The way was now prepared for the advent of Captain John Smith inVirginia. It is true that we cannot give him his own title of itsdiscoverer, but the plantation had been practically abandoned, allthe colonies had ended in disaster, all the governors and captainshad lacked the gift of perseverance or had been early drawn intoother adventures, wholly disposed, in the language of Captain JohnWhite, "to seek after purchase and spoils," and but for the energyand persistence of Captain Smith the expedition of 1606 might havehad no better fate. It needed a man of tenacious will to hold acolony together in one spot long enough to give it root. CaptainSmith was that man, and if we find him glorying in his exploits, andrepeating upon single big Indians the personal prowess thatdistinguished him in Transylvania and in the mythical Nalbrits, wehave only to transfer our sympathy from the Turks to theSasquesahanocks if the sense of his heroism becomes oppressive.
Upon the return of Samuel Mace, mariner, who was sent out in 1602 tosearch for White's lost colony, all Raleigh's interest in theVirginia colony had, by his attainder, escheated to the crown. Buthe never gave up his faith in Virginia: neither the failure of nineseveral expeditions nor twelve years imprisonment shook it. On theeve of his fall he had written, "I shall yet live to see it anEnglish nation:" and he lived to see his prediction come true.
The first or Virginian colony, chartered with the Plymouth colony inApril, 1606, was at last organized by the appointment of Sir ThomasSmith, the 'Chief of Raleigh's assignees, a wealthy London merchant,who had been ambassador to Persia, and was then, or shortly after,governor of the East India Company, treasurer and president of themeetings of the council in London; and by the assignment of thetransportation of the colony to Captain Christopher Newport, amariner of experience in voyages to the West Indies and in plunderingthe Spaniards, who had the power to appoint different captains andmariners, and the sole charge of the voyage. No local councilorswere named for Virginia, but to Captain Newport, Captain BartholomewGosnold, and Captain John Ratcliffe were delivered sealedinstructions, to be opened within twenty-four hours after theirarrival in Virginia, wherein would be found the names of the personsdesignated for the Council.
This colony, which was accompanied by the prayers and hopes ofLondon, left the Thames December 19, 1606, in three vessels--theSusan Constant, one hundred tons, Captain Newport, with seventy-onepersons; the God-Speed, forty tons, Captain Gosnold, with fifty-twopersons; and a pinnace of twenty tons, the Discovery, CaptainRatcliffe, with twenty persons. The Mercure Francais, Paris, 1619,says some of the passengers were women and children, but there isno other mention of women. Of the persons embarked, one hundred andfive were planters, the rest crews. Among the planters were EdwardMaria Wingfield, Captain John Smith, Captain John Martin, CaptainGabriel Archer, Captain George Kendall, Mr. Robert Hunt, preacher,and Mr. George Percie, brother of the Earl of Northumberland,subsequently governor for a brief period, and one of the writers fromwhom Purchas compiled. Most of the planters were shipped asgentlemen, but there were four carpenters, twelve laborers, ablacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a bricklayer, a mason, a tailor, adrummer, and a chirurgeon.
The composition of the colony shows a serious purpose of settlement,since the trades were mostly represented, but there were too manygentlemen to make it a working colony. And, indeed, the gentlemen,like the promoters of the enterprise in London, were probably moresolicitous of discovering a passage to the South Sea, as the way toincrease riches, than of making a state. They were instructed toexplore every navigable river they might find, and to follow the mainbranches, which would probably lead them in one direction to the EastIndies or South Sea, and in the other to the Northwest Passage. Andthey were forcibly reminded that the way to prosper was to be of onemind, for their own and their country's good.
This last advice did not last the expedition out of sight of land.
