the other ships, much damaged and distressed, arrived about the middle of August at James river 1.

The infant colony was still destined to calamity; and the very accession to its numbers, which should have added to its security, heightened its danger 2. President Smith having detached two hundred of these newly arrived adventurers to the falls of James River, and to Nansamond 3, they imprudently offended the neighbouring Indians, who cut off many of them; and the few, who escaped, returned in despair, to beg the protection of that authority, which they had lately contemned 4.

A systematic design was now meditated against the whole colony by the sovereign of the country; but it was providentially discovered and frustrated. Pocahontas, the tutelary friend of Virginia, though but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age, went in a very dark and dreary night to James Town, and, at the hazard of her life, disclosed to the president a plot of her father to kill him and the English people 5. This timely notice put the colony on its guard; and some incidents soon after contributed still farther towards its preservation. An Indian, apparently dead through the effect of a charcoal fire in a close room, was, on the application of vine

1 Smith, Virg. 89, 164, 174. Keith, 115, 116. Purchas, i. 758; v. 1729-1793. Chalmers, i. 27, 28. Stow, Chron. 1019, 1020. Belknap, Biog. ii. 23-25. This storm came from the north east, and began on Monday, 24 July. After it had blown twenty-four hours with extreme violence, the ship sprung a leak; and three days and four nights the whole company (about 140, exclusive of women) laboured incessantly at the pump. On Friday the fourth morning "it wanted but little," says the narrator of the voyage, "but that there had bin a generall determination to have shut up hatches, and commending our sinful souls to God, committed the shippe to the mercy of the sea;" but, in this desperate extremity, Sir George Somers, who during the whole time had not once left the quarter deck, discovered land. Not expecting to save the ship by coming to anchor, they ran her aground within three quarters of a mile of the shore, whence all the company (about 150 in number) by the help of their boats arrived safely at the island. Purchas, v. 1735-1787. This perilous and distressing scene appears to have occurred in the Gulf Stream [Belknap, Biog. ii. 25.], the course of which, off the coast of the Southern States, is from southwest to northeast. A gale from the northeast, in direct opposition to the current, makes a great sea in that gulf; a fact, which I have had repeated opportunities to observe.

2 Smith [Virg. 90.] calls the people, who last arrived, "a lewd company," containing " many unruly gallants, packed hither by their friends, to escape ill destinies." To them he ascribes the anarchy and confusion that soon pervaded the colony. See also Stith, 103.

3 Nansamond was the most southern settlement in Virginia, under the 36th degree of north latitude. Chalmers, i. 518.

4 Smith, Virg. 90. Stith, 103.

Smith, Virg. 77, 121, 122.

gar

gar and aqua vitæ by the president, re-animated. This supposed miracle, with an explosion of powder, which killed two or three Indians, and scorched and wounded others, excited such astonishment, mingled with such admiration of the pow er, and art of the English, that Powhatan and his people came to them with presents of peace; and the whole country, dur ing the remainder of Smith's administration, was entirely open to the unmolested use of the English 1.

The colony now pursued its business with success. It made tar and pitch, and an experiment of glass; dug a well of excellent water in the fort; built about twenty houses 2; new covered the church; provided nets and weirs for fishing; built a block house, to receive the trade of the Indians; and broke up and planted thirty or forty acres of ground 3.

President Smith, enfeebled by an accident to his person from an explosion of powder, and disgusted with distractions in his colony, returned to England toward the close of the year; leaving three ships, seven boats, upwards of four hundred and ninety persons, twenty-four pieces of ordnance, three hundred muskets, with other arms and ammunition, one hundred well trained and expert soldiers, a competent supply of working tools, live stock, and ten weeks' provisions 4. James Town was strongly palisadoed, and contained fifty or sixty houses. There were five or six other forts and plantations in Virginia 5.

Henry Hudson, an Englishman, in the service of the Dutch, left the Texel in the beginning of this year, with a design of penetrating to the East Indies by sailing a northwest

1 Smith, Virg. 85. Stith, 97.

2 It appears, that 30 or 40 houses were built before.

3 Stith, 97.

4 Stith, 107, 108. Smith, Virg. 93, 164. Purchas, i. 758, Chalmers, i. 29. 5 Smith, Virg. 93. Smith's description of the Virginian colonists at that time is too curious to be omitted. There was "but one carpenter in the country; two blacksmiths; two saylers." Those, described as "labourers," were for the most part footmen, and gentlemen's attendants, who never did know what a dayes work was.". Excepting the Dutchmen and Poles, and about a dozen others, "all the rest were poore gentlemen, tradesmen, serving-men, libertines, and such like, ten times more fit to spoyle a commonwealth, than either to begin one or but help to maintain one." Ibid. 94.

