greeably but not dangerously sick. "Wecuttanow, a stout young fellow, knowing he was suspected of bringing this present of poyson, with fortie or fiftie of his chiefe companions, (seeing the President with but a few men at Potauncok,) so proudly braved it, as though he expected to incounter a revenge.—Which the President perceiv ing, in the midst of his company did not onely beate, but spurne him like a dogge, as scorning to doe him any worse mischiefe."

The company finally returned to Jamestown with five hundred bushels of corn, obtained by long foraging and traffic among the various tribes. A portion, we regret to say, was wrested by violence from its possessors, and it is to be lamented that Smith, who certainly had a generous and compassionate heart, should have suffered considerations of policy or reprisal to commit him in acts which doubtless leave a shade upon his memory. The old chronicler of the expedition, however, seems to have viewed the matter in a very different light, and even takes much pains to exculpate the party from the charge of blameable moderation, which, he fears, "the blind world's ignorant censure" might impute to them. "These temporizing proceedings," he says, "to some may seem too charitable, to such a daily daring, trecherous people; to others not pleasing that we washed not the ground with their blouds, nor showed such strange inventions in mangling, murdering, ransacking, and destroying (as did the Spanyards) the simple bodies of such ignorant soules."

The dread of starvation removed by this abundant supply, Smith set the colonists at work at various useful occupations, keeping a table of their merits or demerits, and strictly enforcing the required tasks "for there was no excuse could prevaile to deceive him." Fresh troubles with the savages, excited by the Germans, soon broke out, and Smith, incautiously travelling alone, with no weapon but his sword, again had occasion to show all his manhood in defending his head. An ambuscade of forty warriors had been prepared to. intercept him. "By the way he incountred the King of Paspahegh, a most stout strong Salvage, whose perswasions not being able to perswade him to his Ambush, seeing him onely armed but with a faucheon" (falchion) "attempted to have shot him, but the President prevented his shooting by grapling with him, and the Salvage as well prevented his drawing his faucheon, and perforce bore him into the River to have drowned him. Long they struggled in the water, till the President got such a hold on his throat, he had neare strangled the King; but having drawne his faucheon to cut off his head, VOL. IV.-33

seeing how pitifully he begged his life, he led him prisoner to Tames Towne and put him in chaynes." Encounters with the hostile tribe, resulting in a more sanguinary manner, were finally ended by treaty. The Indians had been eager, by theft or under-handeà dealings, to procure arms and ammunition; but it so happened that in drying a quantity of gun-powder on a piece of armour over the fire, it exploded, to their terrible injury, so that by "this and many such pretty Accidents," we are told, they took a wholesome distrust of the dangerous commodity, and adopted an attitude of conciliation toward the colonists.

CHAPTER IX.

IDLENESS OF THE SETTLERS. -ELOQUENT SPEECH AND VIGOROUS POLICY OF SMITH.-THE NEW VIRGINIA COMPANY. UNJUST ASSUMPTION OF POWER. SMITH DEPOSED. GREAT EXPEDITION DISPATCHED FROM ENGLAND: ILL-FORTUNE. ARRIVAL OF NUMEROUS IMMIGRANTS. ANARCHY., -SMITH REASSUMES THE PRESIDENCY.

By the energy of their brave and industrious president, the Vir ginian colonists had been amply supplied with food and shelter; and additional buildings and more extended agriculture betokened the prosperity of the settlement. Destruction of their store, by rotting and the rats, renewed former privations, and reawakened the old mutinous and discontented spirit. By the assistance of the Indians, and by fishing and gathering the natural products of the country, a number of the more industrious continued to keep the settlement from starvation. "But such was the strange condition of some 150, that had they not been forced, nolens volens, to gather and prepare their victuall, they would all have starved or eaten one another." "These distracted Gluttonous Loyterers" would fain have sold to the Indians every utensil of labour or defence, for a pittance of corn, and omitted no means of cunning and mutinous demeanour to compel the president to break up the settlement and return to England.

Out of patience at their ill-behaviour, he finally resorted to severe measures. In a summary manner he punished the chief ringleader,

"one Dyer, a most crafty fellow and his ancient Maligner," and made a speech of severe admonition, evidently carefully modelled on his favourite classics, to the rest. "Fellow-soldiers," he said, "I did little think any so false to report, or so many to be so simple as to be perswaded, that I either intend to starve you, or that Powhatar. at this present hath corne for himselfe, much lesse for you; or that I would not have it, if I knew where it were to be had. Neither did I thinke any so malitious as I now see a great many; yet it shall not so passionate me but I will doe my best for my most maligner. But dream no longer of this vaine hope from Powhatan, nor that I will longer forbeare to force you from your Idlenesse, and punish you if you rayle. But if I find any more runners for Newfoundland with the Pinnace, let them assuredly looke to arive at the Gallows.

