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Romance-History of America: III 
 
 THE COMING 
 OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER 
 
By FRANCIS ROLT-WHEELER 
 
 Round the World with the Boy Journalists 
 Plotting in Pirate Seas 
 Hunting Hidden Treasure in the Andes 
 Heroes of the Ruins 
 
 Romance-History of America 
 
 In the Days Before Columbus 
 The Quest of the Western World 
 The Coming of the Peoples 
 
 NEW YORK: GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
m 
 
 ^^^ 
 ^^. 
 
 THIRST FOR EXPLORATION HAD SEIZKD UPON THE OI.D WORLD 
 
 As early as 1578, Gilbert started with a fleet of seven ships "to discover and plant 
 Christian inhabitants, in places convenient, upon those large and ample countries 
 extended northward from the Cape of Florida . . . not in the actual possession 
 of any Christian princr." 
 
THE COMING 
 OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 FRANCIS HOLT- WHEELER 
 
 Author of "Heroes of the Ruins," "In the Days Before Columbus," 
 
 "Plotting in Pirate Seas," "Hunting Hidden Treasure in 
 
 the Andes," "The Boy with the U. S. Census," 
 
 "The Aztec Hunters," etc. 
 
 With a Frontispiece hy 
 
 C. A. FEDERER 
 
 and Many Illustrations 
 
 and Maps 
 
 NEW ^IB^ YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 

 COPYEIGHT, 192S, 
 BY GEOEGE H. DORAK COMPANY 
 
 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES. I 
 PRINTED IK THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 OCT 25 '22 
 
 C1A683885 X^A 
 

 Qo CONTENTS 
 
 -■■^ 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAQB 
 
 Perilous Beginnings ..j • . 11 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 The Tragedy of Roanoke 25 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 John Smith and Pocahontas ,. 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Starving Time . Q5 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Land of Tobacco 90 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 The KIent Island Fight ., .: • 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Gallantry of France . 132 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 The Coming of the Jesuits 158 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 Hudson and the Dutch ........ 183 
 
 V 
 
vi CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wanderings op the Pilgrims 200 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 On Rugged Plymouth Shore 219 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 The Puritan Flood 247 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Thirst for Exploration Had Seized upon the 
 
 Old World Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Merchant of the Time of Queen Elizabeth . 22 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh 22 
 
 Sebastian Cabot Setting Out from England to 
 
 Cross the Atlantic 23 
 
 John White's Map of Virginia 23 
 
 Captain John Smith 30 
 
 The Fleet of Sir Francis Drake Lying Off the 
 
 Coast of Florida 30 
 
 Indians Cooking Fish 31 
 
 Smith's Map of Virginia 31 
 
 The Death of Queen Elizabeth 46 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, a Prisoner in the Tower . 47 
 
 The Defeat of the Spanish Armada .... 62 
 
 Pocahontas Claiming the Life of the Condemned 
 
 Man at the Execution Stone 6S 
 
 The Arrival of the First Supply 70 
 
 Pocahontas Learning to Read 70 
 
 Captain John Smith Dueling with Turks ... 70 
 
 The Crowning of Powhatan 71 
 
 The Baptism of Pocahontas 94 
 
 Pocahontas and Her Son 94 
 
 The Location of the Early Colonial Settle- 
 ments 95 
 
 vii 
 
viii ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Map Showing the English and French Settle- 
 ments 142 
 
 The French Settlements in the Gulf of St. 
 
 Lawrence 142 
 
 The Surrender of the Settlements of Quebec 
 
 IN 1629 143 
 
 The Sea of Verrazano 174 
 
 Hudson Receiving His Sailing Orders from the 
 
 Muscovy Company 174 
 
 Henry Hudson 175 
 
 The Half Moon 190 
 
 Hudson Interviews the Indians of Manhattan . 190 
 
 Van Der Donck's Map of New Netherlands 1656 191 
 
 The Pilgrims of the Mayflower 206 
 
 The Pilgrims Attempt to Escape to Holland . 207 
 
 The First Thanksgiving in America .... 207 
 
 A Model of the Mayflower 222 
 
 The Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor . . 222 
 
 The Dunes of Provincetown 223 
 
 Pilgrim Meersteads Along Town Brook . . . 223 
 
 The Pilgrim 238 
 
 St. George's Fort on the Kennebec River . . 239 
 
 Captain John Smith's Map of New England . . 254 
 
THE COMING 
 OF THE PEOPLES 
 
THE COMING OF 
 THE PEOPLES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 
 
 The Spaniards exploited America for gold, the 
 French established trading-posts for furs, the 
 English built homes. The gold was spent, the furs 
 were worn, the homes remained. 
 
 The United States to-day is English in its lan- 
 guage, most of its law and many of its customs. 
 The Englishmen who came to the New World 
 stayed and became Americans, the Spaniards and 
 the French who came had ever their hearts in 
 their home-lands and looked on America as an 
 abiding-place, only. 
 
 The English were the first true colonists. To 
 this there was but the one exception — the Spanish 
 colony at St. Augustine, Florida. 
 
 Cabot brought the English flag to American 
 shores, but it was as an explorer. Drake brought 
 the flag, likewise, but it was as a privateer. It 
 was Ealeigh and other courtiers in the train of 
 Queen Elizabeth who caused the flag of England 
 
 11 
 
12 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 to fly over the first English colony in the New 
 World. 
 
 Those high-hearted men of that age of glory 
 sounded the first blast of that great trumpet-peal 
 which has rung for three centuries from the shores 
 of America. Valor, courtesy, independence and 
 loyalty were the four great requirements for a 
 courtier of Elizabeth. The region settled under 
 the reign of the Virgin Queen — and hence known 
 as Virginia — saw the establishment in America of 
 these four great virtues. To this day, Virginia 
 and the neighboring states possess a character of 
 thoir own. 
 
 Although the name of Sir Walter Ealeigh is al- 
 ways remembered in connction with the early set- 
 tlement of Virginia, he was not the first to make a 
 colonizing effort on behalf of the English. That 
 great fame belongs to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the 
 half-brother of Ealeigh. 
 
 As early as 1578, Gilbert started with a fleet 
 of seven ships ^^to discover and plant Christian 
 inhabitants, in place convenient, upon those large 
 and ample countries extended northward from the 
 cape of Florida . . . not in the actual possession 
 of any Christian prince.'' 
 
 Though the expedition was under the command 
 of Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh — then but a young 
 man and not yet knighted — was in command of the 
 Falcon, one of the smaller ships. 
 
 The charter which was given to Gilbert by 
 Queen Elizabeth, bestowed on him the right to 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 13 
 
 explore unknown coasts and take possession of 
 them in the name of England. The colonists were 
 given the same rights as Englishmen, so long as 
 they should not disobey the laws, attack the Chris- 
 tian faith or withdraw from their allegiance to 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 Doom brooded over Gilbert. The expedition 
 met disaster at the very outset. Not one of the 
 vessels ever reached the shores of America. 
 Ealeigh, eager for the smiles of the Virgin Queen 
 and unwilling to return empty-handed, went off 
 hunting treasure on his own account. 
 
 Yet Gilbert was far from losing heart. On 
 June 11, 1583, he set forth with five ships and 260 
 men. There were two fair-sized vessels, the De- 
 light and the Raleigh, two smaller ones, the Golden 
 Hind and the Swallow, and a tiny frigate, the 
 Squirrel. Although one of the ships was called 
 by Raleigh *s name, he did not sail with the expe- 
 dition. 
 
 Two days after the start, the Raleigh deserted 
 .the fleet and put bp^k to Plymouth. 
 
 The Western Ocean froAvned upon the venture. 
 The fleet encountered head winds and constant 
 fogs. The vessels became separated, and, before 
 they were halfway across the Atlantic, not one of 
 the ships had any of her consorts in sight. 
 
 The Golden Hind ran into the midst of huge 
 icebergs, which her captain compared to ^* moun- 
 tains of ice driven upon the sea, ' ' a sight rare and 
 terrible to seamen in those days. Three days 
 
14 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 later, her captain sighted **an uncomfortable 
 coast, nothing but hideous rocks and mountains, 
 bare of trees and void of any green herb, whereon 
 so great a haze and fog did hang, as neither might 
 we well discern the land, nor take the sun's 
 height.'' 
 
 This desolate spot was undoubtedly the east- 
 ern shore of Newfoundland. Even in the rare 
 days of sunshine which sometimes happen there 
 in summer time, this coast is bleak and dreary. 
 
 A few days later, the Golden Hind encountered 
 the Swallow. The crew of that vessel had been 
 adventuring in reckless fashion. Finding the pro- 
 visions running short, they had turned pirates, 
 and had plundered two French craft. Explorers 
 were none too particular in those days. 
 
 The two ships sailed southward to the harbor 
 of St. John's, the point previously agreed upon for 
 meeting. There they found their flagship, the De- 
 light, which had been joined by the Squirrel the 
 day before. 
 
 Their troubles were only beginning. At St. 
 John's, they met with unexpected opposition. 
 The fishermen and traders refused to allow the 
 fleet to enter the harbor. 
 
 The Newfoundland Banks, perhaps the greatest 
 fishing grounds in the world, had first been dis- 
 covered by French fishers. The Portuguese fol- 
 lowed and the English craft came last. In con- 
 sequence, these shoals in the open sea w^ere re- 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 15 
 
 garded as common to all. The shores adjacent 
 were treated as an international zone. 
 
 Nor was this the only tangle about the New- 
 foundland Bants. Both Spain and Portugal 
 claimed Newfoundland under the verdict of the 
 Pope, both France and England claimed the same 
 territory under the rights of discovery. 
 
 The English fishers had bullied the others into 
 a sort of discontented admission; of their au- 
 thority. The ^* admirals'* of the fishing fleets 
 were generally Englishmen. When Gilbert's four 
 ships arrived, there were thirty-six fishing and 
 trading vessels in the harbor, each captain jealous 
 of any intrusion on what he deemed his right. 
 They were a pugnacious breed and quite prepared 
 to give fight. 
 
 Gilbert was equally ready for battle, if neces- 
 sary. Secure in his authority and with four ves- 
 sels at his back, he sent word to each of the fish- 
 ing *^ admirals'' that he had a commission from 
 Queen Elizabeth, and that he would enter the har- 
 bor, whether they would, or no. The name of the 
 Queen and the guns of Gilbert 's fleet were potent, 
 and he sailed in, unmolested. 
 
 The captains and the settlers had their rights, 
 and the holder of the first colonization charter did 
 not ignore them. He went ashore and took formal 
 possession of St. John's ^^and 200 leagues every 
 way ' ' in the name of the Queen. Yet Gilbert did 
 not forget to look after his own interests. He 
 declared himself Governor and announced that his 
 
16 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 title should descend to his heirs in perpetuity. 
 He gave all land-holders due and proper deeds to 
 their lands, but he made them pay him rent. Thus 
 Newfoundland passed from an international zone 
 to become an English colony, of which the Gilbert 
 family were to be the lords forever. 
 
 Yet there was mischief abroad. Some of the 
 sailors of the fleet deserted, to join the fishing 
 craft ; others were tempted by the pay offered by 
 traders ; several hid in the woods with the inten- 
 tion of becoming settlers after Gilbert should 
 have gone. The mining expert of the expedition 
 roused the hopes of others by a report that he 
 had found signs of silver. Accordingly, when 
 Gilbert was ready to set sail for more southern 
 shores, there were not sailors enough to man all 
 the vessels and the Swallow was left behind. 
 
 Since exploration was now his chief aim, Gil- 
 bert removed his flag from the Delight to the tiny 
 Squirrel, which could run into narrow creeks and 
 shallow bays which would be dangerous for larger 
 craft. A tragic error in seamanship was made in 
 removing the heavy guns from the Swallow to the 
 Squirrel, thus overloading the decks of the tiny 
 frigate. 
 
 They set sail two weeks later, but soon met head 
 winds, dangerous cross-currents and heavy fog. 
 Driving southward in heavy weather, suddenly, 
 through the driving rain, the master of the Golden 
 Hind saw breakers ahead. 
 
 He signaled instantly to the Delight, which was 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 17 
 
 ahead, and therefore nearer to the breakers. But 
 the officers on board the larger craft must have 
 been keeping poor watch, for the signals were not 
 noticed for several minutes. When they were 
 seen, the vessel veered. It was too late! She 
 struck the shoal and was almost instantly bat- 
 tered to pieces. 
 
 Amid the hoarse shouting of the officers and the 
 shrieking of cordage, the Golden Hind and the 
 Squirrel came up into the wind. With the surf 
 creaming over the shoal just a cable ^s length from 
 them, they fought their way out to sea. The peril 
 was imminent. The lead showed only three 
 fathoms (eighteen feet) of water, and ^^the seas 
 were going mightily and high.'' 
 
 Despite the gale and the treacherous shoals, a 
 gallant search was made for the survivors of the 
 Delight. None were found. 
 
 Fourteen men of the crew, indeed, had leapt 
 into a small boat, without food or water, and, 
 after six days of tossing on a heavy sea, were cast 
 upon a Newfoundland beach with two of their 
 number dead. Evil fortune persisted, however, 
 for the survivors were at once made prisoners by 
 the French. 
 
 The wreck was a terrible loss to the expedi- 
 tion, for the Delight had been the largest ship. 
 She had carried the bulk of the provisions and 
 one hundred men. Menaced by scant supplies of 
 food, further exploration became impossible. Two 
 days after the wreck of the Delight, Gilbert was 
 
18 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 forced to head for England. A strange thing 
 happened ! 
 
 At the very instant that the vessels turned their 
 prows to the eastward, the crews saw **a very 
 lion, to our seeming, in shape, hair and color, 
 not swimming after the manner of a beast by mov- 
 ing of his feet, but rather sliding upon the water 
 with his whole body in sight. . . . Thus he passed 
 along, turning his head to and fro, yawning and 
 gaping wide, with ugly demonstration of long 
 teeth and glaring eyes. And, to bid us farewell, 
 he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring and bellow- 
 ing as doeth a lion." 
 
 This was the first time that any English sail- 
 ors had seen a sea-lion, and many of them were 
 frightened. They declared it to be an evil omen. 
 Gilbert, to give his men courage, declared that 
 it was a sign of good. 
 
 That very night, however, a single ** corpse- 
 candle" was seen shining on the mast of the 
 Squirrelj a sign which sailor superstition declares 
 to be a sure prognostication of coming harm. 
 
 The captain of the Golden Hind begged Gilbert 
 to come on board the larger vessel, as the Squir- 
 rel was in constant danger of being swamped by 
 the heavy seas. But the gallant leader answered : 
 
 **I will not forsake my little company, going 
 homeward, with whom I have passed so many 
 storms and perils." 
 
 Tempest followed upon tempest. Half-a-dozen 
 times the cry rose on board the Golden Hind that 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 19 
 
 the Squirrel was gone. Yet, an instant later, the 
 cockle-shell of a craft would be seen rising on the 
 crest of a wave, to be hidden a second afterwards 
 in the trough. 
 
 North of the Azores, on September 9, the cap- 
 tain of the Golden Hind became convinced that 
 the tiny frigate could not stay afloat much longer. 
 At great personal risk, he ran his ship close 
 enough to the Squirrel for his voice to be heard. 
 Across the roar of the wind and the crashing of 
 the waves, he bellowed his pleadings to Gilbert 
 that he should transfer to the larger craft. 
 
 But the commander shouted cheerily: 
 
 *^We are as near to Heaven by the sea as by 
 land!'^ 
 
 They were his last recorded words. A few 
 hours later, the watch on the forecastle of the 
 Golden Hind saw the hghts of the Squirrel dis- 
 appear. **And, in that moment," wrote Captain 
 Hayes, **the frigate was devoured and swallowed 
 up of the sea." 
 
 So perished that valorous gentleman. Sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert, the first to try the planting 
 of an English colony upon American shores. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, Gilbert 's haK-brother, took 
 up the adventure. Being high in the favor of 
 Queen Elizabeth, the young courtier had no dif- 
 ficulty in securing Gilbert's charter for himself. 
 Adrian Gilbert, Sir Humphrey's heir, was as- 
 sociated with Ealeigh, and Richard Hakluyt was 
 a friend of both. 
 
20 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Although Hakluyt was not a traveler, but a 
 writer, his influence on American exploration 
 was very great. He was a lawyer and a clergy- 
 man, with a passion for geography and a quick 
 perception of trade opportunities. His famous 
 book, entitled *^ Divers Voyages,'' which was 
 published in 1582, had been the stimulus which 
 caused Gilbert to set out on his fatal expedition 
 of 1583, by which Newfoundland became an Eng- 
 lish colony. It was Hakluyt, also, who held Ra- 
 leigh firm to his purpose of colonizing America. 
 
 An able geographer, Hakluyt was able to put 
 his finger on the principal cause for Gilbert's 
 failure. The expedition had landed too far to 
 the north. He urged Ealeigh to send a small sur- 
 vey party before risking a large amount of money 
 and many lives. In April, 1584, two small ships 
 were sent by Raleigh and Adrian Gilbert to ex- 
 plore the American coast, further to the south. 
 These ships were under the command of Captains 
 Amadas and Barlowe. To them is due the fame 
 of the discovery of Virginia, and the first alliance 
 between England and the North American In- 
 dians. 
 
 They made the land of America at the south of 
 the long sand-spit which encloses Pamlico Sound 
 and sailed along it for 120 miles. At last they 
 found an opening, which may well have been 
 Okracoke Inlet. 
 
 On the shoals outside this inlet, they anchored 
 their ships. A very brief survey showed that the 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 21 
 
 sand-spit was useless for colonization. They 
 crossed Pamlico Sound in boats, wondering at its 
 shallowness for so wide a stretch of water and 
 being astonished at the number of fish. They 
 reached the mainland on July 13, 1584, and took 
 possession of the country in the Queen's name. 
 
 After they had been there three days, some In- 
 dians approached. At first they were timid, but, 
 at last, one was venturesome enough to accom- 
 pany the captains back to the ship, in his canoe. 
 Amadas and Barlowe presented him with cloth- 
 ing and other gifts. In token of gratitude, the 
 Indian went fishing, and, next day, brought back 
 a boat-load of fish. The day following, many 
 more canoes arrived, and among the leaders of 
 the Indians was Granganimeo, brother to Win- 
 gina, the head chief of the tribe. Forty braves 
 accompanied him. The captains were friendly 
 and gifts were exchanged. 
 
 A curious example of the mistakes which may 
 occur when people know nothing of each other's 
 language occurred at this time. Several of the 
 Indians exclaimed to the strangers, 
 
 * * Win-gan-dacoa ! ' ' 
 
 The English captains, who had tried to ask the 
 Indians — ^by signs — what was the name of this 
 country that they had found, supposed this to be 
 the Indian name of the land. As a matter of 
 fact, the real meaning of the phrase was: 
 
 *^What fine clothes you wear I'' 
 
 Finding the redskins so friendly, Amadas and 
 
22 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Barlowe commenced trading, and explored the 
 greater part of Pamlico Sound, north to Roanoke 
 Island and even beyond. So ably did these two 
 captains arrange matters with the Indians that 
 they were able to persuade two of them, Manteo 
 and Wanchese, to accompany them back to Eng- 
 land. These two Indians were to have a potent 
 effect on the colonization that was to follow later. 
 After a stay of two months, Amadas and Barlowe 
 set sail and arrived in England without misad- 
 venture. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was more than delighted with 
 this report, which added a large and fertile coun- 
 try to her realm. Realizing that the discovery was 
 due to the persistence of Raleigh, she knighted 
 him. 
 
 Moreover, charmed with Barlowe ^s phrase that 
 he had discovered '^a virgin land for a virgin 
 queen, '^ she insisted that the new territory 
 should not be called * * Wingandacoa, ' ^ as the In- 
 dians were supposed to have named it, but *^ Vir- 
 ginia, '^ in her honor. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh thus became ^^ Governor of 
 Virginia.'* As such, he was fevered with the de- 
 sire to colonize so promising and fertile a ter- 
 ritory, not only for his own sake, but also to 
 please the queen. 
 
 There are two sides to colonization. Those 
 who go to a new place must leave the old. Every 
 family that emigrates is so much strength lost to 
 
A MERCHANT OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 
 
 It was the merchant adventurers of England, who fitted out the expeditions for 
 trade and exploration to find the hidden wealth of the New Continent, who were 
 the real founders of the settlements of the New World. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH 
 
 It was Sir Walter Raleigh and other courtiers in the train of Queen Elizabeth who 
 caused the flag of England to fly over the first English Colonies in the New World. 
 
Copyriahl 1921 by Ticenfy-Jivc Bt-oadicay Corp. 
 
 SEBASTIAN CABOT SETTING OUT FROM ENGLAND TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC 
 

 X tji- 
 
 
 JOHN WHITE S MAP OF VIRGINIA 
 
 This map made by John White, Governor of Sir Walter Raleigh's second colony 
 on Roanoke Island, is the first known map of the Virginia coast. The original 
 made in 1585, is now in the British Museum. 
 
PERILOUS BEGINNINGS 23 
 
 the home-land. Yet Elizabeth was willing to let 
 her people go. 
 
 The reason was a queer one. It lay in the one 
 word — Sheep ! 
 
 During the fourteenth century, the wool trade 
 of England had grown enormous. One of the 
 causes of this was the closing of the trade routes 
 to the Orient. English wool rose to a high price. 
 
 The lords and owners of vast estates found 
 that they could make more money by rais- 
 ing sheep than by renting their land to tenant 
 farmers. 
 
 This caused enormous suffering. A stretch 
 of land large enough to pasture a good-sized flock 
 of sheep would provide employment only for one 
 or two shepherds, whereas, if it were used for 
 growing grain, it would support fifteen or twenty 
 families. 
 
 The sheep industry, therefore, threw thousands 
 of farmers out of work, since the lords would no 
 longer rent the land to them. As early as 1516, 
 Sir Thomas More described the situation in the 
 following striking words: 
 
 ^^Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and 
 tame . . . consume, destroy and devour whole 
 fields, houses and cities. . . . Noblemen and gen- 
 tlemen, yea, and certain abbots . . . leave no 
 ground for tillage. They enclose all into pastures. 
 They throw down houses, they pluck down towns 
 and leave nothing standing but only the church 
 to be made a sheep-house. . . . Those who for- 
 
24 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 merly lived on the land are left starving and 
 homeless. And, where many laborers had existed 
 by field labor, only a single shepherd or herdsman 
 is occupied/* 
 
 Wlien Vasco da Gama opened the route to the 
 Orient by the Cape of Good Hope, the traffic in 
 silks and cottons was resumed. The demand for 
 wool decreased. England had an overproduction 
 of wool. Prices dropped. During Elizabeth's 
 reign, the finding of foreign markets for the wool 
 had become a difficult problem. 
 
 This worked in two ways for the colonization 
 of America. It left farmers and farm laborers 
 ready for emigration and it opened the possibility 
 that a new colony might provide an outlet for 
 EngUsh wool. 
 
 Hakluyt, whose word had power, in his ** Dis- 
 course on Western Planting, ' ' wrote : 
 
 **Now, if Her Majesty take these western dis- 
 coveries in hand, and plant there, it is like that, 
 in a short time, we shall vente (sell) as great a 
 mass of cloth in those parts as ever we did in 
 the Netherlands, and in time, as much more.'' 
 
 This discourse of Hakluyt 's was sent to Raleigh 
 a month before the return of Amadas and Bar- 
 lowe. It was duly read by the Queen. When the 
 captains returned with their glowing account of 
 ** Virginia," the royal virgin was ready to support 
 and to aid Raleigh in his projects. A new hour 
 had struck for America. 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 
 
 The planting of Virginia was begun with royal 
 acclaim. It was endorsed by Queen Elizabeth and 
 was partly financed out of the Treasury. This 
 appears in an official letter to Ralph Lane, who 
 was ordered to take charge of the colonists on 
 **the Voyage to Virginia, for Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 at Her Majesty's commandment.*' 
 
 The Lane colonists sailed in April, 1585, under 
 a strong convoy, with Sir Richard Grenville as 
 fleet commander. They entered Pamlico Sound 
 two months later and the friendly Indians at once 
 boarded the ships. 
 
 One of the visitors stole a silver cup, and Gren- 
 ville set fire to the standing com *Ho teach the 
 savages a lesson.'' This foolish action taught 
 the redskins a lesson, but a most unhappy one ; it 
 taught them to look on the English as their 
 enemies. Grenville 's silver cup was to cost Eng- 
 land hundreds of lives. 
 
 After some weeks spent in exploring the Sound, 
 Lane and the 107 colonists were set ashore on 
 Roanoke Island. Provisions for eight months 
 were left. Manteo and Wanchese, the two In- 
 
 25 
 
26 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 dians who had visited Elngland, remained with 
 Lane as interpreters. Of these two, Manteo 
 remained faithful to his English friends, while 
 Wanchese returned to his own people and became 
 a trouble-maker. 
 
 Raleigh had shown great wisdom in choosing 
 Lane as a leader. In spite of Grenville's ill- 
 judged act, the head of the Eoanoke colony man- 
 aged to keep the peace. This was due to the in- 
 fluence of three of the natives: Granganimeo, 
 brother of Chief Wingina (later called Pemisa- 
 pan) ; Ensenore, father of Wingina and the head 
 chief of a group of tribes ; and Manteo, the inter- 
 preter. Unhappily for the colonists, Granganimeo 
 died soon after the landing. 
 
 Eelying mainly on the friendship of the power- 
 ful Chief Ensenore to protect the Roanoke Island 
 base, Lane explored the country in every direc- 
 tion. He concluded that Roanoke was ill-suited 
 for a permanent settlement and urged a speedy 
 removal to Chesapeake Bay. Later events were 
 to prove how fatally right were his fears. 
 
 During his absence, the colonists had several 
 sharp skirmishes with Indians of neighboring 
 tribes, but flint-pointed arrows struck harmlessly 
 upon armor, and even the dreaded tomahawk was 
 unavailing on a steel helmet. False reports of 
 Lane's death reached the ears of Chief Wingina 
 or Pemisapan, and Wanchese was actually en- 
 gaged on the plans for a massacre when Lane 
 returned, safe and sound. 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 27 
 
 The situation began to grow desperate. The 
 eight months' provisions were exhausted. The 
 end of March arrived, but Grenville and his ships 
 did not. With great diplomacy, Lane used his 
 influence with Chief Ensenore, the aged father of 
 Pemisapan, to conclude a treaty mth the Indians. 
 Food was to be provided until the arrival of the 
 relief expedition, when all was to be repaid. Had 
 this treaty been carried out, all would have been 
 well, but Chief Ensenore died, less than a week 
 after it was made. 
 
 Ensenore 's death left the English without a 
 single voice in their favor in the councils of the 
 Indians. Hostility became open. Pemisapan for- 
 bade any of his people to sell food to the colo- 
 nists. April passed without any sign of Grenville 
 and hunger became acute in the English camp. 
 
 Lane reduced his force on Roanoke to the small- 
 est number of men that could hold it and sent the 
 rest of the colonists to the wooded sand-spit on 
 the ocean side of Pamlico Sound, on an island 
 called Hatorask (Hatteras). The island was 
 wider and more fertile in Lane's time than it is 
 now, but it is still famous for its wild grapes, its 
 fish, turtles, crabs and shell-fish. The colonists 
 waited and watched there all the month of May, 
 but the relief ships did not arrive. 
 
 Suddenly, on June 1, there appeared off the 
 coast a superb fleet of twenty-three vessels, under 
 the command of Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 Shortly after Grenville and Lane had left Eng- 
 
28 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 land, the year before, war had been declared with 
 Spain. Drake had promptly set off to harry the 
 West Indies. Before returning to England, well 
 stored with plunder and provisions, it occurred 
 to the famous commander to anchor off Virginia 
 and to find out whether the Enghsh colonists 
 on Roanoke Island were in need. 
 
 Learning that Grenville had not arrived and 
 that Lane's men were starving, Drake agreed to 
 leave a ship and an ample supply of provisions. 
 But, before this ship could enter the haven, a ter- 
 rible storm arose and she was blown out to sea. 
 
 Drake thereupon offered another vessel, but he 
 was too prudent a seaman to take the responsi- 
 bility of bringing her through the terribly nar- 
 row and tide-ripped inlets into the Sound. She 
 must lie in the open roadstead, near the Diamond 
 Shoals, known as **the graveyard of the sea,'' or 
 else the colonists must pilot the vessel in them- 
 selves. 
 
 Lane took counsel with the colonists. Gren- 
 ville had not come and the war with Spain might 
 prevent any supplies reaching them at all. As for 
 the relief ship, if the great Drake did not dare to 
 navigate the strait, who were they, to try? Their 
 friends Granganimeo and Ensenore were dead. 
 Pemisapan was known to be hostile. Further, 
 every Englishman might be needed in the defense 
 of the home-land. The colonists decided to ask 
 Drake to take them aboard the vessels of his fleet, 
 and sailed for home. 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 29 
 
 So ended the first colonization of ** Virginia." 
 
 Lane's judgment was sound, but his fear that 
 Raleigh would not be able to aid them was in er- 
 ror. A supply ship sent at Sir Walter's expense 
 reached Hatorask a few days after the colonists 
 had left on Drake's fleet. The captain of this 
 vessel spent a couple of weeks looking for the set- 
 tlers. Not finding any white man on Roanoke 
 Island or in the vicinity, he returned to England. 
 
 Fifteen days after the homeward departure of 
 Raleigh 's supply ship, Grenville appeared at Hat- 
 orask with three vessels. Failing to find Ra- 
 leigh's ship, he sent armed boats to Roanoke 
 Island. The places where the colonists had lived 
 were discovered abandoned and desolate. 
 