6 Charlevoix, Forster, and others affirm, that Hudson undertook this voyage in behalf of the Dutch; yet some historians say, that he sold to the Dutch whatever right he may have acquired to the country by his discovery. It is said, in Biog. Brit. Art. HUDSON, that he was fitted out by the Dutch East India Company, which furnished him with a fly boat, equipped with all necessaries, and with 20 men, English and Dutch.

ward

ward course. Having attempted in vain to accomplish this purpose, he followed the track which the Cabots had marked for him above a century before. He coasted along the foggy shores of Newfoundland; shaped his course for Cape Cod ; looked into the Chesepeak, where the English were settled; anchored off the Delaware; sailed into the river Manhattan ; and departed in October for England 2. The Dutch sent ships the next year to open a trade with the natives 3.

After several attempts of Englishmen to discover the country of Guiana, and about the river of the Amazons, Robert Harcote undertook to settle a plantation in this region. Leaving his brother Michael Harcote with sixty persons at the river Weapoco 4, he returned to England, where, by the favour of prince Henry, he obtained a patent for all the coast of Guiana, together with the river of Amazons. The projected settlement however did not succeed, for want of due support from home 5.

1610.

Nothing could have been more inauspicious to the colony, than the departure of Smith. The Indians, finding that the person, whose vigour they had often felt, no longer ruled the English people, generally revolted, and destroyed them

1 He did not land at Manhattan without opposition; he did not, like Cabot, take formal possession. Chalmers.

2 Purchas, i. 743. Charlevoix, Nouv. France, i. 143. Chalmers, i. 567,568. Forster, Voy. 332, 333, 421, 422. Harris, Voy. i. 566, Europ. Settlements, ii. 286. Prince, 29. Brit. Emp. i. 2. Smith, N. York, 2. "Third Voyage of Henry Hudson towards Nova Zembla, and, at his return, to Newfoundland and Cape Cod." Title of a book in Bibliotheca Americ. p. 76, under A. D. 1609.

3 Charlevoix, Nouv. France, i. 142. "Des l'année suivante quelques Marchands d'Amsterdam envoyerent des Navires dans cette Riviere [ManHattan,] pour y faire la traitte." Hudson can scarcely be called the first discoverer of a coast, which had been often explored before, from the days of the Cabots to the present. As he had never occupied the land, he could not transfer what he never possessed. The sovereign of France in 1603, and the king of England in 1606, had formally declared their intention to appropriate the same region, which their subjects immediately planted. Chalmers, i. 568.

4 Here captain Ley settled with some Englishmen in 1605; but, supplies miscarrying, they were forced to abandon that settlement. Anderson, ii. 225.

5 Smith, Virg. continued, chap.xxiv. Anderson, ii. 284. Unexpected difficulties occurring, Harcote merely sent over a few passengers, "with certain Dutchmen," and the country lay neglected several years. See A. D. 1617. Henry, prince of Wales, mentioned above, died in 1612, Et. 19.

where

whereever they were found. Captain Ratcliff, in a small ship with thirty men, going to trade, and trusting himself indiscreetly to Powhatan, he and all his people were slain 1. The provisions of the colony being imprudently wasted, a dreadful famine ensued, and prevailed to such extremity, that this period was many years distinguished by the name of The starving time. Of nearly five hundred persons, left in the colony by the late president, sixty only remained, at the expiration of six months 2.

The company, wrecked at Bermudas, having built two small vessels, and paid the seams with lime and tortoise oil, put to sea on the tenth of May, and on the twenty-third arrived at Virginia 3. Finding the small remains of the colony in a famishing condition, and seeing no other means to preserve them, than by abandoning the country, they took them all on board with the intention of returning to England. "None dropped a tear, because none had enjoyed one day of happiness." Lord Delaware, arriving at this juncture with three ships, one hundred and fifty men, and plentiful provisions, and meeting his forlorn countrymen in James river, caused them all to return to James Town, where he resettled the colony 4.

