CHAP. perous that some of the neighboring tribes of Indiana IX. wished to be "called Englishmen," and to be subjects of 1612. King James. Some of the colonists, however, manifested

1616.

neither gratitude nor justice toward the natives. A neighboring chief was won by the gift of a copper kettle to betray into the hands of Captain Argall, Pocahontas, that faithful friend of the colony. Argall had the meanness to demand of her father a ransom. For three months the indignant Powhatan did not deign to reply. Meantime Pocahontas received religious instruction: her susceptible heart was moved, she became a Christian and was baptized; she was the first of her race "who openly renounced her country's idolatry." John Rolfe, a pious young man, of "honest and discreet carriage," became interested in the youthful princess; he won her affections and asked her in marriage. Powhatan was delighted. This marriage conciliated him and his tribe, and indeed gave general satisfaction, except to King James, who was greatly scandalized that any man, but one of royal blood, should presume to marry a princess. Rolfe took his wife to England, where she was much caressed. She never again saw her native land. Just as she was leaving England for Virginia she died, at the early age of twenty-two. She left one son, whose posterity count it an honor to have descended from this noble Indian girl.

Sir Thomas Dale introduced laws, by which private individuals could become proprietors of the soil. The landholders directed their attention almost exclusively to the raising of tobacco, which became so profitable an article of export, that it was used as the currency of the colony. At one time, the public squares and streets of Jamestown were planted with tobacco, and the raising of corn so much neglected, that there was danger of a famine.

After a rule of two years, Dale resigned and returned to England, leaving George Yeardley as deputy-governor. During his administration, industry and prosperity con

HOUSE OF BURGESSES.

IX.

55

tinued to increase. Under the influence of a faction, CHAP. Yeardley was superseded by the tyrannical Argall, but in two years his vices and extortion, in connection with frauds Jan., upon the company, procured his dismissal, and the people once more breathed freely under the second administration of the benevolent and popular Yeardley.

Although the colony had been in existence twelve years, it contained not more than six hundred persons, and they appeared to have no settled intention of making the country their permanent home. Efforts were still made to send emigrants, twelve hundred of whom came in one year, and every means were used to attach them to the soil. At different times the company sent over more than one hundred and fifty respectable young women, who became wives in the colony, their husbands paying the expense of their passage. This was paid in tobacco, the cost of each passage varying from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds. It was deemed dishonorable not to pay a debt contracted for a wife; and to aid the husbands, the government, in giving employment, preferred married men. Thus surrounded by the endearments of home and domestic ties, the colonists were willing to remain in the New World.

Governor Yeardley was "commissioned by the company" to grant the people the right to assist in making their own laws, for which purpose they could hold an Assembly once a year. In July, one thousand six hundred and nineteen, met the House of Burgesses, consisting of twenty-two members chosen by the people. A peculiar interest is attached to this first Legislative Assembly in the New World. The laws enacted exhibit the spirit of the people. "Forasmuche," said the Assembly, "as man's affaires doe little prosper when God's service is neglected, we invite Mr. Bucke, the minister, to open our sessions by prayer, that it would please God to sanctifie all our proceedinges to his owne glory and the good of this plantation." They passed laws against vices, and in favor of

1619.

IX.

CHAP. industry and good order. "In detestation of idleness," the idler was "to be sold to a master for wages till he 1619. shewe apparent signes of amendment." Laws were made against playing of dice and cards, drunkenness, and other vices; and to promote the "planting of corne," of vines, of mulberry trees, and the raising of flax and hemp. They made provision "towards the erecting of the University and College." This was designed for the education of their own children, as well as for "the most towardly boyes in witt and graces" of the "natives' children." The governor and council sat with the Assembly, and took part in its deliberations. It was granted that a "generall Assembly should be held yearly once," "to ordain whatsoever laws and orders would be thought good and profitable for our subsistence."

This right of the people to have a voice in making their own laws, was rigidly maintained until it found its full fruition in the institutions established one hundred and fifty years afterward by the Revolution. Emigration from England was greatly stimulated; in a few years the population numbered nearly four thousand, while the inducements to industry and general prosperity increased in the same proportion. The company granted a written constitution, under which the people could have a legislative assembly of their own choosing. It was necessary that the laws passed by the colonial legislature should be sanctioned by the company in England. As a check to royal interference, no laws emanating from the court could be valid, unless ratified by the House of Burgesses. Thus it continued until the dissolution of the London company, when King James arbitrarily took away its charter.

1

Art. IX., Vol. III., Part I. Second Series of Collections of the New York Historical Society. The "Reporte" of the proceedings of this “First Assembly of Virginia," was discovered among the papers of the British State Paper Office. All trace of it had been lost for perhaps more than two centuries; at length a search, instituted by Bancroft the historian, was suc cessful.

CHAPTER X.

COLONIZATION OF NEW ENGLAND.

First voyages to.-Plymouth Company.-Explorations of John Smith.-The Church of England. The Puritans.-Congregation of John Robinson."Pilgrims" in Holland.—Arrangements to emigrate.—The Voyage.— A Constitution framed on board the May-Flower.-Landing at Plymouth.-Sufferings.-Indians, Treaties with." Weston's Men. " Thanksgiving. Shares of the London Partners purchased.-Democratic Government.

THE usual route to America had been by the Canaries and CHAP. the West Indies. Bartholomew Gosnold was the first X. navigator who attempted to find a shorter one, by sailing 1602. directly across the Atlantic. His effort was crowned with success: after a voyage of seven weeks, he came upon the coast in the vicinity of Nahant. Coasting along to the south, he landed upon a sandy point, which he named Cape Cod; and passing round it he discovered Martha's Vineyard, and several other islands in the vicinity. While he explored the coast he also traded with the natives, and when he had obtained a cargo of sassafras root, which in that day was much valued for its medicinal qualities, he sailed for home. The voyage consumed but five weeks, thus demonstrating the superiority of the new route.

Gosnold, who saw the country in the months of May and June, was enraptured with its appearance-its forests blooming with shrubs and flowers; its springs of pure fresh water, and little lakes; its beautiful islands nestling among equally beautiful bays along the coast. His description,

X.

CHAP. together with the shortness and safety of the voyage, led to many visits and minor discoveries by Martin Pring and 1607. others, all along the coast of New England.

The Plymouth Company, of which mention has been made, attempted to form a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec in Maine. The rigors of a severe winter, and the death of their president, so discouraged the colonists, that they abandoned the enterprise, and returned to England.

A few years afterward, Smith, whose valuable services we have seen in Virginia, undertook to explore the country. He constructed a map of the eastern portion, and noted the prominent features of the territory. The coun1614. try he named New England-a name confirmed by the Prince of Wales, afterward Charles I. After Smith left for England, his associate, a captain named Hunt, treacherously enticed twenty-seven of the natives with their chief, Squanto, on board his ship, then set sail. He sold these victims of his avarice into slavery in Spain. A few of them were purchased by some friars, who kindly taught them, in order to send them back as missionaries to their countrymen. Among this number was Squanto.

In this age, we are unable to appreciate fully the trials and sufferings experienced by the explorers and first settlers of this continent. When we remember the frailty of the vessels in which their voyages were made, the perils of the unexplored ocean, the dangers of its unknown coasts, the hostility of the wily savage, the diseases of an untried climate, the labor of converting the primitive forests into cultivated fields, we may well be astonished that such difficulties were ever overcome.

We have now to narrate the causes which led to the settlement of New England. Previous to the time of Henry VIII, the clergy and government of England had been in religious matters the implicit subjects of the church of Rome. While this may be said of the clergy it was different with great numbers of the people. The spirit of