History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia Part 4

During this time, Scrivener, misled by letters received from England, began to grow ambitious of supplanting Smith, who was cordially attached to him; and setting out from Jamestown for Hog Island, on a stormy day, in company of Captain Waldo, Anthony Gosnold, and eight others, the boat was sunk and all were lost. When no one else could be found willing to convey this intelligence to Smith, Richard Wyffin volunteered to undertake it. At Werowocomoco he was s.h.i.+elded from danger by Pocahontas, who, in every emergency, still proved herself the tutelary angel of the colony. Wyffin having overtaken Smith at Pamunkey, he concealed the news of the recent disaster from his party, and, releasing Opechancanough, returned down the river. On the following morning, a little after sunrise, the bank of the river swarmed with Indians, unarmed, carrying baskets, to tempt Smith ash.o.r.e, under pretence of trade. Smith, landing with Percy and two others, was received by Powhatan at the head of two or three hundred warriors formed in two crescents; some twenty men and a number of women carrying painted baskets. Smith attempted to inveigle Powhatan into an ambuscade, but the savages, on a nearer approach, discovering the English with arms in their hands, fled. However, the natives, some days afterwards, from all parts of the country, within a circuit of ten or twelve miles, in the snow brought, on their naked backs, corn for Smith's party.

Smith next went up the Youghtanund (now Pamunkey) and the Matapony. On the banks of this little river the poor Indians gave up their scanty store of corn with such tears and lamentations of women and children as touched the hearts of the English with compa.s.sion.[72:A]

Returning, he descended the York as far as Werowocomoco, intending to surprise Powhatan there, and thus secure a further supply of corn; but Powhatan had abandoned his new house, and had carried away all his corn and provisions; and Smith, with his party, returned to Jamestown. In this expedition, with twenty-five pounds of copper and fifty pounds of iron, and some beads, he procured, in exchange, two hundred pounds of deer suet, and delivered to the Cape-merchant four hundred and seventy-nine bushels of corn.

At Jamestown the provision of the public store had been spoiled by exposure to the rain of the previous summer, or eaten by rats and worms.

The colonists had been living there in indolence, and a large part of their implements and arms had been trafficked away to the Indians. Smith undertook to remedy these disorders by discipline and labor, relieved by pastimes and recreations; and he established it as a rule, that he who would not work, should not eat. The whole government of the colony was now, in effect, devolved upon him--Captain Wynne being the only other surviving councillor, and the president having two votes. Shortly after Smith's return, he met the Chief of Paspahegh near Jamestown, and had a rencontre with him. This athletic savage attempting to shoot him, he closed and grappled, when, by main strength, the chief forced him into the river to drown him. They struggled long in the water, until Smith, grasping the savage by the throat, well-nigh strangled him, and, drawing his sword, was about to cut off his head, when he begged for his life so piteously that Smith spared him, and led him prisoner to Jamestown, where he put him in chains. He was daily visited by his wives, and children, and people, who brought presents to ransom him. At last he made his escape. Captain Wynne and Lieutenant Percy were dispatched, with a party of fifty, to recapture him, failing in which they burned the chief's cabin, and carried away his canoes. Smith now going out to "try his conclusions" with "the salvages," slew some, and made some prisoners, burned their cabins, and took their canoes and fis.h.i.+ng weirs.

Shortly afterwards the president, pa.s.sing through Paspahegh, on his way to the Chickahominy, was a.s.saulted by the Indians; but, upon his firing, and their discovering who he was, they threw down their arms, and sued for peace. Okaning, a young warrior, who spoke in their behalf, in justifying the escape of their chief from imprisonment at Jamestown, said: "The fishes swim, the fowls fly, and the very beasts strive to escape the snare, and live." Smith's vigorous measures, together with some accidental circ.u.mstances, dismayed the savages, that from this time to the end of his administration, they gave no further trouble.

A block-house was now built in the neck of the Jamestown Peninsula; and it was guarded by a garrison, who alone were authorized to trade with the Indians; and neither Indians nor whites were suffered to pa.s.s in or out without the president's leave. Thirty or forty acres of land were planted with corn; twenty additional houses were built; the hogs were kept at Hog Island, and increased rapidly; and poultry was raised without the necessity of feeding. A block-house was garrisoned at Hog Island for the purpose of telegraphing s.h.i.+pping arrived in the river.

