America, between thirty-four and forty-five degrees north latitude. Two companies, one of Londoners and the other of gentlemen, &c., from the West of England, were formed, the first to colonize the southern and the latter the northern portion of the grant; but with a strict proviso, dictated by the foolish jealousy of James, that a hundred miles of wilderness should intervene between their respective settlements. As the first of these only succeeded in their design, our account will be restricted chiefly to their operations.

On the 19th of December, 1606, three small vessels, commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, and carrying an hundred and five colonists, sailed from Blackwall for Virginia. Forty-eight of this number were enrolled as gentlemen, and twelve as labourers—an ominous proportion for the prosperity of the projected settlement. Gosnold and Smith, Edward Wingfield, a merchant, George Percy, and the Rev. Robert Hunt, were the principal persons of the expedition.

Delayed by contrary winds, the little fleet, bearing the germ of the American commonwealth, was six weeks in sight of England; and when it finally got to sea, took the old circuitous route of the Canaries and West Indies. By the folly of James, sealed instructions, in a box not to be opened till their arrival, had been provided, naming the authorities of the colony. Dissension thus sprung up early in the voyage, and at the Canaries, Smith, accused, by the absurd jealousy of some, of conspiring to make himself "king of Virginia," was put in confinement. They steered for Roanoke, but by a piece of excellent disappointment, were carried by a storm past the place of their destination, and entered Chesapeake Bay. Naming the headlands Cape Henry and Cape Charles, in honour of the king's sons, they sailed up the James River about forty miles, and went on shore, delighted with all they saw. "We passed through excellent ground," says one of them, "full of flowers of divers kinds and colours, and as goodly trees as I have seen, as cedar, cypress, and other kinds; going a little further we came to a little plat of ground, full of fine and beautiful strawberries, four times bigger and better than ours of England." "Heaven and earth," says the enthusiastic Smith, "seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man's commodious and delightful habitation."

The very day of their arrival, the settlers perceived certain hostile savages, "creeping on all foures, from the hils like Beares," but put them to flight by a discharge of muskets. At Point Comfort,

however, and other places, they were kindly received by the natives, who gave them corn-bread, pipes and tobacco, and held a dance in honour of them. The chief of the Rappahannas, who, with a considerable attendance, came to meet them, "entertained us," says the journal, "in so modest a proud fashion, as though he had been a prince of civil government, holding his countenance without any laughter or any such ill behaviour. He caused his mat to be spread on the ground, where he sat down with great majesty, taking a pipe of tobacco, the rest of his company standing around him."

Having made considerable survey of the shores of the river, the little colony of Englishmen chose for the site of their settlement a peninsula on the northern bank, and called it Jamestown, in honour of the sovereign. It was now an hundred and nine years since Cabot, sailing by these shores, had conferred on England the conventional right to so great a part of the North American continent; yet this was the first successful attempt of that nation to plant a colony in the Western Hemisphere. That it did not speedily share the fate of its predecessors, is almost entirely due to the admirable courage, sagacity, and patience of a man greatly wronged and abused, in its very inception.

On opening the sealed box, it was found that a council of seven, including Wingfield, Gosnold, Newport, and Smith, were appointed to govern the colony; but the last, the only reliable man of the whole company, by the paltry jealousy of his associates, was set aside; "the Councell was sworne, Mr. Wingfield was chosen President, and an Oration made, why Captaine Smith was not admitted of the Councell as the rest." His zeal for the promotion of the scheme unquenched by this unworthy treatment, the excluded councillor set forth with Newport on an expedition of further survey.

In the course of this voyage, much was learned concerning the Indians of the adjoining regions. Of forty-three native tribes, dwelling between the mountains and the sea, about thirty, numbering, it is said, eight thousand souls, were under the rule of a powerful chieftain, named Wahunsonacock, but whose customary title, derived. like that of a European grandee, from his principal residence, was Powhatan. The names of Tuscaloosa, Quigaltanqui, and those of many other native American chiefs, identical with their towns or principalities, indicate the prevalence of the usage. His residence of Powhatan was at the Falls of James River, at the site of Richmond, and that of Werowocomoco on the north side of York River.

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Ascending the first-named stream, after a voyage of six days, the explorers came to the falls, where they were courteously received by the great chief just mentioned—"of personage," says Smith, "a tall, well proportioned man, with a sower looke, his head some what gray, his beard so thinne it seemeth none at all, his age neere sixtie; of a very able and hardy body to endure any labor. It is strange," he presently proceeds, "to see with what great feare and adoration all these people doe obey this Powhatan. For at his feete they present whatsoever he commandeth, and at the least frowne of his brow, their greatest spirits will tremble with feare; and no marvell, for he is very tyrannous and terrible in punishing such as offend him. * Yet when he listeth, his will is a law and must be obeyed; not onely as a king, but halfe as a God they esteeme him." The Indians of Virginia, dwelling in a milder clime, and on a more fertile soil, seem to have possessed more of the comforts of life than those of New England. They lived by the chase, by fishing, and, to a considerable extent, by plantation. Their clothing was of furs, but they were very hardy and able to endure cold. Their children, from infancy, they used to wash in the rivers, "and by paintings and ointments so tanne their skinnes, that after a yeare or two no weather will hurte them." The customary passion of savages for personal picturing, seems, indeed, to have had full sway, the favourite colour being red. "Many other formes of painting they use, but he is the most gallant that is the most monstrous to behold."

