History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia Part 33

1714-1716.

Indian School at Fort Christanna--The Rev. Mr. Griffin, Teacher--Governor Spotswood visits Christanna--Description of the School and of the Saponey Indians.

GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD, who was a proficient in the mathematics, built the Octagon Magazine, rebuilt the College, and made improvements in the governor's house and gardens. He was an excellent judge on the bench. At his instance a grant of 1000 was made by the governors and visitors of William and Mary College in 1718, and a fund was established for instructing Indian children in Christianity,[384:A] and he erected a school for that purpose on the southern frontier, at fort Christanna, established on the south side of the Meherrin River, in what is now Southampton County.[384:B] This fort, built on a rising ground, was a pentagon enclosure of palisades, and instead of bastions, there were five houses, which defended each other; each side of the fort being about one hundred yards long. It was mounted with five cannon, and had a garrison of twelve men. The Rev. Charles Griffin had charge of the school here, being employed, in 1715, by Governor Spotswood to teach the Indian children, and to bring them to Christianity. The Rev. Hugh Jones[384:C] says that he had seen there "seventy-seven Indian children at school at a time, at the governor's sole expense, I think." This appears to be a mistake. The school-house was built at the expense of the Indian Company.[384:D] They were taught the English tongue, and to repeat the catechism, and to read the Bible and Common Prayers, and to write. These some of them learned tolerably well. The majority of them could repeat the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, behaved reverently at prayers, and made the responses. The Indians became so fond of this worthy missionary, that they would sometimes lift him up in their arms; and they would have chosen him chief of their tribe, the Saponeys. They alone remained steadfastly at peace with the whites. They numbered about two hundred persons, and lived within musket-shot of Fort Christanna. They had recently been governed by a queen, but she dying they were now governed by twelve old men. When Governor Spotswood visited them in April, 1716, these old men waited on him at the Fort, and laid several skins at his feet, all bowing to him simultaneously.

They complained through their interpreter of fifteen of their young men having been surprised, and murdered, by the Genitoes, and desired the governor's a.s.sistance in warring against them until they killed as many of them. They governor agreed that they might revenge themselves, and that he would furnish them with ammunition. He also made rest.i.tution to them for losses which they complained they had suffered by being cheated by the English. Sixty young men next made their appearance with feathers in their hair and run through their ears, their faces painted with blue and vermilion, their hair cut in fantastic forms, some looking like a c.o.c.k's-comb; and they had blue and red blankets wrapped around them.

This was their war-dress, and it made them look like furies. They made no speech. Next came the young women with long, straight, black hair reaching down to the waist, with a blanket tied round them, and hanging down like a petticoat. Most of them had nothing to cover them from the waist upwards; but some wore a mantle over the shoulders, made of two deer-skins sewed together. These Indians greased their bodies and heads with bear's oil, which, with the smoke of their cabins, gave them a disagreeable odor. They were very modest and faithful to their husbands.

"They are straight and well-limbed, of good shape and extraordinary good features, as well the men as the women. They look wild, and are mighty shy of an Englishman, and will not let you touch them."[385:A]

The Saponey town was situated on the bank of the Meherrin, the houses all joining one another and making a circle. This circle could be entered by three pa.s.sages, each about six feet wide. All the doors are on the inside of the circle, and the level area within was common for the diversion of the people. In the centre was a large stump of a tree, on which the head men stood when making a speech. The women bound their infants to a board cut in the shape of the child; the top of the board was round, and there was a hole for a string, by which it is hung to the limb of a tree, or to a pin in a post, and there swings and diverts himself out of harm's way. The Saponeys lived as lazily and as miserably as any people in the world. The boys with their bows shot at the eye of an axe, set up at twenty yards distance, and the governor rewarded their skill with knives and looking-gla.s.ses. They also danced the war-dance; after which the governor treated them to a luncheon, which they devoured with animal avidity.

FOOTNOTES:

[384:A] Keith's Hist of Va., 173.

[384:B] Huguenot Family, 271, and map opposite page 357. The names on this little map, taken from a letter by Peter Fontaine, are reversed, by mistake of the engraver.

[384:C] State and Condition of Virginia.