They sailed from Blackwell, December 19, 1606, but were kept sixweeks on the coast of England by contrary winds. A crew of saintscabined in those little caravels and tossed about on that coast forsix weeks would scarcely keep in good humor. Besides, the positionof the captains and leaders was not yet defined. Factious quarrelsbroke out immediately, and the expedition would likely have broken upbut for the wise conduct and pious exhortations of Mr. Robert Hunt,the preacher. This faithful man was so ill and weak that it wasthought he could not recover, yet notwithstanding the stormy weather,the factions on board, and although his home was almost in sight,only twelve miles across the Downs, he refused to quit the ship. Hewas unmoved, says Smith, either by the weather or by "the scandalousimputations (of some few little better than atheists, of the greatestrank amongst us)." With "the water of his patience" and "his godlyexhortations" he quenched the flames of envy and dissension.
They took the old route by the West Indies. George Percy notes thaton the 12th of February they saw a blazing star, and presently. astorm. They watered at the Canaries, traded with savages at SanDomingo, and spent three weeks refreshing themselves among theislands. The quarrels revived before they reached the Canaries, andthere Captain Smith was seized and put in close confinement forthirteen weeks.
We get little light from contemporary writers on this quarrel. Smithdoes not mention the arrest in his "True Relation," but in his"General Historie," writing of the time when they had been six weeksin Virginia, he says: "Now Captain Smith who all this time from theirdeparture from the Canaries was restrained as a prisoner upon thescandalous suggestion of some of the chiefs (envying his repute) whofancied he intended to usurp the government, murder the Council, andmake himself King, that his confedcrates were dispersed in all threeships, and that divers of his confederates that revealed it, wouldaffirm it, for this he was committed a prisoner; thirteen weeks heremained thus suspected, and by that time they should return theypretended out of their commiserations, to refer him to the Council inEngland to receive a check, rather than by particulating his designsmake him so odious to the world, as to touch his life, or utterlyoverthrow his reputation. But he so much scorned their charity andpublically defied the uttermost of their cruelty, he wisely preventedtheir policies, though he could not suppress their envies, yet sowell he demeaned himself in this business, as all the company did seehis innocency, and his adversaries' malice, and those suborned toaccuse him accused his accusers of subornation; many untruths werealleged against him; but being apparently disproved, begot a generalhatred in the hearts of the company against such unjust Commanders,that the President was adjudged to give him L 200, so that all he hadwas seized upon, in part of satisfaction, which Smith presentlyreturned to the store for the general use of the colony."--Neither in Newport's "Relatyon" nor in Mr. Wingfield's "Discourse" isthe arrest mentioned, nor does Strachey speak of it.
About 1629, Smith, in writing a description of the Isle of Mevis(Nevis) in his "Travels and Adventures," says: "In this little [isle]
of Mevis, more than twenty years agone, I have remained a good timetogether, to wod and water--and refresh my men." It ischaracteristic of Smith's vivid imagination, in regard to his ownexploits, that he should speak of an expedition in which he had nocommand, and was even a prisoner, in this style: "I remained," and"my men." He goes on: "Such factions here we had as commonly attendsuch voyages, and a pair of gallows was made, but Captaine Smith, forwhom they were intended, could not be persuaded to use them; but notany one of the inventors but their lives by justice fell into hispower, to determine of at his pleasure, whom with much mercy hefavored, that most basely and unjustly would have betrayed him." Andit is true that Smith, although a great romancer, was oftenmagnanimous, as vain men are apt to be.
King James's elaborate lack of good sense had sent the expedition tosea with the names of the Council sealed up in a box, not to beopened till it reached its destination. Consequently there was norecognized authority. Smith was a young man of about twenty-eight,vain and no doubt somewhat "bumptious," and it is easy to believethat Wingfield and the others who felt his superior force andrealized his experience, honestly suspected him of designs againstthe expedition. He was the ablest man on board, and no doubt wasaware of it. That he was not only a born commander of men, but hadthe interest of the colony at heart, time was to show.