"You cannot deny but that by the hazard of my life many a time I have saved yours, when (might your own wills have prevailed) you would have starved. But I protest by that God that made me, since necessitie hath not power to force you to gather for yourselves those fruites the earth doth yeeld, you shall not onely gather for your selves, but for those that are sicke. As yet, I never had more from the store than the worst of you; and all my English extraordinary provision that I have, you shall see me divide it among the sicke.

"And this Salvage trash you so scornefully repine at, being put in your mouths, your stomachs can digest it. If you would have better, you should have brought it; and therefore I will take a course that you shall provide what is to be had. The sicke shall not starve, but share equally of all our labors, and he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his conditions or starve."

This stern and summary policy had the required effect, and the colonists set to work collecting the natural fruits of the country with such diligence that their condition was speedily improved. In the spring of 1609, Captain Samuel Argall (afterwards governor) arrived in a vessel well loaded with supplies, which the settlers converted their own use, restitution being afterwards made. This arrival orought tidings of an important character.

Disappointed and irritated by what they considered the inexcusable neglect of their agents in failing to discover a gold mine or a passage to the Pacific, the Virginia Company visited the whole

weight of their displeasure on the head of Captain Smith. "His necessarily firm and rigorous rule had made him many enemies; and the bluntness and plain-spoken truth of his communications had shocked the dignity of the authorities at home. They resolved to depose him from the command of the colony, which his almost unaided exertions had so repeatedly preserved from destruction, and the true value of which their short-sighted rapacity prevented them from appreciating."

To gratify persons of wealth and influence who had joined the company, in May, 1609, a new charter was obtained, granting absolute power of control over Virginia to the patentees, and unjustly depriving the colonists of even the shadow of self-government. Lord Delaware was appointed captain-general, and a host of inferior officers, with high-sounding titles, were also created for the benefit of the poverty-stricken colony. In the same month, nine ships, commanded by Newport, and carrying five hundred people, under command of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers, sailed from England, leaving Delaware to follow with fresh recruits. These three dignitaries, by a singular piece of folly, all embarked in the same ship, with all their papers, and a great part of the provisions. In the latter part of July, this vessel, "in the tayle of a Hericano" (hurricane) was driven from the squadron and wrecked on the Bermudas. Another foundered at sea, and the rest, in most miserable plight, and without any general commander, arrived finally at Jamestown.

Their arrival was the signal for fresh disorders. Most of the new emigrants, it would seem, were in a manner the refuse of the com. munity-"much fitter to spoil a commonwealth than to raise or maintain one." In "this lewd company," it is said, were "many unruly Gallants, packed thither by their friends to escape ill-destinies"-broken down gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, and decayed serving-men. Smith having been deposed by the authorities, and their officers having been shipwrecked on the Bermudas, there was no regular government, and the people soon fell into a state of anarchy, setting up and pulling down their authorities almost daily, and modelling the government after their changeable caprice and fancy. In this strait, the more sensible entreated Smith to resume the command, seeing that no one had yet arrived to displace him. He consented with reluctance, and a vigorous exertion of his wonted authority soon reduced these unruly spirits to something like order and obedience.

CHAPTER X.

FUTILE ATTEMPTS AT FOUNDING NEW SETTLEMENTS.-FOLLY AND OBSTINACY OF THE COLONISTS.-SMITH TERRIBLY INJURED. HE RETURNS TO ENGLAND.-HIS SERVICES TO THE COLONY.-AWFUL SUFFERING AND MORTALITY AFTER HIS DEPARTURE.

JAMESTOWN being overcrowded, it was now thought best to plant other settlements, and a hundred and twenty men, under Martin, attempted to found a colony at Nansemond; but from the inefficiency of their commander and the hostility of the Indians, the scheme proved a complete failure. A like number, under Captain West, proceeded to the Falls of James River, where they pitched upon a spot exposed to inundations and other inconveniences. To provide them a better locality, Smith agreed with Powhatan for the purchase of his town of the same name, hard by, with its fort and all the houses: "but both this excellent place and those good conditions did these furies refuse, contemning both him, his kinde care and authoritie." To persuade them to reason, he repaired thither with only five companions, but was compelled by their violence to betake himself to his barge, where, for nine days, he waited, hoping to find them more sensible, and much troubled at hearing the continual complaints of their violence and injustice made by the neighbouring Indians. He finally sailed down the river, but was presently recalled by news that the savages had attacked them and killed a number. Hastening back, he found them submissive enough, and removed them to the quarters he had selected, at Powhatan, where, indeed, they did not long remain, resuming, with strange obstinacy, their ill-chosen position.

The captain, as he returned, met with terrible injury from the explosion of a bag of gun-powder, which caught fire while he was asleep, burning him severely, and setting fire to his clothes. He jumped overboard to quench them, and was with difficulty saved from drowning. Carried in this wretched condition, for a hundred miles, to Jamestown, without the aid of surgery, he was laid prostrate on a bed of sickness, and some of the malcontents, it is said, "seeing the President unable to stand, and neere bereft of his senses