[384:D] Rev. C. Griffin's Letter, in Bishop Meade's Old Churches, etc., i. 287.

[385:A] Huguenot Family, 272.

CHAPTER LI.

1716.

Spotswood's Tramontane Expedition--His Companions--Details of the Exploration--They cross the Blue Ridge--The Tramontane Order--The Golden Horseshoe.

IT was in the year 1716 that Spotswood made the first complete discovery of a pa.s.sage over the Blue Ridge of mountains. Robert Beverley, in the preface to the second edition of his "History of Virginia," published at London in 1722, says: "I was with the present governor[387:A] at the head-spring of both those rivers,[387:B] and their fountains are in the highest ridge of mountains." The governor, accompanied by John Fontaine, who had been an ensign in the British army, and who had recently come over to Virginia, started from Williamsburg, on his expedition over the Appalachian Mountains, as they were then called. Having crossed the York River at the Brick-house, they lodged that night at the seat of Austin Moore, now Chelsea, on the Matapony River, a few miles above its junction with the Pamunkey. On the following night they were hospitably entertained by Robert Beverley, the historian, at his residence in Middles.e.x. The governor left his chaise there, and mounted his horse for the rest of the journey; and Beverley accompanied him in the exploration. Proceeding along the Rappahannock they came to the Germantown, ten miles below the falls, where they halted for some days.

On the twenty-sixth of August Spotswood was joined here by several gentlemen, two small companies of rangers, and four Meherrin Indians.

The gentlemen of the party appear to have been Spotswood, Fontaine, Beverley, Colonel Robertson, Austin Smith, who returned home owing to a fever, Todd, Dr. Robinson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and Captains Clouder and Smith. The whole number of the party, including gentlemen, rangers, pioneers, Indians, and servants, was probably about fifty. They had with them a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors. Having had their horses shod, they left Germantown on the twenty-ninth of August, and encamped that night three miles from Germanna. The camps were named respectively after the gentlemen of the expedition, the first one being called "Camp Beverley," where "they made great fires, supped, and drank good punch."

Aroused in the morning by the trumpet, they proceeded westward, each day being diversified by the incidents and adventures of exploration. Some of the party encountered hornets; others were thrown from their horses; others killed rattlesnakes. Deer and bears were shot, and the venison and bear-meat were roasted before the fire upon wooden forks. At night they lay on the boughs of trees under tents. At the head of the Rappahannock they admired the rich virgin soil, the luxuriant gra.s.s, and the heavy timber of primitive forests. Thirty-six days after Spotswood had set out from Williamsburg, and on the fifth day of September, 1716, a clear day, at about one o'clock, he and his party, after a toilsome ascent, reached the top of the mountain. It is difficult to ascertain at what point they ascended, but probably it was Swift Run Gap.

As the company wound along, in perspective caravan line, through the shadowy defiles, the trumpet for the first time awoke the echoes of the mountains, and from the summit Spotswood and his companions beheld with rapture the boundless panorama that lay spread out before them, far as the eye could reach, robed in misty splendor. Here they drank the health of King George the First, and all the royal family. The highest summit was named by Spotswood Mount George, in honor of his majesty, and the gentlemen of the expedition, in honor of the governor, named the next in height, Mount Spotswood, according to Fontaine, and Mount Alexander, according to the Rev. Hugh Jones.[388:A] The explorers were on the water-shed, two streams rising there, the one flowing eastward and the other westward. Several of the company were desirous of returning, but the governor persuaded them to continue on. Descending the western side of the mountain, and proceeding about seven miles farther, they reached the Shenandoah, which they called the Euphrates, and encamped by the side of it. They observed trees blazed by the Indians, and the tracks of elks and buffaloes, and their lairs. They noticed a vine bearing a sort of wild cuc.u.mber, and a shrub with a fruit like the currant, and ate very good wild grapes. This place was called Spotswood Camp. The river was found fordable at one place, eighty yards wide in the narrowest part, and running north. It was here that the governor undertook to engrave the king's name on a rock, and not on Mount George.