The voyagers disported themselves among the luxuries of the WestIndies. At Guadaloupe they found a bath so hot that they boiledtheir pork in it as well as over the fire. At the Island of Monacathey took from the bushes with their hands near two hogsheads full ofbirds in three or four hours. These, it is useless to say, wereprobably not the "barnacle geese" which the nautical travelers usedto find, and picture growing upon bushes and dropping from the eggs,when they were ripe, full-fledged into the water. The beasts werefearless of men. Wild birds and natives had to learn the whitesbefore they feared them.
"In Mevis, Mona, and the Virgin Isles," says the "General Historie,""we spent some time, where with a lothsome beast like a crocodile,called a gwayn [guana], tortoises, pellicans, parrots, and fishes, wefeasted daily."Thence they made sail-in search of Virginia, but the mariners losttheir reckoning for three days and made no land; the crews werediscomfited, and Captain Ratcliffe, of the pinnace, wanted to up helmand return to England. But a violent storm, which obliged them "tohull all night," drove them to the port desired. On the 26th ofApril they saw a bit of land none of them had ever seen before.
This, the first land they descried, they named Cape Henry, in honorof the Prince of Wales; as the opposite cape was called Cape Charles,for the Duke of York, afterwards Charles I. Within these capes theyfound one of the most pleasant places in the world, majesticnavigable rivers, beautiful mountains, hills, and plains, and afruitful and delightsome land.
Mr. George Percy was ravished at the sight of the fair meadows andgoodly tall trees. As much to his taste were the large and delicateoysters, which the natives roasted, and in which were found manypearls. The ground was covered with fine and beautiful strawberries,four times bigger than those in England.
Masters Wingfield, Newport, and Gosnold., with thirty men, wentashore on Cape Henry, where they were suddenly set upon by savages,who came creeping upon all-fours over the hills, like bears, withtheir bows in their hands; Captain Archer was hurt in both hands, anda sailor dangerously wounded in two places on his body. It was a badomen.
The night of their arrival they anchored at Point Comfort, nowFortress Monroe; the box was opened and the orders read, whichconstituted Edward Maria Wingfield, Bartholomew Gosnold, John Smith,Christopher Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendallthe Council, with power to choose a President for a year. Until the13th of May they were slowly exploring the River Powhatan, now theJames, seeking a place for the settlement. They selected a peninsulaon the north side of the river, forty miles from its mouth, wherethere was good anchorage, and which could be readily fortified. Thissettlement was Jamestown. The Council was then sworn in, and Mr.
Wingfield selected President. Smith being under arrest was not swornin of the Council, and an oration was made setting forth the reasonfor his exclusion.
When they had pitched upon a site for the fort, every man set towork, some to build the fort, others to pitch the tents, fell treesand make clapboards to reload the ships, others to make gardens andnets. The fort was in the form of a triangle with a half-moon ateach comer, intended to mount four or five guns.
President Wingfield appears to have taken soldierly precautions, butSmith was not at all pleased with him from the first. He says "thePresident's overweening jealousy would admit of no exercise at arms,or fortifications but the boughs of trees cast together in the formof a half-moon by the extraordinary pains and diligence of CaptainKendall." He also says there was contention between CaptainWingfield and Captain Gosnold about the site of the city.