They were a warlike people, and were often engaged in feud with their neighbours. Smith gives a curious account of a great shamfight, which Powhatan's warriors, at Mattapanient, once performed for his diversion. Two parties, each of a hundred, approached each other in warlike array, "all duly keeping their orders, yet leaping and singing after their accustomed tune, which they only vse in Warres. Vpon the first flight of arrowes, they gave such horrible shouts and schreeches, as so many infernall hell-hounds could not have made them more terrible. When they had spent their arrowes, they joyned together prettily, charging and retiring, every ranke seconding the other. As they got advantage, they catched their enemies by the hayre of the head, and down came he that was taken. His enemy with his wooden sword seemed to beate out his braines, and still they crept to the rear to maintain the skirmish.

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*

All their actions, voyces, and gestures, both in charging and retiring,

were so strained to the height of their qualitie and nature, that the strangeness thereof made it seeme very delightfult."

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Little that is definite seems to have been ascertained concerning their religious belief-the uncouth ceremonies of the Powwow, and the manifestations of a savage taste being directly construed into an explicit Satanism. "Their chief God they worship," says the captain, "is the Devill. Him they call Okee, and serve him more of feare than love. They say they have conferrence with him, and fashion themselves as neare to his shape as they can imagine. In their Temples they have his image evill-favoredly carved, in such manner as the deformitie may well suit with such a God. Upon the top of certain red sandy hils in the woodes, there are three great houses filled with Images of their Kinges and Devills, and Tombes of their predecessors. This place they count so holy as none but the Priests and Kings dare come into them." Their religious ceremonies were sufficiently fantastic and barbarous. Their chief priest, horrid in a head-dress of the skins of snakes and other reptiles, made invocations before the circle of worshippers "with broken sentences, by starts and strange passions, and at every pause the rest give a short groane"-probably the Indian "ugh," denoting assent. "And in this lamentable ignorance," he continues, "doe these poore Soules sacrifice themselves to the Devill, not knowing their Creator; and we had not language sufficient, so plainly to express it as to make them understand it, which God grant they may."

CHAPTER III.

TRIAL AND VINDICATION OF SMITH.-FAMINE AND TERRIBL MORTALITY.-SMITH, BY HIS EXERTIONS, SUPPORTS THE COLONY. TREACHERY OF HIS ASSOCIATES. DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS.-IDLE AND MISERABLE COLONISTS.

WHILE the party of survey was absent, an attack had been made by the Indians on the colonists, one of whom was killed, and many others were wounded, and Jamestown was therefore fortified with palisades and artillery. Captain Smith, on his return, to silence the slanders of his enemies, demanded a public trial; in which his inno

cence and the malice of his detractors was so apparent, that he was restored to his seat in the Council, and Wingfield was adjudged to pay him damages in goods 'to the value of two hundred pounds, which, however, Smith put into the store-house, for the public use.

On the 15th of June, Newport, with the vessels, returned to England. His departure was the signal for immediate distress and privation. The company, with wretched improvidence, had neglected to supply sufficient stores for a colony just landed in the wilderness, and even during the stay of the fleet, many of the unfor tunate settlers had been reduced for support to biscuits pilfered by the sailors from the ship-stores, and sparingly dealt out to the hungry applicants "for saxefras, furres, or love." A regular famine at once set in, a daily pint of wheat or barley, all alive with insects, being the only allowance. "Had we been as free," says one of them, "from all sinnes as gluttony and drunkenness, we might have been canonized as saints; but our President would never have been admitted, for ingrossing to his private, Oatemeale, Sacke, Oyle, Aquavitæ, Beefe, Egges, and what not but the Kettell. Our drinke was water, our lodginges Castles in the Ayre."

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During the summer, fifty of the company, of whom Gosnold was one, had died from the diseases incident to a change of climate and aggravated by privation and exposure. Wingfield, with a cowardly and treacherous policy, attempted to seize the pinnace and desert the settlement, "which," proceeds the old narrator, "so moved our dead Spirits as we deposed him." When this famine and distress was at its height, the neighbouring Indians, who heretofore had refused to impart their store, suddenly changing their resolution, brought abundant supplies of fruits and provision-a seasonable relief, ascribed by the colonists to the direct interposition of God.

The council was now reduced to three, consisting of Ratcliffe, the nominal president, Martin, and Smith; but the two first, "of weake judgment in dangers and lesse industry in peace," shifted the entire management and care of the colony on the shoulders of their sturdy associate. Those shoulders were amply strong enough to bear it. With the greatest diligence, he set to work to supply the wants of the settlers, and to provide them with shelter against the winter. "By his owne example, good words, and faire promises, he set some to mow, others to binde thatch, some to build houses, others to thatch, alwayes bearing the greatest taske for his owne share, so that, in short time, he provided most of them lodgings, neglecting any VOL. IV.-32