Finding a ford they crossed the river, and this was the extreme point which the governor reached westward. Recrossing the river, some of the party using gra.s.shoppers for bait, caught perch and chub fish; others went a hunting and killed deer and turkeys. Fontaine carved his name on a tree by the river-side; and the governor buried a bottle with a paper inclosed, on which he wrote that he took possession for King George the First of England. Dining here they fired volleys, and drank healths, they having on this occasion a variety of liquors--Virginia red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two kinds of rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, cider, etc. On the seventh the rangers proceeded on a farther exploration, and the rest of the company set out on their return homeward. Governor Spotswood arrived at Williamsburg on the seventeenth of September, after an absence of about six weeks.

The distance which they had gone was reckoned two hundred and nineteen miles, and the whole, going and returning, four hundred and thirty-eight. "For this expedition," says the Rev. Hugh Jones, "they were obliged to provide a great quant.i.ty of horseshoes, things seldom used in the eastern parts of Virginia, where there are no stones. Upon which account the governor upon his return presented each of his companions with a golden horseshoe, some of which I have seen covered with valuable stones resembling heads of nails, with the inscription on one side, 'Sic juvat transcendere montes.' This he inst.i.tuted to encourage gentlemen to venture backward and make discoveries and settlements, any gentleman being ent.i.tled to wear this golden horseshoe on the breast who could prove that he had drank his majesty's health on Mount George." Spotswood inst.i.tuted the Tramontane Order for this purpose; but it appears to have soon fallen through. According to Chalmers, the British government penuriously refused to pay the cost of the golden horseshoes. A novel called the "Knight of the Horseshoe," by Dr. William A. Caruthers, derives its name and subject from Spotswood's exploit.[390:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[387:A] Spotswood.

[387:B] York and Rappahannock.

[388:A] He says that Spotswood graved the king's name on a rock on Mount George; but, according to Fontaine, "the governor had graving-irons, but could not grave anything, the stones were so hard."

[390:A] Memoirs of a Huguenot Family, 281, 292; Introduction to Randolph's edition of Beverley's Hist. of Va., 5; Rev. Hugh Jones'

Present State of Virginia. The miniature horseshoe that had belonged to Spotswood, according to a descendant of his, the late Mrs. Susan Bott, of Petersburg, who had seen it, was small enough to be worn on a watch-chain. Some of them were set with jewels. One of these horseshoes is said to be still preserved in the family of Brooke. A bit of colored gla.s.s, apparently the stopper of a small bottle, with a horseshoe stamped on it, was dug up some years ago in the yard at Chelsea, in King William County, the residence of Governor Spotswood's eldest daughter.

CHAPTER LII.

1715-1718.

Condition of the Colonies--South Carolina appeals to Virginia for Succor against the Indians--Proceedings of the Council and the a.s.sembly--Disputes between them--Dissensions of Governor and Burgesses--He dissolves them--Blackbeard, the Pirate-- Maynard's Engagement with him--His Death.

THE twenty-five counties of the Ancient Dominion were under a government consisting of a governor and twelve councillors appointed by the king, and fifty burgesses elected by the freeholders. The permanent revenue, established at the restoration, now amounted to four thousand pounds sterling, and this sum proving inadequate to the public expenditure, the deficit was eked out by three hundred pounds drawn from the quit-rents--private property of the king. Relieved from the dangers of Indian border warfare, and blessed with the able administration of Governor Spotswood, Virginia, under the tranquil reign of the first George, advanced in commerce, population, wealth, and power, more rapidly than any of her sister colonies.

A few of the princ.i.p.al families affected to establish an aristocracy or oligarchy, and Spotswood, at his first arrival, discovered that it was necessary "to have a balance on the Bench and the Board." He subsequently warned the ministers, "that a party was so encouraged by their success in removing former governors, that they are resolved no one shall sit easy who doth not entirely submit to their dictates; this is the case at present, and will continue, unless a stop is put to their growing power, to whom not any one particular governor, but government itself, is equally disagreeable."