The landing was made at Jamestown on the 14th of May, according toPercy. Previous to that considerable explorations were made. On the18th of April they launched a shallop, which they built the daybefore, and "discovered up the bay." They discovered a river on thesouth side running into the mainland, on the banks of which were goodstores of mussels and oysters, goodly trees, flowers of all colors,and strawberries. Returning to their ships and finding the watershallow, they rowed over to a point of land, where they found fromsix to twelve fathoms of water, which put them in good comfort,therefore they named that part of the land Cape Comfort. On the 29ththey set up a cross on Chesapeake Bay, on Cape Henry, and the nextday coasted to the Indian town of Kecoughton, now Hampton, where theywere kindly entertained. When they first came to land the savagesmade a doleful noise, laying their paws to the ground and scratchingthe earth with their nails. This ceremony, which was taken to be akind of idolatry, ended, mats were brought from the houses, whereonthe guests were seated, and given to eat bread made of maize, andtobacco to smoke. The savages also entertained them with dancing andsinging and antic tricks and grimaces. They were naked except acovering of skins about the loins, and many were painted in black andred, with artificial knots of lovely colors, beautiful and pleasingto the eye. The 4th of May they were entertained by the chief ofPaspika, who favored them with a long oration, making a foul noiseand vehement in action, the purport of which they did not catch. Thesavages were full of hospitality. The next day the weroance, orchief, of Rapahanna sent a messenger to invite them to his seat. Hismajesty received them in as modest a proud fashion as if he had beena prince of a civil government. His body was painted in crimson andhis face in blue, and he wore a chain of beads about his neck and inhis ears bracelets of pearls and a bird's claw. The 8th of May theywent up the river to the country Apomatica, where the nativesreceived them in hostile array, the chief, with bow and arrows in onehand, and a pipe of tobacco in the other, offering them war or peace.
These savages were as stout and able as any heathen or Christians inthe world. Mr. Percy said they bore their years well. He saw amongthe Pamunkeys a savage reported to be 160, years old, whose eyes weresunk in his head, his teeth gone his hair all gray, and quite a bigbeard, white as snow; he was a lusty savage, and could travel as fastas anybody.
The Indians soon began to be troublesome in their visits to theplantations, skulking about all night, hanging around the fort byday, bringing sometimes presents of deer, but given to theft of smallarticles, and showing jealousy of the occupation. They murmured,says Percy, at our planting in their country. But worse than thedisposition of the savages was the petty quarreling in the colonyitself.
In obedience to the orders to explore for the South Sea, on the 22dof May, Newport, Percy, Smith, Archer, and twenty others were sent inthe shallop to explore the Powhatan, or James River.
Passing by divers small habitations, and through a land abounding intrees, flowers, and small fruits, a river full of fish, and ofsturgeon such as the world beside has none, they came on the 24th,having passed the town of Powhatan, to the head of the river, theFalls, where they set up the cross and proclaimed King James ofEngland.
Smith says in his "General Historie" they reached Powhatan on the26th. But Captain Newport's "Relatyon" agrees with Percy's, andwith, Smith's "True Relation." Captain Newport, says Percy,permitted no one to visit Powhatan except himself.
Captain Newport's narration of the exploration of the James isinteresting, being the first account we have of this historic river.
At the junction of the Appomattox and the James, at a place he callsWynauk, the natives welcomed them with rejoicing and entertained themwith dances. The Kingdom of Wynauk was full of pearl-mussels. Theking of this tribe was at war with the King of Paspahegh. Sixteenmiles above this point, at an inlet, perhaps Turkey Point, they weremet by eight savages in a canoe, one of whom was intelligent enoughto lay out the whole course of the river, from Chesapeake Bay to itssource, with a pen and paper which they showed him how to use. TheseIndians kept them company for some time, meeting them here and therewith presents of strawberries, mulberries, bread, and fish, for whichthey received pins, needles, and beads. They spent one night atPoore Cottage (the Port Cotage of Percy, where he saw the white boy),probably now Haxall. Five miles above they went ashore near the nowfamous Dutch Gap, where King Arahatic gave them a roasted deer, andcaused his women to bake cakes for them. This king gave Newport hiscrown, which was of deer's hair dyed red. He was a subject of thegreat King Powhatan. While they sat making merry with the savages,feasting and taking tobacco and seeing the dances, Powhatan himselfappeared and was received with great show of honor, all rising fromtheir seats except King Arahatic, and shouting loudly. To Powhatanample presents were made of penny-knives, shears, and toys, and heinvited them to visit him at one of his seats called Powhatan, whichwas within a mile of the Falls, where now stands the city ofRichmond. All along the shore the inhabitants stood in clusters,offering food to the strangers. The habitation of Powhatan wassituated on a high hill by the water side, with a meadow at its footwhere was grown wheat, beans, tobacco, peas, pompions, flax, andhemp.