Captain Wynne, sole surviving councillor, dying, the whole government devolved upon Smith. He built a fort, as a place of refuge in case of being compelled to retreat from Jamestown, on a convenient river, upon a high commanding hill, very hard to be a.s.saulted, and easy of defence.

But the scarcity of provisions prevented its completion.[74:A] This is, no doubt, the diminutive structure known as "the Old Stone House," in James City County, on Ware Creek, a tributary of York River. It stands about five miles from the mouth of the creek, and twenty-two from Jamestown. It is built of sandstone found on the bank of the creek, and without mortar. The walls and chimney still remain. This miniature fortress is eighteen and a half feet by fifteen in size, and consists of a bas.e.m.e.nt under ground, and one story above. On one side is a doorway, six feet wide, giving entrance to both apartments. The walls are pierced with loop-holes, and the masonry is exact. This little fort stands in a wilderness, on a high, steep bluff, at the foot of which Ware Creek meanders. The Old Stone House is approached only by a long, narrow ridge, surrounded by gloomy forests and dark ravines overgrown with ivy.

It is the oldest house in Virginia; and its age and sequestered situation have connected with it fanciful stories of Smith and Pocahontas, and the hidden treasures of the pirate Blackbeard.

The store of provisions at Jamestown was so wasted by rats, introduced by the vessels, that all the works of the colonists were brought to an end, and they were employed only in procuring food. Two Indians that had been some time before captured by Smith, had been until the present time kept fettered prisoners, but made to perform double tasks, and to instruct the settlers in the cultivation of corn. The prisoners were released for want of provision, but were so well satisfied as to remain.

For upwards of two weeks the Indians from the surrounding country supplied the colony daily with squirrels, turkeys, deer, and other game, while the rivers afforded an abundance of wild-fowl. Smith also bought from Powhatan half of his stock of corn. But, nevertheless, it was found necessary to distribute the settlers in different parts of the country to procure subsistence. Sergeant Laxon, with sixty or eighty of them, was sent down the river to live upon oysters; Lieutenant Percy with twenty, to find fish at Point Comfort; West, brother of Lord Delaware, with an equal number, repaired to the falls, where, however, nothing edible was found but a few acorns. Hitherto the whole body of the colonists had been provided for by the courage and industry of some thirty or forty.

The main article of their diet was, for a time, sturgeon, an abundant supply of which was procured during the season. It not only served for meat, but when dried and pounded, and mixed with herbs, supplied the place of bread. Of the spontaneous productions of the soil, the princ.i.p.al article of sustenance was the tuckahoe-root, of which one man could gather enough in a day to supply him with bread for a week. The tockawhoughe, as it is called by Smith, was, in the summer, a princ.i.p.al article of diet among the natives. It grows in marshes like a flag, and resembles, somewhat, the potato in size and flavor. Raw it is no better than poison, so that the Indians were accustomed to roast it, and eat it mixed with sorel and corn-meal.[75:A] There is another root found in Virginia called tuckahoe, and confounded with the flag-like root described above, and erroneously supposed by many to grow without stem or leaf. It appears to be of the convolvulus species, and is entirely unlike the root eaten by the Jamestown settlers.[75:B]

Such was the indolence of the greater number of the colonists, that it seemed as if they would sooner starve than take the trouble of procuring food; and at length their mutinous discontents arose to such a pitch that Smith arrested the ringleader of the malecontents, and ordered that whoever failed to provide daily as much food as he should consume, should be banished from Jamestown as a drone. Of the two hundred settlers, many were billeted among the Indians, and thus became familiar with their habits and manner of life.

Sicklemore, who had been dispatched to Chowanock, returned, after a fruitless search for Sir Walter Raleigh's people. He found the Chowan River not large; the country generally overgrown with pines; pemminaw, or silk-gra.s.s growing here and there. Two other messengers, sent to the country of the Mangoags in quest of the lost settlers, learned that they were all dead. Guides had been supplied by the hospitable chief of the Quiyoughcohannocks to convoy the messengers. This chief was of all others most friendly to the whites; although a superst.i.tious wors.h.i.+pper of his own G.o.ds, yet he acknowledged that they were as inferior to the English G.o.d in power as the bow and arrow were inferior to the English gun; and he often sent presents to Smith, begging him "to pray to the English G.o.d for rain, else his corn would perish, for his G.o.ds were angry."