 Determining, at least, to hold possession for 
 England and knowing nothing of Pemisapan's hos- 
 tility, Grenville left fifteen of his sturdiest men 
 with instructions to hold the island at all haz- 
 ards. This settlement was made early in Au- 
 gust, 1586. Abundant ammunition was landed, 
 the fort was strengthened and enough provisions 
 were put ashore to last for more than two years. 
 
 The year following, a rescue expedition learned 
 the fate of these fifteen men. While four of them 
 were away, gathering oysters, the Indians ap- 
 peared under the leadership of Pemisapan, and 
 Wanchese falsely offered friendship. Since Lane 
 had left no word of warning and Wanchese spoke 
 in English, the little garrison agreed to a parley. 
 
 Two of the leaders went out of the fort to meet 
 
30 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 the Indians. The savages treacherously slew one 
 and wounded the other. Simultaneously a war- 
 party set fire to the fort. 
 
 Driven into the open, the English fought their 
 way to the shore, losing two more of their num- 
 ber. Only eight men reached the boat. Eowing 
 to the oyster creek, they rescued their comrades 
 and crossed the Sound ^*to an island to the right 
 of the entrance to the harbor of Hatorask.'' 
 They were never heard of more. 
 
 Thus ended, in blood, the second English set- 
 tlement of ** Virginia.'' 
 
 Meanwhile, Drake and Lane had reached Eng- 
 land, and Raleigh and Grenville learned why 
 Eoanoke had been abandoned. A gallant little 
 band of fifteen Englishmen remained alone on 
 that distant shore. With the Spanish War rag- 
 ing, neither Grenville, Lane nor Ealeigh could be 
 spared. In order to support these fifteen ma- 
 rooned men Ealeigh granted to ** John White and 
 others'' certain patents for planting a colony in 
 Virginia. White 's title was * * Governor of the City 
 of Ealeigh in Virginia, ' ' and his patent was dated 
 January 7, 1587. 
 
 White had been the map-maker of the Lane ex- 
 pedition, and had shown himself to be a natural 
 leader. On several occasions he had been put in 
 charge of exploring parties. Lane chose him for 
 his successor, giving him exact instructions as 
 to the plans to be carried out. 
 
 He was to sail as soon as possible with 150 colo- 
 
CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH 
 
 Though Smith s name is chiefly associated with the Virginia colonies he was one of 
 known°'. M^ThT/- °- •''' ^^.''•^ explorers. He thoroughly explored what was then 
 known as North Virginia and gave the name of New England to the territory but 
 his popular fame largely through the romantic Pocahontas legend, is mo?eintTmate"y 
 associated with the scene of his earliest exploits, the James River Colony His 
 ZZdfl , ?,?H '^^' ho^f^e'-' was not romantic, for his sound common sense, his 
 Indurfng example.' ^""^ diplomatic handling of current affairs left an 
 

 THE FLEET OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE LYING OFF THE COAST OF FLORIDA 
 
 Shortly after the first colonial venture under Lane and Grenvllle left England, war 
 
 ^nr\ ?r w A' i-^P'^'^r; ^'' ^''■^"^^^ ^''^^^ ^'^« «^"t to harry the Spanish Main 
 and the West Indies. On his return to England he decided to visit the Virginia 
 colony and see if all was well. He raided St. Augustine as is here shown in an old 
 map on his way north from the West Indies. 
 
•■/=ST?^;^*-«9^'^- X5SJ!£%^S 
 
 INDIANS COOKING FISH 
 
 The English colonists were much amazed at the great variety of fish which they 
 found in the shallow waters of the Sounds along the Virginia coast. The Indians 
 were expert fishermen and made great use of fish for food, showing the colonists how 
 to catch and prepare thera for the table. This picture is one of the manv drawings 
 by Governor John White of the Second Colony, which are now preserved in the 
 British Museum. 
 

 ~^] 
 
 
 
 
 
 SMITH S MAP OF VIRGINIA 
 
 When this map was made the colony was commonly spoken of as the Paradise of 
 Virginia. The early map makers always gave a pictorial aspect to their maps to 
 rnake the vision of the country mapped as graphic as possible. In this map there is 
 little suggestion of the low lying fiat country along the coast, rather a pleasant sug- 
 gestion of hills and forests. The Colonists of the several early ventures found the 
 shore regions to be gloomy, pest-ridden, tide-water swamps They never really reached 
 the wooded and hilly regions away from the coast. 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 31 
 
 nists — men, women and children — and to settle at 
 Chesapeake Bay, first picking up the fifteen men 
 who had been left by Grenville at Roanoke Island. 
 By that means, the new colony would escape the 
 hostility of Pemisapan, and could make an al- 
 liance with the tribes in the new settlement. 
 
 During war-time, however, it was easier to or- 
 der an immediate sailing than it was to accom- 
 plish it. Every ship-captain was needed for the 
 defense of the English coast. The Lion, a Fly- 
 Boat, and a pinnace were found at last, but Ra- 
 leigh was compelled — much against his will — to 
 give the command of the little fleet to Fernandino, 
 a renegade Spaniard. The three ships sailed from 
 Plymouth on May 8, 1587. 
 
 From the very start, Fernandino 's treachery 
 showed itself. On May 16, to quote the words of 
 White, * ^ Fernandino lewdly forsook our Fly-Boat, 
 leaving her distressed in the Bay of Portugal." 
 The Lion and the pinnace continued. 
 
 They touched at Dominica on June 19 and spent 
 three weeks in the West Indies, supposedly to se- 
 cure food supplies, young fruit trees and seeds for 
 planting, and cattle for the beginning of herds. 
 Fernandino continuously prevented White from 
 getting these, declaring that he had a friend in 
 Hispaniola who could provide all. But, when the 
 ships arrived off Hispaniola, Fernandino found 
 an excuse for not landing and turned northwards, 
 thus denying to the expedition the supplies which 
 Raleigh had advised them to take. 
 
32 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 They reached Hatorask on July 22. Feman- 
 dino refused to try and enter the narrow chan- 
 nel with the Lion. The pinnace was sent into 
 Pamlico Sound to take the colonists ashore, with 
 secret orders not to bring back any of its passen- 
 gers, no matter what conditions might be discov- 
 ered at Roanoke. 
 
 They were bad enough ! White found no signs 
 of Hf e, nothing but the skeleton of the white man 
 who had been slain by treachery when in a parley 
 with Pemisapan and Wanchese. 
 
 Three days later — to the great delight of the 
 colonists and the discomfiture of Femandino — the 
 Fly-Boat arrived, having made her way across 
 the ocean, alone. White prepared to move to 
 Chesapeake Bay, according to the orders given 
 him by Ealeigh and Lane. Them Femandino 
 openly showed his hatred of the English. He 
 flatly refused to proceed on the voyage and sailed 
 away, leaving the colonists — now reduced to 99 
 whites and 2 friendly Indians — on ill-fated Roa- 
 noke Island. 
 
 Shortly after landing, Manteo, who had been 
 true to the English throughout, was baptized a 
 Christian. Then, following instructions contained 
 in sealed orders, which ^\^ite opened upon land- 
 ing, the faithful Indian was officially proclaimed 
 as *^Lord of Roanoke.'' 
 
 A few days later, on August 18, Eleanor Dare, 
 daughter of Governor White and wife of Assistant 
 Governor Dare, gave birth to a daughter. Be- 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 33 
 
 cause she was the first white child bom in Vir- 
 ginia, the baby was christened ** Virginia, ' ' the 
 Sunday following. 
 
 Virginia Dare was not the first white child born 
 in North America, as is often stated, nor yet the 
 first Christian. That honor belongs to Snorri 
 Thorfinnsson, the son of Gudrid the Fair. Nor 
 was she the first white girl bom in North America, 
 for the infant daughter of Marguerite Roberval 
 preceded her. But she was unquestionably the 
 first white girl born in the present territory of the 
 United States. 
 
 Since Fernandino had refused to carry out 
 the orders he had received, it was imperative to 
 send word back to England to tell that the colon- 
 ists were at Roanoke, not at Chesapeake Bay, and 
 to ensure the sending of supplies. 
 
 On the urgent desire of every settler. Governor 
 White agreed to go, though he protested bitterly. 
 
 White boarded the Fly-Boat on August 27. At 
 the very moment of weighing anchor, a terrible 
 accident occurred. One of the bars of the capstan 
 broke. The sudden jar, added to the weight of 
 the anchor, whirled the capstan round with such 
 force that the other bars spun like gigantic flails, 
 seriously injuring several men of the already 
 scanty crew. A second attempt, with fewer men, 
 was little less disastrous. There were not enough 
 hands, now, to raise the anchor. The Fly-Boat set 
 out to sea with only five uninjured men on board 
 and without an anchor. 
 
34 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Two of the sailors died at sea from their in- 
 juries. Three others were not able to leave their 
 bunks during the entire voyage. The Fly-Boat 
 encountered a heavy gale, dead against her, and 
 the short-handed crew could do but little. She 
 was driven back. Provision^ and fresh water 
 grew scarce. Scurvy broke out, greatly weaken- 
 ing the remaining men. 
 
 After thirty days' tossing, the Fly-Boat reached 
 the west coast of Ireland. There she found her- 
 self in a desperate position, for she had no anchor. 
 She entered the small harbor of Dingen and sailed 
 to and fro in the narrow space, signaling franti- 
 cally for help. A ship sent off a skiff and learned 
 of the Fly-Boat's need. A spare anchor was 
 hastily sent aboard, and the much-mauled vessel 
 rode at last at rest. 
 
 But the haven came too late for some. Three 
 men died aboard the Fly-Boat as she lay in har- 
 bor; three more were carried ashore, too ill to 
 move. It was November 8 before Governor White 
 arrived at Southampton, having taken passage on 
 a ship from Dingen. 
 
 The following spring, all England was ringing 
 with preparations to fight the Spanish Armada. 
 Every ship-yard was busy. Every boat that could 
 float was being patched up. There were no ships 
 to be spared for the relief of the colonists of Roa- 
 noke Island. Yet Ealeigh's influence was so 
 powerful that he mustered a small fleet and put 
 it in charge of Grenville. It was not allowed to 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 35 
 
 sail. The Lord High Admiral protested, declaring 
 he needed every ship and every man he could get, 
 whereupon the relief -vessels were seized for the 
 navy. 
 
 Raleigh had a determined streak in him, and 
 Governor White did not miss a single day in 
 pleading the cause of the colonists. He spoke 
 bluntly enough to the Queen about it, and Eliza- 
 beth, who did not object to plain speaking, prom- 
 ised her aid. Two small vessels were procured 
 and sailed from England on April 22, 1588, under 
 command of White. But the heavy hand of ill- 
 fortune dogged the steps of the Roanoke rescuers. 
 Off Madeira they encountered some Spanish men- 
 o'-war and were so severely handled as to be 
 lucky to return, with their sails full of shot-holes 
 and several of the sailors dead. 
 
 It was the last chance that year. The Armada 
 was gathering. 
 
 The year 1589 brought no relief to Roanoke. 
 The Armada had been repelled but it was far from 
 being a final victory. England was fighting for 
 her life and she knew it. Elizabeth had no ships 
 to spare for a handful of colonists. They must 
 take their chance. 
 
 Raleigh would not give up. White haunted the 
 door of every man who might possibly give help. 
 In desperation another patent was given out, this 
 time to a company of London merchants, among 
 them Thomas Smythe. Hakluyt was a member of 
 the company. Money did not succeed, either. 
 
36 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 The ships were not to be had. Winter came again, 
 with no relief for Roanoke. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1590, Raleigh renewed 
 his exertions. Three vessels, the Hopewell, the 
 John Evangelist and the Little John, belonging to 
 a London merchant, were about to start to the 
 West Indies on a privateering venture. Raleigh 
 secured the Queen's consent to compel these ships 
 to take colonists and supphes to Virginia, and 
 sent a courier to White with the message. 
 
 The order was given too late. It arrived in 
 Plymouth only the day before siailing. As it 
 would take some time to gather the colonists, the 
 owner and captains refused to honor White's or- 
 der. They said, curtly, that they would take him 
 and his sea-chest aboard and nothing more. 
 
 There were no telegraphs in those days. There 
 was no time for White to communicate with Ra- 
 leigh, who was in London, no means to reach the 
 Queen. If he wished to see Virginia again, this 
 seemed his only chance. Desperate and heartsick, 
 he boarded one of the ships, and sailed away. 
 
 The captains, however, had their orders. Pri- 
 vateering was the work they were paid to do, and, 
 besides, each of them had a share in the venture. 
 The Roanoke question might wait till afterwards. 
 As White wrote, in agony of spirit: **The cap- 
 tains regarded very little the good of their coun- 
 trymen in Virginia . . . and wholly disposed 
 themselves to seek after purchase and spoils, 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 37 
 
 spending so mnch time thereon, that summer was 
 spent before we arrived at Virginia/' 
 
 It was not until five months later, on August 
 15, that they dropped anchor off Hatorask. Next 
 day they launched two small boats to enter the 
 inlet, but the sea was rough and the tide run- 
 ning high. The inlets of Pamlico Sound are dan- 
 gerous always, but death-traps in heavy weather. 
 One boat got through, but the other boat was 
 swamped, the captain and six men being drowned. 
 
 The remaining boat sailed up to Roanoke. 
 
 No sign of the colony remained but some heavy 
 cannon, a few bars of iron and pigs of lead, all 
 overgrown with grass and weeds. There were 
 no traces of life. Yet, on one of the largest trees 
 near the site of the fort, the bark had been re- 
 moved and the word * ^ Croatoan ' ' had been carved 
 in the wood. Since the word was unaccompanied 
 by a cross, which had been agreed upon as the 
 sign of distress. White was joyfully confident of 
 finding the colonists safe and sound on Croatoan, 
 now Okracoke Island. 
 
 The boat returned to the ship, almost being 
 swamped as it passed through the inlet. The 
 night was wild and stormy. The ships dragged 
 their anchors and were in utmost peril. Despite 
 the foul weather, however, the captain of the 
 Hopewell agreed to do the utmost that seaman- 
 ship could devise to get to Croatoan. 
 
 But the Hatteras coast is a raging terror in a 
 rough sea. In weighing anchor, the cable of the 
 
38 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Hopewell broke, causing the loss of the anchor. 
 The ship was hurled in toward the shore. Another 
 anchor was dropped, to save instant wreck. It 
 dragged, at once. There were but seconds, not 
 even minutes, to spare. The cable was slipped, los- 
 ing a second anchor, some sail being spread simul- 
 taneously. Extraordinary seamanship and good 
 luck brought the craft into a channel almost at 
 the very jaws of the surf and she beat out to sea 
 with but a few fathoms to spare. 
 
 With but one anchor remaining, scant provisions 
 and less water, the Hopewell could not risk the 
 danger of trying to beat back to Croatoan. It 
 was decided to run to the West Indies for supplies 
 and for the needed anchors, before making an- 
 other try for rescue. 
 
 It was not to be. The following night a heavy 
 gale from the west arose. The battered Hopewell 
 tried to hold her southward course, in vain. 
 There was nothing to do but to run before the 
 gale with shortened canvas. She was more than 
 halfway to England before the violence of the 
 storm abated, and, by that time, was almost out 
 of food and water, was leaking badly and it 
 was all her captain could do to reach an English 
 harbor. 
 
 White reached England on October 24, after 
 more than seven months at sea. He had been 
 within a few miles of rescue, but had returned 
 in failure. Never did the colonists at Croatoan 
 know how near help had been. Never did Gov- 
 
THE TRAGEDY OF ROANOKE 39 
 
 emor White see again the settlers of Roanoke 
 Island, never did he hear a word as to the fate of 
 his infant granddaughter, Virginia Dare. 
 
 Many years after, when an English settlement 
 had been established at Jamestown, it was indi- 
 rectly learned from the Indians that there had 
 been fighting at Roanoke. Many of the colonists 
 had been slain, but some had escaped to Croatoan, 
 where was the tribe to which Manteo belonged, and 
 there had lived in peace and friendship with the 
 Indians. But for the storm that struck the Hope- 
 well, Governor White could have rescued them. 
 
 There are many traditions as to the fate of Vir- 
 ginia Dare, but they are httle more than conjec- 
 tures. In one story, she became the wife of a colo- 
 nist, in another she wedded an Indian chief, in a 
 third, she died in infancy. There are still living, 
 in the Carolinas, families who claim an indirect 
 descent, but no proof is forthcoming. 
 
 Whether the Croatoan settlers were massacred, 
 later, or whether they intermarried with the In- 
 dians and were absorbed is absolutely unknown. 
 One thing only is sure, that, as an English plant- 
 ing, the Roanoke Colony disappeared completely. 
 
 Thus, in mystery and silence, ended the third 
 settlement of Virginia. 
 
 Several quests were made for White's lost 
 colony, especially those of Mace in 1602 and 
 Bartholomew Gilbert in 1603, but all in vain. The 
 tragedy of Roanoke still holds its secret, and the 
 
40 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 sad page of the ending of that gallant effort is 
 further saddened by the unknown fate of the first 
 white girl born in United States territory— Vir- 
 ginia Dare. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 
 
 Less than twenty years elapsed between the ex- 
 tinction of the Eoanoke Colony and the establish- 
 ment of the James Colony, yet these twenty years 
 marked the passage from one Age into another. 
 The Roanoke Colony died at the end of the Tudor 
 d3niasty, which had been medieval; the James 
 Colony was bom at the beginning of the Stuart 
 dynasty, which led f onvard to modern times. The 
 reign of Elizabeth was the bridge between. 
 
 Two principal causes brought about this change, 
 in so far as they affected America. The first was 
 the doAvnfall of Spanish sea-power, the second 
 was the death of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Spanish sea-power fell because the English had 
 been the first to modernize their ships. They cut 
 off the high fore-castles and poop-castles, double- 
 decked the waists, and heavily ballasted their 
 smaller vessels. This enabled them to carry a 
 larger sail area and to sail closer to the wind. 
 
 An English craft, thus modernized, could at 
 any time work to windward of a Spanish vessel. 
 This gave it the supreme advantage of the weather 
 gauge, more than doubling its fighting efficiency. 
 
 41 
 
42 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 It could outsail a Spanish galleon almost two to 
 one, and hence could hit and run away when fac- 
 ing odds ; the Spanish had to remain passive and 
 be shot at. Further, while the Dons had the ad- 
 vantage of heavier guns, the English guns were 
 more easily handled, and, in wooden ships, it was 
 the number of shots that told rather than the 
 weight of metal. 
 
 Yet the power of Spain upon the seas was not 
 decided in one battle. The ''Invincible'' Armada 
 was not defeated. It was repulsed. It was pri- 
 marily a transport fleet of 132 vessels, carrying 
 21,261 soldiers and 8066 sailors. Its main pur- 
 pose was to join forces with a huge Spanish army 
 waiting in Holland, and to land an invading host 
 on England's shores. Naval action was to be 
 merely incidental. 
 
 The English fleet consisted of 189 vessels, 
 mostly small, with a total fighting strength of 
 1700 men. It did not carry any soldiers, in the 
 strict sense of the word. Its purpose was not to 
 annihilate the Armada, but to prevent Spanish 
 troops from landing. It was a defensive force, 
 only. Naval action was its only aim. 
 
 As such, the English navy scored a complete 
 success. The Spanish did not land. Moreover, 
 the tiny craft, by skilKul seamanship, greater 
 speed and ease of handling and superior gunnery. 
 peppered the cumbrous vessels of their foes so 
 thoroughly as to minimize the fear of a second 
 attempt at invasion. 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 43 
 
 Yet when the Armada sailed up the English 
 Channel in July 1588, and even on that night at 
 Gravelines when English fire-ships sent a panic 
 into the Spanish fleet, the power of Spain received 
 no more than a check. Though a storm wrecked 
 nineteen galleons on the coasts of Scotland and 
 Ireland, the loss of men was but small when com- 
 pared with the hosts which Spain could summon. 
 The safe arrival of a single treasure-fleet from 
 Mexico or Peru would repay for all the lost ves- 
 sels. 
 
 Elizabeth and her great sea-captains were well 
 aware of this. Spain was rebuffed, not defeated. 
 The danger remained. Hence neither ships, men 
 nor supplies could be spared for Roanoke and no 
 relief expedition was sent for ten years. 
 
 Much more damaging to Spain was the loss she 
 suffered through English privateers. Her treas- 
 ure-fleets, her merchant vessels and her colonial 
 settlements were continually harassed by such ter- 
 rors of the sea as Hawkins, Brake and Christopher 
 Newport. Swarms of death-dealing maritime hor- 
 nets poured out from every English port. In the 
 ten years following the onset of the Armada, pri- 
 vateers had seized or sunk more than eight hun- 
 dred Spanish vessels of the larger sort. By this 
 means, the menace of Spain on the North Atlantic 
 Ocean was removed, and the way to America was 
 opened. 
 
 The death of Queen Elizabeth was little less 
 important. It allowed the English people to press 
 
44 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 a score of democratic measures, which had been 
 long desired. This willingness to wait was partly 
 because the people loved their aged — though auto- 
 cratic — monarch, but it was even more because 
 they knew she was not immortal. 
 
 Had Elizabeth been followed on the throne by 
 a masterful king of Tudor stock, trouble might 
 have come, for the English people were abso- 
 lutely set on change. But James I, the first of 
 the Stuarts, had neither the personal character 
 nor the royal prestige to check the reforms which 
 followed his accession. 
 
 Great changes had taken place in England since 
 mid-Elizabethan times. Spanish gold had poured 
 into the country, through the hands of the priva- 
 teers. Commerce was becoming important. Spec- 
 ulation ran high. These changes caused the es- 
 tablishment of the James Colony on an utterly 
 different basis from that of the Colony of 
 Eoanoke. 
 
 The Elizabethan period was an age of high ad- 
 venture, that of James I was an age of trade. 
 Elizabeth was willing to make war, if necessary; 
 James I was for peace at any price. While the 
 Tudor Queen upheld the feudal principle, she in- 
 sisted that her lords should care for the poor on 
 their estates; the Stuart King favored the rich 
 merchants, and cared not a whit that the poor 
 grew poorer. 
 
 Colonists under Elizabeth sought to extend the 
 power of a beloved home-land ; under the Stuarts, 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 45 
 
 they sought to escape from it. Roanoke was a 
 court adventure; James Eiver was a commercial 
 venture. The Raleigh Charter was a queen's 
 gift to a personal favorite; the Charter of 1606 
 was a colonization plan put into the hands of trad- 
 ing companies. 
 
 One of the first-fruits of the death of Queen 
 Elizabeth was the making of peace with Spain. 
 This unlocked the coffers of Capital, always held 
 tightly in a time of war. The ships which had 
 been built by scores, even by hundreds, for de- 
 fense and privateering, now were available for 
 trading ventures. Money was plentiful. Eng- 
 land took a share in the rich trade to the East 
 Indies. Small merchants became great bankers 
 and were ever on the watch for new investments. 
 
 Not only was there the money, there were the 
 men, too. A whole generation of rovers, nobles 
 and commoners, bred to sea-adventure, now looked 
 for a new outlet for their energies. They found 
 it in such enterprises as the East India Company, 
 the Muscovy Company, and the Two Companies 
 of Virginia. 
 
 Raleigh was no longer a factor. He had been 
 imprisoned by James I for his ascribed opposition 
 to the accession of the Stuart King, and, after 
 the accession, for his attack on the King's policy 
 of a peace with Spain. His imprisonment canceled 
 the astounding charter in which Queen Elizabeth 
 had granted to one man the possession of the en- 
 
46 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 tire American shore, from Florida to Newfound- 
 land. 
 
 The once great courtier was found guilty of 
 treason and condemned to death in 1603, but the 
 execution was delayed and he remained a pris- 
 oned in the Tower of London until 1616. Re- 
 leased on his declaration that he knew where to 
 find a gold mine in Guiana, Raleigh set sail for 
 the Orinoco in 1617. The treasure-hunt was a 
 disastrous failure, the captain of the fleet — a per- 
 sonal friend of James I was driven into suicide. 
 The expedition broke up in mutiny. On the re- 
 turn of the gold-seekers Raleigh was promptly 
 rearrested and was executed in 1618 under the 
 sentence of death given fifteen years before. 
 
 The canceling of Raleigh's Charter canceled 
 also all the grants given under it. The gift had 
 come from the Crown and it returned to the 
 Crown. All the American coast, from Florida 
 northwards, was in the hands of the King to be- 
 stow as he pleased. 
 
 Though James I made many astounding blun- 
 ders, ever and anon there shone gleams of an 
 astute policy. His plans for colonization were far 
 more prudent and wise than those of Elizabeth. He 
 was judicious enough to adopt the ideas developed 
 by Dutch and English merchants in the forma- 
 tion of the East India Company in 1600. More- 
 over, while under the thumb of Spain in some mat- 
 ters, he calmly defied Philip III when that mon- 
 arch tried to interfere in the Virginia enterprise. 
 
THE DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 
 
 The first three attempts to found colonies in Virginia all ended in disaster and though 
 nearly twenty years elapsed before the founding of the first successful colony on 
 James River, those twenty years marked the transition from one age of European 
 history, the medieval, to the dawn of the modern; a period represented by the reign 
 of Elizabeth and closed by her dramatic death. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH A PRISONER IN THE TOWER 
 
 Raleigh, who had so much to do v/ith the first colonizing expeditions to Virginia 
 during the life of Queen Elizabeth, was imprisoned after her death, for political 
 reasons, and did not share in the later and successful colonial ventures. 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 47 
 
 As this defiance determined whether North 
 America should be settled by the English or the 
 Spaniards, the facts in the case are important. 
 
 The Treaty of London, bringing peace between 
 England and Spain, was signed in 1605. During 
 discussion of its terms, the Spanish envoys in- 
 sisted that the treaty should contain a clause for- 
 bidding Englishmen to go to * ^ the Indies. ' ' Such 
 a vague geographical term might mean anything. 
 The English envoys refused, unless a qualifying 
 clause should also be inserted giving England the 
 right to settle the unoccupied portions of the New 
 "World. Neither side would yield, and the Treaty 
 was ratified without any reference whatever to the 
 disputed question. 
 
 Meanwhile, three important exploring voyages 
 had been made to America. These were the voy- 
 ages of Gosnold and Bartholomew Gilbert (son 
 of Sir Humphrey) to Maine, in 1602 ; that of Pring 
 to Maine and Massachusetts, in 1603; and that 
 of Wajonouth to Maine, in 1605. This part of 
 America was then known as *^ North Virginia.'' 
 All these captains brought encouraging reports, 
 renewing English interest in American coloniza- 
 tion. 
 
 Since the Treaty of London contained no clause 
 forbidding English settlement in Virginia, two 
 groups of merchants began to form colonization 
 projects. One group had its center in London; 
 the other, in Plymouth. The London group, with 
 Hakluyt as a leading spirit, was interested in 
 
48 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ** Virginia''; the Plymouth group, with Sir John 
 Popham as its chief, laid its plans to settle * * North 
 Virginia. ' ' 
 
 In the spring of 1606, Spain took alarm. The 
 Spanish Ambassador went to Sir John Popham 
 and made a vigorous protest, declaring that these 
 preparations were a tacit violation of the Treaty 
 of London. Popham gave an evasive answer, 
 which bordered closely upon falsehood. 
 
 A month later, despite Popham 's denial, James 
 I granted the First Virginia Charter, under date 
 of April 10, 1606. The King boldly ignored all 
 Spanish claims. He conveyed to the London Com- 
 pany all the shore between 34° and 38° (approxi- 
 mately from Cape Hatteras to the present Mary- 
 land-Delaware border), and to the Plymouth Com- 
 pany, all the shore from 41° to 45° (approximately 
 from the mouth of the Hudson to the present 
 Canadian border). The Delaware and New Jer- 
 sey section was a sort of No-Man 's-Land, granted 
 to both colonies, the privileges being accorded to 
 that Company which should be the first to plant 
 a colony therein. 
 
 This Charter continued the liberties granted to 
 colonists by Ealeigh's Charter. It gave them the 
 same rights as Englishmen living in England and 
 bom in England. This was a root-principle of 
 English colonization and was a cause of its suc- 
 cess. 
 
 In spite of the declaration of liberty, the colo- 
 nies were not self-governing. The supreme power 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 49 
 
 lay in a Royal Council of Virginia, appointed by 
 the King. Each Company was to have a colonial 
 council, self-appointed and self -continuing. Each 
 colony (or plantation) was to have a smaller coun- 
 cil of its own. But there was no provision for 
 popular elections and no means whereby the colo- 
 nists could control their councils. This was a 
 prime cause of discontent. 
 
 The land was to be held by an ancient system 
 known as ** socage. *' This meant that each set- 
 tler was the sole owner of his property, on the con- 
 dition of a certain amount of work done for the 
 colony. This plan had its good points and its bad 
 ones. Its strength lay in the fact that it provided 
 independence and upheld the rights of private 
 property. Its weakness was that the work de- 
 manded was decided by the colonial council, un- 
 der orders from the Company, This power of 
 enforcing too much communal work wrecked the 
 colony. 
 
 Such was the territory, such were the times and 
 such were the conditions under which the first 
 permanent English colony was set up on Ameri- 
 can shores. How nearly it came to naught, by 
 how narrow a margin it escaped a duplication 
 of the Roanoke tragedy is the story now to be told. 
 
 The London Company led the way, and hence 
 << Virginia*' was the desired goal. On December 
 20, 1606, three ships set sail from London, under 
 the command of Captain Christopher Newport. 
 The Sarah Constant was the flagship. Her con- 
 
50 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 sorts were the Goodspeed, under Captain Bar- 
 tholomew Gosnold, and the Discovery, under Cap- 
 tain John Eatcliffe. Among other important men 
 were Edward Maria Wingfield, the first presi- 
 dent; George Percy, brother of the Earl of 
 Northumberland ; George Kendall, a cousin of Sir 
 Edwin Sandys; Captain John Smith, rover and 
 gentleman adventurer ; and Rev. Eobert Hunt, the 
 chaplain. The emigrants numbered 120 men; 
 there were no women nor children in the party. 
 Their destination was Chesapeake Bay, which, 
 thirty years before. Lane had suggested as a suit- 
 able site for a colony. 
 