Powhatan served the whites with the best he had, and best of all witha friendly welcome and with interesting discourse of the country.
They made a league of friendship. The next day he gave them six menas guides to the falls above, and they left with him one man as ahostage.
On Sunday, the 24th of May, having returned to Powhatan's seat, theymade a feast for him of pork, cooked with peas, and the Captain andKing ate familiarly together; "he eat very freshly of our meats,dranck of our beere, aquavite, and sack." Under the influence ofthis sack and aquavite the King was very communicative about theinterior of the country, and promised to guide them to the mines ofiron and copper; but the wary chief seems to have thought better ofit when he got sober, and put them off with the difficulties anddangers of the way.
On one of the islets below the Falls, Captain Newport set up a crosswith the inscription "Jacobus, Rex, 1607," and his own name beneath,and James was proclaimed King with a great shout. Powhatan wasdispleased with their importunity to go further up the river, anddeparted with all the Indians, except the friendly Navirans, who hadaccompanied them from Arahatic. Navirans greatly admired the cross,but Newport hit upon an explanation of its meaning that should dispelthe suspicions of Powhatan. He told him that the two arms of thecross signified King Powhatan and himself, the fastening of it in themiddle was their united league, and the shout was the reverence hedid to Powhatan. This explanation being made to Powhatan greatlycontented him, and he came on board and gave them the kindestfarewell when they dropped down the river. At Arahatic they foundthe King had provided victuals for them, but, says Newport, "the Kingtold us that he was very sick and not able to sit up long with us."The inability of the noble red man to sit up was no doubt due to toomuch Christian sack and aquavite, for on "Monday he came to the waterside, and we went ashore with him again. He told us that our hotdrinks, he thought, caused him grief, but that he was well again, andwe were very welcome."It seems, therefore, that to Captain Newport, who was a good sailorin his day, and has left his name in Virginia in Newport News, mustbe given the distinction of first planting the cross in Virginia,with a lie, and watering it, with aquavite.
They dropped down the river to a place called Mulberry Shade, wherethe King killed a deer and prepared for them another feast, at whichthey had rolls and cakes made of wheat. "This the women make and arevery cleanly about it. We had parched meal, excellent good, sodd[cooked] beans, which eat as sweet as filbert kernels, in a manner,strawberries; and mulberries were shaken off the tree, dropping onour heads as we sat. He made ready a land turtle, which we ate; andshowed that he was heartily rejoiced in our company." Such was theamiable disposition of the natives before they discovered the purposeof the whites to dispossess them of their territory. That night theystayed at a place called "Kynd Woman's Care," where the peopleoffered them abundant victual and craved nothing in return.
Next day they went ashore at a place Newport calls Queen Apumatuc'sBower. This Queen, who owed allegiance to Powhatan, had much landunder cultivation, and dwelt in state on a pretty hill. This ancientrepresentative of woman's rights in Virginia did honor to her sex.
She came to meet the strangers in a show as majestical as that ofPowhatan himself: "She had an usher before her, who brought her tothe matt prepared under a faire mulberry-tree; where she sat down byherself, with a stayed countenance. She would permitt none to standor sitt neare her. She is a fatt, lustie, manly woman. She had muchcopper about her neck, a coronet of copper upon her hed. She hadlong, black haire, which hanged loose down her back to her myddle;which only part was covered with a deare's skyn, and ells all naked.
She had her women attending her, adorned much like herself (exceptthey wanted the copper). Here we had our accustomed eates, tobacco,and welcome. Our Captaine presented her with guyfts liberally,whereupon shee cheered somewhat her countenance, and requested him toshoote off a piece; whereat (we noted) she showed not near the likefeare as Arahatic, though he be a goodly man."The company was received with the same hospitality by King Pamunkey,whose land was believed to be rich in copper and pearls. The copperwas so flexible that Captain Newport bent a piece of it the thicknessof his finger as if it had been lead. The natives were unwilling topart with it. The King had about his neck a string of pearls as bigas peas, which would have been worth three or four hundred pounds, ifthe pearls had been taken from the mussels as they should have been.