The Virginia Company in England, mainly intent on pecuniary gain and quick returns, were discouraged by the disasters that had befallen the colony, and disappointed in their visionary hopes of the discovery of gold mines, and of a pa.s.sage to the South Sea. They therefore took measures to procure from King James a new charter, abrogating the existing one, and investing them with ampler powers. Having a.s.sociated with themselves a numerous body of additional stockholders, or adventurers, as they were then styled, including many persons of rank, and wealth, and influence, they succeeded in obtaining from the king a new charter, dated May 23d, 1609, transferring to the Company several important powers before reserved to the crown. By this charter the extent of Virginia was much enlarged, the eastern boundary being a line extending two hundred miles north of Point Comfort, and two hundred miles south of it, the northern and southern boundaries being parallels drawn through the extremities of the eastern boundary back to the South Sea or Pacific--the western boundary being the Pacific.

By the provisions of the new charter the Virginia Company became indeed apparently more independent and republican, but under the new system the governor of the colony was indued with arbitrary power, and authorized to declare martial-law; and the condition of the colonists became even worse than before. This sudden repeal of the former charter evinced an ingrat.i.tude for the services of Smith and his a.s.sociates, who, under it, had endured the toil, and privations, and dangers of the first settlement.

The Supreme Council in England, now chosen by the stockholders themselves, appointed Sir Thomas West, Lord Delaware, Governor and Captain-General of Virginia. He was the third Lord Delaware, and the present (1843) Earl Delaware, John George West, is his lineal descendant. Sir Thomas Gates was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and Sir George Somers, Admiral. Sir George was a member of Parliament, but upon being appointed to a colonial post his seat was declared vacant.

Nine vessels were speedily fitted out, with supplies of men and women, five hundred in number, and provisions and other stores for the colony.

Newport, who was entrusted with the command of the fleet, and Gates and Somers, were each severally authorized, whichever might happen first to reach Jamestown, to supersede the existing administration there until the arrival of Lord Delaware, who was not to embark for several months, and who did not reach Virginia until the lapse of more than a year. This abundant caution defeated itself, for Newport, and the lieutenant-governor, and the admiral, finding it impossible to adjust the point of precedence among themselves, embarked together by way of compromise, in the same vessel, the Sea-Venture.[77:A]

The expedition sailed from Plymouth toward the end of May, 1609, and going, contrary to instructions, by the old circuitous route, via the Canaries and the West Indies, late in July, when in lat.i.tude thirty degrees north, and, as was supposed, within eight days' sail of Virginia, they were caught "in the tail of a hurricane," blowing from the northeast, accompanied by an appalling darkness, that continued for forty-four hours. Some of the vessels lost their masts, some their sails blown from the yards, the sea breaking over the s.h.i.+ps.

"When rattling thunder ran along the clouds, Did not the sailors poor and masters proud A terror feel, as struck with fear of G.o.d?"[78:A]

A small vessel was lost, July twenty-fourth, and the Sea-Venture, with Newport, Gates, Somers, and one hundred and fifty settlers, destined for Virginia, was separated from the other vessels of the expedition. The other vessels, shattered by the storm, and having suffered the loss of the greater portion of their supplies, and many of their number by sickness, at length reached Jamestown in August, 1609. They brought back Ratcliffe, or Sicklemore, who had been remanded to England on account of his mutinous conduct, also Martin and Archer, together with sundry other captains, and divers gentlemen of good means and high birth, and about three hundred settlers, the greater part of them profligate youths, packed off from home to escape ill destinies, broken-down gentlemen, bankrupt tradesmen, and the like, "decayed tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and long peace."