 Though Gosnold had sailed by the direct route 
 from England to Cape Cod, in 1602, and had taken 
 but fifty days for the passage, he could not per- 
 suade Newport to do so. The fleet commander 
 followed the traditional route by way of the Can- 
 ary Islands and the West Indies, and hence did 
 not sight Virginia until one hundred and twenty- 
 seven days had elapsed. This four months' voy- 
 age consumed most of the provisions which would 
 be needed after the settlers landed. 
 
 To add to the troubles of the journey. Wing- 
 field and John Smith became enemies, and Smith, 
 who had a rough tongue, attacked the President 
 of the party in terms which were more striking 
 than polite. He was charged with mutiny and 
 was kept in irons all the way from Dominica to 
 Virginia. 
 
 The expedition entered Chesapeake Bay on May 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 51 
 
 6, 1607, naming Cape Henry and Cape Charles 
 after the then Prince of Wales and his younger 
 brother. Skirting the shore they passed a point 
 which they named Point Comfort and reached 
 Hampton Roads. 
 
 On landing, the sealed instructions from the 
 Company were opened. Wingfield was named 
 President of the colonial council, with Gosnold, 
 Smith, Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall as council- 
 ors. Wingfield refused to allow Smith to take 
 the oath of office as councillor but he set him at 
 liberty. It was well that he did so, for Captain 
 John Smith was "destined to become the sole savior 
 of the colony. 
 
 No more romantic figure than Smith ever 
 stepped on American shores. Bom in England 
 in the year 1580, he ran away to the wars when 
 only fifteen years of age. In France and in the 
 Netherlands, though still in his teens, he made his 
 mark as a fighting man. After a long campaign 
 he returned to England, but a quiet life did not 
 suit him. He determined to try his fortune 
 against the Turks. 
 
 Riding across France to take ship on the Medi- 
 terranean, he was waylaid by highwaymen, robbed 
 and wounded. He managed to walk to Marseilles, 
 where he embarked with a ship-load of Roman 
 Catholic pilgrims on their way to the East. A 
 heavy storm arose, and, the pilgrims ascribing 
 this tempest to the presence of a heretic in their 
 midst, they threw Smith overboard to drown. 
 
52 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Being a powerful swimmer, the young Eng- 
 lishman managed to make his way ashore to a 
 small isle, not far away, inhabited only by goats. 
 He lived on goat's milk and goat's flesh for a few 
 weeks and then was picked up by a passing Breton 
 ship. He helped the crew to attack and capture a 
 richly laden Venetian galley, and because of the 
 extraordinary valor he had shown, received a fat 
 share of the plunder. 
 
 Smith went ashore, at the first port the ship 
 touched in Italy, and, with plenty of money in 
 his pocket, traveled northward in leisurely fash- 
 ion, using his remarkable powers of observation 
 to the uttermost, especially in all such matters as 
 fortification. He was an inveterate reader of 
 military treatises, and made it his business to 
 meet the chief captains of war, wherever he went. 
 
 Soon after making his way into Hungary, he 
 was appointed commander of a troop of horse. 
 Not long after, Emperor Rudolph II transferred 
 this troop to the service of Prince Sigismund of 
 Transylvania, and recommended the young cav- 
 alry leader to the prince's special attention. 
 
 There, at last, Smith found his long-sought op- 
 portunity of fighting against the Turks and he 
 distinguished himself remarkably. Though not 
 tall. Smith was thick-set and of astounding physi- 
 cal strength. He showed this at the siege of Re- 
 gal, which the Transylvanians were attacking with 
 scant success, with so little success, indeed, that 
 the Turks grew sarcastic at the expense of their 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 53 
 
 enemies and announced that **tliey were growing 
 too fat for lack of exercise/' 
 
 One day, a Turkish champion sent a challenge 
 to the Transylvanian army. He suggested that 
 **in order to delight the ladies, who did long to 
 see some court-like pastime, he did defy any cap- 
 tain that had command of a company, who durst 
 combat with him for his head.'' 
 
 The Christian army accepted the challenge. 
 Lots were cast and the lot fell on Smith. 
 
 A truce was proclaimed, tournament-lists built, 
 the Turkish ladies lined the walls to see the joust, 
 and the Turkish champion and Smith rode at 
 each over with leveled lances. Smith killed his 
 opponent at the first thrust and cut off the Turk's 
 head. 
 
 Humiliated by this defeat, the Turks picked 
 their most famous jouster, and, the next day, they 
 sent a personal challenge to Smith. The chal- 
 lenge was accepted. This time the duel was more 
 even. Both lances were shivered. Each of the 
 duelists drew pistols, but Smith was both the 
 quicker and had the better aim. At the first shot, 
 the Turk fell and Smith cut off his head. 
 
 For a couple of weeks there were no further 
 challenges from the Turks. Then Smith, answer- 
 ing taunt for taunt, challenged *^any Turk of his 
 rank" to meet him on the same conditions. This 
 gave the Turk the choice of weapons, and battle- 
 axes were named. 
 
 Less accustomed to this barbaric weapon. Smith 
 
54 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 was at a disadvantage. After a few minutes* 
 exchange of terrific blows, the Englishman's 
 weapon flew out of his hands. With a cry of 
 triumph, the Turk whirled his ax to cut down 
 his foe. Smith, an accomplished horseman, 
 avoided the flashing steel by the merest fraction 
 of distance, and, before the turbaned champion 
 could recover his poise, the Englishman drew his 
 sword and thrust at a vital spot. The Turk fell 
 from his horse, and, an instant after, he was be- 
 headed. For this deed Smith was knighted by 
 Prince Sigismund, and was granted a coat of arms 
 with three Turks' heads. 
 
 Good fortune was not always to be on his side. 
 In 1602, at the Battle of Rothenthurm, Smith was 
 taken prisoner by the Turks and was sold into 
 slavery. He was taken to Constantinople, where 
 he was bought by Lady Charatza Tragabigzanda. 
 For a time, he was held so high in the lady's favor 
 that envious tongues wagged. To put an end 
 to gossip. Lady Tragabigzanda sent the English 
 slave to her brother, who was a Pasha in the coun- 
 try of the Cossacks. 
 
 There Smith was treated as harshly as any com- 
 mon slave, and he never ceased to watch for an op- 
 portunity to escape. One day, the Pasha actually 
 struck him. The desperate Englishman, despite 
 the iron collar around his neck, dealt his master 
 a fatal blow with the flail with which he was 
 threshing wheat, dressed himseK in the dead 
 man's clothes, mounted the Pasha's horse and 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 55 
 
 galloped off to the Scythian desert. He made his 
 way to Russian territory, thence to Poland and 
 back to Hungary. He received a letter of safe 
 conduct from Prince Sigismund, his former com- 
 mander, and reached Germany and France, on 
 his way home. 
 
 But the smell of powder attracted him anew to 
 Spain and Morocco. There Smith served with 
 added distinction, returning to England only a 
 few months before the departure of Newport with 
 the colonists for Virginia. 
 
 Such a man was a godsend to the Company, 
 which, at that time, was seeking men accustomed 
 to command and who were sufficiently self-reliant 
 to be able to face new conditions. From Smithes 
 viewpoint, the attraction of a voyage to Virginia 
 was that of finding a new and unexplored coun- 
 try, utterly different from any in which he had 
 adventured. 
 
 • With such a career behind him, it is not sur- 
 prising that Smith should have had but little pa- 
 tience with Wingfield, or, for that matter, with 
 any of the leaders of the expedition. None of 
 them had pioneer experience, none had sustained 
 such astounding adventures. Smith considered 
 them incompetent for work so stern and difficult 
 as he foresaw it would be, and he did not scruple 
 to say so. 
 
 Never was a man with blunter speech than 
 Smith, and though his rivals rightly complained 
 that he had an insufferable opinion of his own 
 
56 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 prowess, they could not deny that he was able to 
 make good every boast he uttered. Very different 
 might have been the history of the James River 
 Colony, if Smith had been made the leader from 
 the very start. 
 
 Among the sealed instructions which were 
 opened by Wingfield, on landing, was a paper from 
 Hakluyt, giving advice as to the necessary require- 
 ments for a site. It should be, he said, some dis- 
 tance up a navigable river, protected by a fort at 
 the river's mouth; it should be upon high-l}dng 
 land, in order to avoid disease; and it should be 
 far from a forest which would give shelter to 
 enemies. 
 
 In spite of Smith's endorsement of this advice — 
 or, perhaps, because of it — ^Wingfield disregarded 
 every word. He chose a wooded peninsula with 
 a pestilential swamp at the back, and a heavy 
 growth of high grass running up to the very fort. 
 Its sole advantage was that there was good an- 
 chorage for ships and that its peninsular form 
 adapted it for military defense. 
 
 After a couple of weeks spent in helping the 
 settlers to construct a fort, Newport began the 
 exploration of the surrounding country. He asked 
 Smith to accompany him. With twenty-four men, 
 they sailed up the broad stream, which, in honor 
 of the King, they named the James River. They 
 reached as high as a little Indian village called 
 Powhatan Falls, just above the present site of 
 Richmond. The natives were friendly. Newport 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 57 
 
 was of a kindly disposition and Smith possessed 
 positive genius in dealing with Indians. 
 
 The local tribal conditions aided the alliance. 
 Each tribe, while obeying its own chief, gave al- 
 legiance to the head war-chief of the Powhatan 
 tribe, the leader in this loose confederacy. The 
 principal village of the Powhatans was called 
 Werowocomoco and was on the York Eiver, fif- 
 teen miles from the newly constructed English 
 fort, first known as James Fort and afterwards 
 as Jamestown. 
 
 When Newport and Smith returned, they found 
 the fort had been attacked by Indians hostile to 
 the Powhatan confederacy. The savages had been 
 repulsed, but one Englishman had been killed and 
 eleven wounded, among the latter being four of 
 the five councillors. 
 
 Under Newport 's orders, the fort was strength- 
 ened and palisadoed, eight days being spent at the 
 work. Newport chafed at the delay, for the wind 
 was fair for England. Moreover, so much time 
 had passed since the fleet left England that only 
 four months' provisions were left. It was very 
 doubtful whether a voyage to England and back, 
 with more supplies, could be made within that 
 time. 
 
 On June 21, Opechancanough, chief of the Pa- 
 munkey tribe and brother of Powhatan, sent a 
 messenger to the fort to assure the white men of 
 his friendship and alliance. This was due to a 
 message from Powhatan who had heard favorably 
 
58 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 of Newport and Smith from Parahunt, chief of 
 the sub-tribe at Powhatan Falls. On this evi- 
 dence of Indian friendship, Newport's fears were 
 greatly relieved, and he set sail for England the 
 following day. 
 
 But Jamestown was its own worst foe. All the 
 councillors were mutinously inclined towards 
 Wingfield, and few were on friendly terms with 
 the others. The food was scant and the water bad. 
 The region was a hot-bed of malaria and low 
 fever. The ** Paradise of Virginia *' showed itself 
 on closer acquaintance to be a gloomy, pest-rid- 
 den, mosquito-haunted, tide-water swamp. 
 
 George Percy gives a good picture of the suf- 
 ferings of that time. 
 
 **Our men," he wrote, **were destroyed in cruel 
 diseases, burning fevers and by wars, some died 
 suddenly, but the most part, of mere famine. 
 There never were EngUshmen left in a foreign 
 country in such misery as we were in this new- 
 discovered Virginia. . . . Laying on the bare, cold 
 ground, what weather soever came, brought our 
 men to be most feeble wretches. 
 
 * * Our food was but a small can of barley sodden 
 in water, divided among five men once a day. Our 
 drink was cold water taken out of the river, 
 which was at flood very salt, and at a low tide 
 full of sUme and filth, which was the destruction 
 of many of our men. 
 
 **Thus we lived for the space of five months 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 59 
 
 in this miserable distress, not having ^ve able men 
 to man our bulwarks upon any occasion. . . . 
 Many times, three or four died in one night. In 
 the morning, their bodies were trailed out of their 
 cabins, like dogs, to be buried.'' 
 
 The first of the councillors to die was Captain 
 Gosnold, a clear-headed sailor whose sense of dis- 
 cipline had helped to hold the council together. 
 After his death, the feud between Wingfield and 
 Smith flared high. Smith accused the president 
 of keeping food and wine for himself, mean- 
 while starving the men; he further charged him 
 with tyranny and treason to the Company. Wing- 
 field reasserted his accusation of mutiny, though 
 Smith had been acquitted by a jury a few days 
 before Newport sailed for home. 
 
 The truth was that Wingfield was a gallant 
 soldier and an honorable gentleman, but an ut- 
 terly incompetent leader; Smith was a rough- 
 tongued and mutinous hot-head, but a born pio- 
 neer and a natural master of men. 
 
 Early in September, Wingfield was deposed 
 both from the presidency and the council, and 
 Ratcliife was elected in his place. Soon after- 
 wards, a new mutiny was discovered, headed by 
 Captain Kendall. The treason was fully proved. 
 By order of the council, Kendall was taken out 
 and shot. 
 
 During these pitiful and shameful times, Smith 
 alone saved the situation. Many visits he made 
 
60 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 to the Indians and managed to secure small 
 stores of com. Then, to use his own words, * * came 
 welcome relief, such abundance of fowls (wild 
 ducks, probably) upon our rivers as greatly re- 
 freshed our weak estate, whereupon many of our 
 weak men were presently able to go abroad. 
 
 **As yet we had no houses to cover us. Our 
 tents were rotten and our cabins worse than 
 nought. ... At this time most of our chiefest 
 men were either sick or discontented, the rest be- 
 ing in such despair that they would rather starve 
 and rot with idleness than be persuaded to do 
 anything for their own relief.'' 
 
 Such hopeless despair seems incredible, for the 
 woods were full of game, the seas full of fish. 
 Either Smith or Gosnold could have whipped the 
 idlers into shape, but Smith had enemies and 
 Gosnold was dead. 
 
 On December 10, having secured enough food 
 from the Indians to last the fort a little while. 
 Smith started on a trading, hunting and exploring 
 expedition up the Chickahominy River. Having 
 gone as far in the shallop as the water would al- 
 low, he proceeded onward in a canoe with two 
 of his comrades and two Indian guides. While 
 exploring ashore, the party of ^ve was attacked 
 by a force of two hundred Indians. Smith's two 
 white comrades were killed, and he was taken 
 prisoner. 
 
 The motive for this attack, according to Wing- 
 field 's narrative, was revenge, since some Indians 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 61 
 
 of this tribe had been kidnaped by white men, 
 many years before, possibly those of the ill-fated 
 Bartholomew Gilbert expedition. Smith was con- 
 ducted to several Indian villages by his captors 
 and the chiefs were asked if he resembled the 
 leader of the kidnapers. With strict honesty, 
 all agreed that he was much broader but not as 
 tall as the man sought. The English captain 
 was then taken before Powhatan for judgment. 
 
 In the skirmish during which his two com- 
 rades had been slain, Smith had killed several 
 Indians. According to redskin law, his life was 
 forfeit to the tribe. Powhatan, therefore, in spite 
 of his former friendship, ordered the captive 's im- 
 mediate execution. 
 
 Two large flat stones were laid on the ground 
 in front of the chief. Smith was forced to lie 
 down with his head upon one of these, while a 
 group of braves surrounded him with tomahawks, 
 ready to beat out his brains when the chief should 
 give the word. 
 
 At this juncture, Pocahontas, the daughter of 
 Powhatan and then but twelve years old, rushed 
 forward, and, throwing herself on the ground be- 
 side the captive, she laid her head on his. 
 
 Powhatan, without expressing either anger or 
 even surprise, at once ordered the executioners 
 to retire, and Smith's life was saved. The Eng- 
 lish captain's amazement was great, for he could 
 not fathom Pocahontas' purpose. 
 
 Two days later, the mystery of this release deep- 
 
62 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ened. The old chief, having, in Smith's words, 
 *' disguised himself in the fearfullest manner he 
 conld," ordered that the captive be taken to a 
 great house standing lonely by itself in the woods. 
 There, ^* after the dolefuUest noise that ever was 
 heard'' and after a vast number of ceremonies 
 which Smith could in no manner understand, the 
 great war-chief came out of this lonely house 
 ** looking more like a devil than a man" and in- 
 formed the prisoner that he was free. 
 
 Moreover, Powhatan declared anew his friend- 
 ship for Smith and agreed to a personal exchange 
 of gifts. On Smith's return to the fort, he was 
 to send Powhatan two cannons and a grindstone, 
 in return for which he would be granted a piece 
 of land in the village and would evermore be re- 
 garded as the chief's o^vn son. 
 
 Smith 's own story of this rescue is peculiarly in- 
 teresting. He shows, quite clearly, that he did 
 not understand the actions of the Indians, and, 
 until quite recently, the interference of Poca- 
 hontas has been grossly misread. A thorough 
 knowledge of Indian law and Indian customs 
 throws a clear light on the whole affair. 
 
 Pocahontas was the younger sister of Parahunt, 
 the young chief at Powhatan Falls with whom 
 Newport and Smith had made a treaty of friend- 
 ship. Powhatan, the father of Pocahontas, was 
 friendly to the whites at this time. Although he 
 was head war-chief of the confederacy, however, 
 he could not go against Indian law, but rather 
 
'^■^. 
 
 m-s 
 
 
 THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA 
 
 The gathering of the Armada in the spring of 1588 interfered with the plans of the 
 Virginia colonies. Every ship and every man was needed in England for the defence 
 of the country. England was fighting for her life and she knew it. One of the relief 
 expeditions fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh under the command of Grenville was 
 stopped by the Lord High Admiral and the ships seized for the navy. 
 
POCAHONTAS CLAIMING THE LIFE OF THE CONDEMNED MAN 
 AT THE EXECUTION STONE 
 
 It was an iron-bound rule, under the old Indian laws, that a prisoner of war, who 
 had killed any member of the tribe must be put to death unless he became, himself, 
 a member of the tribe, to replace the loss he had caused. Pocahontas' action was 
 to express that Smith had become her adopted brother and so a candidate for formal 
 adoption into the tribe. 
 
JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS 63 
 
 was required to administer justice according to 
 that law. 
 
 It was an iron-bound rule that a prisoner of war, 
 who had killed any member of the tribe, must be 
 put to death unless he became, himself, a member 
 of the tribe, to replace the loss that he had caused. 
 This he could only do by adoption. 
 
 Any member of the tribe, old or young, male 
 or female, had a right to demand the life of a 
 condemned prisoner of war, providing the cap- 
 tive was willing to be adopted and providing that 
 the sponsor was ready to assume the responsi- 
 bility for the acts of the new member of the tribe. 
 
 Pocahontas, therefore, was not acting under the 
 impulse of *4ove at first sight'', as has often been 
 supposed. She was only twelve years old. She 
 was carrying out a not uncommon form of Indian 
 custom. It is more than possible that Powhatan 
 had arranged the matter beforehand. 
 
 Smith 's own account of what happened after he 
 had been saved from the tomahawks shows that 
 this is the true explanation. He was utterly in 
 the dark as to the meaning of the ceremonies that 
 followed, but they are quite clear to any student 
 of Indian ways. 
 
 Powhatan was a medicine-man, as well as a 
 war-chief. When Pocahontas, by her action, 
 avowed herself as Smith's tribal sponsor, it was 
 necessary to carry out the ceremonies of adop- 
 tion. The *^ disguise in fearfullest manner" of 
 which Smith writes was undoubtedly Powhatan's 
 
64 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 medicine-man costume. The lonely house in the 
 woods was the medicine hut, which is always dis- 
 tant from the camp. The doleful howling were 
 the chants and ceremonies of adoption. It was in 
 full ceremonial paint, *^ looking more like a devil 
 than a man,*' that Powhatan formally notified 
 Smith of his reception into the tribe. 
 
 The exchange of goods ratified the acceptance. 
 The gift of a piece of land was an evidence of 
 tribal rights. The statement that Smith would be 
 the chief 's own son was an announcement that he 
 had become the adopted brother of Pocahontas, 
 the chief's daughter. That the alliance was ac- 
 cepted by the tribe is seen in the fact that Pocahon- 
 tas was allowed to visit the fort frequently, with 
 the consent of her father, and that the sending of 
 regular supplies by the Powhatan Indians began 
 at the same time. 
 
 A correct understanding of the relations be- 
 tween the little Indian girl and the famous soldier 
 of fortune does not weaken their importance nor 
 diminish their beauty. The figures of the winsome 
 Pocahontas and the valiant John Smith will ever 
 east a gentle glamor over the quarrels and suf- 
 ferings which darkened the history of the first 
 English settlement on the James Eiver. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 •THE STARVING TIME 
 
 The adoption of Captain John Smith by the 
 Powhatan Indians was a matter of supreme im- 
 portance to the colony, yet it was only by the 
 narrowest squeak that the adventurer lived to 
 take advantage of it. ^Vhen he returned to 
 Jamestown, January 2, 1608, he found his head 
 in greater peril than when he was lying on a stone 
 in front of the war-chief, expecting the tomahawk- 
 wielders to beat out his brains. 
 
 Envy, hatred and mutiny had broken out afresh. 
 During Smith's absence, his most vindictive en- 
 emy, Gabriel Archer, had been elected a member 
 of the council. Archer was both a la^vyer and a 
 fanatic. From the moment of his election he 
 schemed ways to injure Smith. 
 
 Finally, despairing of reaching his enemy by 
 the civil law, he bethought him of a strange idea. 
 In the Old Testament he found an ancient Leviti- 
 cal law which stated that a commander who un- 
 necessarily led his men into a danger whereby 
 they perished should himself be put to death. 
 Upon Smith's arrival at the fort he was instantly 
 
 65 
 
66 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 arrested and charged by Archer with the viola- 
 tion of this law. 
 
 Eatcliffe, the new president, was not unwilling 
 to get rid of Smith. He was afraid of him. He 
 feared that the news of the captain's success with 
 the Indians would gain him too many supporters, 
 and Eatcliffe was well aware that his rule was 
 detested. 
 
 The council had become a farce. Gosnold and 
 Kendall were dead; Wingfield and Smith were 
 prisoners. The two conspirators, Ratcliffe and 
 Archer, formed a majority of the council. They 
 promptly found Smith guilty under this long-for- 
 gotten Levitical law and condemned him to be 
 hanged next day. 
 
 But Captain John Smith was born to adventure. 
 He had not escaped death a score of times to be 
 hanged because of the spite of a rascal like Archer. 
 
 That very evening, by a chance which reads like 
 the happenings of a fairy tale, Newport suddenly 
 arrived before the fort in the John and Francis, 
 bringing what is known as * * The First Supply. * * 
 
 He found a terrible state of affairs. 
 
 When Newport left Jamestown, on June 22, 
 1607, there were 105 colonists surviving. When 
 he returned, on January 2, 1608, only 38 men re- 
 mained alive to greet him. All were weakened 
 with famine and disease. Of the six councillors, 
 one was dead from disease, one had been executed, 
 one had been deposed and was in irons, and one 
 was under sentence to be hanged next day. 
 
THE STARVING TIME 67 
 
 Newport, like the dashing privateer and disci- 
 pUnary sea-dog that he was, burst upon Ratcliffe 
 and Archer like a northern gale. He thundered 
 contempt of the decrees of President Ratcliffe 
 and swore that if Archer dared to open his mouth 
 to him, he would have him stripped, tied to a tree 
 and given forty lashes. He released Wingfield 
 and Smith and restored the latter to his place on 
 the council. 
 
 For a few days, hope revived. The John and 
 Francis had brought a fair cargo of supplies, but 
 she had also brought more colonists (either 90 
 or 120 according to different accounts). This 
 hope was too good to last. 
 
 Disaster dogged the settlers steadily. Five days 
 after the arrival of the ship, a fire broke out which 
 consumed the dwellings and the storehouses and 
 a large part of the food. The winter was cold and 
 the marsh-land damp. The new arrivals, com- 
 pelled to live in mere shelters of boughs loosely 
 woven together, speedily sickened. Many took 
 pneumonia and died within a few weeks of their 
 landing. 
 
 Newport, accompanied by Smith, made an of- 
 ficial visit to Powhatan. The fleet commander had 
 brought from England a number of showy gifts 
 for the war-chief, and since Smith 's adoption into 
 the tribe was but recent, the Indian leader was 
 most friendly. He ordered Newport's pinnace to 
 be loaded to the gunwales with provisions. 
 
 Despite this double supply — from the John and 
 
68 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Francis and from Powhatan — Newport's stay 
 helped the colony but little. The London Com- 
 pany, seeing all the money going out and none 
 coming in, had ordered him to bring back a cargo. 
 By the terms of the charter, communal work was 
 compulsory. 
 
 To fulfill the desires of the London merchants, 
 the sick and hungered colonists were compelled 
 to labor at back-breaking toil. Huge black walnut 
 trees were felled and hewn into logs for ship- 
 ment. There were no roads, no horses, no ma- 
 chinery. The logs had to be hauled and lifted by 
 the poor strength of the exhausted settlers. Cap- 
 tain Martin had discovered some ore which he 
 wrongly supposed might contain gold, and weary 
 weeks were spent in digging this worthless stuff. 
 
 As a result of this wasted energy, the impera- 
 tive needs of the colony were neglected. Only four 
 acres of land were cleared and planted with corn 
 that spring. 
 
 Disease and exposure, and, above all, the slavery 
 of overwork in a fetid marsh, claimed their toll 
 of life. When Newport sailed again for England, 
 on April 14, 1608, he had his cargo, but it was at 
 the cost of two score graves and more. Even 
 with the addition of the new arrivals, only 53 men 
 were left alive. Wingfield, the deposed president, 
 and Archer, the trouble-maker, went back with 
 Newport. 
 
 Ten days after the John and Francis had left 
 with her cargo, the Phoenix arrived. She brought 
 
THE STARVING TIME 69 
 
 45 more colonists and additional supplies. But 
 her captain, also, by the orders of the Company, 
 demanded a cargo of cedar. With better weather, 
 new hands and plenty of supplies, the small vessel 
 was quickly loaded. The light cedar was easier to 
 handle. There were 95 colonists living when the 
 Phoenix sailed for England in June. 
 
 Smith spent the summer exploring Chesapeake 
 Bay, and the Potomac, Susquehanna and Rappa- 
 hannock Elvers. His map of those regions is a 
 monument of skill, hard work, keen observation 
 and a marvelous understanding of Indians. But, 
 when he returned to Jamestown, he found the 
 settlement in as desperate a state as ever. 
 
 The malarial season of 1608 had been as bad 
 as that of the year before, and the swampy site 
 of Jamestown was a deliberate challenge to Death. 
 Mutiny, also, had broken out again. Ratcliif e had 
 been deposed, and Matthew Scrivener elected tem- 
 porarily in his place. When Ratcliffe's term 
 ended. Smith was unanimously chosen President. 
 
 Less than three weeks after Smith's election, 
 on September 29, 1608, Newport arrived with the 
 ** Second Supply.'' He found but 50 colonists 
 alive. 
 
 The colonists brought in the Second Supply 
 numbered 70 ; of these Captain Peter Wynne and 
 Captain Richard Waldo were appointed to be of 
 the council. Among the new settlers was one gen- 
 tlewoman, Mrs. Forrest, and also her maid, Anne 
 Burras. Two months later the maid married John 
 
70 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Laydon, this being the first English marriage 
 ceremony on American soil. She gave birth, a 
 year later, to Virginia Laydon, the first white 
 baby born in the James River colony. 
 
 As on his former voyage, Newport brought 
 drastic orders from the London Company that 
 the colony must bestir itself to make money for 
 its backers. Either a route to the Pacific Ocean 
 or a gold-mine must be found immediately ; other- 
 wise, large cargoes of rare woods must be got 
 ready for shipment. 
 
 Smith bluntly told the commander that the 
 members of the Company were fools. Yet he was 
 a soldier, and he obeyed the orders without hesita- 
 tion. 
 
 In December, 1608, Newport returned to Eng- 
 land with a cargo of pitch, tar, iron ore and 
 timber, provided under conditions of terrible toil 
 by the feeble and short-handed settlers. Smith 
 grew more and more furious as the slow process 
 of loading continued, and he w^rote to the Com- 
 pany what he rightly called **A Rude Letter." 
 
 This epistle was as truthful as it was insubor- 
 dinate. Speaking for the colonists, Smith declared 
 that *4n overtaxing our weak and unskillful bodies 
 to satisfy this desire of present profit, we scarce 
 can recover ourselves from one Supply to an- 
 other." He pointed out that this policy of putting 
 a few pennies into the pockets of London mer- 
 chants, at the cost of life and hope in Virginia, 
 made the colony dependent upon Indian charity. 
 

 ARRIVAL OF SUPPLY SHIPS AT JAMESTOWN 
 
 Such a scene was of frequent occurrence when the colony became a settled reality 
 but in the first days of the settlement such a sight was always welcome, never more 
 so however than on the arrival of the John and Francis "The First Supply." 
 
 POCAHONTAS LEARNING TO READ 
 
 Pocahontas frequently visited Jamestown after the return of Captain Smith from 
 the Indian camp. Tradition says he taught her to read and this old painting shows 
 the winsome daughter of Powhatan and the valiant captain at study. 
 
iFri"5 three t\tufie Cvrnlnds Lnap' 
 His Evcountey' wt tfi T VRB AS RAW A. ij^ 
 
 Turbashaw was the m^l ( liaiiii 
 
 \ tlie Turks to joust with the Christian knight. 
 