Arriving on their route at Weanock, some twenty miles above the fort,they were minded to visit Paspahegh and another chief Jamestown layin the territory of Paspahegh--but suspicious signs among the nativesmade them apprehend trouble at the fort, and they hastened thither tofind their suspicions verified. The day before, May 26th, the colonyhad been attacked by two hundred Indians (four hundred, Smith says),who were only beaten off when they had nearly entered the fort, bythe use of the artillery. The Indians made a valiant fight for anhour; eleven white men were wounded, of whom one died afterwards, anda boy was killed on the pinnace. This loss was concealed from theIndians, who for some time seem to have believed that the whitescould not be hurt. Four of the Council were hurt in this fight, andPresident Wingfield, who showed himself a valiant gentleman, had ashot through his beard. They killed eleven of the Indians, but theircomrades lugged them away on their backs and buried them in the woodswith a great noise. For several days alarms and attacks continued,and four or five men were cruelly wounded, and one gentleman, Mr.
Eustace Cloville, died from the effects of five arrows in his body.
Upon this hostility, says Smith, the President was contented the fortshould be palisaded, and the ordnance mounted, and the men armed andexercised. The fortification went on, but the attacks continued, andit was unsafe for any to venture beyond the fort.
Dissatisfaction arose evidently with President Wingfield'smanagement. Captain Newport says: "There being among the gentlemenand all the company a murmur and grudge against certain proceedingsand inconvenient courses [Newport] put up a petition to the Councilfor reformation." The Council heeded this petition, and urged toamity by Captain Newport, the company vowed faithful love to eachother and obedience to the superiors. On the 10th of June, CaptainSmith was sworn of the Council. In his "General Historie," notpublished till 1624, he says: "Many were the mischiefs that dailysprung from their ignorant (yet ambitious) spirits; but the gooddoctrine and exhortation of our preacher Mr. Hunt, reconciled themand caused Captain Smith to be admitted to the Council." The nextday they all partook of the holy communion.
In order to understand this quarrel, which was not by any meansappeased by this truce, and to determine Captain Smith'sresponsibility for it, it is necessary to examine all the witnesses.
Smith is unrestrained in his expression of his contempt forWingfield. But in the diary of Wingfield we find no accusationagainst Smith at this date. Wingfield says that Captain Newportbefore he departed asked him how he thought himself settled in thegovernment, and that he replied "that no disturbance could endangerhim or the colony, but it must be wrought either by Captain Gosnoldor Mr. Archer, for the one was strong with friends and followers andcould if he would; and the other was troubled with an ambitiousspirit and would if he could."The writer of Newport's "Relatyon" describes the Virginia savages asa very strong and lusty race, and swift warriors. "Their skin istawny; not so borne, but with dyeing and painting themselves, inwhich they delight greatly." That the Indians were born white was,as we shall see hereafter, a common belief among the first settlersin Virginia and New England. Percy notes a distinction between maidsand married women: "The maids shave close the fore part and sides oftheir heads, and leave it long behind, where it is tied up and hangsdown to the hips. The married women wear their hair all of a length,but tied behind as that of maids is. And the women scratch on theirbodies and limbs, with a sharp iron, pictures of fowls, fish, andbeasts, and rub into the 'drawings' lively colors which dry into theflesh and are permanent." The "Relatyon" says the people are wittyand ingenious and allows them many good qualities, but makes thisexception: "The people steal anything comes near them; yea, are sopracticed in this art, that looking in our face, they would withtheir foot, between their toes, convey a chisel, knife, percer, orany indifferent light thing, which having once conveyed, they hold itan injury to take the same from them. They are naturally given totreachery; howbeit we could not find it in our travel up the river,but rather a most kind and loving people."