quite incompetent; so that, in fact, the whole care and management of affairs fell into the hands of Smith. And well was it for the colony that so it was. The fortifications were repaired; conspiracies set on foot by Wingfield and others were crushed; and winter, as it approached, furnished plenty of game and wild fowl. Smith now set out to explore the Chickahominy, a tributary which entered James River a little above Jamestown. This was in obedience to a command which required, with singular ignorance as to the breadth of the continent, that a communication should be sought with the South Sea, by ascending some stream that flowed from the north-west. Surprised by the Indians while on this expedition, Smith was made prisoner: his presence of mind did not forsake him: he so astonished the Indians with a pocket compass, and with accounts of its marvellous powers, that he was conducted by them with mingled triumph and fear from tribe to tribe, as a remarkable being, whose character and designs they were unable to penetrate, in spite of all the incantations of their seers. At length he was brought into the presence of the aged Powhatan. The politic chief, seated in the midst of his women, received him with a display of barbaric ceremony; and whilst he was feasted they proceeded to deliberate upon his fate. Their fears dictated the policy of his destruction; he was suddenly dragged forward, his head placed upon a large stone, and the club already uplifted to dash out his brains, when Pocahontas, "the king's most deare and well-beloved daughter, a child of tenne or twelve years of age," after unavailing and passionate entreaties for the life of the white man, so noble a being to her youthful imagination, ran forward and clung to him with her arms, and laying her head upon his own, disarmed the savage fury of his executioners. The life of the wondrous stranger was preserved, and his open and generous character won the heart of the youthful Poca| hontas. By the promise of "life, liberty, land, and women," they now sought to engage Smith in an attack upon the colonists, but his address and influence turned them from the project, and he was, after seven weeks' captivity, dismissed with promises of support and amity. Like a tutelary genius, the loving Indian girl, after saving the life of their chief, "revived the dead spirits" of the colonists by her attention to their wants, bringing every day with her attendants, baskets of provisions, so that, the enmity of the savages disarmed, and a supply of food obtained, "all men's fear was now abandoned." On his return to Jamestown, Smith found the colony on the brink of ruin, and only at the risk of his life succeeded in preventing the de- 1608. sertion of the forty persons yet remaining. Newport soon after arrived with supplies and a hundred and twenty emigrants. These, however, proved not only of no service to the colony, but positively injurious, for, being chiefly vagabond gentlemen and goldsmiths, they stirred up the old thirst for gold; and Newport was CH. IV.] SMITH'S LABORS AND SERVICES. foolish enough to carry back to England a cargo of worthless earth which covetous and greedy eyes had magnified into sands full of gold. Little satisfied with such egregious folly, Smith now undertook, in an open barge of three tons' burden, the exploration of the vast Bay of the Chesapeake. The event was more answerable to his anticipations, than to the very limited means at his command. During three months he visited all the countries on the eastern and western shores, explored the Patapsco, the Potomac, and others of the great tributaries that swell that magnificent basin, trading with friendly tribes, fighting with those hostile, observing the nature and productions of their territories, and leaving behind him, by the exercise of ready tact and dauntless intrepidity, unstained by a single act of cruelty, a high impression of the valor and nobleness of the English character. After sailing in two successive cruises above three thousand miles, in contending with hardship and peril, and the discouragement of his companions, whose complaints he humorously silenced by a reference to the expedition of Lane, and the "dogge's porridge" to which he had been reduced, he succeeded in bringing back to Jamestown an account of the regions bordering on the Chesapeake, with a map that long served as the basis of subsequent delineations. A few days after his return, Smith was made president of the council, and speedily infused vigor and activity into the whole administration of the colony. Seventy new emigrants, two of them females, arrived, but as before, they 35 The London Company, chagrined at its failure of acquiring sudden wealth, readily agreed to a change in its constitution. The king made over to the Company the powers which he had reserved to himself; the supreme council was to be chosen by the stockholders themselves, and in the exercise of the powers of legislation and government was independent of the king. The limits of the colony were extended, and many of the nobility and gentry, as well as tradesmen of London, became associates in the Company. The Council thus empowered to establish what laws they deemed best for the colony, and to send out a governor to execute them, obtained absolute control over the lives, liberty, and fortunes of the colonists. There seemed now reasonable hope of at least a firm and effective administration of the affairs of the colony. The first act of the new council was to appoint Lord Delaware, whose virtues adorned his rank, as Governor and Captain-general of the colony. Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers were authorized to administer its affairs until his arrival. 4 Under such auspices, an expedition of unusual magnitude might have been expected; and nine vessels, under the command of Newport, containing more than five hundred emigrants, were soon on their way out. The prosperity of Virginia seemed placed at length beyond the reach of danger. An unforeseen accident interrupted their sanguine expectations; a violent storm arose; the vessel on board of which were Gates, Somers, and Newport, was separated from the rest, and after a narrow escape from foundering, was stranded on the coast of the Bermudas, but without loss of life. The rest of the ships, with the exception of one small ketch, succeeded in reaching Jamestown in safety. Smith meanwhile had been zealously occupied in maintaining order and security among the little band of colonists. The sudden arrival of so considerable a reinforcement disconcerted all his arrangements. The new emigrants were "unruly gallants, packed off to escape ill destinies at home," men of broken fortunes and unsteady habits; the actual government was void, the fate of the new governor uncertain, the provisional authority of Smith doubtful and contested, and everything tended to the speedy dissolution of their little society. Union alone could insure their defence against the Indians, whose jealousy of their encroachments was steadily gaining ground; but every day their dissensions increased. Powhatan, checked at times by the ascendancy of Smith, at others formed plans for cutting them all off. In these distresses and perils Pocahontas still proved herself the guardian