 Uii Combat with ORVAI^GO. (Tap ^ of three fiundre^d fior [men 
 Cfiajf ^ ^ ^ 
 
 (Tiiialgi) was till SI Lond eliaiuiiioii piLktd b_\ ihc i 'U k- aiiii Loo was qiiK kl,\ ckltalfd. 
 
 PICTURES FROM THE HISTORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH's TRAVELS 
 AMONG THE TURKS 
 
How he Jufv ISONNY:MVl.GRO C ftay - 7 • 
 
 Prince Sigismundus knighted Captain Smith for his exploit and granted him a coat 
 of three Turks' heads, presenting him with a banner with this device upon it 
 
 PICTURES FROM THE HISTORY OF CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH's TRAVELS 
 AMONG THE TURKS 
 
THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN 
 
 Among the gifts which Captain Newport brought to Chief Powhatan were a crown 
 and ermine trimmed scarlet robe, a four-post bedstead, and many household utensil'^ 
 such as had never before been seen by the Indians. 
 
THE STARVING TIME 71 
 
 Furthermore, it prevented the building of houses, 
 clearing of land and planting of fields. 
 
 There was, however, another side to the story, 
 and Newport did his best to point it out. The 
 London merchants had expended many hundreds 
 of pounds and had not received in return as many 
 shillings. They had entered the business as a 
 commercial speculation. The Charter required 
 that communal work should be done. They had a 
 right to demand that work. 
 
 The Second Supply had been able to bring but 
 a small amount of provisions. The long sea voyage 
 had consumed a large proportion of the food, and 
 enough must be left on board for the return trip. 
 Moreover, as each supply ship also brought more 
 colonists, this meant more mouths to feed. 
 
 When Newport sailed for home in December 
 he left but two months' food. He could by no 
 means return with more supplies under twice that 
 length of time. The colony was once more fore- 
 doomed to starvation. 
 
 Ratcliffe returned to England with Newport, 
 leaving Smith as the only remaining one of the 
 original six councillors. He was at first assisted 
 by Scrivener, Waldo and Wynne. The first two 
 were accidentally drowned, three weeks after New- 
 port's departure, and Wynne died shortly after. 
 Smith was left as sole ruler, and he appointed no 
 more councillors. 
 
 Trouble was brewing among the Indians. The 
 visits of Pocahontas had ceased, the natives no 
 
72 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 longer brought supplies. Trading voyages to the 
 York Eiver resulted only in a few bushels of corn. 
 
 Smith decided upon a bold move, one which 
 almost cost him his life and the lives of all his 
 men. He determined to threaten Powhatan into 
 obedience. He all but failed. Once again, it was 
 Pocahontas who saved him. 
 
 It is to be remembered that Smith had never 
 told Powhatan that the white men were coming 
 to settle the country. He dared not. On the 
 contrary, his first story had been that the English 
 were taking refuge from the Spaniards, and were 
 only waiting until ** Father Newport'' should re- 
 turn and take them to their own land. 
 
 Since then, Newport had come three times, on 
 each voyage bringing more men. The colonists 
 had constantly strengthened their fort and were 
 trying to clear more land. It was obvious to the 
 Indians that the white men intended to stay. It 
 was equally clear that they were a sickly breed, 
 and, besides, were poor farmers and worse 
 hunters. 
 
 Powhatan saw clearly that if he wished to get 
 rid of these unwelcome invaders, all that was 
 necessary was to cease supplying them with food. 
 Trading almost stopped. The redskins would 
 accept nothing but weapons in return for corn. 
 
 Shortly after Christmas, Powhatan sent a mes- 
 senger, asking for the help of white men who 
 could show him how to build a house in white 
 man's fashion, and promising food in payment. 
 
THE STARVING TIME 73 
 
 Smith suspected a trap, but, at least, the men who 
 went would be fed, and those who remained at 
 the fort could make the provisions last a longer 
 time. 
 
 He accepted Powhatan 's offer and sent 14 men. 
 But, a few days later, he followed with 27 men, in 
 the pinnace and the barge. On their way up the 
 river, a friendly Indian warned them that Pow- 
 hatan was planning treachery. 
 
 In spite of the warning, Smith continued on his 
 journey. It was not choice, but necessity. Even 
 on short rations, the food in the fort would not 
 last a month. 
 
 Ignoring all precautions, which he knew would 
 be interpreted as a sign of fear, he advanced to 
 the war-chief ^s town of Werowocomoco and faced 
 Powhatan boldly. 
 
 The conference — the full details of which are 
 given in Smithes own narrative — was a keen con- 
 test of wits. Each leader suspected the other. 
 Powhatan accused Smith of falsehood, the Eng- 
 lishman retorted that the Indians had broken 
 their oath of friendship. 
 
 The chief sneered that the white men, who 
 claimed to be so clever, were compelled to depend 
 for their food on the charity of the Indians ; Smith 
 retorted that the English had means of getting 
 food in ways that savages could not understand, 
 implying magic powers. Seeing that this hint 
 of sorcery worried the aged chief. Smith solemnly 
 
74 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 prophesied that the day the whites withdrew their 
 friendship, ruin would fall upon the tribe. 
 
 Powhatan appeared to give way and decoyed 
 Smith and one comrade into a small hut. Lv 
 stantly the place was surrounded with armed 
 braves, but, before they could enter, the two white 
 men leaped out with drawn swords and charged 
 so furiously that the Indians fled. 
 
 This maladroit treachery gave Smith a moral 
 advantage, and he seized it. He denounced Pow- 
 hatan for a coward and oath-breaker, bullied him 
 before his own sub-chiefs and braves, and by 
 sheer dominance of character overbore the wai 
 chief, compelled him to produce corn and have it 
 loaded in the barge. ^ 
 
 By the time this was done, the tide had fallen 
 and the boat was stranded. There was nothing 
 to do but wait for high tide. The Englishmen 
 took up their quarters in a hut, some distance 
 from the village and Smith ordered Powhatan to 
 send them food for their evening meal. 
 
 There was a long delay, and the white men got 
 ready for the worst. ''Then,'' as Smith tells the 
 story, ''then that dearest jewel, Pocahontas, in 
 that dark night came through the irksome woods 
 and told us that great cheer should be sent, by 
 and by, but Powhatan and all the power he could 
 make would come afterward and kill us all, if 
 they that brought the food did not kill us . . . 
 when we were at supper. Therefore, if we would 
 
THE STARVING TIME 75 
 
 Ip/e, she wished us presently (instantly) to be 
 gone. 
 
 '^Such things as she delighted in, we would 
 b'lve given her, but, with the tears running down 
 h^r cheeks, she said she durst not be seen to 
 have any, for if Powhatan should know it, she 
 were dead ; and so she ran away by herself as she 
 came. * ^ 
 
 An hour later, a dozen powerful braves 
 appeared, bringing venison, roasted com and 
 other food. There was little doubt that others 
 v> ere lurking in the woods, awaiting a signal. 
 
 The savages found the white men obviously on 
 guard, every man on the alert, in full armor, the 
 Hatches of their matchlocks glowing. And, as 
 the Indians were leaving, after depositing the food 
 on the floor of the hut, Smith said sternly and 
 V ith threatening emphasis, 
 
 **If Father Powhatan is coming to visit us 
 to-night, let him make haste, for I am full ready 
 to receive him." 
 
 To the Indians, never quite sure as to the 
 magical powers of the white men, this message 
 was menacing. Smith's knowledge of their plans 
 seemed like sorcery. They saw that they could 
 not count upon the advantage of surprise. They 
 did not dare to face a body of desperate men, 
 in armor, well equipped with firearms and plenty 
 of ammunition. 
 
 There was no sleep among the white men that 
 night. A vigilant guard was kept at every point 
 
76 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 until high tide. Then, with every precaution 
 against surprise that Smith's long military expe- 
 rience could suggest, the barge got away with 300 
 bushels of corn on board. 
 
 Thus, by the warning of Pocahontas, a massacre 
 was averted, for a large war-party had been con- 
 cealed near the fort, to storm it and slay every 
 man, woman and child therein, so soon as a swift 
 runner should bring news of the destruction of 
 Smith and his band. 
 
 With the coming of spring, the colony showed 
 signs of prospering under Smith's vigorous rule. 
 A well was dug, and, for the first time, the settlers 
 had good drinking water. Twenty cabins were 
 built, the church repaired, forty acres of land 
 cleared and planted with corn. 
 
 All was proceeding smoothly, when, suddenly, 
 the terrible discovery was made that rats had got 
 into the casks where the com was stored. Much 
 of it had been eaten, and the rest had been so 
 spoiled by the rats that it had begun to rot. In 
 that moist, swampy air, the rot spread rapidly. 
 Amid the spring rains, it could not be spread out 
 to dry. Hardly any of the grain was fit to eat. 
 
 From hope and content, the colony was again 
 plunged into despair. With Powhatan an enemy, 
 no Indian supplies could be secured. The crop 
 would not be ripe for several months. There was 
 no knowing when another supply ship would come. 
 
 In this urgency. Smith divided the colonists 
 into four parties, in order that one or the other 
 
THE STARVING TIME 77 
 
 might have the better chance of surviving. One 
 party took copper and beads and was sent to trade 
 with isolated Indian villages who might have a 
 few handfuls of corn to give; this party might 
 find game in the woods or could live on berries as 
 soon as they should ripen. A second party was 
 sent to the oyster banks; these men suffered 
 sorely, for the exclusive shell-fish diet produced a 
 fearful skin disease in which the skin fell from 
 them in patches ^^as if they had been flayed.*' A 
 third party was stationed near Old Point Com- 
 fort to live on such fish as the men could catch. 
 The fourth party acted as a small garrison at the 
 fort and lived on famine rations of the scanty food 
 there was remaining. 
 
 On July 14, 1609, the fishers at Old Point Com- 
 fort saw a ship come in. She was under the com- 
 mand of Captain Samuel Argall, and carried a 
 supply of biscuit and wine, enough to last the 
 colonists for one month. Argall had not come as 
 the commander of a supply ship. He had been 
 sent to try a shorter and more direct route to 
 Virginia and also to fish for sturgeon in the James 
 River. 
 
 Argall brought news no less important than the 
 supplies. He informed Smith that the old charter 
 had been repealed, that the Royal Council of Vir- 
 ginia had been abolished, and that Lord De La 
 Warr (Delaware) was coming at the head of an 
 army of men and a fleet of ships as the sole and 
 absolute governor of Virginia. 
 
78 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 This news was correct in every particular. In- 
 deed, by the time Argall reached Virginia, the 
 great fleet was already within a week 's sail of the 
 American coast. Never did so large a supply 
 expedition so nearly attain its aims, and yet result 
 so lamentably. 
 
 The disasters on the James Eiver had been the 
 cause of the change of colonization plans. The 
 tales of Wingfield and Eatcliffe and the letters 
 of Smith had disheartened many of the backers 
 of the Company. These abandoned the project. 
 Others wished to continue, but on a different basis. 
 On May 23, 1609, a new charter was granted, now 
 generally known as the Second Virginia Charter. 
 
 This entirely separated the James River colony 
 from any relation with ^' North Virginia.'' It 
 reduced the amount of territory, confining it to 
 200 miles of the seacoast, stretching an equal dis- 
 tance north and south of Old Point Comfort and 
 inland as far as the South Sea (Pacific Ocean). 
 The government of the colony passed from the 
 control of a Royal Council and was placed in the 
 hands of the stockholders of the company. 
 
 The two leaders were admirably chosen. The 
 treasurer, who controlled affairs in England, was 
 Sir Thomas Smythe, perhaps the finest figure of 
 a great merchant prince that early England pro- 
 duced. The governor, in supreme control in the 
 colony, was Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, 
 related to Queen Elizabeth and a staunch pro- 
 moter of American colonization. Sir Thomas 
 
THE STARVING TIME 79 
 
 Gates, a sturdy soldier, was made lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor; Sir George Somers, a tine type of the 
 Elizabethan sea-dog breed, was named as admiral. 
 
 A fleet of nine large vessels was put under the 
 command of Newport, and Gates and Somers 
 sailed with him on June 8, 1609, in his flagship, the 
 Sea Venture. 
 
 Between 500 and 600 emigrants were included 
 in this ^^ Third Supply,^' about 100 being women 
 and children. Most of these had been lured by 
 false promises. Every adventurer who subscribed 
 a small sum was to have a share and a voice in 
 the affairs of the Company. Every emigrant was 
 promised ample food and clothing, a house, 
 orchard, garden and 100 acres of land for himself 
 and each member of the family; skilled tradesmen 
 and professional men were to be allowed a great 
 deal more. 
 
 It seems incredible that such men as Newport, 
 Ratcliffe and Archer— all of whom knew the truth 
 about the James River— could have permitted and 
 even supported such a tissue of misrepresenta- 
 tion. Yet they did so, and under these specious 
 and deliberate lies, thousands of pounds were sub- 
 scribed and hundreds of emigrants volunteered. 
 
 Lord De La Warr, who had at first purposed to 
 accompany the fleet, remained in London to make 
 further plans to send an even larger number of 
 colonists in the following spring. In order that 
 there should be no disputes over leadership, Gates 
 was given **the rights, privileges and duties of 
 
00 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 sole and absolute governor'' until Lord De La 
 Warr should arrive. 
 
 All went well at first. The fleet took the Azores 
 route. It was not a week's sail off the American 
 coast when a whirling West Indian hurricane 
 swept on it from Cape Hatteras. One of the 
 smaller ships was sunk with all on board. The 
 other vessels were scattered. 
 
 The Sea Venture suffered terribly. Her timbers 
 were so wrenched and strained that she leaked like 
 a sieve. A score of times it seemed as though 
 nothing could keep her from going to the bottom. 
 For five days, the crew worked in relays, pumping 
 and baling, standing in water to their waists. 
 Jury-masts were rigged on which scraps of sail 
 could be hoisted. 
 
 The ship was kept afloat by the magnetic 
 authority and the indomitable vigor of the veteran 
 Somers. The grizzled admiral, staunch old sea- 
 dog that he was, never left the quarter-deck for 
 three days and three nights. 
 
 At length land was sighted and the Sea Venture 
 was driven for the shore. So cleverly was she 
 handled by Somers that the vessel was run in 
 and wedged immovably between two rocks. Every 
 soul aboard was saved, and most of the cargo and 
 gear was salvaged. The island was found to be 
 uninhabited, save by wild pigs, a proof that, at 
 one time, Europeans must have landed there. 
 With their ship a complete wreck, the leaders of 
 the new colony were marooned. 
 
THE STARVING TIME 81 
 
 On August 11, 1609, four ships of Gates* fleet — 
 but without GateSj Newport or Somers — stag- 
 gered into Hampton Eoads. Three other vessels 
 arrived a few days later. About 350 colonists 
 were landed, many of them ill of the *^ London 
 Plague. ' * It was the malarial season in Virginia. 
 The provisions brought by the ships had been 
 badly spoiled by sea-water. Instead of relieving 
 the situation on the James River, the coming of 
 the *^ Third Supply'' made it infinitely worse. 
 
 Matters were bad enough. Some 70 or 80 per- 
 sons were alive, all dispersed into various parties 
 and starving. Some were at the oyster-beds, 
 dying slowly of ^* shell-fish leprosy.'' Some were 
 eking out a miserable existence in the woods with 
 berries and an occasional rabbit as their sole sup- 
 port. Some were little better than slaves to the 
 Indians. Only a handful of emaciated men 
 remained at the fort. 
 
 The non-arrival of Gates, the only man with 
 authority to rule, renewed the civil strife which 
 had cursed the James River colony from the start. 
 Smith's enemies, Ratclitfe, Archer and Martin, 
 had come in command of three of the vessels of 
 the fleet. Since their new authority came directly 
 from the hands of Lord De La Warr, they 
 promptly joined forces against Smith. 
 
 Ratclitfe peremptorily ordered Smith to abdi- 
 cate in his favor. Smith refused, point blank, and 
 swore that he would yield his authority to no one 
 except Lord De La Warr, Gates or some one duly 
 
82 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 appointed as governor by either. The old colo- 
 nists and most of the sailors supported Smith, the 
 new colonists were on the side of Ratcliffe. Civil 
 war was about to break out when Smith arrested 
 Ratclitfe and put him in irons as a disturber of 
 the peace. 
 
 While the corn crop would soon ripen, Hiere was 
 but little to feed the hundreds of inexpert and 
 plague-stricken colonists brought over by the 
 Third Supply. It was again necessary to divide 
 the settlers into three parties, one going to Nan- 
 semond, one to Powhatan Falls, the third, with 
 the women and children, remaining at Jamestown. 
 
 The Nansemond and the Powhatan Falls set- 
 tlements were attacked by Indians. The former 
 was, withdrawn to Jamestown. While making 
 peace at Powhatan Falls, Smith surveyed and 
 bought from the Indians a tract of land near the 
 present site of Richmond. This place, which he 
 called ^^ None-Such," was on a range of hills, 
 healthful and easy of defense, thousandfold bet- 
 ter than the marsh on which Jamestown was built. 
 
 The culminating disaster was to come. On his 
 way back from ** None-Such, " Smith was seriously 
 wounded by the explosion of a bag of gunpowder 
 in the boat. He reached Jamestown completely 
 disabled. 
 
 Immediately his enemies, with Archer at the 
 head, took occasion to spread all sorts of scur- 
 rilous stories against him. Some declared that 
 he led men into danger that they might be killed 
 
THE STARVING TIME 83 
 
 to enable the provisions to last longer; others 
 asserted that he whipped and imprisoned men 
 whose only fault was that they dared to withstand 
 his orders (a curious manner of excusing 
 mutiny) ; those who had suffered on the oyster 
 banks blamed him for their diseases ; many blamed 
 him for not having married Pocahontas (although 
 she was not yet fifteen years of age) and thus 
 having a hostage for the Indians. 
 
 Amid such rivalry and hate as existed at James- 
 town, it is difficult to be sure of the exact truth. 
 All narratives are partisan and contradictory. 
 The writers did not mince their words. Undoubt- 
 edly Smith was something of a braggart, admit- 
 tedly he dealt mth military harshness. But that 
 he saved Jamestown on several occasions, not 
 even his foes could deny. When he sailed for 
 England, a disabled man, early in October, George 
 Percy had been chosen as the new President. 
 
 What Smith did for Virginia was told in the 
 official proceedings, written by the colony-mer- 
 chant, the surgeon and others, and published in 
 1612. Of Smith's departure, this historical record 
 states : 
 
 ^^What shall I say, but thus we lost him that, in 
 all his proceedings, made justice his first good, 
 and experience his second; ever hating baseness, 
 sloth, pride and indignity more than any dangers ; 
 that never allowed more for himself than his 
 soldiers with him; that upon no danger would 
 send them where he would not lead them himself ; 
 
84 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 that would never see us want what he either had 
 or could by any means get us ; that would rather 
 want than borrow, or starve than not pay; that 
 loved actions more than words and hated false- 
 hood and cozenage [cheating] worse than death; 
 whose adventures were our lives, and whose loss 
 our deaths/' 
 
 It would be difficult to find, in all history, a 
 higher paean of praise than this ! 
 
 Never were truer words written than **his loss 
 our deaths.'' Smith's departure was a signal of 
 doom. Percy, the new President, was a man of 
 unblemished character, but he was not of the 
 heroic mold of which great pioneers are made. 
 
 Moreover, his task was an impossible one. 
 There were now nearly 500 mouths to fill, and 
 there was not much food with which to fill them. 
 The well which had been dug by Smith and which 
 gave water enough for a few settlers was useless 
 for so many. They must needs return to drinking 
 the disease-breeding river water. Dysentery 
 broke out in its most violent form. 
 
 The vicious principle of communism, whereby 
 idlers shared equally with workers, and which 
 had been held in check by the autocracy of Smith, 
 now bore its evil fruit. The older settlers, who 
 had struggled so long and so bitterly, found them- 
 selves swamped by this new flood of feeble for- 
 tune-seekers. The new colonists, utterly disheart- 
 ened, would not work, nor would they have known 
 
THE STARVING TIME 85 
 
 how to do so. Percy had no power ; he lay help- 
 less, so ill that **he could neither go nor stand." 
 
 The Indians who had been held back by their 
 fear of Smith now broke into open defiance. They 
 **did murder and spoil all they could encounter.'' 
 Instead of trying to heal the breach, 'Hhe unruly 
 gallants among the new arrivals commenced to 
 shoot savages for sport.'' 
 
 The Indians were not slow to answer. Eat- 
 cliffe and thirty men were massacred at a Pamun- 
 key village and a party under the command of 
 Francis West, brother of Lord De La Warr, was 
 cut to pieces, West barely escaping with his life. 
 The Indians killed most of the settlers' hogs, 
 sheep and fowls, which had been brought in the 
 Third Supply, in order that the white men should 
 have no food. 
 
 The winter came cruelly, with raw winds and 
 wet snow. Any man who left the fort in quest 
 of firewood was likely to leave his body in the 
 woods, with an Indian arrow in the joints of his 
 armor or even a musket bullet. In their distress, 
 the colonists had begun to exchange firearms for 
 food, a thing Smith had never permitted. 
 
 Scores died from cold. As each cabin was 
 emptied by death, it was pulled down and used 
 for firewood. Driven to desperation by the 
 scarcity of fuel inside and the lurking death out- 
 side, reckless settlers stripped the palisadoes for 
 firewood and pulled down the logs of the fort 
 wall. As the barrier weakened, ever and anon a 
 
86 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 flight of arrows would sweep over and through 
 the fort, to remind the white men that the Indians 
 were watching them die like rats in a trap. 
 
 Spring brought no relief. To the misery of 
 cold succeeded the horror of famine, the worst 
 that the James Eiver colony had ever known, for 
 now there was no John Smith to help them. There 
 was fish in the rivers and game in the woods, but 
 war-canoes waited on the water and ambush- 
 parties lurked in the forests. 
 
 Finally the last grain of com was eaten, the 
 last biscuit gone. The survivors tried to live on 
 roots and herbs, going freely into the woods, not 
 caring much whether an Indian arrow should give 
 them release from the tortures of hunger. 
 
 Cannibalism began. The corpse of an Indian 
 was boiled publicly and eaten. The awful mad- 
 ness spread. Delirious with hunger, the survivors 
 ate of their dead comrades, whether they had 
 died of disease or no. One man killed his wife, 
 salted her flesh and had lived thereon for three 
 weeks before he was found out. 
 
 Even in their terrible state, the decency of the 
 remaining colonists revolted at this inhuman 
 crime.. The man was tried, found guilty and 
 burned alive. Other happenings, not less terrible, 
 are recorded of those dark months known to his- 
 tory as *^The Starving Time.^' 
 
 Meantime, a thousand miles away, on that 
 uninhabited group of islets then marked on the 
 charts as the *^ Isles of Demons'' but now known 
 
THE STARVING TIME 87 
 
 as the Bermuda Islands, the marooned leaders of 
 the James River colony worked with might and 
 main. The islands were fruitful and healthful. 
 
 Gates, Somers and Newport ruled their little 
 colony of the survivors of the Sea Venture with 
 prudence and industry. From the small-sized 
 cedars which grew on the islands, they built two 
 small pinnaces, which they called the Patience and 
 the Deliverance, For ironwork they were depend- 
 ent on scraps from the wreck. 
 
 Not knowing whether the pinnaces would be 
 seaworthy, Gates allow^ed the use of but a small 
 part of the provisions saved from the Sea Ven- 
 ture. Fruit was plentiful. The castaways laid 
 in ample supplies of salted pork from the wild 
 pigs and an abundance of smoked fish. For ten 
 months they lived there, busily and happily. 
 
 When, at last, the two pinnaces set sail from 
 Bermuda, the 150 colonists had learned pioneering 
 and discipline; more important still, they pos- 
 sessed confidence in their leaders. In their small, 
 home-made craft, they crossed the GuH Stream 
 without mishap and reached Jamestown on May 
 10, 1610. 
 
 Sixty creatures, men, women and children, all 
 with a gleam of madness in their eyes, tottered 
 through the gaps in the tumble-down fort wall to 
 greet their Governor. 
 
 The rest were dead. 
 
 Of the survivors, eight died while trying to 
 swallow the first mouthful of food. In the remain- 
 
88 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ing fifty-two the spark of life burned so feebly 
 that, even with care and good food, it would be 
 weeks before these haggard semblances of human- 
 ity would be able to help themselves. 
 
 Again the food question rose uppermost. The 
 pinnaces had brought food, more than enough for 
 their voyage, but the colonists who had been 
 marooned on the Bermudas had expected to find 
 a flourishing town on the James River and all 
 their fellow-settlers well established on the prom- 
 ised farms. They found nothing. Not a field had 
 been planted. The salted pork and the smoked 
 fish would hardly last a month. 
 
 Smitten with the misery and the pity of it all, 
 Gates, Somers and Newport — great men, all three 
 — decided that Virginia must be abandoned. Not 
 counting the 150 men of the Sea Venture, over 
 700 people had been landed on the Virginia shore ; 
 of these, only 52 human wrecks remained. Not 
 a house, a fort nor a planted field remained to 
 compensate for three years of bitter suffering, and 
 the Indians had been rendered hostile. 
 
 The abandonment was begun. The rained 
 cabins were stripped of what few things remained, 
 the survivors were helped or carried on board the 
 pinnaces. On June 7, 1610, the Virginia (Smith's 
 pinnace), the Patience and the Deliverance floated 
 down that somber and hated stream — the James 
 River. The settlers bivouacked that night on Mul- 
 berry Island and resumed the voyage with the 
 next dawn. 
 
THE STARVING TIME 89 
 
 Just at noon, cries of joy and incredulity 
 mingled, broke out from the leading pinnace. A 
 longboat was seen approaching, an English long- 
 boat on those overhung and sluggish waters! It 
 bore the most welcome of all welcome news — 
 that Lord De La Warr had arrived with a well- 
 provisioned fleet, and, even now, was standing into 
 the harbor. 
 
 Gone was every idea of abandoning Virginia! 
 Even the wan ghosts who lay in the pinnaces and 
 who represented all that remained of British effort 
 in America, raised a feeble echo to the cheer. 
 
 The prows of the pinnaces were turned up- 
 stream again. The 150 colonists of the Sea Ven- 
 ture, who had worked so faithfully in the Bermu- 
 das, now saw the fruits of their toil. Jamestown 
 was soon reached, and, in a fever of haste, the 
 new-comers commenced to patch up the cabins 
 and to remove some of the manifold evidences of 
 despair. 
 
 The Sunday following, Lord De La Warr came 
 in person, and, so the record runs, the most hard- 
 ened of the soldiers with him sobbed at the spec- 
 tacle of misery that met their eyes. The three 
 great captains. Gates, Somers and Newport, stood 
 to attention, while Lord De La Warr, kneeling in 
 that misery-bedewed fort enclosure, offered up his 
 heartfelt thanks that he had not come too late, 
 that he had arrived in time to save Virginia. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE LAND OF TOBACCO 
 
 A new spirit arose in Virginia — the spirit of 
 discipline. De La Warr's authority could not be 
 disputed, Gates brooked no trifling. Yet three 
 hindrances to success remained : scarcity of food, 
 Indian hostility and the unhealthfulness of the 
 site of Jamestown. 
 
 Lord De La Warr lost no time in dealing with 
 the food situation. Having learned from Somers 
 how near were the pig-populated Bermudas, he 
 sent the admiral and Argall in the two home-made 
 pinnaces for cargoes of salted pork and some score 
 of live animals for breeding. 
 
 The Bermudas, however, were not known as 
 **the vexed Bermoothes'' and the ** Isles of 
 Demons'' for nothing. When halfway across the 
 Gulf Stream, a West Indian hurricane came howl- 
 ing up past Cape Fear and separated the rudely 
 constructed pinnaces. 
 
 Somers, a veteran sailor, succeeded in beating 
 back to the Bermudas, but was taken ill soon after 
 landing and perished there. His dying injunc- 
 tions to his crew were that they should fulfill Lord 
 De La Warr's orders and return to Virginia. But 
 
 90 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 91 
 
 the sailors, misliking the conditions on the James 
 Eiver and having a fair wind for England, sailed 
 home, taking the body of their commander with 
 them. 
 
 Argall, in the smaller pinnace, had run north- 
 wards before the hurricane. When it abated, he 
 was off the coast of Maine. There he took on 
 fresh water, and, finding the cod-fishing quick and 
 easy, decided to stock a cargo of salt fish instead 
 of losing time in sailing to the Bermudas for 
 pork. 
 
 On his way back, entering Chesapeake Bay, he 
 sailed up the Potomac River, trading with the 
 Indians and receiving as much com as he could 
 carry. This trading was made possible by the 
 aid of Harry Spelman, an English boy who had 
 been left with the Indians a year before and who 
 had been saved ^^from the fury of Powhatan'^ by 
 his friendship with some of the Potomac tribes. 
 
 These supplies of fish and corn were welcome, 
 but ArgalPs pinnace was small. Somers did not 
 return. No more supply ships were to be expected 
 from England that season. 
 
 In this difficulty. Lord De La Warr's energy 
 showed to good advantage. He bade the settlers 
 collect and dry berries in large numbers. He 
 established parties of hunters and laid in store 
 of dried venison. He kept a number of small 
 boats fishing near the mouth of the Charles River. 
 In spite of the lateness of his arrival, he managed 
 to get eleven acres of land planted with corn. 
 
92 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Then the Lord Governor took up the question 
 of Indian warfare. He offered peace. Powhatan 
 answered insolently that he would not consider 
 any terms until Lord De La Warr sent him a 
 coach and three horses and guaranteed that the 
 English should not occupy land outside of the 
 peninsula of Jamestown. 
 
 Although humane, Lord De La Warr was not 
 weak. Ignoring further parley, he ordered Gates 
 to attack Pochins, the son of Powhatan, and to 
 drive him from his stronghold at Kecoughtan. 
 Gates did so with such speed and thoroughness 
 that Powhatan was cowed. The war-chief realized 
 that he had no chance against his white foes, 
 unless the latter were weakened by hunger. 
 
