquity who practiced the barbarous custom of scalping their enemies, a custom universally practiced by the Indians of North America.
Eighth. The Scythians were divided into tribes, just as the Indians were.
Ninth. The similarity that (according to Dr. Robertson) exists between many words in use by both.
Tenth. The fact that they were thoroughly acquainted with the archi- tecture of Southern and Western Asia is fully attested by the ruined structures of Mexico and Central America.
From the foregoing it would seem that the evidence is largely in favor of the claim that the Indians of North America are the descer d- ants of the ancient Seythians. What the labors of archaeological socie- ties and the researches of antiquarian societies may develop upon the subject, remains yet to be seen. It is doubtful, however, whether a satisfactory solution of the mysterious problem will ever be reached.
Such were the inhabitants of the New World, who for two hundred years disputed the possession of this country with the Anglo-Saxon, but
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who have been driven before the march of civilization to the western confines of the continent, where their final extinction as a race is only a question of time.
SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN.
We have not space, in a work of this character, to notice in detail that interesting portion of history known as the Period of Voyage and Discovery. The world was ready for great events. With the fifteenth century came the revival of learning in Europe : Copernicus had system- atized the universe ; Vasco de Gama had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and Portuguese navigators were steering their ships over Indian seas. The Turks had entered Europe and made Constantinople the capital of the Mohammedan world ; Amerigo Vespucci's first account of the Western World had been published and eagerly read all over Europe ; Grecian scholars had " crossed the Alps" and laid the founda- tion for that intellectual development which was to dispel the darkness and gloom that had enshrouded Europe during the long centuries of the Dark Ages. The printing press came just in time to supply the demand which the thirst for knowledge had created, and now the next great event in the world's history was to be the founding of a permanent English settlement in the New World.
One hundred and fifteen years had passed away since the discovery, and it was now the year 1606. In that year James I., who had succeeded his cousin Elizabeth on the English throne, granted to a company of wealthy London merchants a patent for all that part of the American continent lying between the thirty-fifth and fortieth degrees of north latitude. The London Company, as the corporation was styled, had, as the effect of its creation, the founding of a colony on the Atlantic coast of Vir- ginia. An expedition was at once fitted out, and one hundred and five colonists bade adieu to the shores of the Old World to find a home on the shores of the New. On the 26th day of April, 1607, they reached the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and to the points on either side they gave the names of Charles and Henry, in honor of the sons of King James. Further within the bay, on another point, they bestowed the name of Point Comfort, because of the comfortable anchorage they found there. Captain Christopher Newport, an experienced navigator, steered them up a beautiful river which, in honor of the king, they called James river. The voyage was continued up the river about fifty miles, when they landed, May 13th, began the erection of houses, and James- town was founded. A distinguished historian has said, "This is the most important event recorded in profane history." Here was planted the germ from which was to spring the grandest republic the world has
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seen. Here on the banks of the James had landed the men who were destined to light a lamp of liberty which all the tyranny of after ages could not extinguish.
THE BEGINNING.
Of the one hundred and five colonists who came to Virginia, more than half are classed as " gentlemen," and the remainder as laborers, tradesmen and mechanics. Many of them probably had been unaccus- tomed to labor, strangers to toil, and improvident. Such were the found- ers of the first American States. From that beginning came the Vir- ginias of after times.
The London Company had prepared a form of government for the colony before the departure from England. This code of laws was put in a box, sealed and hidden until the arrival in Virginia, when it was to be opened and the government established according to its provisions. By it all power was vested in a body of seven councilors, whose names were as follows: Bartholomew Gosnold, the navigator John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. At their first meeting Edward Wingfield was chosen president ; in other words, the first governor of Virginia. This was the beginning of civil government in America.
