During the sixteenth century the Indians made no real progress towards civilization. Their contact with the white race was attended by wars, slavery, and other evils connected with the presence of soldiers. The introduction of fire-arms gave to those who first secured them an advantage over the primitive weapons of less fortunate adversaries. This caused changes in the relative power of tribes, and tended to increase intertribal disturbances. Some of the aborigines became possessors to a slight extent of domestic animals. A few Indians were taught letters, but it is doubtful if any tribe or number of individuals became christianized. Of the missionaries who endeavored to teach the people the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, one-half lost their lives while making their zealous efforts in this behalf.

CHAPTER II.

THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

The English attempts to form settlements upon the coast of North America during the last quarter of the sixteenth century were unsuccessful. Although the colonies disappeared, the name Virginia, given to the region, remained to the English, while to the natives it was a heritage of distrust, owing to their primitive confidence having been betrayed by hasty and cruel actions on the part of the colonists. As early as 1585 many of the Indians accepted the prophecy that "there were more of the English generation yet to come to kill theirs and take their places."1

The century saw this prophecy fulfilled by the planting of twelve of the original colonies that have since spread over the breadth of the land.2

VIRGINIA.

Civilization. The charter issued to the Virginia Company by James I., April 10, 1606, commends the "Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infi dels and Savages living in those Parts to human Civility and to a settled and quiet Government." The second charter, dated May 23, 1609, declares, "the principal Effect, which we can desire or expect of this Action, is the Conversion and Reduction of the People in those Parts unto the true Worship of God and Christian Religion." The third charter, given March 12, 1612, makes a similar statement concerning the "reclaiming of People barbarous to Civility and Humanity." The infant colony on the James River, "weak in numbers and still weaker from want of habits of industry," were from the first dependent upon the Indians for food, and two years after the founding of Jamestown the natives regarded the English as beggars, and planned to starve them out of the country."

1 Bancroft. Hist. of the U. S., twenty-fourth edition, Vol. I, p. 99.

A sketch of the laws affecting the Indians in the two principal colonies of this century gives a picture of the legal and the social status of the Indian and his opportunities for civilization. 3 Stith: Hist. of Virginia; Appendix, p. 1. p. 22. Ibid., p. 23. Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 126, 140. p. 139.

▲ Ibid.,

7 Ibid.,

One of the first treaties of which we have a record was made with the Chickahominies by Sir Thomas Dale in 1613. This tribe was at enmity with the Indians under Powhatan, and the English were now closely allied with the latter by the marriage of Pocahontas, therefore the Chickahominies desired to secure the friendship of the colonist. The treaty indicates the position of dependence in which the colonists were placed, and the ignorance of the Indians as to what constituted being an Englishman. It also presents a suggestive picture of the races that were now brought face to face, and destined to act and react on each other. The treaty reads:

I. That they should forever be called Englishmen and be true Subjects to King James and his Deputies.

II. That they should neither kill nor detain any of the English or of their Cattle, but should bring them home.

III. That they should be always ready to furnish the English with three hundred Men against the Spaniards or any other Enemy.

IV. That they should not enter any of the English Towns before sending in Word, that they were now Englishmen.

V. That every fighting Man at gathering their Corn should bring 2 Bushels to the Store as a Tribute, for which he should receive as many Hatchets.

VI. That the eight chief Men should see all this performed or receive the Punishment themselves; and for their Diligence they should have a red Coat, a copper Chain, and King James' Picture, and be accounted his Nobleman.1

Sir Thomas Dale encouraged his colony to plant much corn, and it was not long before he was able to supply needy tribes with this food and for the "Repayment whereof the next Year he took a Mortgage of their Whole Countries."

As late as 1616, Powhatan charged Tomocomo, who accompanied Pocahontas and her husband to England, not only to take the number of the people in England, but "to take an Account of their Coru and Trees." The Indians who had previously visited England had seen little else but London, and "had reported much of their Men and Houses, but thought they had small Store of Corn and Trees. And it was therefore a general opinion among these Barbarians that the English came into their country to get a supply of these; which might be strengthened and confirmed by their sending large Quantities of Cedar, Clapboard, and Wainscot to England, and by their continual Want and Eagerness after Corn."3

4

The establishment of the English on the "waste land" of the Indians was not effected in a manner that accorded with the pious wording of the charters. We learn that "the rights of the Indians were little respected, nor did the English disdain to appropriate by conquest the soil, the cabins, and the granaries of the tribe of the Appomattocks." The tribute of corn was not always peaceably obtained, and friendly relations with the natives were not stable. In 1618, the Stith: Hist. of Virginia, pp. 130-131. 3 Ibid., pp. 143–144. Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Vol. I, p. 126. 6 Stith: Hist. of Virginia, p. 140. Ibid., p. 143.

7

* Ibid., p. 140.

ɓ Ibid.,
p. 145.

7

6

governor published several edicts, among them "That no Indian should be taught to shoot with Guns, on Pain of Death to Teacher and Learner; that there should be no private Trade or Familiarity with the Savages." Beads were the current coin in Indian trade, and in 1621 Captain Norton with some Italian workmen were sent over to estab lish a glass furnace for the manufacture of these articles."?