Upon the appearance of this fleet near Jamestown, Smith, not expecting such a supply, took them to be Spaniards, and prepared to encounter them, and the Indians readily offered their a.s.sistance. The colony had already, before the arrival of the fleet, been threatened with anarchy, owing to intelligence of the premature repeal of the charter, brought out by Captain Argall, and the new settlers had now no sooner landed than they gave rise to new confusion and disorder. The factious leaders, although they brought no commission with them, insisted on the abrogation of the existing charter, rejected the authority of Smith, whom they hated and feared, and undertook to usurp the government. Their capricious folly equalled their insolence; to-day the old commission must rule, to-morrow the new, the next day neither--thus, by continual change, plunging all things into anarchy.

Smith, filled with disgust, would cheerfully have embarked for England, but seeing little prospect of the arrival of the new commission, (which was in the possession of Gates on the Island of Bermudas,) he resolved to put an end to these incessant plots and machinations. The ringleaders, Ratcliffe, Archer, and others, he arrested; to cut off another source of disturbance, he gave permission to Percy, who was in feeble health, to embark for England, of which, however, he did not avail himself. West, with one hundred and twenty picked men, was detached to the falls of James River, and Martin, with nearly the same number, to Nansemond. Smith's presidency having expired about this time, he had been succeeded by Martin, who, conscious of his incompetency, had immediately resigned it to Smith. Martin, at Nansemond, seized the chief, and, capturing the town, occupied it with his detachment; but owing to want of judgment, or of vigilance, he suffered himself to be surprised by the savages, who slew many of his party, rescued the chief, and carried off their corn. Martin not long after returned to Jamestown, leaving his detachment to s.h.i.+ft for themselves.

Smith going up the river to West's settlement at the falls, found the English planted in a place not only subject to the river's inundation, but "surrounded by many intolerable inconveniences." To remedy these, by a messenger he proposed to purchase from Powhatan his seat of that name, a little lower down the river. The settlers scornfully rejected the scheme, and became so mutinous that Smith landed among them and arrested the chief malcontents. But overpowered by numbers, being supported by only five men, he was forced to retire on board of a vessel lying in the river. The Indians daily supplied him with provisions, in requital for which the English plundered their corn, robbed their cultivated ground, beat them, broke into their cabins, and made them prisoners. They complained to Captain Smith that the men whom he had sent there as their protectors, "were worse than their old enemies, the Monacans." Smith embarking, had no sooner set sail for Jamestown than many of West's party were slain by the savages.

It so happened, that before Smith's vessel had dropped a mile and a half down the river, she ran aground, whereupon, making a virtue of necessity, he summoned the mutineers to a parley, and they, now seized with a panic, on account of the a.s.sault of a mere handful of Indians, submitted themselves to his mercy. He again arrested the ringleaders, and established the rest of the party at Powhatan, in the Indian palisade fort, which was so well fortified by poles and bark as to defy all the savages in Virginia. Dry cabins were also found there, and nearly two hundred acres of ground ready to be planted, and it was called Nonsuch, as being at once the strongest and most delightful place in the country. Nonsuch was the name of a royal residence in England.

When Smith was now on the eve of his departure, the arrival of West again threw all things aback into confusion. Nonsuch was abandoned, and all hands returned to the falls, and Smith, finding all his efforts abortive, embarked in a boat for Jamestown. During the voyage he was terribly wounded while asleep, by the accidental explosion of a bag of gunpowder, and in the paroxysm of pain he leapt into the river, and was well-nigh drowned before his companions could rescue him. Arriving at Jamestown in this helpless condition, he was again a.s.sailed by faction and mutiny, and one of his enemies even presented a c.o.c.ked pistol at him in his bed; but the hand wanted the nerve to execute what the heart was base enough to design.

Ratcliffe, Archer, and their confederates, laid plans to usurp the government of the colony, whereupon Smith's faithful soldiers, fired with indignation at conduct so infamous, begged for permission to strike off their heads; but this he refused. He refused also to surrender the presidency to Percy. For this, Smith is censured by the historian St.i.th, who yet acknowledges that Percy was in too feeble health to control a mutinous colony. Anarchy being triumphant, Smith probably deemed it useless to appoint a governor over a mob. He at last, about Michaelmas, 1609, embarked for England, after a stay of a little more than two years in Virginia,[80:A] to which he never returned.

