Part 2 (1/2)

-- 16. They were no sooner settled in all this happiness and security, but they fell into jars and dissensions among themselves, by a greedy grasping at the Indian treasure, envying and overreaching one another in that trade.

After five weeks stay before this town, the s.h.i.+ps returned home again, leaving one hundred and eight men settled in the form of government before spoken of.

After the s.h.i.+ps were gone, the same sort of feuds and disorders happened continually among them, to the unspeakable damage of the plantation.

The Indians were the same there as in all other places, at first very fair and friendly, though afterwards they gave great proofs of their deceitfulness. However, by the help of the Indian provisions, the English chiefly subsisted till the return of the s.h.i.+ps the next year, when two vessels were sent thither full freighted with men and provisions for supply of the plantation, one of which only arrived directly, and the other being beat off to the Caribbee islands, did not arrive till the former was sailed again for England.

-- 17. In the interval of these s.h.i.+ps returning from England, the English had a very advantageous trade with the Indians, and might have made much greater gains of it, and managed it both to the greater satisfaction of the Indians, and the greater ease and security of themselves, if they had been under any rule, or subject to any method in trade, and not left at liberty to outvie or outbid one another, by which they not only cut short their own profit, but created jealousies and disturbances among the Indians, by letting one have a better bargain than another; for they being unaccustomed to barter, such of them as had been hardest dealt by in their commodities, thought themselves cheated and abused; and so conceived a grudge against the English in general, making it a national quarrel; and this seems to be the original cause of most of their subsequent misfortunes by the Indians.

What also gave a greater interruption to this trade, was an object that drew all their eyes and thoughts aside, even from taking the necessary care for their preservation, and for the support of their lives, which was this: They found in a neck of land, on the back of Jamestown island, a fresh stream of water springing out of a small bank, which washed down with it a yellow sort of dust isingla.s.s, which being cleansed by the fresh streaming of the water, lay s.h.i.+ning in the bottom of that limpid element, and stirred up in them an unseasonable and inordinate desire after riches; for they taking all to be gold that glittered, run into the utmost distraction, neglecting both the necessary defence of their lives from the Indians, and the support of their bodies by securing of provisions; absolutely relying, like Midas, upon the almighty power of gold, thinking that where this was in plenty, nothing could be wanting; but they soon grew sensible of their error, and found that if this gilded dirt had been real gold, it could have been of no advantage to them. For, by their negligence, they were reduced to an exceeding scarcity of provisions, and that little they had was lost by the burning of their town, while all hands were employed upon this imaginary golden treasure; so that they were forced to live for some time upon the wild fruits of the earth, and upon crabs, muscles, and such like, not having a day's provision before-hand; as some of the laziest Indians, who have no pleasure in exercise, and wont be at the pains to fish and hunt: And, indeed, not so well as they neither; for by this careless neglecting of their defence against the Indians, many of them were destroyed by that cruel people, and the rest durst not venture abroad, but were forced to be content with what fell just into their mouths.

-- 18. In this condition they were, when the first s.h.i.+p of the two before mentioned came to their a.s.sistance, but their golden dreams overcame all difficulties; they spoke not, nor thought of anything but gold, and that was all the lading that most of them were willing to take care for; accordingly they put into this s.h.i.+p all the yellow dirt they had gathered, and what skins and furs they had trucked for, and filling her up with cedar, sent her away.

After she was gone, the other s.h.i.+p arrived, which they stowed likewise with this supposed gold dust, designing never to be poor again; filling her up with cedar and clap-board.

Those two s.h.i.+ps being thus dispatched, they made several discoveries in James river and up Chesapeake bay, by the undertaking and management of Captain John Smith; and the year 1608 was the first year in which they gathered Indian corn of their own planting.

While these discoveries were making by Captain Smith, matters run again into confusion in Jamestown, and several uneasy people, taking advantage of his absence, attempted to desert the settlement, and run away with the small vessel that was left to attend upon it; for Captain Smith was the only man among them that could manage the discoveries with success, and he was the only man, too, that could keep the settlement in order. Thus the English continued to give themselves as much perplexity by their own distraction as the Indians did by their watchfulness and resentments.

-- 19. Anno 1609, John Laydon and Anna Burrows were married together, the first Christian marriage in that part of the world; and the year following the plantation was increased to near five hundred men.

This year Jamestown sent out people, and made two other settlements; one at Nansemond in James river, above thirty miles below Jamestown, and the other at Powhatan, six miles below the falls of James river, (which last was bought of Powhatan for a certain quant.i.ty of copper,) each settlement consisting of about a hundred and twenty men. Some small time after another was made at Kiquotan by the mouth of James river.

CHAPTER III.

SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE ALTERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM AN ELECTIVE PRESIDENT TO A COMMISSIONATED GOVERNOR, UNTIL THE DISSOLUTION OF THE COMPANY.

-- 20. In the meanwhile the treasurer, council and company of Virginia adventurers in London, not finding that return and profit from the adventurers they expected, and rightly judging that this disappointment, as well as the idle quarrels in the colony, proceeded from a mismanage of government, pet.i.tioned his majesty, and got a new patent with leave to appoint a governor.

Upon this new grant they sent out nine s.h.i.+ps, and plentiful supplies of men and provisions, and made three joint commissioners or governors in equal power, viz: Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, and Captain Newport. They agreed to go all together in one s.h.i.+p.

