A Brief History of the United States. Joel Dorman Steele
to write a letter to Jamestown. When they found that this informed his friends of his misfortune, they were filled with astonishment.
They could not understand by what magical art he could make a few marks on paper express his thoughts. They considered him a being of a superior order, and treated him with the utmost respect. He was carried from one tribe to another, and at last brought to the great chief, Powhatan, by whom he was condemned to die. His head was laid on a stone, and the huge war-club of the Indian executioner was raised to strike the fatal blow. Suddenly Pocahantas, the young daughter of the chief, who had already become attached to the prisoner, threw herself upon his neck and pleaded for his pardon (see note, p. 46). The favorite of the tribe was given her desire. Smith was released, and soon sent home with promises of friendship. His little protector was often thereafter to be seen going to Jamestown with baskets of corn for the white men.
[Footnote: This was undertaken by the express order of the company to seek a passage to the Pacific Ocean and thus to India. Captain Newport before his return to England made a trip up the James River for the same purpose but on reaching the falls concluded that the way to India did not lie in that direction. These attempts which seem so preposterous to us now show what inadequate ideas then prevailed concerning the size of this continent.]
[Footnote: His route was over the peninsula, since rendered so famous by McClellan's campaign.]
[Illustration: SMITH SHOWING HIS COMPASS TO THE INDIANS]
[Footnote: As another evidence of the simplicity of the Indians, it is said that having seized a quantity of gunpowder belonging to the colonists, they planted it for seed, expecting to reap a full harvest of ammunition for the next contest.]
A SECOND CHARTER was now obtained by the company (1609). This vested the authority in a governor instead of a local council. The colonists were not consulted with regard to the change, nor did the charter guarantee to them any rights.
THE "STARVING TIME."—Unfortunately, Smith was disabled by a severe wound and compelled to return to England. His influence being removed, the settlers became a prey to disease and famine. Some were killed by the Indians. Some, in their despair, seized a boat and became pirates. The winter of 1609–10 was long known as the Starving Time. In six months they were reduced from 490 to 60. At last they determined to flee from the wretched place. "None dropped a tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happiness." The next morning, as they slowly moved down with the tide, to their great joy they met their new governor, Lord Delaware, with abundant supplies and a company of emigrants. All returned to the homes they had just deserted, and Jamestown colony was once more rescued from ruin.
THE THIRD CHARTER.—Up to this time the colony had proved a failure and was publicly ridiculed in London. To quiet the outcry, the charter was changed (1612). The council in London was abolished, and the stockholders were given power to regulate the affairs of the company themselves.
THE MARRIAGE OF POCAHONTAS (1613).—The little Indian girl had now grown to womanhood. John Rolfe, a young English planter, had won her love and wished to marry her. In the little church at Jamestown, rough almost as an Indian's wigwam, she received Christian baptism, and, in broken English, stammered the marriage vows according to the service of the Church of England.
Three years after, with her husband, she visited London. The childlike simplicity and winning grace of Lady Rebecca, as she was called, attracted universal admiration. She was introduced at court and received every mark of attention. As she was about to return to her native land with her husband and infant son, she suddenly died.
[Footnote: This son became a man of wealth and distinction. Many of the leading families of Virginia have been proud to say that the blood of Pocahontas coursed through their veins.]
FIRST COLONIAL ASSEMBLY.—Governor Yeardley (yard'-le) believed that the colonists should have "a hande in the governing of themselves." He accordingly called at Jamestown, June 28, 1619, the first legislative body that ever assembled in America. It consisted of the governor, council, and deputies, or "burgesses," as they were called, chosen from the various plantations, or "boroughs." Its laws had to be ratified by the company in England, but, in turn, the orders from London were not binding unless ratified by the colonial assembly. These privileges were afterward (1621) embodied in a written constitution—the first of the kind in America. A measure of freedom was thus granted the young colony, and Jamestown became a nursery of liberty.
PROSPERITY OF THE COLONY.—The old famine troubles had now all passed. The attempt to work in common had been given up, and each man tilled his own land and had the avails. Tobacco was an article of export. The colonists raised it so eagerly that at one time even the streets of Jamestown were planted with it. Gold-hunting had ceased, and many of the former servants of the company owned plantations. Settlements lined both banks of the James for 140 miles. Best of all, young women of good character were brought over by the company. These sold readily as wives to the settlers. The price was fixed at the cost of the passage—100 pounds of tobacco—but they were in such demand that it soon went up to 150 pounds. Domestic ties were formed. The colonists, having homes, now became Virginians. All freemen had the right to vote. Religious toleration was enjoyed. Virginia became almost an independent republic.
[Footnote: In the early life of this colony, particles of mica glittering in the brook were mistaken for gold dust. "There was no talk, no hope, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." Newport carried to England a shipload of the worthless stuff. Smith remonstrated in vain against this folly.]
SLAVERY INTRODUCED.—In 1619 the captain of a Dutch trading vessel sold to the colonists twenty negroes. They were employed in cultivating tobacco. As their labor was found profitable, larger numbers were afterward imported.
[Footnote: From this circumstance, small as it seemed at the time, the most momentous consequences ensued—consequences that, long after, rent the republic with strife, and moistened its soil with blood.]
INDIAN TROUBLES.—After the death of Powhatan, the firm friend of the English, the Indians formed a plan for the extermination of the colony. So secretly was this managed that on the very morning of the massacre (March 22, 1622) they visited the houses and sat at the tables of those whose murder they were plotting. At a preconcerted moment they attacked the colonists on all their widely-scattered plantations. Over three hundred men, women, and children fell in one day. Fortunately, a converted Indian had informed a friend whom he wished to save, and thus Jamestown and the settlements near by were prepared. A merciless war ensued, during which the colony was reduced from 4,000 to 2,500; but the Indians were so severely punished that they remained quiet for twenty years. Then came a fearful massacre of five hundred settlers (1644), which ended in the natives being expelled from the region.
VIRGINIA A ROYAL PROVINCE.—The majority of the stockholders gladly granted to the infant colony those rights for which they were struggling at home. King James, becoming jealous of the company because of its patriotic sentiments, took away the charter (1624), and made Virginia a royal province. Henceforth the king appointed the governor and council, though the colony still retained its assembly.
A PERIOD OF OPPRESSION.—The British Parliament enforced the Navigation Act (1660), which ordered that the commerce of the colony should be carried on in English vessels, and that their tobacco should be shipped to England. Besides this, their own assembly was composed mainly of royalists, who levied exorbitant taxes, refused to go out of office when their term had expired, fixed their own salary at 250 pounds of tobacco per day, restricted the right of voting to "freeholders and housekeepers," and imposed on Quakers a monthly fine of one hundred dollars for absence from worship in the English Church. Two parties gradually sprung up in their midst; one, the aristocratic party, was composed of the rich planters and the officeholders in the colony; the other comprised the liberty-loving portion of the people, who felt themselves deprived of their political rights.
[Footnote: It is a curious fact that the royalists who fled from England in Cromwell's time took refuge in Virginia, and were hospitably entertained, while the "regicides" (the judges who condemned Charles I) fled to Massachusetts and were concealed from their pursuers.]
BACON'S REBELLION.—These difficulties came to a crisis in