Here, then, closes the career of Captain John Smith in Virginia, "the father of the colony," and a hero like Bayard, "without fear and without reproach." One of his comrades, in deploring his departure, describes him as one who, in all his actions, made justice and prudence his guides, abhorring baseness, idleness, pride, and injustice; that in no danger would he send others where he would not lead them himself; that would never see his men want what he had, or could by any means procure; that would rather want than borrow, and rather starve than not pay; that loved action more than words, and hated falsehood and avarice worse than death; "whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss our deaths."

Another of his soldiers said of him:--

"I never knew a warrior but thee, From wine, tobacco, debts, dice, oaths, so free."

From the time of Smith's departure from Virginia to the year 1614, little is known of him. In that year he made his first voyage to New England. In the following year, after many disappointments, sailing again in a small vessel for that country, after a running fight with, and narrow escape from, two French privateers, near Fayal, he was captured, near Flores, by a half-piratical French squadron. After long detention he was carried to Roch.e.l.le, in France, and there charged with having burned Port Royal, in New France, which act had been committed by Captain Argall. Smith, at length, at the utmost hazard, escaped from his captors, and being a.s.sisted by several of the inhabitants of Roch.e.l.le, especially by Madame Chanoyes, he was enabled to return to England. The protective sympathy exhibited toward him, at several critical conjunctures, is thus mentioned in some complimentary verses prefixed to his History of Virginia:--

"Tragabigzanda, Callamata's love, Deare Pocahontas, Madam Shanoi's too, Who did what love with modesty could do."

In 1616 Smith published his "Description of New England," composed while he was a prisoner on board of the French piratical vessel, in order, as he says, to keep his perplexed thoughts from too much meditation on his miserable condition. The Plymouth Company now conferred upon him the t.i.tle of Admiral of New England. It was during this year that Pocahontas visited England. After this time, Smith never again visited America.

When, in 1622, the news of the ma.s.sacre reached England, he proposed to come over to Virginia with a proper force to reduce the savages to subjection, but his proposal was not accepted. Captain Smith received little or no recompense for his colonial discoveries, labors, and sacrifices; and after having spent five years, and more than five hundred pounds, in the service of Virginia and New England, he complains that in neither of those countries has he one foot of land, nor even the house that he built, nor the ground that he cultivated with his own hands, nor even any content or satisfaction at all, while he beheld those countries bestowed upon men who neither could have them, nor even know of them but by his descriptions. It is remarkable that in his "Newes from Virginia," published in 1608, no allusion is made to his rescue by Pocahontas. In 1612 appeared his work ent.i.tled "A Map of Virginia, with a Description of the Country, Commodities, People, Government, and Religion, etc.," and in 1620, "New England Trials." In 1626 was published his "General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles," the greater part of which had already been published in 1625, by Purchas, in his "Pilgrim." The second and sixth books of this history were composed by Smith himself; the third was compiled by Rev. William Simons, Doctor of Divinity, and the rest by Smith from the letters and journals of about thirty different writers. During the year 1625 he published "An Accidence, or the Pathway to Experience necessary for all young Seamen," and in 1627 "A Sea Grammar." In 1630 he gave to the public "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, from 1593 to 1629."

This work, together with "The General History," was republished by Rev.

Dr. John H. Rice, in 1819, at Richmond, Virginia. The copy is exact and complete, except some maps and engravings of but little value. The obsolete orthography and typography of the work confines it to a limited circle of readers. It is now out of print and rare. In 1631 Smith published "Advertis.e.m.e.nts for the unexperienced planters of New England, or anywhere," etc., said to be the most elaborate of his productions.