At a council held at Williamsburg on the 26th day of May, 1715, the governor presented a letter, received by express, from Governor Craven, of South Carolina, representing the deplorable condition of that colony from the murderous inroads of the Indians, the several tribes having confederated together and threatened the total destruction of the inhabitants, and requesting a supply of arms and ammunition. The council unanimously agreed to the request, and, conceiving that Virginia was also in imminent danger of invasion, desired the Indian Company to take from the magazine so much ammunition as was necessary for South Carolina, and to return the same "by the first conveniency, that so this colony may not be unprovided for its necessary defence." It was further ordered, that the governors of Maryland, New York, and New England, be exhorted to send s.h.i.+ps of war to Charleston, and that the governor of South Carolina be invited to send hither their women and children, and such other persons as are useless in the war. Three pieces of cannon were sent to Christanna, and ammunition to Germanna, these being the two frontier settlements. Colonel Nathaniel Harrison was empowered to disarm the Nottoway Indians.

In June, upon the application of the governor of North Carolina for preventing the inhabitants of that province from deserting it in that time of danger, a proclamation was issued by Governor Spotswood ordering all persons coming thence, without a pa.s.sport, to be arrested and sent back.

A letter from the governor of South Carolina, brought by Arthur Middleton, Esq., requested a.s.sistance of men from Virginia. South Carolina proposed, in order to pay the men, to send to Virginia slaves to the number of the volunteers, to work on the plantations for their benefit. The council unanimously resolved to comply with the request, and to defray the charges incurred until the men should arrive in South Carolina, and for this purpose the governor and council agreed to postpone the payment of their own salaries. It was ordered that a party of Nottoway and Meherrin Indians should be sent to the a.s.sistance of the South Carolinians. An a.s.sembly was summoned to meet on the third of August. The duty of five pounds on slaves imported was suspended for the benefit of planters sending their slaves from South Carolina to Virginia as a place of safety. The contract entered into on this occasion between the two provinces, for the raising of forces, was styled "A treaty made between this government and the Province of South Carolina." Early in July, Spotswood dispatched a number of men and arms.

The king of the Saran Indians visited Williamsburg, and agreed to bring chiefs of the Catawbas and Cherokees to treat of peace, and to aid in cutting off the Yamasees and other enemies of South Carolina.

The a.s.sembly met on the 3d of August, 1715, being the first year of the reign of George the First. The members of the council were Robert Carter, James Blair, Philip Ludwell, John Smith, John Lewis, William c.o.c.ke, Nathaniel Harrison, Mann Page, and Robert Porteus, Esquires.

Daniel McCarty, Esq., of Westmoreland, was elected speaker of the house of burgesses. The governor announced in his speech that the object of the session was to secure Virginia against the murders, ma.s.sacres, and tortures of Indian invasion, and to succor South Carolina in her distress, and he made known his desire to treat with the Indian chiefs who were expected, at the head of a body of men, on the frontiers. The burgesses expressed their hope that as the people of Virginia were so unable to afford supplies, the king would supply the deficiency out of his quit-rents, and requested further information as to the treaty made with South Carolina, and the aid required. A bill was introduced in the house for amending an act for preventing frauds in tobacco payments, and improving the staple. The burgesses requested the governor's a.s.sistance in arresting Richard Littlepage and Thomas b.u.t.ts, who defied their authority. It appears that these gentlemen, being justices of the peace, sitting in the court of claims, in which the people presented their grievances, had refused to certify some such as being false and seditious. The governor refused to aid in enforcing the warrant. The house sent up a bill making a small appropriation for the succor of South Carolina, but clogged with the repeal of parts of the tobacco act, and the council rejected it, "the tacking things of a different nature to a money bill" being "an encroachment on the privileges of the council."

A controversy next ensued between the council and the house as to the power of redressing the grievances of the people. A dispute also occurred between the governor and the burgesses relative to the removal of the court of James City County from Jamestown to Williamsburg. The governor said: "After five years' residence upon the borders of James City County, I think it hard I may not be allowed to be as good a judge as Mr. Marable's rabble, of a proper place for the court-house."