 Famine and Indian hostility were thus checked. 
 Malaria proved a more stubborn foe. Though 
 new wells were dug, the swampy soil had little 
 filtering quality and dysentery again spread 
 through the settlement. In spite of all precau- 
 tions, 150 persons died in ^ve months from these 
 two diseases alone. Garrisons at Fort Henry and 
 Fort Charles suffered less heavily. 
 
 When autumn came, Newport went back to 
 England. Gates accompanied him, to report to 
 the Company the exact state of affairs in Virginia 
 and to urge a speedy sending of more supplies. 
 
 When the ships had left, the outlying garrisons 
 were withdrawn. The colonists at Jamestown 
 were again reduced to 200 persons, men, women 
 and children. Although aMe-bodied men were 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 93 
 
 few, Lord De La Warr — to make good his promise 
 to the Company — sent a party to the Falls of the 
 James Eiver in search of a gold-mine. The expe- 
 dition proved disastrous. Several of the men were 
 killed by Indians. The ore that was found proved 
 worthless. 
 
 Winter put an end to the epidemic of malaria. 
 As cabins had been built and plenty of fuel cut, 
 deaths from exposure were fewer than in any 
 preceding winter. The strain, however, had be- 
 come too great for the Lord Governor, who had 
 been ill most of the summer, and who was at the 
 point of death during the winter. Despite his 
 sickness he labored gallantly, and, from his bed, 
 maintained discipline and authority. 
 
 When Lord De La Warr sailed for England, on 
 March 28, 1611, hardly expecting to reach his home 
 alive, he left full three months' provisions and a 
 large amount of ground prepared and manured, 
 ready for planting. George Percy was appointed 
 Deputy Governor until Gates should return with 
 supplies, which were expected a few weeks later. 
 
 Gates had met with difficulties in England. The 
 truth about Virginia was becoming known. Money 
 was subscribed unwillingly and emigrants were 
 even harder to find. Fewer gentlemen volun- 
 teered, and, as Smith had pointed out, the knights 
 and gentlemen had been willing to face hardship 
 when the artisans and laborers skulked. Gates 
 remained in England to arrange for a further 
 shipment and to try and induce more worthy set- 
 
94f THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 tiers to emigrate. But, knowing the needs of 
 Jamestown, he sent three supply ships with 300 
 colonists under the command of Sir Thomas Dale, 
 who was famous for his severity as a disciplin- 
 arian. 
 
 The reputation was deserved. Dale knew that 
 he had been appointed as High Marshal of Vir- 
 ginia because of his ability to keep order under 
 the roughest and most mutinous conditions. He 
 established martial law immediately upon his 
 arrival in May, 1611, and handled the colony for 
 ^ve years as though the men under his charge were 
 convicts, instead of voluntary emigrants. 
 
 Dale's policy was clean-cut. He was an 
 appointee of the Company, and, as a soldier, he 
 was ready to carry out its .orders. The Company 
 came first; the colony, afterwards. In this atti- 
 tude he was the direct opposite of Captain John 
 Smith, who was eager for the interests of the 
 colony and inclined toward insubordination to the 
 London backers of Virginia. 
 
 Under Dale, the colonists were driven at forced 
 labor for long hours on a scanty diet. The laws 
 were terribly severe. Death was the punishment 
 for criticizing the administration of the colony or 
 for unauthorized trading with the Indians. Lazi- 
 ness was punished at the whipping post, and con- 
 tinued refusal to work was held sufficient cause 
 for torture, or even death. 
 
 Harshness breeds resentment and conspiracy. 
 A plot arose under Jeffrey Abbott, a friend of 
 
I 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF POCAHONTAS 
 
 Among the great historical paintings in 
 the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington 
 is this painting of the scene of the baptism 
 of Pocahontas, under the name of Rebecca. 
 She married John Rolfe, who is therefore 
 the original Squaw-man of American 
 history, and went to England, living there 
 for several years, dying in 1617 on the eve 
 of her departure for America. The picture 
 of her and her son is believed to have been 
 painted from life and probably was, as it 
 shows very distinctly the prominent facial 
 characteristics of the Indian. 
 
THE LOCATION OF THE EARLY COLONIAL SETTLEMENTS 
 
 This map shows the settlements of Roanoke Island, Croatoan, Jamestown, St. Mary's 
 and Kent Island. The shadowed strip of country along the coast shows the grants 
 made by King James which was the basis of settlement of all expeditions after 1609. 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 95 
 
 John Smith, an excellent soldier and a hardy 
 pioneer. He resented the autocracy of a Lord 
 Governor. He sought no less than the overthrow 
 of Dale, Gates and De La Warr, and the restora- 
 tion of the old plan. The conspiracy was found 
 out and the ringleaders seized, Abbott among 
 them. Some were shot, others hanged, and one, 
 broken on the wheel. 
 
 Desertion met an equally swift fate. Fifteen 
 men, who had seized one of the pinnaces with the 
 intention of escaping to England, were caught; 
 four of the men were hanged and the others con- 
 demned to hard labor. * ' Hanged men, ^ ' Dale was 
 said to have remarked, grimly, **eat less than pris- 
 oners.'' But Dale was just. Even Alexander 
 Whitaker, the gentle ^^ Apostle of Virginia,'' did 
 not blame this martial rule. No man was con- 
 demned without a fair and impartial trial. 
 
 The High Marshal did not spare himself. He 
 was a daring and a gallant soldier and was always 
 at the head of his men when there was Indian 
 fighting to be done. All along the James and the 
 York Rivers, he terrorized the tribes. In such 
 matters he knew no mercy. There would be no 
 second savage uprising, where once Dale had trod. 
 
 Nevertheless, Dale was as clear-headed as he 
 was stem. In two respects, at least, he showed 
 far-sighted wisdom. He determined to make the 
 colony pay, for, if it did so, there would be no 
 difficulty in getting supplies. He determined also 
 to get rid of the noxious weed of communism, 
 
96 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 which had been a source of disaster ever since 
 the first landing on the shores of the James River. 
 
 When a man had no personal profit from his 
 work, and toiled only under the whip, Dale de- 
 clared, his unwilling labor was slow and spiritless. 
 With one stroke, the High Marshal changed all 
 this. He gave three acres of land to each farmer 
 colonist, on the condition of paying six bushels 
 of corn annually into the public granary. Another 
 class, known as laborer colonists, had less land 
 and gave more work to the community, but paid no 
 tax on their harvest and were entitled to a larger 
 share of the communal supplies. 
 
 From discontented members of a communism 
 which had brought nothing but misgovernment 
 and starvation, the Jamestown settlers became 
 small landed proprietors. For the first time, they 
 had an interest in their colony, they were working 
 for their own homes. The plan developed slowly, 
 but it changed the aspect of affairs in Virginia 
 and prepared the way for the self-government 
 soon to be established. 
 
 Dale also secured an alliance with the Indians. 
 Strange to say, it was achieved through the kid- 
 naping of Pocahontas. The story is a curious one, 
 and throws another side-light on Indian customs. 
 
 In April, 1613, Argall paid another visit to his 
 friends, the Potomac Indians. Among them, to 
 his surprise, he found Pocahontas. She had been 
 married to an Indian chief, but was eager to break 
 the tie. The husband also was wiUing and his 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 97 
 
 willingness was sufficient in itself to break the 
 marriage. 
 
 Indian etiquette, however, required that the 
 young wife should be captured, in which case no 
 reproach rested upon the husband. One of the 
 minor chiefs of the Potomacs agreed to assist in 
 the formality and helped Argall to abduct Poca- 
 hontas, entirely with her own approval. The 
 young EngHsh lad, Harry Spelman, also went to 
 Jamestown with Argall, and was for many years 
 the interpreter for the colony. 
 
 In this abduction, Argall seems to have had two 
 motives. The first of these was to hold Poca- 
 hontas as a hostage for Powhatan's good behavior. 
 The second was friendliness both to Pocahontas 
 and to the Potomacs, for the latter were open to 
 the war-chief's displeasure so long as they har- 
 bored the fugitive wife. Dale saw immediately the 
 mihtary advantage of retaining the chief's daugh- 
 ter as a hostage, and he refrained from pushing 
 the campaign against Powhatan which he had 
 planned for the winter of 1613-1614. 
 
 During this winter, an entirely new turn was 
 given to the Pocahontas romance. 
 
 Among the ablest of the colonists at Jamestown 
 was John Rolfe, who, with his wife, had sailed 
 on the Sea Venture, and had been one of the most 
 energetic of the workers at Bermuda. While there, 
 his little daughter, Bermuda Rolfe, was born, but 
 she did not long survive. Mrs. Eolfe had sue- 
 
98 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 cumbed to the pestilential climate of Jamestown, 
 and had died soon after reaching Virginia. 
 
 Rolf e, a lonely widower, took a strong liking to 
 Pocahontas, which ripened into affection as he 
 came to know the Indian girl better. On her part, 
 Powhatan's daughter greatly admired Rolfe, 
 whose grave manners contrasted favorably with 
 the familiarity of the younger gallants who had 
 recently come from England. Pocahontas was 
 easily converted to Christianity, and, shortly after 
 her christening, her betrothal to EoEe was an- 
 nounced. 
 
 Dale, like a prudent leader, at once seized the 
 happy occasion to renew the alliance with Pow- 
 hatan. The aged war-chief, weU aware that the 
 white men had planned an attack upon Werowoco- 
 moco, was only too glad to escape battle with so 
 superior a foe. He accepted the alhance and for- 
 mally announced that Pocahontas' divorce was 
 final, under Indian law. The marriage of Eolfe 
 and Pocahontas was solemnized in the church at 
 Jamestown, in April, 1614, in the presence of the 
 white leaders and many Indian chiefs. 
 
 During these five years of Dale's stern rule, 
 Gates had been active. He visited Virginia twice 
 and kept up a steady stream of supplies and emi- 
 grants. This he was enabled to do through the 
 success of Dale's slave-driving poHcy. 
 
 Presently, however, partly because of royal dis- 
 favor and because of the heavy death-rate in the 
 colony, financial support weakened. In 1615, it 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 99 
 
 was necessary to conduct a lottery in order to 
 make up the deficit caused by the withdrawal of 
 subscriptions. Dale's rigors, too, had given rise 
 to unceasing complaints. 
 
 In May, 1616, Captain George Yeardley, then 
 in Virginia, was appointed to succeed Gates as 
 Deputy Governor. This took the supreme power 
 out of the hands of Dale. The High Marshal left 
 at once for England, and there is no doubt that 
 the colonists were glad to see him go. 
 
 Yet Dale had accomplished much. The Indians 
 had been kept in submission, mutiny had ceased, 
 strong forts had been built, hundreds of acres 
 cleared and scores of colonial farms were self-sup- 
 porting. But the High Marshal, like his prede- 
 cessors, had no power over the cHmate. Of the 
 more than a thousand people who had come during 
 his rule, there were but 351 alive when he sailed 
 for home. 
 
 An interesting passenger also was on board. 
 This was Pocahontas, who, with her husband, 
 John Rolfe, was on her way to England. Owing 
 to the misunderstood idea of Powhatan's impor- 
 tance (he had been named *' Emperor'' and 
 crowned by John Smith at the insistence of the 
 Company) the young Indian wife was acclaimed 
 as a Princess, and was presented at court by Lady 
 De La Warr. She was the sensation of London 
 and was enormously feted, being known as '*La 
 Belle Sauvage." 
 
 All was ready for her return to her native coun- 
 
100 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 try the following year, but she died suddenly, just 
 as the ship was leaving, and was buried near 
 London. She left one son, Thomas, who was edu- 
 cated in England and emigrated to Virginia, later. 
 Many eminent Virginians trace their descent to 
 Pocahontas, through Thomas RoKe. 
 
 It would be a grave injustice, however, to allow 
 Rolfe's memory to be attached only to the Poca- 
 hontas romance. His work for the colony was not 
 second in importance to that of any man. He per- 
 formed the apparently miraculous task, not only 
 of making Virginia pay, but of finding in those 
 tide- water swamps a source of wealth greater than 
 any gold-mine. 
 
 This was tobacco, and around the question of 
 tobacco hangs all the later history of Virginia. 
 
 Tobacco was first made known to Europe by the 
 Spaniards. Lane, governor of the first permanent 
 colony, at Roanoke, was th^ first Englishman to 
 use the weed. When he was rescued by Drake, it 
 was in Drake's ship that the first supply was 
 brought to England in 1588. 
 
 The tobacco habit spread rapidly, especially in 
 the English court, where Raleigh set the fashion. 
 Pope Urban VIII issued a Bull against it, James I 
 published his famous * ^ Counterblast against To- 
 bacco. ' ' 
 
 These attacks were all in vain. In Spain, in 
 England and in Holland, the demand for tobacco 
 grew apace. Spain found in her West Indian and 
 Central American possessions a new source of 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 101 
 
 wealth, England was not so favored, for tlie 
 crude tobacco brought from Virginia as prepared 
 by the Indians was little esteemed because of its 
 bitter pungency. 
 
 Rolfe, realizing that good tobacco sold in Eng- 
 land for twelve shilhngs (equal to about $11 now) 
 per pound, set to work to improve the character 
 of Virginia tobacco. He planted his first field 
 in 1612, and spent much time in experiments as 
 to the best method of curing the leaf. In 1616, a 
 consignment from his plantation was sold at a 
 price not much lower than that of good Spanish 
 tobacco. That sale clinched the English coloniza- 
 tion of Virginia, and determined the lines along 
 which it should develop. 
 
 Dale, despite his esteem for Rolf e, did not look 
 kindly on tobacco. He regarded smoking as a 
 passing fad, and, fearing lest food-supplies should 
 diminish, he ordered that no farmer should set out 
 this crop until he had put two-thirds of his land 
 in corn. This prohibition did not extend to the 
 large tracts of land owned by knights and gentle- 
 men. Such took to tobacco-planting extensively. 
 
 In the treaty made with Powhatan at the time 
 of Pocahontas' marriage, Dale had provided that 
 the natives should be relieved from any further 
 exactions on the condition of a tax of two and a 
 half bushels of corn per Indian. As this demand 
 was not excessive, it secured peace for eight years, 
 and allowed the extension of the tobacco plan- 
 tations. 
 
102 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Upon Dale's departure, which coincided with 
 the sale of Eolfe's well-cured tobacco at a high 
 price, every farmer and laborer turned his corn 
 land into the new crop. Yeardley, the new deputy 
 governor, allowed and even encouraged the change. 
 In the spring of 1617 the market-place of James- 
 town, and even the borders of the streets, were 
 set with tobacco. 
 
 In London, the Company was beset with internal 
 troubles. Two antagonistic parties developed. 
 One was the Court Party, headed by the Earl of 
 Warwick, which was in favor of martial law and 
 Dale's slave-driving policy; the other was the 
 Country Party, headed by Sir Thomas Smythe 
 and Sir Edwin Sandys, which demanded a new 
 charter and the establishment of all settlers as 
 free citizens. 
 
 The Country Party won the day, and the Third 
 Charter — though severely attacked in Parliament 
 — became effective November 30, 1616. Argall 
 was appointed to succeed Yeardley, with instruc- 
 tions to abolish Dale's martial laws, to give fifty 
 acres to every settler, and to remove all restric- 
 tions against visiting England. 
 
 Argall had always been headstrong and un- 
 scrupulous, vices which had not brought him into 
 any trouble when subordinate to men of authority 
 like De La Warr, Gates or Dale, but which proved 
 his bane when at last he was given power. He 
 ignored the instructions, continued the slavery 
 system, used his office for extortion and denied 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 103 
 
 to others the rights to tobacco-planting which he 
 seized for himself. 
 
 After Argall had been in control for a year, the 
 Company sent Lord De La Warr to arrest him 
 and to reassume charge of the colony. Touching 
 at the Azores on the way, Lord De La Warr and 
 thirty of his companions fell sick and died so 
 strangely that the Spaniards were commonly sup- 
 posed to have poisoned them. The ship reached 
 JamestoAvn and the order for arrest fell into Ar- 
 galPs hands. As no other Deputy Governor had 
 been appointed, however, he continued in power 
 for nearly a year more. 
 
 Then Romance shifted her seat from Virginia 
 to London. 
 
 The young son of Sir Thomas Smythe, head of 
 the Country Party in the Virginia Company, fell 
 desperately in love with Lady Isabella Rich, sis- 
 ter of the Earl of Warwick. The old merchant 
 explosively refused his consent to his son's mar- 
 riage. A dramatic elopement was succeeded by a 
 private wedding, at which the Earls of Southamp- 
 ton and Pembroke and the Countess of Bedford 
 were present. 
 
 This elopement wrought great changes in Vir- 
 ginia. The Earl of Warwick, furious that a mer- 
 chant should dare to oppose Lady Rich's mar- 
 riage, temporarily deserted the Court Party and 
 threw his influence with one of the wings of the 
 Country Party which was dissatisfied with 
 Smythe 's leadership. Smythe was thrown out of 
 
104 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 office and Sir Edwin Sandys — famous for his defi- 
 ance of James I — ^was made Treasurer. 
 
 The results in the colony were immediate. 
 Yeardley was appointed Governor, to succeed 
 Lord De La Warr, and he was sent post-haste to 
 arrest Argall. The latter fled from Virgina be- 
 fore Yeardley ^s arrival and made good his excuses 
 to the Company. As an opponent of Sandys, 
 whom the King detested, he was even knighted. 
 
 Sandys loved liberty as much as he hated the 
 King. He was one of the many Englishmen of that 
 time who resented the would-be autocracy of the 
 Stuarts, and who stood fast to the Constitution. 
 It is to be remembered that the liberties won by 
 the English colonies in America came from the 
 English people, not from the Crown. 
 
 Yeardley brought with him explicit instructions 
 for the convening of a General Assembly, which 
 came to be known as the *^ House of Burgesses.^' 
 It continued without interruption until 1776 and 
 was the first local legislative government in Amer- 
 ica. Its power was not absolute, for its acts were 
 not valid until approved by the Company, in Lon- 
 don ; on the other hand, acts initiated by the Com- 
 pany had no force unless approved by the House 
 of Burgesses. 
 
 James I disliked Smythe, hated Sandys and will- 
 ingly accepted the Spanish ambassador's descrip- 
 tion of the House of Burgesses as ^*a seminary of 
 sedition.'' In 1620, he sent messengers to the an- 
 nual meeting of the Company forbidding the re- 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 105 
 
 election of Sandys. The Company flatly denied 
 the King^s right to interfere, but Sandys feared 
 that an open break might lose to Virginia all that 
 had been gained and withdrew his name. The 
 Earl of Southampton, known to be fully in agree- 
 ment with Sandys' pohcy, was elected. 
 
 Parliament was summoned in 1621, several of 
 its members being stockholders in the Virginia 
 Company. The parliament refused to do what 
 James I demanded, impeached the Lord Chancel- 
 lor for bribery and vigorously denounced the royal 
 efforts to catch a royal bride. 
 
 The King told Parliament to mind its own busi- 
 ness. The Commons replied **that their privi- 
 leges were not the gift of the Crown, but the nat- 
 ural birthright of English subjects, and that mat- 
 ters of public interest were within their province. ' ' 
 The enraged monarch dissolved Parliament in 
 January, 1622, sent Southampton, Pym and others 
 to prison, and thus sowed the seeds of that revolt 
 against the Stuart kings which was to cost Charles 
 I his head. 
 
 Next year, friends of the King laid before the 
 Privy Council a terrible indictment of affairs in 
 Virginia. They declared that Jamestown was a 
 pest-hole, that hundreds of Enghsh subjects were 
 held in partial slavery, that the houses were flimsy 
 and unsanitary, that the food-supply was precari- 
 ous and that no signs of gold or silver had been 
 found. Most of this was true, but the statements 
 were exaggerated by rancor and malice. 
 
106 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 A Royal Commission of Investigation was sent 
 to Virginia, the commissioners including Argall, 
 the bitterest enemy of Sandys. Its report was 
 scathing. In October, 1623, the Privy Council 
 recommended that the Company's charter be can- 
 celed and that the King should resume personal 
 control of Virginia. The Company appealed to 
 Parliament, in vain. On June 10, 1624, the Lord 
 Chief Justice declared the Virginia Charter null 
 and void. 
 
 The King proceeded to draw up an entirely new 
 plan of government for Virginia, abolishing the 
 House of Burgesses, but, before this could be put 
 into effect, death put an end to his scheming. 
 None the less, the deed was done. The Company 
 was extinct. Virginia had become a Crown 
 Colony. ^ 
 
 Charles I was no fonder of representative gov- 
 ernment than was his father, but he needed money, 
 and the royal tax on the Virginia tobacco crop 
 had become important. He did not want to kill a 
 goose which laid such golden eggs. He sent Yeard- 
 ley as Royal Governor, thus pleasing Sandys and 
 the colonists, and addressed the colonial parlia- 
 ment as ^*Our trusty and well-beloved Burgesses 
 of the Grand Assembly of Virginia,'' thus offi- 
 cially recognizing representative government in 
 the colony. 
 
 Tobacco had become the commercial backbone of 
 Virginia, tobacco caused the party strife in the 
 Company, tobacco was the bait which Charles I 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 107 
 
 swallowed when he accepted the House of Bur- 
 gesses. It was no wonder. In 1622 sixty thou- 
 sand pounds of tobacco were exported, worth 
 a quarter of a million dollars of modern money. 
 Such exports reveal a very different state of af- 
 fairs from that prior to 1616, when the settlers 
 were unable to raise enough food to feed them- 
 selves. 
 
 The success of the tobacco crop was made pos- 
 sible by the importation of * ^ servants, ' ^ better de- 
 scribed as indentured plantation hands. These 
 were drawn from all ranks of society, but were 
 mainly ^^ beggars and vagabonds.'' This phrase, 
 however, conveys a false impression. It meant, 
 simply, the unemployed, such as soldiers and sail- 
 ors released by the ending of the war, farmers 
 who had lost their farms, agricultural and indus- 
 trial laborers out of work. 
 
 The severity of the laws against them, how- 
 ever, proves that they were regarded as a men- 
 ace. Ajiy man or woman found wandering on the 
 highway was to be seized, stripped naked to the 
 waist, *^and openly whipped until his or her body 
 were bloody. ' ' Imprisonment or exile was awarded 
 for a second offense. All such could be — and often 
 were — indentured as *^ servants" in Virginia. 
 Convicted criminals had the choice of hard labor 
 or emigration. Waifs and strays in the city 
 streets were bound out as *^ apprentices." Thus 
 was labor secured on the tobacco plantations. 
 
 There was, however, a brighter side to the pic- 
 
108 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ture. Indentures varied both as to length and 
 conditions of service. Volunteers served only two 
 years. Hardened criminals might serve seven 
 years, or even ten. In general, indentures were for 
 five years. At the end of that period the ** serv- 
 ant" became free, and received clothing, food and 
 tools to the value of ten pounds sterling (now 
 about $250). Land could be got on very easy 
 terms. Workers who survived the toil and the cli- 
 mate might be reasonably sure of becoming their 
 own masters, a hope which life in England could 
 not hold out to them. 
 
 Fairer cargoes than these, too, had come to Vir- 
 ginia. The year 1619, which saw the establish- 
 ment of the House of Burgesses, witnessed also 
 the trans-shipment of young English girls for 
 wives. Ninety would-be brides arrived in that 
 year, and many more in the years following. 
 
 These ** Sandys maids,'' as they were known, 
 might be chosen by any settler who could pay the 
 cost of their transportation, estimated at 120 
 pounds of tobacco (a fluctuating figure, between 
 $600 and $900 in the values of to-day). The giris 
 were under contract to marry, and could not re- 
 fuse to do so, but, as there were many suitors for 
 each, the maids had plenty of choice. The system 
 worked admirably, though, in that unhealthful 
 climate, the young wives died fast. 
 
 The onward progress of the colony was checked 
 by the Indian massacre of 1622. The attack was 
 most unexpected. Powhatan had died in 1618 and 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 109 
 
 his brother Opechancanough became war-chief of 
 the confederacy. In 1621, the new leader prepared 
 a widespread plot against the English. Yeardley 
 learned of it, fortified the plantation and sent a 
 threat that the slightest hostile move would be 
 answered by swift and sweeping vengeance. 
 
 That year, however, Yeardley was succeeded by 
 Sir Francis Wyatt. In March, 1622, a young In- 
 dian called Nemmattanow, but better known as 
 **Jack-o'-the-Feather,'^ slew a white man and 
 was himself slain. Wyatt feared trouble, but Ope- 
 chancanough was treacherously polite and de- 
 clared that ^^he held the peace so firm that the 
 sky should fall before he broke it. ' ' 
 
 The story of the massacre was written by John 
 Smith. 
 
 **0n the Friday morning, that fatal day, being 
 the two-and-twentieth of March,'' he wrote, '*as 
 also in the evening before, as at other times the In- 
 dians came unarmed into our houses, with deer, 
 wild turkeys, fish, fruits and other provisions to 
 sell us. Yea, in some places they sat down at 
 breakfast with our people, who, immediately, with 
 their own tools they slew most barbarously, not 
 sparing either age or sex, man, woman or child; 
 so sudden was their execution that few or none 
 discerned the weapon or the blow that brought 
 them to destruction. 
 
 *^In which manner, also, they slew many of our 
 people at their several works in the fields, well 
 knowing in what places and quarters each of our 
 
110 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 men were, in regard of their familiarity with us, 
 which we permitted for the effecting of that great 
 masterpiece of work, their conversion. By this 
 means fell that fatal morning 347 men, women 
 and children, mostly by their own weapons. Not 
 being content with their lives, the Indians fell 
 again upon the dead bodies, making as well as they 
 could a fresh murder, defacing, dragging and 
 mangling their dead carcasses into many pieces, 
 and carrying some parts away in derision, with 
 base and brutish triumph. ' ' 
 
 The wholesale extermination of the English had 
 been the purpose of Opechancanough, and, but for 
 the betrayal of his plan by one Indian, there would 
 not have been a white man ahve in Virginia by 
 sunset of that day. 
 
 Shortly before midnight, the brother of a 
 friendly Indian who was employed by a settler 
 named Pace brought his fellow-tribesman the or- 
 ders of the chief, telling him the hour at which 
 Pace should be slain. When his brother had gone, 
 the friendly Indian awakened his master and be- 
 trayed the plot. Pace leaped from his bed, rowed 
 across the river to Jamestown, reaching there 
 just before dawn, and gave the alarm. Wyatt in- 
 stantly sent couriers to the plantations in every 
 direction and thereby saved thousands of lives. 
 
 Opechancanough had done badly in stirring up 
 the English. The shape of the colony, long and 
 narrow (from Hampton Roads to Eichmond and 
 for many miles up the York River), made it open 
 
THE LAND OF TOBACCO 111 
 
 to Indian attack. But it also afforded a strong 
 base from which to punish. 
 
 The settlers began a ruthless and terrible re- 
 venge. They slew and they hunted, they hunted 
 and they slew. They wiped out every Indian vil- 
 lage in the vicinity. They pursued the redskins 
 with the ferocity of wild beasts. By the time the 
 colonists abandoned the blood-chase, Opechan- 
 canough was left with but a sorry remnant of 
 his people. 
 
 This vengeful punishment served its purpose. 
 Not an Indian arrow was loosed at a white man 
 in the colony for more than twenty years. 
 
 Despite the massacre, Virginia had thriven dur- 
 ing those decisive years between 1619 and 1625. 
 Tobacco plantations were numerous. Much capi- 
 tal had been invested. Labor was plentiful. 
 Sandys' maids made excellent wives and social 
 Life had begun. Churches were solidly estab- 
 lished at a dozen points. Schools were organized 
 in 1621. In 1622 a College (now known as Wil- 
 liam and Mary College) was on the point of be- 
 ing founded when George Thorpe, sent out to be 
 its first president, was slain^ in the Opechan- 
 canough massacre. 
 
 Yet a black pall hung over all — the pall of pes- 
 tilence. Tide-water Virginia, fertile and luxuri- 
 ant, was a breeding-spot of disease. Even those 
 who survived were racked by the *^ shivering 
 ague, ' ' and six months of ^ ' chills and fever ' ^ were 
 the annual portion of every settler. 
 
112 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 And they who survived were few. The records 
 show that, between the years 1606 and 1625, some 
 5645 emigrants left England for Virginia. Of 
 these, only 1095 persons (1232 and 1227 in other 
 accounts) were left alive in the spring of 1625. 
 Eighty-eight persons out of every hundred had 
 perished from disease or starvation or had been 
 killed by Indians. 
 
 Viewed in the light of later history, these deaths 
 were involuntary martyrdoms in a glorious 
 cause. The early settlers established the English 
 in Virginia, carved out a wealth-bearing colony 
 from a fetid swamp, established the first repre- 
 sentative assembly on American soil, and rooted 
 firmly in the New World that desire for a just 
 freedom which is the chief heritage of the English- 
 speaking race. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 
 
 The success of Virgina brought rivalry, and 
 when the tobacco crop proved to Englishmen that 
 there was a chance of making money over-seas, 
 an enormous impetus was given to colonization. 
 One of the new ventures was the founding of 
 Maryland, the interests of which clashed with Vir- 
 ginia and led to fighting along the border. 
 
 Virginia began as an Elizabethan adventure un- 
 der the urging of Ealeigh, continued as a trading 
 post in the hands of a joint-stock company, and 
 became a Eoyal Colony as soon as the tobacco 
 crop ensured a handsome profit. Maryland began 
 as a feudal state. It owed its origin solely to the 
 desire of Lord Baltimore to found a Roman Catho- 
 lic colony for Englishmen. 
 