Having published his commission, which invested him with the sole command, he appointed a council of six persons, to assist him in the administration. A very essential change now took place in the form of the ancient Virginian constitution; for the original aristocracy was converted into a rule of one, over whose deliberations the people had no controul. Under the auspices of this intelligent and distinguished nobleman, the affairs of the colony were soon re-established. He allotted to every one his particular business. The French he commanded to plant the vine 5; the English, to labour in the

1 Keith, 120. Stith, 116.

2 Smith, Virg. 105, 106. Stith, 110. Beverly, 34. Chalmers, i. 30. 3 "The three and twentieth of May," says the narrator in Purchas [v. 1748.], "we cast anchor before James Towne where we landed, and our much grieved Govenour first visiting the Church caused the bell to be rung, at which all such as were able to come forth of their houses repayred to Church, where our Minister, Master Bucke, made a zealous and sorrow full prayer, finding all things so contrary to our expectations, so full of misery and misgovernment. After service our Governour caused mee to reade his Commission, and captaine Percie (then President) delivered up unto him his Commission, the old Patent, and the Councell Seale." See also Stow, Chron. 1020.

4 Smith, Virg. 106. Stith, 115. Beverly, 34, 35. Prince, 31. Chalmers, i. 30. Belknap, Biog. ii. 25–82.

5 A number of Frenchmen had been imported for the culture of vines. Belknap.

wood

woodlands; and appointed officers, to see his orders obeyed. All patiently submitted to an authority, which experience had taught them to be wise and necessary; and peace, industry, and order now succeeded tumult, idleness, and anarchy 1, Lord Delaware proceeded to build two forts at Kecoughtan. and called the one Fort Henry, the other, Fort Charles 2.

On the report of his deputy governors of the plenty that they had found in Bermudas, he dispatched Sir George Somers to that island for provisions, accompanied by captain Samuel Argal in another vessel 3. They sailed together un'til by contrary winds they were driven toward Cape Cod whence Argal, after attempting, pursuant to instructions, to reach Sagadahock, found his way back to Virginia 4. He was 1 Smith, Virg. 107. Chalmers, i. 30, 31.

2 Smith, Virg. 108, 110. Stith, 120. They were built near Southampton river. Ibid.

3 Smith, Virg. 108. Somers wept in the Patience, the same vessel, that had brought him from Bermudas to Virginia. It had not one ounce of iron about it, excepting one bolt in its keel. Univ. Hist. xli. 340. Bermudas was full of hogs; and it was the object of this voyage to kill and salt them for provisions. The English people, who were wrecked on this island, found them in abundance, and most historians suppose, they had escaped from some vessel, previously wrecked on the island. Sir William Monson [Naval Tracts, Churchill, iii. 439.] gives a different account of them. "This island [Bermudas] at the beginning was discovered by the Portuguese nation, and inhabited by them, till they found little profit accrued from it, and then they abandoned it, and left behind them such food, especially hogs, as they could not carry with them; and thus it lay waste for many years." We regret, that this respectable author does not mention the time when the Portuguese discovered Bermudas. If his account be correct, the account of the discovery of that island by Bermudez in 1522, and that of its discovery by Oviedus in 1515, it seems, must be erroneous. This last account was inserted in these Annals under A. D. 1515, in reliance on the accuracy of Mr. Prince, who is distinguished for correctness, and on Purchas, who is there mentioned as Mr. Prince's authority. But the passage in Purchas, which I have since found, convinces me, that Oviedus did not discover Bermudas in 1515. Some facts, incidentally mentioned there by Oviedus, relating to Charles V. do not possibly admit that date. [Compare Purchas, v. 1738 with Robertson's Charles V. vol. ii.] I suspect, that there is an error in the figures, and that it was originally 1525; a year, which agrees with the facts, incidentally mentioned by Oviedus. If this correction be admitted, JOHN BERMUDEZ may yet claim the ho nour of making the discovery in 1522, three years before the voyage of Oviedus, until Sir W. Monson's account of its discovery by the Portuguese be more clearly established. An extract from Oviedus, in the margin of Purchas (ibid.), appears to me to imply, that John Bermudez had made the voyage before him, and that the island was already called by his name. 4 Purchas, 1758-1762. Argal, before he left the coast of what is now New England, landed at an island "halfe a mile about, and nothing but a rocke, which seemed to be very rich marble stone." It lay in 45 deg. 40 min. N. lat. ; and, on account of numerous seals taken there, was called Seal Rock. Ibid.