This s.h.i.+p, on board of which the three governors had embarked, being separated from the rest, was put to great distress in a severe storm; and after three days and nights constant bailing and pumping, was at last cast ash.o.r.e at Bermudas, and there staved, but by good providence the company was preserved.

Notwithstanding this s.h.i.+pwreck, and extremity they were put to, yet could not this common misfortune make them agree. The best of it was, they found plenty of provisions in that island, and no Indians to annoy them. But still they quarrelled amongst themselves, and none more than the two Knights; who made their parties, built each of them a cedar vessel, one called the Patience, the other the Deliverance, and used what they gathered of the furniture of the old s.h.i.+p for rigging; and fish-oil, and hog's-grease, mixed with lime and ashes, instead of pitch and tar: for they found great plenty of Spanish hogs in this island, which are supposed to have swam ash.o.r.e from some wrecks, and there afterwards increased.

--. 21. While these things were acting in Bermuda, Capt. Smith being very much burnt by the accidental firing of some gun-powder, as he was upon a discovery in his boat, was forced for his cure sake, and the benefit of a surgeon, to take his pa.s.sage for England, in a s.h.i.+p that was then upon the point of sailing.

Several of the nine s.h.i.+ps that came out with the three governors arrived, with many of the pa.s.sengers; some of which, in their humors, would not submit to the government there, pretending the new commission destroyed the old one; that governors were appointed instead of a president, and that they themselves were to be of the council, and so would a.s.sume an independent power, inspiring the people with disobedience; by which means they became frequently exposed in great parties to the cruelty of the Indians; all sorts of discipline was laid aside, and their necessary defence neglected; so that the Indians taking advantage of those divisions, formed a stratagem to destroy them root and branch; and, indeed, they did cut many of them off, by ma.s.sacreing whole companies at a time; so that all the out-settlements were deserted, and the people that were not destroyed, took refuge in Jamestown, except the small settlement at Kiquotan, where they had built themselves a little fort, and called it Algernoon fort. And yet, for all this, they continued their disorders, wasting their old provisions, and neglecting to gather others; so that they who remained alive, were all near famished, having brought themselves to that pa.s.s, that they durst not stir from their own doors to gather the fruits of the earth, or the crabs and muscles from the water-side: much less to hunt or catch wild beasts, fish or fowl, which were found in great abundance there. They continued in these scanty circ.u.mstances, till they were at last reduced to such extremity, as to eat the very hides of their horses, and the bodies of the Indians they had killed; and sometimes also upon a pinch they would not disdain to dig them up again, to make a homely meal, after they had been buried.

Thus, a few months indiscreet management brought such an infamy upon the country, that to this day it cannot be wiped away. And the sicknesses occasioned by this bad diet, or rather want of diet, are unjustly remembered to the disadvantage of the country, as a fault in the climate; which was only the foolishness and indiscretion of those who a.s.sumed the power of governing. I call it a.s.sumed, because the new commission mentioned, by which they pretended to be of the council, was not in all this time arrived, but remained in Bermuda with the new governors.

Here, I cannot but admire the care, labor, courage and understanding, that Capt. John Smith showed in the time of his administration; who not only founded, but also preserved all these settlements in good order, while he was amongst them; and, without him, they had certainly all been destroyed, either by famine, or the enemy long before; though the country naturally afforded subsistence enough, even without any other labor than that of gathering and preserving its spontaneous provisions.

For the first three years that Capt. Smith was with them, they never had in that whole time, above six months English provisions. But as soon as he had left them to themselves, all went to ruin; for the Indians had no longer any fear for themselves, or friends.h.i.+p for the English. And six months after this gentleman's departure, the 500 men that he had left were reduced to threescore; and they, too, must of necessity, have starved, if their relief had been delayed a week longer at sea.

--. 22. In the mean time, the three governors put to sea from Bermuda, in their two small vessels, with their company, to the number of one hundred and fifty, and in fourteen days, viz.: the 25th of May, 1610, they arrived both together in Virginia, and went with their vessels up to Jamestown, where they found the small remainder of the five hundred men, in that melancholy way I just now hinted.

--. 23. Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, and Captain Newport, the governors, were very compa.s.sionate of their condition, and called a council, wherein they informed them, that they had but sixteen days provision aboard; and therefore desired to know their opinion, whether they would venture to sea under such a scarcity; or, if they resolved to continue in the settlement, and take their fortunes, they would stay likewise, and share the provisions among them; but desired that their determination might be speedy. They soon came to the conclusion of returning for England; but because their provisions were short, they resolved to go by the banks of Newfoundland, in hopes of meeting with some of the fishermen, (this being now the season,) and dividing themselves among their s.h.i.+ps, for the greater certainty of provision, and for their better accommodation.

According to this resolution, they all went aboard, and fell down to Hog Island, the 9th of June, at night, and the next morning to Mulberry Island Point, which is eighteen miles below Jamestown, and thirty above the mouth of the river; and there they spied a long boat, which the Lord Delawarr (who was just arrived with three s.h.i.+ps,) had sent before him up the river sounding the channel. His lords.h.i.+p was made sole governor, and was accompanied by several gentlemen of condition. He caused all the men to return again to Jamestown; re-settled them with satisfaction, and staid with them till March following; and then being very sick, he returned for England, leaving about two hundred in the colony.