 George Calvert, afterwards Lord Baltimore, son 
 of a Yorkshire farmer, was bom in 1580. He was 
 a scholar and a writer and his open support of the 
 project of James I to marry his son Charles to a 
 Spanish princess won him the favor of the King. 
 In 1619 he was appointed Secretary of State with 
 the arrangement of the marriage as his chief task. 
 His religious position was that of an outward 
 
 113 
 
114. THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 conforming to the Church of England with a 
 strong leaning toward Roman Catholicism. 
 
 Lord Baltimore had been interested in the colo- 
 nization of America from the very start. He 
 had been a member of the Virginia Company 
 since 1609. Being an appointee of the King, he 
 sided with the Court Party against Smythe, San- 
 dys and Southampton. He was shrewd enough 
 to see that the Sandys Party was in the ascen- 
 dant and would never agree to his feudal plans, 
 nor show favor to Roman Catholics. 
 
 There was need for such a colony. The laws 
 of England against Roman Catholics were unbe- 
 lievably strict, but, like all excessive laws, they 
 had brought about their own neglect. Roman 
 Catholics were forbidden to become lawyers or 
 teachers, they must attend English Church serv- 
 ices or pay ruinous fines, failing which they were 
 banished. Two-thirds of their lands might be 
 confiscated. All priests were to be hunted out 
 of the country and some who did not go were 
 drawn and quartered. Every suspected man was 
 compelled to take the Oath of Supremacy, which 
 stated that the King was the Head of the Church 
 and denied that the Pope had power over English 
 subjects. 
 
 Laws of so drastic a character are rarely made 
 for religious reasons only, but are generally as- 
 sociated with a suspicion of treason. It was so 
 in this case. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, Roman Catho- 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 115 
 
 lies were suspected because the Pope had excom- 
 municated the Queen, and because the war with 
 Spain was a religious war. None the less, the 
 Roman CathoHcs of England showed no lack of 
 patriotism. 
 
 During the reigns of the first two Stuart kings, 
 Parliament suspected the Eoman Catholics "of 
 making treacherous advances to Spain. The 
 Spanish marriage project of James I heightened 
 this suspicion. The English people did not want 
 a Roman Catholic king on the throne. 
 
 There were, therefore, both the laws and the 
 force of public opinion to make life in England 
 unpleasant for the Roman Catholics, and Amer- 
 ica appeared to offer a haven of refuge. Virginia 
 would not serve, for it was rigid in its adherence 
 to the English Church. Another colony must be 
 found. 
 
 In 1620 Lord Baltimore secured a grant for the 
 southern peninsula of Newfoundland, and, the fol- 
 lowing year, he sent thither one ship with a few 
 colonists and some supplies. In March, 1623, he 
 received a royal charter for this region, to which 
 he gave the name of Avalon. Next year, he re- 
 signed his office as Secretary of State on the 
 ground that he had become a Roman Catholic, and 
 immediately after was elevated to the peerage. 
 James I died a few days after the gift of a title to 
 his favorite on whom he had already bestowed 
 a vast Irish estate near Cape Clear. From a vil- 
 lage on this estate came the name ''Baltimore.'' 
 
116 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 The plans for the Roman Catholic colony pushed 
 forward. In 1627, Lord Baltimore went to New- 
 foundland with Lady Baltimore and his children. 
 But he was bitterly disappointed in his venture. 
 It was not always summer in Avalon. In 1629, 
 he wrote to Charles I, who had remained his warm 
 friend, as follows: 
 
 *^I have met with difficulties and encumbrances 
 here in this place which are no longer to be re- 
 sisted, but enforce me presently to quit my resi- 
 dence and to shift to some other warmer climate 
 of the New World, where the winters be shorter 
 and less rigorous. 
 
 '*For here Your Majesty may please to under- 
 stand that I have found — by too dear-bought ex- 
 perience . . . that from the middle of October to 
 the middle of May there is a sad fare of winter 
 upon all this land ; both sea and land being frozen 
 for the greater part of the time as they are not 
 penetrable, nor plant or vegetable appearing out 
 of the earth until the beginning of May, nor fish 
 in the sea; beside, the air is so intolerable cold 
 as is hardly to be endured. By means whereof, 
 and of much salt meat, my house hath been a hos- 
 pital all this winter; of a hundred persons, fifty 
 sick at a time, myself being one, and nine or ten 
 of them have died. . . . 
 
 **To further, the best I may, the enlarging of 
 Your Majesty's empire in this part of the world, 
 I am determined to commit this place to fishermen 
 that are able to encounter storms and hard 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 117 
 
 weather, and to remove myself with some forty 
 persons to Your Majesty ^s dominion, Virginia; 
 where, if Your Majesty will please to grant me a 
 precinct of land, with such privileges as the King 
 your father was pleased to grant me here, I shall 
 endeavor to the utmost of my power to deserve 
 it." 
 
 Before an answer to this letter could be re- 
 ceived. Lord Baltimore sailed for Virginia, arriv- 
 ing in Jamestown on October 1, 1629, where he 
 found the House of Burgesses in session. 
 
 There had been changes in officials in Virginia, 
 during the preceding four years, but no altera- 
 tions in policy. Yeardley, Harvey and West had 
 been governors in succession. During a period 
 when West had been called to England by busi- 
 ness, and Harvey had not yet arrived. Dr. John 
 Pott had acted as Deputy Governor. 
 
 Pott was one of the queer types of brilliant 
 but unsuccessful men who found their way to the 
 colonies. He was a learned man and an excellent 
 physician, but he was over-fond of Hquor and none 
 too scrupulous. When Harvey arrived, he was 
 compelled to arrest the Acting Governor for par- 
 doning a convicted murderer, and for steaHng cat- 
 tle, himself. 
 
 There was no doubt as to Pott's guilt. Harvey, 
 instead of proceeding to extreme measures, or- 
 dered the ex-official to be confined to his house, and 
 wrote to Charles I for instructions, pointing out 
 that Pott was the ablest doctor in the colony, and 
 
118 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 urging a royal pardon. This was granted and 
 the convivial doctor resumed his practice. 
 
 Dr. Pott was still Acting Governor when Lord 
 Baltimore sailed up the James River. The noble- 
 man's reception was as frosty as the Newfound- 
 land shores he had left. Pott was frankly hostile 
 and rude. The Virginians were staunch English 
 Churchmen, and they looked with suspicion on 
 Roman CathoUcs. They stood for the Constitu- 
 tion, and Lord Baltimore had been a favorite of 
 the King. 
 
 The House of Burgesses wanted to get rid of 
 this unwelcome visitor as quickly as possible. 
 They had a very easy device all ready to their 
 hands. This was the Oath of Supremacy, which 
 no Roman Catholic was willing to take. 
 
 Lord Baltimore proposed a substitute form of 
 declaration. The House of Burgesses refused to 
 accept it, and ordered the nobleman to leave the 
 colony. He remained until the spring, however, 
 and sailed to England soon after Harvey's arrival. 
 Thus Virginia lost one of the ablest men who had 
 stepped on her shores, but Virginia's loss was 
 America's gain. 
 
 When he landed in England, Lord Baltimore 
 found that the territory he coveted, from Florida 
 to Roanoke, had already been granted on October 
 30, 1629, to Sir Robert Heath, under the name 
 of ** Carolina." He petitioned, therefore for the 
 land between Roanoke and the James River, but 
 the Virginians, headed by Claiborne and West, 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 119 
 
 protested so strongly that the grant was denied. 
 
 Lord Baltimore, however, was determined to 
 have a colony of his own and he held an order from 
 Charles I for ^^any part of Virginia not already 
 granted. '^ After two years of incessant effort he 
 received a patent for the territory between the 
 southern bank of the Potomac Eiver and 40° (the 
 latitude of Philadelphia). This was first called by 
 the King ^'Mariana,'' after Queen Henrietta 
 Maria, but the name was later changed by him to 
 ** Maryland.'' 
 
 The Virginians rose in wrath. Only the year 
 before William Claiborne had planted a small 
 plantation on Kent Island, and this plantation 
 was represented in the House of Burgesses by a 
 delegate. Kent Island was fifty miles north of 
 the southern border of the territory granted to 
 Lord Baltimore. The Jamestown men insisted 
 that, by the old charter — which had been annulled 
 — Kent Island was in their territory and that the 
 frontier of Maryland was an invasion on their 
 rights. 
 
 The King referred the question to the Eoyal 
 Commissioners for Foreign Plantations. On 
 July 3, 1633, the Commissioner confirmed Lord 
 Baltimore's grant, since the annulment of the old 
 charter left the King free to dispose of unoccupied 
 territory as he wished. Kent Island was declared 
 to be a trading post, not a plantation, but Lord 
 Baltimore was restrained from interfering with 
 Claiborne's settlement or his trade. 
 
120 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Claiborne left London, breathing defiance of 
 the King, the Royal Commissioners and Lord Bal- 
 timore, and frankly avowing that **he would fight 
 for Kent Island with the last drop of his blood ! ' ' 
 
 The Maryland grant, as finally approved, was 
 made out to Cecelius Calvert, second Lord Bal- 
 timore. The first Lord Baltimore had died while 
 negotiations were in progress, without knowing 
 whether his long-desired aim would be achieved. 
 
 The Maryland government was of a curious 
 pattern. It was a palatinate, an ancient kind of 
 minor kingdom situated on frontiers and possess- 
 ing both military independence and the right to 
 make its own laws. James I had given Avalon 
 to the first Lord Baltimore as a palatinate, be- 
 cause Newfoundland was claimed by the French, 
 and Avalon was a frontier state. Charles I gave 
 Maryland to the second Lord Baltimore as a palat- 
 inate, because its territory ran north to what 
 is now New Jersey and Pennsylvania, then held 
 by the Dutch, thus making Maryland a frontier 
 state. Carolina began on the same pattern, be- 
 cause it was a frontier state to the Spanish in 
 Florida. 
 
 Lord Baltimore, indeed, was King of Maryland 
 in all save the name. He could issue laws without 
 calling the Assembly, and no laws were valid 
 without his signature. He could coin money, grant 
 titles of nobility, create courts, appoint judges and 
 pardon criminals. Taxation was in his hands, not 
 in that of the English Crown. 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 121 
 
 It was the earnest intention of the second Lord 
 Baltimore personally to lead his colonists to Mary- 
 land, even as his father had led a party to New- 
 foundland. He did not dare do so. His enemies 
 were too numerous and too powerful. The Vir- 
 ginians held his grant unlawful, the English 
 Church party opposed the granting of favors to 
 Eoman Catholics, the Puritans cried out against 
 the establishment of ^^ papistry'' in America, and 
 Parliament regarded the palatinate as unconsti- 
 tutional. Lord Baltimore was compelled to stay 
 at home to steer his colony through these troubled 
 political waters. 
 
 Fortunately for Maryland, the Lord Proprietor 
 had an excellent man available for Governor. 
 This was his brother, Leonard Calvert, through 
 whom he was able to establish the principle of re- 
 ligious toleration for which Maryland is famous. 
 The colony was definitely Roman Catholic in 
 leadership, but Lord Baltimore commanded most 
 emphatically that no cause of offense should be 
 given to any Protestant and specified ^*all acts 
 of Roman Catholic religion to be done as privately 
 as may be . . . all Roman Catholics to be silent 
 upon all occasions of discourse concerning mat- 
 ters of religion." 
 
 In October, 1633, two ships, the Ark and the 
 Dove, sailed from London. The emigrants con- 
 sisted of 20 gentlemen adventurers, who, with the 
 governor and the two councilors, were Roman 
 
122 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Catholics, and of 300 artisans and laborers, of 
 whom the larger number were Trotestants. 
 
 The sailing of the Ark and the Dove gave rise to 
 the wildest rumors. Hot-heads and Puritans de- 
 clared that Calvert was sailing for America under 
 a secret agreement between Charles I and Spain ; 
 the Virginians alleged that the purpose was to 
 set up a Roman Catholic colony in which Span- 
 iards would be welcomed and which was to serve 
 as a base for the capture of Virginia. Such ru- 
 mors alarmed the public. A Star Chamber writ 
 of seizure was secured and Admiral Pennington, 
 commanding the Channel fleet, stopped Calvert's 
 ships at Dover. 
 
 The scare came to nothing. The emigrants took 
 the Oath of Supremacy without the slightest out- 
 ward objection. The papers of the expedition 
 were in perfect order. The grant could not be 
 questioned. Governor Calvert bore a personal 
 letter from Charles I to Governor Harvey of Vir- 
 ginia. The ships started again on November 22, 
 1633, took the lengthy West Indies route and 
 reached Old Point Comfort on February 27, 1634. 
 
 The royal letter ensured a courteous official re- 
 ception at Jamestown, though the Virginians had 
 little love for the Maryland settlers. Cattle, hogs 
 and poultry were purchased and the Ark and the 
 Dove passed on to the shores of the Potomac 
 Eiver. On March 23, 1634, the settlers landed at 
 St. Clement's Island and one of the Jesuit priests 
 celebrated there the first mass said in English 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 123 
 
 America. As it was punishable with death to cele- 
 brate mass on English soil, this action was sig- 
 niiicant. 
 
 Many historians assert that Lord Baltimore had 
 a secret understanding with Charles I. It is more 
 probable that he and Calvert were shrewd enough, 
 to see what would be gained by strict impartial- 
 ity. The only two troubles of a religious char- 
 acter were made by Roman Catholics and the Ro- 
 man Catholic Governor punished the offenders. 
 Church property paid taxes. The priests did mar- 
 velous missionary work among the Indians and 
 converted most of the Protestants who immi- 
 grated. But any effort on the part of the Jesuits 
 to interfere with secular matters was sternly put 
 down, and the special privileges they had arro- 
 gated to themselves were taken away. 
 
 Maryland flourished from the start. The first 
 settlement, which was named St. Mary's, was on 
 the George River, nine miles from its junction 
 with the Potomac. Its site was chosen as wisely 
 as that of Jamestown was selected unwisely. The 
 place was already occupied by a Yacomoco Indian 
 village, surrounded by corn-fields. 
 
 Calvert bought all the huts and aU the cleared 
 land, giving knives, axes, hoes and cloth in re- 
 turn and paying fairly for value received. Also, 
 he hired many of the Indians, some as laborers' 
 some as hunters, others as fishers. These, too' 
 were honorably paid. The Maryland settlers thus 
 became the protectors and benefactors of the In- 
 
124 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 dians, whereas the Virginia settlers had been in- 
 vaders and foes. 
 
 The immediate result of this Indian friendli- 
 ness was that, in the very first year, the colonists 
 of St. Mary^s harvested so large a crop of com 
 that they had a ship-load to spare. This they sent 
 to New England to trade for salt fish and other 
 provision. They could also trade with Virginia 
 for supplies. Prosperity was immediate and 
 high-grade colonists volunteered. 
 
 Maryland, it is to be remembered, was a palat- 
 inate, and Lord Baltimore's plans were feudal. 
 He created ** manors,'* which were lordships on a 
 small scale. But the actual conditions of life in 
 America prevented the building up of an aristoc- 
 racy. The tobacco plantations were large and 
 far apart. Industrious ^^ servants'' became f reed- 
 men, and mechanics soon earned enough to be- 
 come land-owners. The Assembly developed 
 along democratic lines, while keeping to the out- 
 ward form of the palatinate. 
 
 In spite of Maryland's prosperity, trouble was 
 in the air. Claiborne was still breathing revenge. 
 The Kent Island sore still rankled. Maryland and 
 Virginia hung on the verge of war. 
 
 When Governor Calvert landed at Jamestown 
 with the Ark and the Dove, in February, 1634, 
 one of his first acts was to notify Claiborne to 
 abandon his claim to Kent Island. Claiborne re- 
 fused. The House of Burgesses supported him. 
 Then Governor Harvey of Virginia who was a 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 125 
 
 Royal Governor and therefore an appointee of 
 the King, opposed the House of Burgesses, dis- 
 missed Claiborne from office and appointed a 
 friend of Lord Baltimore in his stead. This en- 
 raged the Virginians against their own Governor. 
 
 Calvert, who was under rigid instruction to 
 keep the peace, sailed north without further 
 threats. He ignored Kent Island, and gave his 
 time to the development of his colony. 
 
 Claiborne, however, had other enemies besides 
 the Marylanders. As the Royal Commissioners 
 had pointed out, Kent Island was not a plantation 
 but a trading post, and Claiborne was in partner- 
 ship with some London merchants who had pro- 
 cured for him a royal Hcense to trade in furs and 
 to establish trading posts in any unoccupied part 
 of North America. This was not a monopoly. 
 There was a rival fur trading company in Lon- 
 don, which had engaged Captain Fleet to go to 
 Virginia for the purpose of ousting Claiborne and 
 taking the entire fur trade for itself. 
 
 Fleet started a rumor that Claiborne was in- 
 flaming the Indians to attack the Marylanders. 
 According to this version, Claiborne had informed 
 the Indians that the men of the Calvert colony 
 were ^* papist Spaniards, not Protestant English- 
 men ^ * and therefore enemies to the Virginians and 
 their Indian allies. 
 
 There was neither proof nor likelihood that 
 Claiborne had started any such dangerous pro- 
 ceeding, but the fur company which sought the 
 
126 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Virginian's downfall saw to it that the rumor 
 reached the ears of Lord Baltimore in London. 
 Accordingly, the Lord Proprietor prepared an 
 order to Governor 'Calvert, instructing him to go 
 to Kent Island and arrest Claiborne. 
 
 The opposing company of fur merchants 
 promptly petitioned the King, pointing out that 
 royal orders had been issued enjoining peace be- 
 tween Virginia and Maryland. Charles I imme- 
 diately warned Lord Baltimore from ^'interrupt- 
 ing the people of Kent Island in their fur trade 
 or plantation. ' ' 
 
 Fleet's men, supported by the Marylanders, and 
 Claiborne's men, backed by the Virginians, lived 
 in a continual feud. Each month that passed saw 
 Maryland and Virginia more embittered with each 
 other. Early in April, 1635, one of Claiborne's 
 ships was captured by Fleet in what were claimed 
 to be Maryland waters and the ship and cargo 
 were confiscated. 
 
 So far, Claiborne had refrained from open war- 
 fare, but this was too much. With a handful of 
 men he determined to invade Maryland, hoping to 
 lead Virginia to follow him into war. He sent an 
 armed sloop, the Cockatrice with instructions to 
 destroy all such Maryland shipping as she could 
 find. 
 
 Calvert was not to be caught napping. He 
 knew Claiborne's pugnacious character and ex- 
 pected just such an action. Accordingly, the very 
 day after the confiscation of Claiborne's ship, he 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 127 
 
 sent tvvo armed pinnaces to guard his outlying 
 plantations. The pinnaces met the Cockatrice in 
 the Pocomoke River. Claiborne's men opened fire 
 and a brisk fight occurred, in which the Cockatrice 
 was captured, with six men killed and many 
 wounded. 
 
 The seizure of the Cockatrice enraged Virginia. 
 An indignation meeting was held at Jamestown, 
 the principal speaker being Nicholas Martain, an 
 ancestor of George Washington. Resolutions 
 were passed to call a meeting of the House of Bur- 
 gesses to receive complaints against Governor 
 Harvey, for treason to the colony in the Kent Is- 
 land affair and for other causes, beside. 
 
 Next morning, Martain and other popular lead- 
 ers were arrested. When they demanded the 
 cause of their arrest. Governor Harvey replied 
 that *^they should find out at the gallows. '' 
 
 Two days later, the Council met. Harvey de- 
 manded that Martain and the other prisoners 
 should be put to death under martial law. The 
 Council refused, insisting that the laws of Vir- 
 ginia guaranteed to every man a fair trial. The 
 Governor promptly arrested one of the council- 
 lors ^'on suspicion of treason.'' Two other of 
 the councillors seized the Governor on the same 
 charge. Armed patriots were in waiting. Harvey 
 was seized, escorted to his house and held there 
 a prisoner. On May 7, the House of Burgesses ap- 
 proved the acts of the Council. 
 
 Meantime, Claiborne was fighting his own bat- 
 
128 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ties. After a couple of little skirmislies, in which 
 he got the best of it, he came out in force against 
 Governor Calvert, an island trading post against 
 a large colony. The two fleets of small craft met 
 in the harbor of Great Wighcocomoco and action 
 was joined at once. Claiborne, after several hours 
 of fighting, defeated the Marylanders with con- 
 siderable loss of life. 
 
 Although Claiborne had showed his ability to 
 take care of himself, Virginia had got herself into 
 trouble by her partisanship. Such a radical ac- 
 tion as dismissing a Boyal Governor could not be 
 expected to please the King who had appointed 
 him. Charles I was furious with the House of 
 Burgesses and restored Harvey to his post. 
 
 There was, however, a third complication in the 
 Kent Island affair. Claiborne had secured his 
 revenge, Virginia had been humbled by Charles 
 I, but the London merchants, who cared only for 
 furs, saw their profits vanishing and decided to 
 abandon Claiborne. In December, 1636, they sent 
 George Evelin as their agent to Kent Island. 
 Evelin at first showed friendship to Claiborne, 
 but when that fighter refused to listen to the Lon- 
 don merchants and could think and talk of nothing 
 but his personal grievances against the Maryland- 
 ers, the new agent displayed his papers and 
 claimed ownership of all Claiborne's stock in the 
 company, without compensation. 
 
 Claiborne, who could never be blamed for lack 
 of daring, called together such of his men as were 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 129 
 
 faithful to him and sailed away. Apparently with 
 the deliberate intention of annoying the Maryland- 
 ers, he established another trading post in his ene- 
 mies' territory, on Palmer Island, at the mouth 
 of the Susquehanna River. After taking posses- 
 sion of this place — to which he could claim no 
 right whatever — he sailed for England. 
 
 On Claiborne's departure, Evelin, acting for 
 the London merchants, urged the Kent Islanders 
 to abandon their leaders and to accept the pro- 
 tection of Lord Baltimore, whereby they would 
 better themselves. As all the men at the post were 
 Virginians, and regarded themselves as an ad- 
 vance garrison, they scorned this treacherous ad- 
 vice. 
 
 Upon this refusal, Evelin sent a message to 
 Governor Calvert, urging him to come and take 
 the island by force. The governor was unwilling 
 to do so. But Evelin clearly let it be seen that 
 Calvert's hesitation might be regarded by Lord 
 Baltimore as weakness, and the governor of 
 Maryland agreed to the seizure. In February, 
 1638, he landed a small force by night and reduced 
 the island to submission. 
 
 The month following, the Maryland Assembly 
 declared Claiborne a rebel and ordered that all his 
 property be confiscated. Captain Thomas Smith, 
 who had been in command of Claiborne's fleet at 
 the battle of Great Wighcocomoco, was arrested, 
 tried for piracy and murder, and hanged. This 
 injustice is a sore blot on Calvert's reputation. 
 
130 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Virginia prepared for war. Calvert had been 
 forbidden by the King to interfere with the trad- 
 ing rights of Kent Island. Protestant Virgin- 
 ians had been stripped of their rights and their 
 property by Roman Catholic Marylanders. Civil 
 strife would have begun at once if it had not been 
 for the royalist governor of Virginia, who was a 
 friend of the Marylanders, and who insisted that 
 war should not be made without a royal order. 
 This added to the hatred with which he was re- 
 garded, but Harvey stood firm. 
 
 On April 6, 1638, the Royal Commissioners as- 
 signed Kent Island to Maryland and left the ques- 
 tion of personal compensation to be decided by 
 the courts. Claiborne returned to Virginia and 
 began suit to recover his property, but the courts 
 of Maryland declared that they could not receive 
 a case brought by * ^ a declared rebel. ' ' Thus Kent 
 Island and Palmer Island remained in the hands 
 of Lord Baltimore, and Claiborne and his part- 
 ners got nothing. 
 
 Even so, there was a chance that the fighter of 
 Kent Island would enforce his rights by bringing 
 the power of Virginia to bear. Again Governor 
 Harvey checked the popular move. He issued a 
 proclamation, accepting Virginia 's loss of the dis- 
 puted spot. This aroused so tremendous a storm 
 against the governor that even the King was com- 
 pelled to act. Wyatt was sent to depose Harvey, 
 the ex-Governor ^s property was seized to satisfy 
 his numerous creditors and he was sent home in 
 
THE KENT ISLAND FIGHT 131 
 
 disgrace. Wyatt stayed but two years, when he 
 gave place to Sir William Berkeley, with whose 
 name the second phase of Virginia's history is in- 
 separably connected. 
 
 Such was the general feeling of mutual hatred 
 between Virginia and Maryland, when civil war 
 broke out in England between King and Parlia- 
 ment. This civil war ended in the victory of the 
 Puritans, the beheading of Charles I, and the es- 
 tablishment of the Commonwealth under Oliver 
 Cromwell. 
 
 This revolution had an important influence on 
 the American colonies, but CromwelPs power did 
 not last long enough to alter the individual char- 
 acters of such differing states as Virginia and 
 Maryland. Both, however, had already drifted 
 far from England ; their Americanization had be- 
 gun. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 
 
 Eomance and suffering marked the adventuring 
 of the English on American shores. Not less strik- 
 ing were the adventures of the first French colo- 
 nists and not less pitiful. 
 
 England's claim to North America was not un- 
 questioned. Men of an equally gallant race also 
 were ready to plant their country's flag on a dis- 
 tant shore, and were willing to agonize and die to 
 keep it there. France 's claim was fully as good as 
 that of England and for centuries it was doubt- 
 ful which of the two great powers would become 
 the master of the continent. 
 
 The colonial policy of England was marked by 
 a callous disregard of the rights of other nations. 
 "When Elizabeth gave North America to Ealeigh, 
 when James I gave continental Virginia to two 
 trading companies, and when Charles I granted 
 Carolina and Maryland to Sir Robert Heath and 
 Lord Baltimore, the three monarchs bestowed land 
 which was not theirs to give. 
 
 The Spanish right was a century earlier than 
 that of England ; the French right was half a cen- 
 tury earlier. No effort was made by any of these 
 
 132 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 133 
 
 three nations to arbitrate each other's claims. 
 The policy of grab prevailed universally. Each 
 nation and each adventurer set out to seize what 
 might be seized, and to maintain his holding either 
 by force or trickery. 
 
 The claims of France were based on more pio- 
 neer work than that of England. The explora- 
 tions of Verrazano might be offset by those of 
 Cabot, but the French had acted upon their dis- 
 coveries, while the English had not. French fish- 
 ermen had long exploited the Newfoundland fish- 
 eries before English ^ ' admirals ' ' bullied them into 
 a partnership, and fur trading posts had been or- 
 ganized by the merchants of St. Malo. 
 
 It was on the work of Jacques Cartier, how- 
 ever, that the French claim rested most solidly. 
 On his Second Voyage, in 1534-1535, more than 
 fifty years before the first English landing at Roa- 
 noke, Cartier explored the Gulf and River of St. 
 Lawrence, built a fort at Quebec, made friends 
 with the Iroquois and remained a winter in the 
 country. He thus led the way for the founding 
 of New France. 
 
 Five years later, on January 15, 1540, Francis 
 I of France granted to the Sieur de Roberval the 
 viceroyalty of North America. Roberval was 
 named **Lord of Norumbega, Viceroy and Lieu- 
 tenant-General of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, 
 Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay and 
 Baccalaos.'^ This territory extended from Mas- 
 sachusetts to the North Pole, but this was sup- 
 
134. THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 posed to be the extreme northeast corner of Asia. 
 At that time, Florida was still regarded as an 
 eastward projection of China. 
 
 Cartier, as Pilot-General for the King, was to 
 aid Roberval in the establishment of the colony. 
 Roberval bade him go in advance, promising to 
 follow in a few weeks as soon as he had gathered 
 supplies and men. Cartier set sail in May, 1541, 
 and waited all summer for the coming of Roberval. 
 
 This delay was dangerous. Cartier had come 
 without supplies for a long stay and yet was com- 
 pelled to remain through the winter. The In- 
 dians showed signs of discontent. In the spring 
 of 1542, Cartier set sail, rightly blaming Roberval 
 for the winter's suffering and the deaths of many 
 of his men. 
 
 In the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland, he 
 met Roberval, who had just arrived. There was 
 a stormy scene between the two men. Cartier 
 was too angry at Roberval's delay to be willing 
 to turn back, and he refused, point blank, to obey 
 the Viceroy's orders. 
 
 Cartier 's resentment had been heightened by 
 the account of a pitiful story which had been told 
 him by one of Roberval's officers, just before his 
 audience with the Viceroy. This was that tragic 
 incident known to history as **The Romance of 
 Marguerite. ' ' 
 
 Among 'the settlers on Roberval's flagship was 
 his niece. Marguerite Roberval, twenty years of 
 age and who had been brought up in comfort and 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 136 
 
 luxury. She was a Roman Catholic. There was 
 also on board the ship a young Huguenot (Protes- 
 tant) gentleman, of good family, though poor. 
 The two young people fell in love, and despite the 
 rigid discipline on the ship, Marguerite's old 
 nurse contrived secret meetings for the lovers. 
 
 "VVTien Roberval learned of these meetings, he 
 flamed mth rage. That his niece should have 
 fallen in love was bad enough, that she should 
 have pledged herself without her uncle's permis- 
 sion was worse, but that the favored suitor should 
 be a Protestant was beyond pardon. 
 
 The vessel, at this time, was within sight of a 
 small island, greatly dreaded by fishermen. This 
 was known as *^The Isle of Fiends,'' for fishers 
 reported that strange sounds w^ere constantly to 
 be heard coming from it. 
 
 Roberval ordered his captain to steer for the 
 island and the flagship dropped her anchor there. 
 He commanded that a small boat be put out. In 
 this were placed Marguerite and her old nurse, 
 with a few months' provisions, some guns and 
 ammunition. The two women were set ashore and 
 the boat rowed back to the ship. 
 