The burgesses declared their sympathy with the suffering Carolinians, but insisted upon the extreme poverty of the people of Virginia, and so excused themselves for clogging the appropriation bill with the repeal of parts of the tobacco act, their object being by one act to relieve Virginia and succor Carolina. Governor Spotswood, in his reply, remarked: "When you speak of poverty and engagements, you argue as if you knew the state of your own country no better than you do that of others, for as I, that have had the honor to preside for some years past over this government, do positively deny that any public engagements have drawn any more wealth out of this colony than what many a single person in it has on his own account expended in the time, so I do a.s.sert that there is scarce a country of its figure in the Christian world less burdened with public taxes. If yourselves sincerely believe that it is reduced to the last degree of poverty, I wonder the more that you should reject propositions for lessening the charges of a.s.semblies; that you should expel gentlemen out of your house for only offering to serve their counties upon their own expense, and that while each day of your sitting is so costly to your country, you should spend time so fruitlessly, for now, after a session of twenty-five days, three bills only have come from your house, and even some of these framed as if you did not expect they should pa.s.s into acts."

On the seventh day of September the council sent to the burgesses a review of some of their resolutions reflecting upon them, and the governor, and the preceding a.s.sembly. This review is able and severe. On this day the governor dissolved the a.s.sembly, after a speech no less able, and still more severe. After animadverting upon the proceedings of the house at length, and paying a high tribute to the merit of the council, the governor concludes thus:--[394:A]

"But to be plain with you, the true interest of your country is not what you have troubled your heads about. All your proceedings have been calculated to answer the notions of the ignorant populace, and if you can excuse yourselves to them, you matter not how you stand before G.o.d, your prince, and all judicious men, or before any others to whom you think you owe not your elections. The new short method you have fallen upon to clear your conduct by your own resolves, will prove the censure to be just, for I appeal to all rational men who shall read the a.s.sembly journals, as well of the last session as of this, whether some of your resolves of your house of the second instant are not as wide from truth and fair reasoning as others are from good manners. In fine, I cannot but attribute these miscarriages to the people's mistaken choice of a set of representatives, whom Heaven has not generally endowed with the ordinary qualifications requisite to legislators, for I observe that the grand ruling party in your house has not furnished chairmen for two of your standing committees[395:A] who can spell English or write common sense, as the grievances under their own handwriting will manifest.

And to keep such an a.s.sembly on foot would be the discrediting a country that has many able and worthy gentlemen in it. And therefore I now dissolve you."

These proceedings throw light on the practical working of the colonial government, of the vigorous and haughty spirit of Spotswood, who was not surpa.s.sed in ability or in character by any of the colonial governors, and of the liberty-loving but factious house of burgesses. They also exhibit the critical condition of South Carolina, and the imminent danger of Virginia at that period. On this last point Chalmers fell into an error, in stating that the Indians then had ceased to be objects of dread in Virginia.

The a.s.sembly, as has been seen, expelled two burgesses for serving without compensation, which they stigmatized as tantamount to bribery--thus seeming indirectly to charge bribery upon the members of the British house of commons, who receive no per diem compensation.

After five weeks spent in fruitless altercations, Spotswood, conceiving the a.s.sembly to be actuated by factious motives, dissolved them with harsh and contemptuous expressions, offending the spirit of the burgesses. He had previously wounded the pride of the council, long the oligarchy of the Old Dominion, when "colonel, and member of his majesty's council of Virginia," was a sort of provincial t.i.tle of n.o.bility. Frequent anonymous letters were now transmitted to England, inveighing against Spotswood. While the board of trade commended his general conduct, they reproved him for the offensive language which he had used in his speech to the burgesses, "who, though mean, ignorant people, and did not comply with his desires, ought not to have been irritated by sharp expressions, which may not only incense them, but even their electors." In other points, Spotswood vindicated himself with vigor and success, and he insisted "that some men are always dissatisfied, like the tories, if they are not allowed to govern; men who look upon every one not born in the country as a foreigner."

When, in 1717, the ancient laws of the colony were revised, the acts of 1663, for preventing the recovery of foreign debts, and prohibiting the a.s.semblage of Quakers, and that of 1676, (one of Bacon's laws,) excluding from office all persons who had not resided for three years in Virginia, were repealed by the king.

John Teach, a pirate, commonly called Blackbeard, in the year 1718 established his rendezvous at the mouth of Pamlico River, in North Carolina. He surrendered himself to Governor Eden, (who was suspected of being in collusion with him,) and took the oath of allegiance, in order to avail himself of a proclamation of pardon offered by the king.