The pressure of the settlers upon the Indians threatened to create serious difficulties; and the first elected assembly, which convened in the choir of the church at James City, July 30, 1619, made provision for the protection of the Indians from injury and injustice. Unfortunately the settler, in his haste and desire to better his estate, did not pause to consider that the savage occupant of the soil was a man having a sense of right and wrong, and believing in self-protection as fully as his white neighbors.

The villages of the Indians were scattered over a wide territory, and were quite small, seldom containing more than fifty inhabitants, although a few may have had over two hundred. The people were not accustomed to meet together in large numbers, or to act together either for defense or aggression. It has been computed that within a radius of 60 miles of Jamestown the Indian population did not exceed five thousand, and of these about fifteen hundred were warriors. Many tribes and clans were more or less affiliated under the chieftainship of Powhatan, and these could raise about twenty-four hundred warriors. The men of the colony were equal in number, and provided with firearms; they were also accustomed to concerted action, which made them still more formidable. On the other hand, it was contrary to all Indian custom for warriors to combine as an army; this peculiarity and their inferior weapons made their methods of warfare against the English almost a necessity.

The Indians, finding their claims to fair dealing frequently set at naught, their lands appropriated by strangers, and their lives threatened, counselled how they might rid the country of a people who threatened destruction to the original inhabitants. Open battle was unknown to them. Ambuscade and surprise were bred of forest experience. Viewing the circumstances from the native's standpoint it is not surprising that the Indians determined to exterminate the English; nor is the manner in which it was attempted strange, even in the history of our own race. At the same time of day, on March 22, 1622, three hundred and forty-seven colonists fell at the hands of the Indians. By this ter rible disaster the colony was crippled, not destroyed, for Christian Indians, at the risk of their own lives, had warned their English friends, and the larger part of the colony was thereby saved. The next year the records show that there were two thousand five hundred Englishmen remaining in Virginia.

1Stith: Hist. of Virginia, p. 147.

4

* Ibid., p. 198. 3 Perry: Hist. American Epis61bid., p.

copal Church, Vol. I, p. 6. Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Vol. I, p. 180. 183 and notes.

The massacre of March 22, 1622, put an end to many friendly relations and projects. The Indians were disfranchised, and the races became irreconcilably opposed to each other; henceforth the laws of war became the defense of covetousness.3 At the convening of the fourth Assembly, in March, 1624, the following laws were enacted:

ART. XVII. All public as well as private trade with the Indians for corn shall be prohibited after June following.

ART. XXIII. Every dwelling to be palisaded.

ART. XXIV. People to go armed.

ART. XXVIII. A watch to be kept day and night.

ART. XXXII. That at the beginning of July following every corporation should fall upon their adjoining Indians, and every one injured in this warfare to be cared for by the State.4

As a result of this policy acts of cruelty were of frequent occurrence, and ill feeling between the English and Indians increased. In October, 1629, the General Assembly enacted laws for a more organized warfare. Commanders of plantations were to levy a force for the defense of the habitations; and arrangements were made for three expeditions, to start in November, March, and July, to clear those parts and “to doe all manner of spoile and offence to the Indians that may possibly bee effected."5 The Assembly of March, 1630, declared that the war against the Indians was to be prosecuted and no peace made; and in 1632 all persons were prohibited to speak to Indians, except those planters living on the Easteru Shore. Commanders were authorized to fall upon lurking Indians, or any who should molest hogs. A writer, speaking of the difficulties of the early settlers, says of the Indians:

8

Being accustomed to the practice of killing whatever came in their way, they ranked the planters' hogs, turkeys, and geese among their game, and freely preyed upon them. The planters as freely made use of their arms in defense of their property, and several Indians were killed during their depredations. This occasioned war, and the Indians poured their vengeance indiscriminately, as usual, on the inuocent and guilty, for the loss of their friends.9

In 1633 the Assembly fixed the penalty for selling arms to Indians at a loss of all goods and chattels and imprisonment for life. It was also enacted that no cloth should be sold to Indians.10 Warfare continued, and in 1643 the Assembly decreed that no peace was to be made with the natives, who were greatly distressed by sudden raids upon their villages." The county that furnished these raiders paid the expense of the expeditions.12

These grievances and the despair bred of their circumstances led the Indians in 1644 to attempt to rid their country of the English by an indiscriminate killing.13 The colonies made a prompt resistance. The Assembly in February, 1645, authorized the association of three coun1Stith: Hist. of Virginia, pp. 218, 219, 235, 281. Vol. II, p. 241. 3 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 184. Hening: Ibid., p. 153.

Ibid., pp. 140-141.

6

121-129.
'Hewatt: Hist. of North Carolina, Vol. I, pp. 78–79.

2 Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Statutes of Virginia, Vol. 1, pp. 7 Ibid., 167. Ibid., p. 176.

10 Hening: Statutes of Vir

18 Hening:

ginia, Vol. I, p. 219. 11 Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Vol. I, p. 207. Statutes of Virginia, Vol. I, p. 285. 13 Bancroft: Hist. of the U. S., Vol. I, p. 203.