 Dusk was falling when these victims of Rober- 
 val's tyranny were marooned. The anchor of the 
 flagship was raised. Just as the wind filled the 
 vessel's sails and her bow turned again to the 
 westward, there was a cry and a splash. The 
 young Huguenot had leapt into the sea. Being a 
 strong swimmer, he managed to make the land. 
 
136 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Before darkness blotted out the scene, the watch- 
 ers on the flagship saw the young fellow reach the 
 shore, throw one arm around his betrothed and 
 brandish the other in defiance of Eoberval and 
 all his crew. 
 
 Upon the Isle of Fiends — later to be known as 
 the Island of Marguerite — the summer passed 
 pleasantly enough. The young husband was able 
 to do some fishing from the beach, and the pro- 
 visions held out well. Daily they looked for some 
 passing fishing vessel, but autumn came and no 
 rescuers had appeared. The provisions were al- 
 most exhausted. 
 
 Late in the autumn. Marguerite's little daugh- 
 ter was born, the first white girl born in what is 
 now British America. The baby did not linger 
 long, but died a few weeks later, since the starv- 
 ing mother could not nourish the child. 
 
 An Arctic winter piled up the beach with ice. 
 No fish were to be caught. There was no hope 
 of rescue, for all the fishers had gone home for 
 the season. The little hut, built for the summer, 
 afforded scant protection against the icy blasts. 
 The old nurse succumbed to the rigors of the cli- 
 mate before Christmas. 
 
 The young husband starved himself in order 
 that his bride might have what small store of pro- 
 visions remained. While in this emaciated state, 
 he shot at, but only wounded, a Polar bear. The 
 infuriated animal turned on him, and, in the man's 
 weak state, he was unable to defend himself. He 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 137 
 
 was killed and partly eaten, the bloody remains 
 remaining on the beach for the wife to see. 
 
 Marguerite was left alone on the Isle of Fiends. 
 
 Though harassed by superstitious fears and 
 menaced by wild beasts, the desolate woman strug- 
 gled on alone. She killed a few Arctic foxes, who 
 had come over the ice, some seals and three polar 
 bears and lived on their meat. For two long years 
 she dragged out a precarious existence. 
 
 Then, as it chanced, the crew of a French fish- 
 ing smack, driven out of its course by a gale, saw 
 a woman on the dreaded island. Even so, her res- 
 cue was uncertain. The sailors mutinied at the 
 captain ^s orders to land, declaring that a woman 
 who was Uving on the Isle of Fiends could not 
 have escaped being the wife of a demon, and must 
 be a sorceress herself. 
 
 The captain of the fishing vessel was less su- 
 perstitious. He forced his men to go, yielding 
 to their fears only in promising that the woman 
 would have to give a proper account of herself 
 before he would take her on the vessel. Only by 
 showing the bones of her dead husband and her 
 baby was Marguerite able to free herself of the 
 suspicion of witchcraft. The remains of the ani- 
 mals that she had killed proved that she had not 
 subsisted on * ^ demon food. ' ' The captain believed 
 her story, and she reached France in safety at the 
 last. 
 
 Meantime, the Sieur de Roberval, confident in 
 the justice of his cruel sentence, sailed on to the 
 
138 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 St. Lawrence. He dropped anchor at Cap Rouge 
 and there made his first settlement. A huge build- 
 ing was erected, half barracks and half castle. All 
 the settlers lived in it together. 
 
 The elaborate character of Cap Rouge Castle 
 betrayed how little Roberval had foreseen the 
 needs of pioneer life. There were store-chambers, 
 without stores in them; millstones for grinding, 
 but no grist ; enormous ovens, and but small loaves 
 of bread to bake. Wild roots boiled in whale-oil 
 formed the principal food. Scurvy slew one-third 
 of the settlers, and, lacking Cartier 's aid, they did 
 not know how to cure the dread disease. 
 
 The Lord of Norumbega was too seK-impor- 
 tant to make concessions to the hardships of pio- 
 neer life. The most prominent thing in the set- 
 tlement was the whipping post, **by means of 
 which,'' the historian of the expedition naively 
 writes, ^*we lived in peace.'' The settlers were 
 kept at hard labor on scanty food. The military 
 rule was harsh, six soldiers being hanged in one 
 day. **So many men and women were whipped 
 or shot," writes the historian, **that the Indians, 
 pagans though they be, wept at their woes." 
 
 The following spring, with half his men dead, 
 Roberval went on to Quebec. He strengthened the 
 fort and made some extensive explorations in- 
 land. The Indians were unfriendly, as Cartier 
 had warned. Fearing that a second winter might 
 annihilate the colony, Roberval abandoned all his 
 projects and sailed for home. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 139 
 
 So ended the first effort to found New France. 
 
 Further attempts at French colonization during 
 the sixteenth century were prevented by the out- 
 break of civil war in France between the Catho- 
 lics and the Huguenots (Protestants), also by 
 the wars with Spain and Austria. 
 
 Admiral Coligny, indeed, made two ill-starred 
 attempts to found Huguenot colonies on the River 
 of May, but disaster and Spanish massacre ended 
 both these. His assassination in 1572, on bloody 
 St. Bartholomew's Eve, put a close to Huguenot 
 colonization. 
 
 In 1589, Henry III of France died, and Henry 
 of Navarre, the leader of the Protestants, claimed 
 the throne. More than half of France refused to 
 recognize him and the civil war continued. Henry 
 of Navarre, or Henry IV, saw that it was hopeless 
 for him to be accepted as king by the whole na- 
 tion so long as he remained a Protestant. In 
 1593, he formally became a Roman Catholic, while 
 remaining strongly Protestant in his sympathies. 
 
 Five years of fighting with enemies abroad and 
 foes at home resulted in triumph. The Peace of 
 Vervius was signed, ending the Spanish War, and 
 on May 2, 1598, 'the famous Edict of Nantes was is- 
 sued. This edict gave to the Protestants all the 
 rights and liberties of which they had been de- 
 prived during the preceding reigns. 
 
 Peace promotes colonization. It releases capi- 
 tal, and throws into idleness numbers of adven- 
 turous men who need a new outlet for their vigor. 
 
140 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Just as the ending of the English war with Spain 
 brought about the colonization of Virginia, so 
 the ending of the French war with Spain sent colo- 
 nists to New France. 
 
 Cartier's nephews, Jacques Noel and Etienne 
 de la Jannaye, had succeeded to his rights on their 
 uncle ^s death. But the religious wars had added 
 rancor to the trade rivalry between competing 
 ports. The ships of Cartier's nephews were at- 
 tacked at sea and burned in port, by their trade 
 rivals. Piracy was heightened by religious hate. 
 
 Noel and de 'la Jannaye had secured a renewal 
 of their grant. But the merchants of St. Malo 
 made so vigorous a protest at this fur and fish- 
 ing monopoly and the times were so critical, that, 
 in order to maintain peace, the King revoked the 
 grant. Trading on the shores of Newfoundland 
 and along the St. Lawrence continued on the basis 
 of competitive piracy. 
 
 Between 1593, when Henry of Navarre became 
 a Roman Catholic, and 1598 when the Edict of 
 Nantes was signed, French colonization in Amer- 
 ica took on a new phase. The Marquis De la 
 Roche, formerly page to Queen Catherine of 
 Medici — an uncompromising Catholic — was ap- 
 pointed ^^Lieutenant-General of Acadia, Canada 
 and the surrounding countries.'* The conditions 
 of the grant made De la Roche a despot. 
 
 The territorial limits were vague. Canada — a 
 Mohawk Indian word for *' village'' — meant the 
 St. Lawrence Gulf and River as far inland as had 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 141 
 
 been explored. Acadia meant the coast as far 
 south as **the northernmost limit of Florida/' 
 wherever that might be. The English settlement 
 at Roanoke was entirely ignored. The ' * surround- 
 ing countries'' was a phrase which left the whole 
 question of territory wide open. Apparently De 
 la Roche regarded Cape Cod as the southern limit 
 of his grant. 
 
 Some time after receiving this commission 
 (probably in 1598) De la Roche and his 60 colo- 
 nists set out for Acadia in the Catherine and the 
 Frangoise. Many of his men were jail-birds. 
 Mutiny soon showed its ugly head. A desperate 
 effort was made to seize th'e ships and convert 
 them into pirate craft. The mutiny was sup- 
 pressed and the ringleaders put in irons, but De 
 la Roche did not dare to carry these piratic ex- 
 convicts with him any further. 
 
 Reaching Sable Island, a small and nearly bar- 
 ren sand-bank off Nova Scotia, he set the 40 muti- 
 neers ashore. The island was without vegetation 
 save for a little sparse grass and moss around 
 a small brackish lake, and a few whortleberry and 
 cranberry bushes in the swampy places. 
 
 With but 16 loyal colonists remaining (four 
 had died on the voyage) De la Roche sailed on to 
 Acadia, seeking a good site for a settlement. He 
 found none that pleased him but at last decided 
 to build a fort on the coast of Maine. Attempt- 
 ing to return to Sable Island to pick up the would- 
 
142 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 be pirates, his ship was caught in a western gale 
 and driven halfway across the ocean. 
 
 Being near home and the wind still favoring, De 
 la Eoche decided to return for more men and sup- 
 plies. Immediately upon his landing, however, he 
 was arrested and thrown into prison by the Duke 
 de Mercoeur, who claimed sovereign power in 
 Brittany, and who held that Breton rights had 
 been ignored in De la Roche's grant. 
 
 De la Roche appealed to the Rouen parliament, 
 asking to be freed and to be allowed to take more 
 men to Acadia. He was released on the condition 
 that he make no further efforts at colonization. 
 De la Roche submitted, only urging that a rescue 
 expedition be sent to Sable Island. He had but lit- 
 tle success, for the men of Rouen thought that 
 death on a desert island was a sufficiently good 
 ending for a pack of mutinous jail-birds. It was 
 not until five years had passed that a rescue expe- 
 dition was sent. 
 
 Of the forty mutineers who had been left on 
 Sable Island, only seven remained alive. At first 
 they had lived on a few scrawny cattle, the de- 
 scendants of those left on the island by an expe- 
 dition led by the Baron de Lery in 1518, of which 
 expedition little definite information is known. 
 
 As their food diminished, the ex-convicts fought 
 and killed each other, until, by the spring follow- 
 ing, there remained but twenty of them. Reahz- 
 ing that their disunion only brought them greater 
 suffering, they adopted communism — that last 
 
\Jt 
 
 I r V , / 
 
 
 ^%^^ " 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 Map showing the luiyli^h iind French settlements, the results of their warfare in Arcadia, 
 the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Maine. "" 
 
 f^^Z^S'^^j 
 
 xX\\^i 
 
 Map made by Champlain in 1632. 
 
 THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE 
 
THE SURRENDER OF THE SETTLEMENT OF QUEBEC IN 1629 
 
 The defeat of Admiral Roquemont by the English fleet under Admiral Kirke opened 
 the way for an attack upon Quebec which resulted in the surrender of that post to 
 the Ens;lish. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 143 
 
 refuge of tlie desperate. They kept themselves 
 alive on dead fish throwTi up on the beach and 
 on seals which they were able to club. A sick 
 whale, which stranded on the shore, gave them 
 food for many months. 
 
 When, at last, they were rescued, they were in 
 a pitiable state, having reached the condition of 
 wild men. Henry IV ordered them brought before 
 him, in the same state as they were found, and 
 gave to each a sum of money and his freedom. 
 
 With De la Roche pledged to take no further 
 action, the field was open. On November 22, 1599, 
 Francois Grave, Sieur du Pont (known to history 
 as Pontgrave) took up the work, having associ- 
 ated with him Captain Pierre de Chauvin, for- 
 merly Governor of Honfleur. De Chauvin was a 
 prominent ship-builder of St. Malo and had the 
 confidence of the Guild of Merchants. 
 
 In the spring of 1600, de Chauvin, with four 
 vessels, the Don de Dieu, the Bon Espoir, the St. 
 Jehan and the Esperance sailed for Tadoussac, a 
 famous Indian trading post at the mouth of the 
 Saguenay River, thirty miles below Quebec. Af- 
 ter a season's trading he left 16 men as the nucleus 
 of a settlement. The provisions were insufficient 
 and the men would have died of famine if the 
 Montaignais (Adirondack) Indians had not helped 
 them. De Chauvin made two more trading voy- 
 ages, in 1601 and in 1602, but left no settlers. He 
 fell ill on his third voyage and retired from the 
 partnership, dying a year later. 
 
144 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Upon Pontgrave's urging the Sieur de Chastes, 
 vice-admiral of Normandy and Governor of 
 Dieppe took on de Chauvin's privileges. Dieppe 
 was the map-making and nautical center of 
 France. De Chastes was able to interest many 
 wealthy ship-owners. 
 
 In the early part of the winter of 1602, the Com- 
 pany of New France was formed. This was a 
 powerful body of lords and merchants from the 
 three ports of St. Malo, Dieppe and Rouen. The 
 piratic rivalry which ever smouldered between 
 captains of these ports was quelled by the policy 
 of making them partners in the scheme. 
 
 Shrewd as was this alliance and important as it 
 was to America, still more decisive was the ap- 
 pointment of Captain Samuel de Champlain, a na- 
 val officer who had distinguished himself in the 
 West Indies. De Chastes assigned him to the ex- 
 pedition, which was put under the command of 
 Pontgrave. He was to prove the builder of New 
 France. 
 
 They sailed from Honfleur on March 15, 1603, 
 and reached Tadoussac two months' later. Thence 
 Pontgrave and Champlain sailed up the St. Law- 
 rence, past the tenantless fortifications of Quebec 
 — where France would have been solidly estab- 
 lished seventy years before if Roberval had kept 
 his word to Cartier — and reached the site of Mont 
 Royal (Montreal). No vestige remained of the 
 great Indian town, Hochelaga, where Cartier had 
 been so lavishly entertained. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 145 
 
 Contiiming on their journey, they came to the 
 Falls of St. Louis, a part of which Cartier had 
 called the La Chine Rapids, in gloomy jest at 
 finding the expected route to China barred by 
 them. In spite of every effort, Champlain failed 
 to pass these rapids. Winter was drawing near, 
 and as this expedition had been sent to explore 
 rather than to settle, the two pioneers returned 
 to France to make their report. 
 
 When they reached Honfleur, it was to learn that 
 de Chastes was dead. Pontgrave and Champlain 
 sought a new backer and found him in the Sieur 
 de Monts, Governor of Pons, who applied for a 
 new grant for La Cadie or Acadia. 
 
 Recent exploration had more clearly defined the 
 territory to be known as New France. De Monts ^ 
 grant included the region between 40° and 46° 
 (approximately the latitudes of Philadelphia and 
 Montreal). This grant was attacked in the courts 
 by the merchants of St. Malo, Rouen and Dieppe, 
 but de Monts was skillful enough to satisfy every 
 one by rebuilding de Chastes' old company. A 
 complication arose in the fact that, though De 
 Monts was a Protestant, as were several others 
 in the venture, priests must accompany the ex- 
 pedition and the Indians must be baptized and 
 brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. 
 
 De Monts and Champlain, with several promi- 
 nent men and a small body of colonists, sailed 
 from France on April 7, 1604. Meeting some in- 
 dependent fur traders from St. Malo in St. Mary 's 
 
146 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Bay, de Monts confiscated both craft and cargoes, 
 as interfering with his monopoly. For this piece 
 of autocratic meddling, he was to pay dearly later. 
 
 The Bay of Fundy was thoroughly explored and 
 finally the ships entered a peaceful stretch of wa- 
 ter, with hills on every side, now known as An- 
 napolis Harbor, in Nova Scotia. The site was well 
 adapted for a small settlement, and the Baron of 
 Poutrincourt, who was on board, asked De Monts 
 for a patent to this land, offering a good sum. 
 De Monts agreed, and the site was named Port 
 Eoyal. The River St. John was explored for some 
 little distance, and at last the ships cast anchor 
 in Passamaquoddy Bay. 
 
 Since the expedition was in an unexplored 
 country, with no knowledge whether or not the In- 
 dians would prove friendly, de Monts gave all 
 his attention to finding a site which could be de- 
 fended against any odds. A small islet, fenced 
 round with rocks was selected for the winter set- 
 tlement, and named St. Croix. 
 
 Poutrincourt sailed for France, to get men and 
 supplies for his new colony of Port Royal. De 
 Monts remained as the feudal lord of half a con- 
 tinent, with only 79 men at his back, Champlain 
 among them. 
 
 No gallantry, however great, could conquer 
 cold. Over bleak and desolate St. Croix the wind 
 howled continually. The cider and the wine froze 
 in the casks, and the daily rations were chopped 
 off and thawed for drinking. Scurvy ravaged the 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 147 
 
 settlers. Of the 79 men, only 34 were alive in 
 the spring. 
 
 On June 16, 1605, Pontgrave came with more 
 supplies and 40 men. De Monts sailed southward, 
 at once, to seek a less dreary site for the colony, 
 leaving 12 men to guard St. Croix. He touched at 
 Mt. Desert, Penobscot, Kennebec, Saco, Ports- 
 mouth Harbor, the Isle of Shoals, Cape Ann, Cape 
 Cod and finally reached Nausett Harbor, which 
 appealed to him most of all. There a sTiore party 
 was attacked by Indians and one man killed. 
 Deeming it unwise to found a colony in the teeth 
 of Indian hostility, de Monts returned to St. 
 Croix. 
 
 Silence awaited them. Of the 12 men who had 
 been left to guard the Habitations of St. Croix, 
 there was not a sign, nor were they ever seen 
 again. Even the islet, evidently, was not safe 
 from attack. Not a single place on the Maine or 
 Massachusetts coast had pleased de Monts and 
 he determined to go to Port Royal, although that 
 site had been granted to Poutrincourt. The houses 
 were pulled down, their timbers and material 
 shipped across the Bay of Fundy, and eager hands 
 set to work to build the first town of New France. 
 
 Scarcely two weeks had passed, however, when 
 a small ship arrived, sent by Poutrincourt, warn- 
 ing de Monts that his enemies in France were 
 working actively against him, and there was dan- 
 ger that his charter might be revoked. De Monts 
 
148 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 sailed at once for France, leaving Pontgrave and 
 Champlain in command. 
 
 This winter was as cold as the preceding one, 
 but the site of Port Eoyal was sheltered. Cham- 
 plain formed an alliance with the Indians, and 
 through them learned of the properties of white 
 pine bark as a cure for scurvy. As a result, 
 deaths that winter were comparatively few. 
 
 De Monts arrived in France in time to save the 
 charter, but his enemies were so numerous that he 
 dared not leave the country. He persuaded Marc 
 Lescarbot, law^^er and poet, to join the colonists, 
 and Lescarbot proved a true leader. 
 
 For this next supply, the Jonas was equipped 
 in Rochelle. Trouble resulted. That town was 
 not only jealous of St. Malo, Dieppe and Rouen, 
 but it was a strong Protestant center and ob- 
 jected strongly to the conversion of the Indians 
 to the Roman Catholic faith. Two days before 
 the date set for sailing, the Jonas was scuttled and 
 sunk in Rochelle Harbor. With a great deal of 
 trouble and expense the vessel was raised again, 
 but the accident had caused delay. It was not 
 until July 27, 1606, that the Jonas entered Port 
 Royal basin. 
 
 One man, carrying a gun ran down to the beach 
 and fired off his piece in greeting. A moment la- 
 ter one of the cannons of the fort boomed out a 
 salute. Poutrincourt and Lescarbot landed, to 
 find that their welcomers were the only two men 
 at Port Royal. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 149 
 
 Twelve days earlier, Pontgrave and Champlain 
 had set out along the coast in two small boats that 
 they had built, hoping to secure supplies from 
 some fishing or trading schooner. Poutrincourt 
 immediately sent a swift sailing shallop after 
 them. Pontgrave and Champlain were found a 
 few days later and returned joyously to Port 
 Royal. 
 
 Pontgrave returned to France in the Jonas, 
 leaving Lescarbot in charge of Port Royal, and 
 advising Poutrincourt and Champlain to find a 
 more southern site for a colony. Hyannis, on the 
 southeastern shore of Massachusetts was care- 
 fully surveyed but not deemed entirely suitable. 
 
 At last they found what seemed a perfect site 
 in Chatham Harbor. But a party of six men, who 
 had been sent ashore for fresh water and who were 
 camping for the night on the beach, was attacked 
 by Indians. At the sound of the first shot, Pou- 
 trincourt and Champlain leaped from their bunks 
 and, ''in their night attire,'' says the historian, 
 ''pulled most valiantly to the beach in rescue of 
 their comrades, firing their pieces as they went.'' 
 It was a gallant deed, for rarely did the white 
 men face the Indians, except in armor. Two men 
 of the shore party were wounded by arrows, but 
 not fatally. Chatham Harbor was abandoned. 
 
 On their return, the two leaders found Port 
 Royal flourishing. Lescarbot was a wonderful 
 leader. Agriculture was his hobby and he was 
 himself an extraordinarily hard worker, in the 
 
150 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 fields before dawn and after dark. He had burned 
 the grass off the flats and had sown wheat, rye 
 and barley, of which a good crop was harvested. 
 
 More important still, he had developed into a 
 warm friendship the alliance with the Indians 
 that had been begun by Champlain the preceding 
 winter. Some of the natives, including Member- 
 ton, their chief, had been partly prepared for 
 Catholic baptism, according to the requirements 
 of the charter. The rite had not been solemnized, 
 however, as the two priests had died. 
 
 It was here that arose one of the strangest and 
 most picturesque developments of all the early 
 colonizations of America — **The Order of Good 
 Fare.'^ It formed an extraordinary contrast to 
 such a state of affairs as had developed among the 
 English in '^The Starving Time.'' 
 
 The plan had been devised by Lescarbot. In 
 brief, it was a banqueting club, in which every 
 member of the expedition was required to provide 
 the food for one day. On that day, he was the 
 Master of the Feast. There was a constant 
 friendly rivalry as to which man would be the best 
 host. 
 
 One of the Indian chiefs was generally present 
 as an honored guest of the Frenchmen, and Les- 
 carbot made it a rule that there should always 
 be food for the lesser warriors, the squaws and 
 the children. The grateful Indians repaid this 
 hospitality by bringing in game and fish freely, 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 151 
 
 since they were always welcome to partake of the 
 meal. 
 
 Lescarbot, rightly thinking that pomp and dis- 
 play would have a good effect upon the savages, 
 conducted these dinners in that lonely frontier 
 post with as much ceremony as though they were 
 being given in a French chateau. The Master of 
 the Feast for the day, though perhaps only a 
 common sailor, wore a rich robe of velvet with a 
 hesivj gold chain around the neck. 
 
 Champlain organized festivities, with a good 
 deal of music. The Indians, though generally so 
 reticent with the white men, contributed songs and 
 dances. There were friendl}^ contests of skill. 
 Owing to a mild winter, to good food, and to the 
 happy spirit of the colony, only four men died in 
 six months, the smallest death-rate recorded in 
 the early settlements of America. 
 
 The spring of 1607 found the settlers of Port 
 Royal in high spirits. A cargo of tar was nearly 
 ready, which would fetch a high price in France. 
 The fields were planted. Carpenters were build- 
 ing new houses. The settlement rang with the 
 sounds of contented labor. 
 
 Suddenly there appeared a vessel from S-t. 
 Malo, bringing disastrous news. The De Monts 
 charter had been rescinded owing to the Roman 
 Catholic influence of Queen Mary de Medici, the 
 second wife of Henry IV of France. War had 
 broken out between France and Holland, and 
 Dutch vessels were raiding the post on the St. 
 
152 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Lawrence. Port Eoyal must be abandoned, at 
 least until the Dutch war was over. 
 
 Lescarbot refused to go until he had harvested 
 his crops. On August 27, 1607, the last of the 
 white men sailed for France, to the dismay and 
 grief of the friendly Indians. The most success- 
 ful colony in America was abandoned in the full 
 flush of its pride by reason of religious strife in 
 the mother country. 
 
 De Monts was too powerful a man to be thrust 
 aside so rudely. He secured a grant to trade in 
 the St. Lawrence Valley. In April, 1608, he sent 
 out an expedition of two ships under Pontgrave 
 and Champlain. After a sharp battle with rival 
 fur-traders at Tadoussac the two explorers came 
 to the Narrows of Quebec and rebuilt the aban- 
 doned settlement. Soon after landing a serious 
 mutiny was discovered. The ringleader was 
 hanged and three other mutineers sent back to 
 France, but the conspiracy had an ugly look, for 
 there was evidence that it had been planned by 
 De Monts' enemies. 
 
 In September, Pontgrave sailed for France with 
 a rich cargo of furs, leaving Champlain at Quebec 
 with 28 men. The winter, unlike that of the pre- 
 ceding year, was terribly severe, and Quebec is 
 one of the coldest spots in eastern Canada. The 
 food supply of the Indians failed and they bor- 
 rowed from the white men until there was little 
 left. The spring was late. When Pontgrave ar- 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 153 
 
 rived at the end of May, 1609, the snow was still 
 on the ground and only nine men were left alive. 
 
 At this time was formed the alliance with the 
 Indians which played so vital a part in the wars 
 between the English and the French in America, 
 and which determined the future history of the 
 continent. 
 
 When Cartier first visited the St. Lawrence, he 
 had been hospitably received by the Indians, along 
 the valley, and at their great town of Hochelaga. 
 All these tribes were of the Iroquois Family (or 
 Race), and most of them belonged to the Huron 
 group. Later, the Hurons formed one of the Great 
 Confederacy of Six Nations — Mohawks, Hurons, 
 Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and Tuscaroras — 
 the most powerful confederacy in North Aanerica, 
 but, at this time, they were outside of and antago- 
 nistic to the original Four-Nation Confederacy, 
 Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Senecas. 
 
 When Champlain came, three-quarters of a cen- 
 tury later, the Hurons were gone. A wave of In- 
 dian war had swept over the valley. The more 
 numerous and more barbaric tribes of the Algon- 
 quians had taken their place. The Hurons were 
 driven west, to the region south of the Great 
 Lakes. This conquest had only been possible be- 
 cause the Iroquois of the Four Nations, the most 
 civilized and the most warlike of the North Amer- 
 ican Indians did not feel called upon to help the 
 Hurons. 
 
 In order to maintain his position at Quebec, 
 
154 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Champlain made an alliance with the Algonquians 
 and the Hurons, who had made terms with their 
 hereditary enemies. By the other Iroquois Na- 
 tions, the Hurons were regarded as double-dyed 
 traitors. 
 
 When Pontgrave next spring arrived with more 
 men, the Indians demanded that Champlain re- 
 deem his promise to aid them against their ene- 
 mies, and proposed a raid into Iroquois country, 
 promising Champlain that they would show him 
 a route whereby that territory could be reached 
 by boats. 
 
 Two reasons caused . Champlain to agree to 
 this unwise meddling in tribal warfare. The first 
 was the absolute necessity that the Indians should 
 trust the white men — otherwise they might all be 
 massacred in a night. The second was his desire 
 for exploration and for the extension of the fur 
 trade routes. As yet, nothing was known of the 
 region away from the St. Lawrence Valley. 
 
 In June 1609, Algonquian and Huron braves 
 to the number of 400 gathered for the war-path 
 and summoned Champlain to join them. The ex- 
 plorer, with 11 Frenchmen in full plate armor, re- 
 sponded to the call. 
 
 The Indians, in their canoes, led the party 
 across the Lake of St. Peter to the Richelieu River. 
 At a camping site, two days' journey upstream, 
 quarrels broke out between the Hurons and the 
 Algonquians and three-quarters of the braves 
 abandoned the projected raid. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 155 
 
 Some distance further up the river, rapids were 
 encountered beyond which the French boat could 
 not go. Even so, Champlain would not desert his 
 allies, but continued on with two of his men and 
 60 Indians to invade the country of the warlike 
 Iroquois. 
 
 The advance was made slowly and only by night. 
 Beyond Crown Point, the progress became even 
 more stealthy. Late in the evening of July 29, 
 moving forward before the moon rose, the attack- 
 ing party came near to that narrow strip of land 
 between Lake Champlain and Lake George which 
 is famous in American History under its Iroquois 
 name of Ticonderoga. 
 
 On the water were a number of heavy elm bark 
 canoes, easily to be recognized as those of the 
 Iroquois. The defenders landed hastily and began 
 throwing up a barricade. The invaders waited in 
 their canoes until the first streaks of dawn ap- 
 peared, and landed also. 
 
 It was a daring raid, and when the Iroquois 
 saw the small numbers of the Algonquians, they 
 were amazed. The invaders were only 60 in 
 number and were facing more than 200 braves, 
 warriors of the finest fighting tribe in the whole 
 Iroquois League, for these were Mohawks. 
 
 The shrill war-yell rose, and, scorning the bar- 
 ricade they had been at such pains to build, the 
 Iroquois rushed forward. 
 
 The Algonquians answered with their even 
 
166 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 higher-pitched war-cry, and called upon Cham- 
 plain and his men. 
 
 The loose ranks of the invaders opened. At 
 three different points, the three Frenchmen 
 stepped forward. 
 
 At these apparitions of pale-faced men in shin- 
 ing flame — for their polished armor glinted 
 brightly under the first rays of the rising sun — 
 the Mohawks stopped. Only for a moment, how- 
 ever, and then the gallant redskins raised their 
 bows to shoot. 
 
 It was too late I 
 
 Before arrow could leave bow, Champlain had 
 leveled his arquebuss and fired. He had loaded it 
 with four balls, and one chief and one warrior fell. 
 The sound had not died away before the other two 
 pale-faces fired. At different points of the Hne, 
 two other Indians fell. 
 
 What sorcery of slaughter was this f 
 
 What terrible wizards were these who could 
 hurl from sticks a fiery death which flew faster 
 and further than any arrow? 
 