angel of the unruly colonists; and, "under God," as Smith declared in a letter to the queen of James I., 'the instrument for preserving them from death, famine, and utter confusion. When her father," he observes, "with policy sought to surprise me, having but eighteen men with me, the dark night could not affright her from coming through the irksome woods, and with watery eyes gave me intelligence, with her best advice, to escape his fury, which, had he known, he had surely slain her." While disunion thus exposed the settlers to Indian treachery, the want of concerted industry, and the rapid consumption of their stores, soon threatened them with all the horrors of famine. Although his authority had been superseded, Smith still continued, from a feeling of public spirit, to wrestle with the factious colonists, and to hold the helm until the arrival of his successor. But at this critical period, when every thing seemed to be rapidly tending to anarchy and ruin, an accidental explosion of gunpowder inflicted upon him a dangerous wound which the surgical skill of Virginia could not relieve. "Delegating his authority to Percy, he embarked for England. Extreme suf fering from his wounds, and the ingratitude of his employers were the fruits of his services. He received for his sacrifices and his perilous exertions, not one foot of land, not the house he himself had built, not the field his own hands had planted, nor any reward but the applause of his conscience and the world. He was the Father of Vir ginia, the true leader who first planted the Saxon race within the borders of the United States. His judgment had been ever clear in the midst of general despondency. He united the highest spirit of adventure with consummate powers of action. His courage and self-possession accomplished what others esteemed desperate. Fruitful in expedients, he was prompt in execution. Though he had been harassed by the persecutions of malignant envy, he never revived the memory of the faults of his enemies. He was accustomed to lead, not to send, his men to danger; would suffer want rather than borrow, and starve sooner than not pay. He had nothing counterfeit in his nature; but was open, honest, and sincere. He clearly discerned that it was the true interest of England not to seek in Virginia for gold and sudden wealth, but to enforce regular industry. 'Nothing,' said he, 'is to be expected thence but by labor.'"* ๆ 37 not only be not forgotten, but should On the departure of Smith the colony speedily plunged into misery and wretchedness. Their supply of provisions soon failed; the Indians refused further aid, and murdered numbers; in less than six months a horrible famine, remembered long after in Virginia, as the "starving time," brought the colony to the last point; out of five hundred persons left by Smith in the colony, only sixty remained; and indolence, vice, and famine had so reduced these, that had relief been delayed ten days longer they also must have perished. But succor arrived in season to prevent so sad a catastrophe. Gates and Somers, who had been shipwrecked on the Bermudas, but without losing a This illustrious man never revisited Virginia, although he was several times in New England in the service of the Plymouth Company. His death occurred in 1631, at London, in the fiftysecond year of his age. Mr. Hillard, in his well-written biography of Cap-single life, had fortunately succeeded in tain Smith, thus sums up the obliga- preserving their provisions and tions which America owes to him: stores; and while the colonists "The debt of gratitude due to him is of Virginia had suffered the pinchings national and American, and so should of want, the spontaneous bounties of his glory be. Wherever upon this con- nature had richly supported them for tinent the English language is spoken, many months. Anxious to rejoin their his deeds should be recounted, and his companions, they constructed two crazy memory hallowed. His services should * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. i., p. 138. 1610. → 66 Life of Captain John Smith," p. 143. See also Mr. W. G. Simms's picturesque and pleasantly written Life of the same brave adventurer. vessels, and were fortunate enough, May 24th, to reach Virginia in safety. They were horror-struck at the appearance of the few surviving colonists, and, finding that their stores would last but for sixteen days longer, they resolved to abandon Virginia, the scene of so many and prolonged miseries, and even to consume the town on their departure; an act of insane folly which was happily prevented by Gates. On the 7th of June, at noon, they embarked in four pinnaces, and fell down the river with the tide. Next morning, before they had reached the sea, they were startled with the sudden appearance of the long boat of Lord Delaware, who had just arrived at the mouth of the river with ships and reinforcements. By persuasion and authority he prevailed upon the melancholy band to return. The first act of Lord Delaware was, on the 10th of June, to publish his commission, and to consecrate his functions by the solemnities of prayer and supplication to God. The hearts of the colonists were full; the arrival of the governor seemed to them like a special deliverance of Divine Providence. They took courage to grapple with the difficulties of their situation, and ere long found them to yield to determined energy. The mingled firmness and gentleness of the new governor restrained the factious, and won over the dissolute and refractory. A regular system of daily labor was established, and every one submitted to his appointed work, which was regularly preceded by public worship. The colony now began to put forth some promise of permanent establish ment; but scarcely had Lord Delaware brought about this gratifying result, when his health failed, and he was compelled to return to England, leaving George Percy as his deputy. During his short stay, he had not only reduced the colonists, now numbering about two hundred, to some degree of order, but had repressed the encroachments of the Indians, by the erection of new forts, and by attacking some of their villages. Sir George Somers was dispatched for provisions to the Bermudas, but he did not live to return. Captain Samuel Argall, who accompanied him in another vessel, succeeded at last in obtaining supplies of corn on the shores of the Potomac. In May, soon after the departure of Lord Delaware, Sir Thomas Dale 1611. arrived in Virginia with three ships, three hundred emigrants, and a supply of cattle, provisions, and other articles needful for the colony. He was empowered to administer summary justice upon any and all classes of of fenders. In the latter part of August, Sir Thomas Gates also arrived with six ships, two hundred and eighty men, and twenty women, a considerable quantity of cattle and hogs, military stores, and other necessaries; and assumed the government amid the thanksgivings of the colony, and with daily prayers for England, their much loved native land. The colony now began to extend itself up James River, where several new settlements were effected, and a town built, enclosed with a palisade, which, in honor of prince Henry, was called Henrico. Yet the rights of the Indians were not sufficiently re |