The learned, judicious, and accurate historian, Grahame, considers Smith's writings on colonization, superior to those of Lord Bacon. At the time of his death, Smith was engaged in composing a "History of the Sea." So famous was he in his own day, that he complains of some extraordinary incidents in his life having been _mis_represented on the stage. He was gifted by nature with a person and address of singular fascination. He married, and the author of a recent interesting English book of travels, a lineal descendant, refers with just pride to his distinguished ancestor: "On the upper waters of the Alt, near the celebrated Rothen Thurm, (or Red Tower,) several severe engagements ushered in the seventeenth century. It was at this time that the wave of Mohammedan conquest rolled on, and broke over Hungary, Transylvania, and Wallachia, and, whether advancing or retiring, swept those unfortunate lands with equal severity. Sigismund Bathori, after holding his own for awhile in Transylvania against the emperor, was obliged to succ.u.mb; the Voyvode of Wallachia, appointed by the Porte, aroused, by his cruelties, an insurrection against him, and the moment appeared favorable for thrusting back the Turkish power beyond the Danube. The Austrian party not only appointed a new Voyvode, but marched a large army, chiefly Hungarian, into the country, and were at first victorious, in a well-contested battle. But, at length, between the river and the heights of the Rothen Thurm range, the Christian army was attacked with impetuosity by a far greater number, composed princ.i.p.ally of Tartars, and was entirely cut to pieces. In this catastrophe several English officers, serving with the Hungarian army, were slain; and _an ancestor of the author's_, who was left for dead on the field, after describing this 'dismall battell,' gives their names, and observes that 'they did what men could do, and when they could do no more, left there their bodies in testimony of their mind.'"[83:A]

Captain John Smith died at London, 1631, in the fifty-second year of his age. He was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, Skinner Street, London; and from Stowe's Survey of London, printed in 1633, it appears there was a tablet erected to his memory in that church, inscribed with his motto, "Vincere est vivere," and the following epitaph:--

Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings, Subdued large territories, and done things Which, to the world, impossible would seem, But that the truth is held in more esteem.

Shall I report his former service done In honor of G.o.d and Christendom, How that he did divide from pagans three Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry; For which great service, in that climate done, Brave Sigismundus, (King of Hungarion,) Did give him a coat of arms to wear, Those conquered heads got by his sword and spear?

Or shall I tell of his adventures since Done in Virginia, that large continent, How that he subdued kings unto his yoke, And made those heathens fly as wind doth smoke, And made their land, being of so large a station, A habitation for our Christian nation, Where G.o.d is glorified, their wants supplied, Which else for necessaries might have died?

But what avails his conquest? now he lies Interred in earth, a prey for worms and flies.

O may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep, Return to judgment, and that after thence With angels he may have his recompense.

The tablet was destroyed by the great fire in the year 1666, and all now remaining to the memory of Captain Smith is a large flat stone, in front of the communion-table, engraved with his coat of arms, upon which the three Turks' heads are still distinguishable.[84:A] The historian Grahame concludes a notice of him in these words: "But Smith's renown will break forth again, and once more be commensurate with his desert.

It will grow with the growth of men and letters in America, and whole nations of its admirers have yet to be born." A complete edition of his works would be a valuable addition to American historical literature.

The sculptor's art ought to present a fitting memorial of him and of Pocahontas, in the metropolis of Virginia.

FOOTNOTES:

[72:A] The word Matapony is said to signify "no bread at all." The four confluents of this river, on modern maps, are whimsically named Ma, Ta, Po, and Ny, being the four component syllables of the word. Captain Smith calls it the Matapanient.

[74:A] Smith, i. 227.

[75:A] Smith, i. 123; Beverley's Hist. of Va., iii. 15. I refer to the first edition of 1705, which does not differ materially from the second edition of 1722.

[75:B] Farmer's Register for April, 1839, ix. 3; Jefferson's Notes on Va., 33; Rees' Cyclopaedia, art. Tuckahoe; Fremont's Report, 135, 160.

[77:A] The following is a list of the vessels and their commanders: the Sea-Adventure, or Sea-Venture, Admiral Sir George Somers, with Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Christopher Newport; the Diamond, Captain Ratcliffe and Captain King; the Falcon, Captain Martin and Master Nelson; the Blessing, Gabriel Archer and Captain Adams; the Unity, Captain Wood and Master Pett; the Lion, Captain Webb; the Swallow, Captain Moon and Master Somers. There were also in company two smaller craft, a ketch and a pinnace.

[78:A] Smith's Hist of Va.

[80:A] Smith, i. 239.

[83:A] A Year with the Turks, by Warington W. Smyth, A.M., 27.

[84:A] G.o.dwin's Churches of London, i. 9.