While most of the colonists engaged in felling the forest, building cabins and erecting a fort for protection against the savages, Captains Newport and Smith decided to explore the country, and accordingly sailed up the James river as far as the falls of that river, when they paid a visit to Powhatan, king of the Indians in these parts. Here, just below the falls, near the present site of the city of Richmond, was the capital of him whose word was absolute law to the savage nations over which no civil code could ever have exerted the least influence. This monarch of the forest received the foreigners with courtesy, and mani- fested no uneasiness at their intrusion. After a short stay the party re- turned to Jamestown, and Newport sailed for England. Shortly after his departure the colonists began to realize their true condition. They were three thousand miles from home and friends, upon an unknown shore, surrounded by wild beasts and wilder men, subject to pestilential diseases over which their physicians had no control, and added to this were civil dissensions. These resulted in the displacement of Wingfield in the office of president, and the deposing, imprisonment, and finally the execution of Kendall. Newport was in England, and Ratcliffe. Martin and Smith were the only remaining members of the council. Rateliffe was chosen president, but being a man of neither courage nor ability, he voluntarily resigned an office which he was incompetent to fill. Smith and Martin alone were left. The latter elected the former president, and for the first time not the least opposition was manifested toward the new administration.
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Who, by his efficient management of the affairs of the colony, won the title of " The Father of Virginia," was a soldier, a traveler, and a statesman. His life is one filled with adventure and daring exploit. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579, and was early appren- ticed to a merchant ; but at the age of fifteen he left his master and went to Holland, served awhile in the Dutch army, then found his way to Austria, where he enlisted under the flag of that country and en- gaged in a war with the Turks. He was, at length, wounded, taken prisoner, and after his recovery he was carried to Constantinople, where he was sold as a slave and taken to the Crimea, in Russia, and subjected to the severest treatment and his life rendered a burden. From such abject slavery he determined to escape. An opportunity soon presented itself. He was engaged in threshing wheat about three miles from home, where his master visited him once a day. Smith watched his opportunity and dispatched him with a flail ; hid his body in the straw, mounted his horse and fled into the woods. After many days' wander- ing he found his way into Poland, thence he traveled through Germany, France and Spain to Morocco, in Northern Africa, where he remained some time, then set out for England, where he arrived just as the ex- pedition was fitting ont to colonize the new continent of America. He immediately attached himself to the expedition and sailed for Virginia, where he afterward displayed those high qualities of statesmanship which secured the permanency of the colony.
At the time that Smith began his administration the colony was on the verge of ruin. Already disease had carried off one-half of the settlers, among whom was Gosnold, a member of the council and one of the best men in it, and had not the early frosts of winter put a stop to the rav- ages of the pestilence, not one would have survived to tell the fate of the colony. With the disappearance of disease and the better administra- tion of Smith, everything began to show signs of improvement. One of the first acts of the new management was to begin the erection of better buildings; the fortification was strengthened, a store-house devised, and other preparations made for the winter. The great object now was to secure a stock of provisions for the ensuing winter. The Indians had grown a plentiful harvest, but to secure a portion of it was no easy task. Smith, however, determined to undertake it, and in company with five companions he descended the James river as far as Hampton Roads, where he landed, and went boldly among the natives, offering to exchange hatchets and coin for corn; but the savages only langhed at the pro- posal, and mocked the strangers by offering a piece of bread for Smith's sword and musket. Smith, ever determined to succeed in every under- taking, abandoned the idea of barter and resolved to fight. He ordered his men to fire among the savages, who ran howling into the woods, leav
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CAPT. JOHN SMITH, After the original in his "General His- torie," edition of 1629.
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ing their wigwams, filled with corn, to the mercy of the English, not a grain of which was touched until the Indians returned. In a short time sixty or seventy painted warriors, at the head of whom marched a priest bearing an idol, appeared and made a furious attack. The English a second time opened fire, made a rush, drove the savages back, and capt- ured their idol. The Indians, when they saw their deity in the posses- sion of the English, sent the priest to humbly beg for its return, but Smith stood firm, with his musket across the prostrate image, and dic- tated the only terms upon which he would surrender it, viz : that six unarmed Indians should come forth and load his boat with corn. The terms were acceded to, the idol given up, and Smith and his party returned to Jamestown with a boat-load of supplies.
Smith could not remain long inactive. No sooner had he seen the col- ony in tolerable condition for this, its first winter in the New World, than he, in company with six Englishmen and two Indians, embarked in the pinnace and sailed up the Chickahominy river. The opinion prevailed at Jamestown, and also with the London Company, that by proceeding up this stream it was possible to reach the Pacific Ocean, then called the South Sea. Smith knew the utter absurdity of such an opinion, but humored it for the purpose of gratifying his desire for making explora- tions. He ascended the river as far as possible in the pinnace, then leaving it, as he thought, in a safe place, he left it in the care of four Englishmen, and with the remainder of the party the journey was con- tinued in a canoe, and when they could proceed no further in it, Smith traveled on foot with only an Indian guide. The men left with the pin- nace disobeyed orders, went on shore, and one of them fell into the hands of the Indians, who learned from him the direction in which the captain had gone. Pursuit was made at once, but when they came up with him they found that he was no easy prey. He defended himself so bravely that they dared not approach him until he fell into a swamp, where he was at length forced to surrender. His captors carried him before their chief, who received him with all the pomp and ceremony known at a savage court. A long consultation was held to determine the fate of the distinguished prisoner, and it seemed that the death angel which had hovered around him all along his journey of life was about to claim the victory. The consultation terminated unfavorably ; the executioners rushed forward and dragged their prisoner to a large stone upon which it had been decided his head should be crushed. The awful moment was come; the club was raised that was to dash ont his brains, and thus end his toils and difficulties, and with them the hope of Vir- ginia. But an advocate appeared as unexpectedly as would have been an angel just descended from heaven, to ask his release. It was none other than Pocahontas, the chieftain's own favorite daughter, who stepped forth and begged that the prisoner might be spared, and when
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she found her entreaties unavailing, she seized his head and placed it beneath her own to protect it from the fatal blow. Powhatan could not resist the pleadings of his favorite child, and yielded to her wishes. Smith was released and allowed to live. In a few days he concluded a bargain with the old chief by which he was to receive a large tract of country in exchange for two cannon and a grindstone, which he was to send back from Jamestown by the Indians who accompanied him home. When they arrived at Jamestown, Smith, under pretext of instructing the Indians in the use of the cannon, discharged them into the trees, at which the savages were so frightened that they would have nothing to do with them. The grindstone was so heavy that they could not carry it, so they returned with a quantity of trinkets instead.
RETURN OF NEWPORT.
During the winter and spring the little colony had not been forgotten by the company in England. Newport, soon after his arrival in Lon- don, was again dispatched to America in company with another vessel commanded by Francis Nelson, both vessels freighted with everything which could be necessary for either the colony or the crew. Newport arrived in safety, but Nelson, when nearing the capes, was caught in a storm and driven so far out to sea, that he was forced to put into the West Indies, where he made the necessary repairs, and then reached his destination. Smith and Newport decided to again visit Powhatan, who received them in the same dignified manner as on the previous oc- casion; and during the conference the chieftain exhibited so much diplomatic skill that he was on the eve of closing a bargain with New- port which would have been very disadvantageous to the colony; but Smith prevented the transaction by passing some blue beads before the eyes of the monarch; and by placing great value upon them, and im- pressing him with the fact that they were only worn by the greatest per- sonages, succeeded in exchanging a pound or two of them for about seven hundred bushels of corn. But no sooner had they returned to Jamestown with this new supply to their former stock, than, as is gen- erally the case with ill-gotten gains, a fire broke out and consumed the greater part of it, together with a number of their cabins and some arms and bedding.
But this was not all; Newport, instead of returning to England immediately, remained fourteen weeks at Jamestown, consuming the provisions that he should have left for the defenseless and helpless colony after his departure. His delay was occasioned by the fact that he had brought over with him several refiners of gold who had discov- ered some glittering earth near Jamestown. which they pronounced
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gold. All the available force was engaged in loading the ship with this worthless clay. The idea prevailed to such an extent that Smith says there was no talk, no hope, no work, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold. The cargo was at last completed, and Newport sailed for London. When the Phoenix, the vessel of Captain Nelson, was to be loaded, Smith, instead of permitting it to be freighted with " fools' gold," fitted her out with a cargo of cedar timber. This was the first valuable shipment made from Virginia to Eng- land.
Smith accompanied the Phoenix as far as the capes, taking fourteen men with him and two open boats, which were to be used in carrying out his long cherished design of exploring the Chesapeake. In this work nearly three months were consumed, and three thousand miles of coast and river were explored and accurately mapped. The map of the Chesapeake Bay made by Smith at this time is still preserved, and is a marvel of exactness. It is the original upon which all subsequent descriptions have been based.
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