 The Mohawks, despite their valor, dared not 
 advance, dared not await another volley. They 
 fled in panic, fled so fast, indeed, that the Algon- 
 quians, pursuing with whoops of triumph, were 
 able to make but few prisoners. 
 
 It was a great victory for the invaders and it 
 increased the prestige of Champlain among the 
 Indians a thousandfold. Yet this victorious skir- 
 mish was to prove costly to France. 
 
THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE 157 
 
 That same day, July 30, 1609, a little Dutch 
 ship named the Half-Moon was riding in Penob- 
 scot Bay. Had the vision of Henry Hudson, her 
 captain, been able to pierce the forests that lay 
 between his vessel and Ticonderoga, he would 
 have had the clew to that confused and savage 
 warfare which for years to come was to make a 
 bloody battlefield of those forests. 
 
 Because of those few shots from an arquebuss, 
 fired by a Frenchman against a party of Mohawks, 
 on behalf of his Algonquian allies, the Dutch and 
 the English gained the support of the most pow- 
 erful and warlike ally that the whole North Ameri- 
 can continent could afford. Later history was to 
 reveal the Iroquois and the Algonquians as double- 
 edged weapons ruthlessly wielded by the French 
 and English in their great contest for the mastery 
 of America. Champlain^s courage was to lose 
 France the fairest of her possessions. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 
 
 Religious strife was a main cause in the peo- 
 pling of America. Colonized when Europe was 
 aflame with bigotry, when one side burned ** her- 
 etics^* and the other butchered ** papists/* it was 
 inevitable that Americans early history should be 
 singed with that flame. 
 
 The Spaniards came as Catholic crusaders, the 
 Coligny colonies were refuges for hunted Hugue- 
 nots, Virginia would accept none who were not of 
 the English Church, Maryland was a home for 
 disfranchised Catholics, and the French colonists 
 in Acadia were compelled to see that the Indians 
 were Catholicized, even though they were Protes- 
 tants themselves. 
 
 Soon the Mayflower would come, bringing the 
 Pilgrim Fathers, content with no worship but 
 their own. The Puritans would follow, to estab- 
 lish the most intolerant church that ever existed on 
 American soil. Moravians, Lutherans, Quakers 
 and other bodies were to plant colonies of their 
 own persuasion, until every mile of the American 
 coast-line was tagged with a theological name. 
 
 American history differs from that of every 
 other country in the world. It is not the history 
 
 158 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 159 
 
 of the growth of a single people, nor yet is it a 
 tale of conquest. It is the history of a virgin 
 land, peopled by successive communities of a dif- 
 fering religious character. Each gave some of 
 its good to the whole. Each was in earnest, each 
 had faith. Men do not fight for what they do not 
 prize. 
 
 Enthusiasts are always filled with the mission- 
 ary spirit. The story of America is full of the most 
 splendid stories of heroism and martyrdom; 
 scores of unmarked graves in the primeval for- 
 ests bear silent witness to the courage of Chris- 
 tian teachers, Catholics and Protestants alike. 
 
 With the revocation of de Monts' charter be- 
 cause he was a Protestant, one of the most aggres- 
 sive of these missionary orders — that of the Jes- 
 uits — found its opportunity in America. Queen 
 Mary de Medici, of France, was a devotee and a 
 strong supporter of the Jesuits, whose missionary 
 efforts covered the then known world. Their in- 
 fluence had been potent in the attack upon De 
 Monts. 
 
 Henry IV had allowed a trading privilege on 
 the St. Lawrence to de Monts, despite his Protes- 
 tantism, because he was associated with Cham- 
 plain, a Roman Catholic. This was a fair type 
 of the King 's policy of keeping a balance between 
 the two parties. Quebec, for the time being, was 
 let alone. 
 
 The settlement of Acadia was another matter. 
 Poutrincourt held to his grant of Port Royal, but. 
 
160 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 as the revoking of de Monts' charter made this 
 grant invalid, it was necessary to secure a royal 
 consent to the holding of his grant. Thus Pou- 
 trincourt came to hold Port Royal directly under 
 the Crown, though, as he learned later, he owed 
 this favor to three noblewomen who were cham- 
 pioning the Jesuit cause. 
 
 The abandonment of Port Royal and the law- 
 suits in connection with his grant brought Pou- 
 trincourt to poverty. He secured as partner a 
 man of great wealth, Thomas Robin, who, like 
 Poutrincourt, was a moderate Catholic belonging 
 to what was known as the National Party, pa- 
 triotic and tolerant, but suspicious of Spain and 
 the Jesuits. 
 
 When Father Cotton, the Jesuit confessor of 
 Henry IV, persuaded the King to order that Jes- 
 uit missionaries should be sent to Acadia, the news 
 was most unwelcome to Poutrincourt and Robin. 
 When they learned that Father Biard had been 
 named as the first of these, they were even more 
 distressed. 
 
 Indeed, so resentful were they, that, defying all 
 prudence, Poutrincourt sailed in March, 1610, for 
 Dieppe instead of from Bordeaux as arranged, 
 and left the Jesuit Father waiting on the shore. 
 He took with him a secular priest. Father La 
 Fleche. 
 
 Immediately upon his arrival at Port Royal, the 
 priest undertook baptisms at a great rate, since 
 Poutrincourt wished to prove to the King that 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 161 
 
 the Chris tianization of the Indians could be done 
 without the help of the Jesuits. 
 
 Father La Fleche did not arrive in Acadia until 
 May, but within a month, Chief Memberton — said 
 to be one hundred and ten years old — and all his 
 family, together with twenty of the leading war- 
 riors, were baptized. Baptisms became popular. 
 Poutrincourt was shrewd enough to give a free 
 feast on every christening day. The Micmacs 
 flocked in. Their admiration and aifection for 
 the French were so great that they became ready 
 converts. Indeed, it was with difficulty that the 
 white men held back the new-made Christians 
 from going on the war-path against the neighbor- 
 ing tribes and tomahawking all those who did not 
 come to be baptized forthwith. 
 
 In the middle of July, Poutrincourt sent his son 
 — ^known to history by the family name of Bien- 
 court, to France with the precious book wherein 
 were recorded the baptisms of several hundred 
 Indians. But, on his way across, Biencourt heard 
 grievous news from a Breton fisherman. Henry 
 IV had been assassinated by Ravillac while driv- 
 ing along the streets of Paris. 
 
 This death, which left Louis XIII a boy-king 
 and placed France under the regency of Queen 
 Marie de Medici, boded evil for the Protestants. 
 De Monts* trading privilege was not renewed. 
 Poutrincourt had put himself in a difficult position 
 by his contemptuous rejection of a Jesuit Father. 
 Such was an awkward situation for young Bien- 
 
162 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 court to face, when he appeared at court. His 
 case was far too weak for him to dare to oppose 
 the potent Religious Order that his father had 
 offended. 
 
 At this time, three women were all-powerful at 
 court. These were Marie de Medici, Regent and 
 Queen-Mother; Henriette d'Entraigues, Marquise 
 de Verneuil, whose ugly story needs not to be told ; 
 and the stainless and virtuous Antoinette de la 
 Pons, Marquise de Guercheville, whom Henry IV 
 had vainly wooed. All three were devoted to the 
 Jesuits. 
 
 Biencourt, as resolutely as he dared, urged his 
 father's faithfulness to the Church and yet his 
 dislike of the Jesuit Fathers. A strong hint was 
 given to the young man that any more such talk 
 might mean a cancellation of his father's grant, 
 and, since he had found out that these three women 
 had been the cause of De Monts' downfall, Bien- 
 court kept quiet. Father Biard was instructed to 
 proceed to Dieppe with an associate, Father 
 Masse, and Biencourt was curtly ordered to see 
 that they were duly taken on board. 
 
 There was more trouble ahead. Poutrincourt 
 and Robin, learning how heavy were the costs of 
 founding a new state, had arranged with two 
 Protestant merchants in Dieppe to take a share 
 in the venture, in return for a ship-load of sup- 
 plies. These were to be placed on Biencourt 's 
 vessel. 
 
 "When Fathers Biard and Masse arrived in 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 163 
 
 Dieppe, however, the Protestant merchants defied 
 the Queen-Mother and flatly refused to allow the 
 Jesuits to board. 
 
 The Marquise de Guercheville threw herself 
 into the breach with zeal and devotion. A sub- 
 scription was begun, and, in a few hours, a large 
 sum was raised among the courtiers, not one of 
 whom dared to refuse to sign. Within a week, 
 the amount received exceeded all expectations. 
 
 The money was given to the Provincial of the 
 Jesuits, who directed Father Biard to buy out the 
 entire interest of the two Protestant merchants of 
 Dieppe, and to lend some money to Poutrincourt. 
 Thus the Jesuits not only became commercial part- 
 ners in the enterprise, but also creditors of the 
 owner of the grant. This transaction was to have 
 startling results. 
 
 The expedition, richly laden with the seeds of 
 distrust, sailed from Dieppe on January 26, 1611. 
 The voyage was long and it was not until May 22 
 that a landing at Port Royal was made. 
 
 The winter had been hard and the ship had 
 been expected two months earlier. Famine had 
 taken more than half of the men. The remaining 
 colonists eagerly fell upon the supplies brought 
 by Biencourt, but a large share of the provisions 
 had been consumed during the long sea-voyage. 
 
 Gloomy enough was the landing, but it was ren- 
 dered worse by Poutrincourt 's open hostility to 
 Fathers Biard and Masse. A case of interference 
 with justice brought this enmity to a crisis. Pont- 
 
164 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 grave's son had excited the animosity of the In- 
 dians by a piece of personal misconduct, and was 
 hiding in the woods from Poutrincourt's anger. 
 Father Biard went to seek him, pardoned him, and 
 brought him back to the fort. 
 
 The governor stormed at this invasion of his 
 authority. Father Biard suavely pointed out that 
 the Jesuits were now his partners and that, if it 
 had not been for the intervention of the Marquise 
 de Guercheville, Port Royal would not have re- 
 ceived any supplies at all. Moreover, he pointed 
 out that the pardon of an erring son was a spirit- 
 ual affair. 
 
 Poutrincourt retorted that the Protestant mer- 
 chants were sending the supplies, and that they 
 would have come sooner if the Jesuits had not 
 interfered. He added that he preferred Protes- 
 tant aid to Jesuit aid. As the Catholics were in 
 control at the court of France, this was an unwise 
 remark and he was to pay dearly for it. 
 
 Thoroughly enraged at the manner in which his 
 grant was passing out of his hands, Poutrincourt 
 sailed for France to fight his own cause. Bien- 
 court was left in charge, though Father Biard was 
 the real ruler. 
 
 The young sailor was as eager to escape from 
 the new conditions as his father had been. More- 
 over, he had been appointed Vice-Admiral of New 
 France as a means of strengthening his attach- 
 ment to the Crown. He set out to harry the trad- 
 ing vessels of independent St. Malo and Rochelle 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 165 
 
 merchants, with the intention of seizing their sup- 
 plies as penalty. 
 
 Soon after sailing, he came into conflict with 
 young Pontgrave, who had built a few huts on the 
 shore and was establishing a trading post on his 
 own account. Biencourt regarded this as a usur- 
 pation of his father ^s privileges and made Pont- 
 grave and his men prisoners, in spite of Father 
 Biard's opposition. 
 
 The summer and autumn was spent by Bien- 
 court in the effort to make the fur-traders accept 
 his authority — which most of them refused to do — 
 and in the hunt for supplies. Yet, when the ship 
 returned to Port Eoyal in the fall, there were few 
 stores in her hold. The scant amount of food 
 that had been collected had been consumed on the 
 voyage. 
 
 The garrison at Port Eoyal had not prospered. 
 Father Masse had gone out to convert the Indians 
 and was rescued, in a half-starved condition, after 
 a summer in which he had tried to live in Indian 
 fashion. Chief Memberton was dying of old age, 
 and, with his death, a strong link of Indian friend- 
 ship was lost. 
 
 The winter proved wet and dreary. Biencourt 
 and the Jesuit Fathers lived in a state of mutual 
 distrust. Fortunately for the colony, Poutrin- 
 court had ventured to send a supply ship across 
 the Atlantic in the depth of winter. She arrived 
 on January 23, 1612. 
 
 The news that the vessel brought was less w^l- 
 
166 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 come to Biencourt than the food. The first person 
 to step ashore from the boat was Gilbert du Thet, 
 a Jesuit lay-brother. He informed the young 
 sailor that Mme. de Guercheville had bought from 
 de Monts all his claims to Acadia. De Monts had 
 protested, but was silenced by the veiled threat 
 that, if he proved stubborn, his Protestantism 
 might come to be regarded as treason. 
 
 Du Thet's position was a strong one. He 
 showed Biencourt that the Jesuit colonization was 
 on a loftier plane than any that had preceded it. 
 All the French founders in Acadia — even Poutrin- 
 court, at the last — ^had abandoned colonizing and 
 had set themselves merely to establish fur-trading 
 posts. The Jesuit Father proposed to use Port 
 Royal as the base of a mission which should bring 
 all the Indian tribes of America into the fold of 
 the Catholic Church, and then civilize them grad- 
 ually. The amazing success of the Jesuit mis- 
 sions in Paraguay, wherein the warlike Guaranyis 
 had become largely civilized in the course of thirty 
 years, proved that such a plan was possible. 
 
 But du Thet was not the only agent on this 
 vessel, there was also an agent sent by Poutrin- 
 court. Du Thet explained that the grant held by 
 Poutrincourt restricted him to a small piece of ter- 
 ritory contained in de Monts' grant; the baron's 
 agent claimed a huge barony. 
 
 Technically, Poutrincourt was in the wrong. 
 He had bought a small site from de Monts for 
 the purposes of colonization. The failure of this 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 167 
 
 plan had turned him into a fur trader. A piece 
 of land large enough for the building of a town 
 was a very different matter from the enormous 
 territory required for a fur-hunting domain. 
 
 Biencourt sided with his father's agent. The 
 quarreling grew sharp. The three Jesuits, secure 
 in the royal support, withdrew to the vessel and 
 prepared to sail for France. Poutrincourt 's grant 
 would not have endured a half an hour after their 
 arrival at court, and Biencourt knew it. He 
 ordered their return to land and threatened to use 
 force if they did not come. 
 
 The Jesuits excommunicated him. For three 
 months a reUgious interdict was placed on the 
 settlement. Then either Biencourt or Father 
 Biard yielded (the original documents of both 
 sides are flatly contradictory on this point), 
 friendly relations were resumed, and, in the sum- 
 mer. Brother du Thet sailed for France. He 
 carried letters from Father Biard praising Bien- 
 court, but he also bore verbal messages of a very 
 different character. 
 
 As might be expected, Poutrincourt had only 
 made his troubles worse. In order to send sup- 
 plies, he borrowed money from the Jesuits and 
 from the Marquise de Guercheville. The notes 
 fell due and he had no money with which to pay 
 them. He had few friends at court and he had 
 made an enemy of the Jesuit Order. He was 
 thrown into prison. There he fell ill, and though 
 
168 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 he was soon released, his opportunities to help the 
 Acadian colonists were at an end. 
 
 Poutrincourt needed not to disturb himself. 
 Jesuit zeal was running high, and Jesuit money 
 was embarked on the enterprise. Under the 
 influence of the Queen-Mother, Louis XIII granted 
 to the Marquise de Guercheville all the territory 
 of North America, from Florida to the St. Law- 
 rence Eiver, with the exception of a few square 
 miles around Port Royal, which had been granted 
 to Poutrincourt by Henry IV. 
 
 The devotee marquise, therefore, was awarded 
 by the Crown of France not only the unoccupied 
 land in America, but also the land held by the 
 English in Virginia as well as the trading posts of 
 the Dutch on the Hudson River. This was a steal, 
 pure and simple. 
 
 Once more a subscription was set on foot, this 
 time for the occupation of the whole North Amer- 
 ican coast. As it was a holy cause and Mme. de 
 Guercheville 's name was honored for rectitude 
 and charity, the money came in readily. The 
 Jonas was amply, even luxuriously equipped and 
 sent to Acadia under command of Captain La 
 Saussaye, who was to act as the lieutenant of the 
 marquise. 
 
 On May 16, 1613, La Saussaye touched at La 
 Heve, where he displayed the banner of Mme. de 
 Guercheville, and where Father La Quentin — the 
 third Jesuit Father to come to the colony — said 
 Mass. Brother du Thet duly recorded this official 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 169 
 
 act of taking possession of all North America for 
 France. Thence the Jonas passed onwards to 
 Port Eoyal. 
 
 As seemed to be the invariable outcome of a 
 colonial winter, the colonists were in utter dis- 
 tress. Biencouii; and the few settlers who sur- 
 vived were scattered far and wide, gathering 
 shell-fish, catching fish or digging ground-nuts. 
 Fathers Biard and Masse, a boy acolyte and two 
 men were ail who were found at the settlement. 
 
 Taking the two Jesuits and the boy on board, 
 La Saussaye promptly set sail, by no means dis- 
 pleased at having escaped an awkward meeting 
 with Biencourt. The Port Royal site was excluded 
 from the grant given to the marquise and there 
 was no reason for him to stay there. 
 
 After a few hours' sailing he entered what is 
 now known as Frenchman's Bay, on the coast of 
 Maine. There, on Mt. Desert Island, near the 
 present site of Bar Harbor, Maine, the first set- 
 tlement was made under the banner of Mme. de 
 Guercheville. Later, on the urging of Father 
 Biard, this settlement was moved to Soames 
 Sound, on the same island. Thus the French flag 
 flew on what was afterwards to be the State of 
 Maine. 
 
 England was not likely to stay idle when so 
 impudent a claim as this was made. Captain 
 Argall, the young English sailor who had abducted 
 Pocahontas and taken her to Jamestown, had been 
 sent north to fish for cod off the coasts of Maine 
 
170 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 and to secure from the coast Indians any supplies 
 he could, whether by fair means or foul. The 
 vessel ran into a heavy fog, and, when the weather 
 cleared, Argall found himself off the islands at 
 the mouth of Penobscot Bay, fifty miles southwest 
 off Mt. Desert Island. 
 
 Some Indians came off, in canoes, to trade. *^By 
 their bows and scrapes,'' Argall was convinced 
 that these Indians must have been in contact with 
 some French nearby. The English captain knew 
 a little of the Indian tongue and managed to dis- 
 cover the whereabouts of the new colony, which 
 was clearly within the territory of ** North Vir- 
 ginia. ' ' 
 
 Counting largely on the element of surprise and 
 confident in the fighting qualities of his crew, 
 Argall sailed into Soames Sound. For a few min- 
 utes, the French gazed at the incoming vessel with 
 delight, believing her to be one of their own. Then 
 Argall broke out the English flag and opened with 
 a broadside. A round shot ploughed through the 
 settlers gathered on the beach. 
 
 In a second all was confusion. Part of the crew 
 of the French ship was ashore, laying the first 
 timbers for the fort. The French pilot and a boat- 
 load of sailors started for their ship, but saw at 
 once that there would be no time to run her out 
 of the harbor without being sunk by the English 
 guns. They fled for the narrow channels between 
 the islands and the shore and so escaped. La 
 Saussaye fled into the woods. 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 171 
 
 La Motte, the lieutenant, with Brother du Thet 
 and a handful of the boldest men, took a small 
 boat and hurried on board the ship to fight or to 
 escape. There was no time to cut the cables or 
 hoist sail. Argall bore down on them swiftly. 
 A second broadside roared out and smashed into 
 the ship. 
 
 Since the gunners had fled with the pilot, there 
 was no one to man the French guns. Du Thet, 
 however, determined that at least there should be 
 some reply, set match to one of the cannons and 
 fired, without even stopping to aim. 
 
 The single report was answered from ArgalPs 
 vessel with the rattle of a volley of musketry, and 
 du Thet fell on the deck, mortally wounded. The 
 English raked the French craft fore and aft, but 
 never a second shot came in answer. 
 
 Then ArgalPs men boarded. Few of the 
 Frenchmen were left alive, but La Motte, sword 
 in hand, fought gallantly to the last, and was 
 granted an honorable surrender. 
 
 The EngHsh commander landed without oppo- 
 sition from the handful of men left on the shore. 
 He raided the tents and the half-built huts. He 
 seized La Saussaye's trunks, picked the locks, and, 
 with inexcusable trickery, extracted from the chest 
 the royal deeds and La Saussaye^s commission. 
 These he stuffed in his pockets and then closed 
 the trunks as though they had not been pilfered. 
 
 The following morning, La Saussaye, seeing 
 both his ship and his settlement in English hands, 
 
172 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 emerged from his hiding-place and surrendered. 
 Argall received him courteously, only demanding 
 to be shown the royal commission under which 
 La Saussaye was operating. The French com- 
 mander searched his trunks in vain. 
 
 Thereupon Argall broke into a storm of rage, 
 declared La Saussaye a liar and threatened to 
 hang the French leader and all his men as pirates. 
 He gave his own sailors the right to help them- 
 selves to anything they wished. Even clothing 
 was taken, leaving the colonists half naked. 
 
 La Saussaye, Father Masse and thirteen men 
 were put in an open boat, with scant provisions, 
 and set adrift in the open sea. Later, after the 
 English had gone, the pilot and the boat's crew 
 crept out from among the islands and joined La 
 Saussaye. On the verge of starvation, the two 
 crews made their way north to Newfoundland 
 where they met French trading vessels which took 
 them home in safety. 
 
 Father Biard, with thirteen men, accompanied 
 Argall back to Jamestown. Dale, the stern High 
 Marshal, was in command of Virginia at the time. 
 The news of the French invasion stirred his mili- 
 tary severity. He was about to give order that 
 every one of the prisoners — including the eccle- 
 siastics — should be hanged as pirates, when Ar- 
 gall, realizing that he was arousing a storm that 
 threatened to be greater than he could weather, 
 showed Dale the stolen papers. 
 
 The High Marshal was too good a soldier not 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 173 
 
 to be just as well as stern. The royal commis- 
 sion proved that the French had come with proper 
 authority. He rebuked Argall, apologized to La* 
 Saussaye, and saw to it that the French prisoners 
 of war should receive honorable treatment. 
 
 Dale felt himself to be not only the High Mar- 
 shal of Virginia, but also the sole official repre- 
 sentative of England in America. When he 
 learned from Father Biard that Port Royal had 
 fallen on evil days, it seemed to him the right 
 movement to evict the French from a holding 
 which was within the territory granted by James I 
 to the Plymouth Company. 
 
 Argall was sent with a small war fleet of three 
 vessels to put an end to the French colonies. He 
 went first to Mt. Desert, razed what little building 
 had been begun, cut down the Cross erected by 
 the French and put one of his own in its place. 
 A boat was sent to La Heve where the carved 
 escutcheon of the Marquise de Guercheville was 
 cut dovm and burned. Thence Argall sailed to 
 the Island of St. Croix, seized a quantity of salt 
 that had been prepared and set fire to the tumble- 
 down colony of De Monts. 
 
 This left Port Royal as the only remaining 
 French settlement in Acadia. Not a soul was in 
 the place when Argall sailed in. Biencourt and 
 his soldiers were away on a visit to an Indian 
 chief. The laborers were in the fields, some dis- 
 tance up the inlet. The storehouses were well 
 filled, for a supply ship from France had arrived 
 
174* THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 but a short time before. Cattle, horses and pigs 
 were found in the enclosures. 
 
 Rejoicing at this chance of easy conquest, the 
 English butchered or carried off all the animals, 
 emptied the storehouses, seized all the arms and 
 ammunition, pried off every piece of ironwork — 
 even to the locks of the doors — and then set fire 
 to what remained. This done, an armed party 
 was sent up the inlet to take the laborers pris- 
 oners. 
 
 They had hardly embarked their captives when 
 Biencourt appeared with his men, only to find 
 Port Royal a smoking ruin. The French com- 
 mander asked for a parley. The conference was 
 a stormy one. Argall offered to allow Biencourt 
 to hold the place on condition that he should yield 
 allegiance to the King of England, an offer that 
 was scornfully refused. Biencourt demanded the 
 person of Father Biard — ^who was on ArgalPs 
 ship — admitting frankly that he desired to hang 
 him. This could not be, for Argall was respon- 
 sible to Dale for his prisoner. 
 
 The English commander was eager to force a 
 fight, for he had superior numbers on his side. 
 Father Biard warned him that Biencourt had 
 numerous Indian allies, *'who, at this very mo- 
 ment, may be hidden in the forests, ready to 
 strike.'' Biencourt would not surrender, and 
 Argall did not dare to use force. The English, 
 therefore, sailed away, having left the French in 
 Acadia without any houses to live in, without any 
 

 MiaUEL lOK fix 
 
 OMINO riiii.ni'c sin\yj 
 
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 ---1 /, I 1 
 
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 k'Jif"" 
 
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 V 
 
 , A 
 
 THE SEA OF VERRAZANO 
 
 V^errazano is supposed to have crossed the Chesapeake Peninsula and saw beyond 
 the wide waters of Chesapeake Bay. He indicated this narrow peninsula and the 
 wide Western vSea on his map and it was copied on all maps thereafter. It was an 
 opening into this sea that the Jamestown colonists were told to find and that lured 
 Hudson ever north seeking it. 
 
 HUDSON RECEIVING HIS SAILING ORDERS FROM THE MUSCOVY COMPANY 
 
 Henry Hudson's first voyages of exploration were for the Muscovy Company, an 
 English Company of merchant adventurers, incorporated for the purpose of trade 
 with Russia and for the searching out of a passage nortli-easterly around Europe 
 to China and Japan. 
 
HENRY HUDSON 
 
 This portrait of Henry Hudson by Count Pulaski is one of the best and probably 
 the most life-like portrait of any of the great explorers of that period. Though 
 Henry Hudson was an Englishman, the chief immediate results of his exploration 
 were reaped by the Dutch, but ultimately all of the territory claimed by the Dutch 
 fell into the hands of the English chartered companies. 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 175 
 
 domestic animals, without ammunition and with- 
 out food. 
 
 Soon after leaving Port Royal, a violent tem- 
 pest separated the three English ships. The 
 smallest vessel was never heard of again. Argall, 
 who was an excellent sailor, managed to bring his 
 badly battered ship back to Jamestown. The 
 third vessel, that which had been captured from 
 La Saussaye, sprang a leak. She was rendered 
 so unseaworthy that her captain did not dare to 
 beat before the western gale. He ran before the 
 wind and bore away to the Azores. On this ship 
 were Fathers Biard and Quentin and several 
 other of the French prisoners. 
 
 The presence of the Jesuit Fathers became an 
 added danger to the English. If, on their arrival 
 at the Azores, Father Biard should proclaim cap- 
 tain and crew to be a gang of heretics who had 
 sacked a settlement under the protection of the 
 Jesuits, the Portuguese Catholics would be likely 
 to slit the throat of every Englishman on board. 
 
 At first it was seriously debated whether the 
 Jesuit Father should be thrown overboard to 
 drown, but wiser counsels prevailed. Fathers 
 Biard and Quentin were hidden in the hold on 
 their parole to make no outcry while the officials of 
 the Azore Islands searched the ship. All passed 
 without trouble. On their arrival in England, the 
 Jesuits were treated with respect, and, after a 
 short stay, they left for France. 
 
 Biencourt was far from considering himself 
 
176 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 beaten. True, Port Eoyal was destroyed, but 
 there were still stout French hearts around him, 
 Indian allies about him, the woods were full of 
 game and the seas did not lack for fish. He was 
 young and strong and the pioneer life appealed to 
 him. 
 
 Thus he became the first of the French back- 
 woodsmen, a true coureur de hois, who could hunt, 
 trap and fish as well as his redskin brothers and 
 who learned to speak their language as well as 
 he did his own. Several of his men married In- 
 dian girls. Instead of their reclaiming the forest, 
 the forest reclaimed them. 
 
 Poutrincourt worried greatly over the fate of 
 his son. In the spring of 1614 he persuaded some 
 Breton merchants to fit up a small ship and took 
 command himself. He found Port Royal in the 
 same state as the English had left it. Biencourt 
 had been wise enough to learn that it was only by 
 living with the Indians and like the Indians that 
 his men could survive the winters. Poutrincourt, 
 advanced in years and with a very different up- 
 bringing from his son, saw no attraction in the 
 backwoods life and returned to France. He died 
 the year following, sword in hand, an officer in the 
 army of the King. 
 
 Biencourt labored on. No longer did he look to 
 France for help, he made his own path. Many 
 half-breed children were born to the French set- 
 tlers, to become the great hunters and fur-traders 
 of the next generation. From time to time some 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 177 
 
 trading vessel came from France bringing a few 
 men eager to take up the adventures of a pioneer 
 Ufe. 
 
 Slowly, but surely, the French reestablished 
 themselves. Biencourt had inherited his father ^s 
 grant and held it firmly. He abandoned the old 
 site of Port Royal and built a small settlement at 
 Annapolis Royal, twelve miles further up the inlet. 
 
 England was not yet satisfied, but grudged to 
 Biencourt his slender hold upon Acadia. In 1622 
 James I granted to Sir William Alexander, Earl 
 of Stirling, all Acadia and the St. Lawrence River 
 basin. This was to be held by Alexander as a 
 fief of the Crown of Scotland (James I was mon- 
 arch of both kingdoms) and, accordingly, it was 
 rechristened **Nova Scotia' ' (New Scotland). 
 
 The Scotch lord came over with a mere handful 
 of colonists, who settled at Port Royal and rebuilt 
 the fortifications. The Scotch were wise enough 
 not to make an enemy of Biencourt, who could 
 have brought the Indians upon them any time he 
 chose. They lived at peace with their neighbors, 
 intermarried with the French and with the In- 
 dians, and, later, with the halfbreeds. They 
 adopted the French and Indian languages, as well 
 as the customs of forest life. Moreover, in the 
 French-English wars of a century later, these 
 descendants of the Scotch had become so Galli- 
 cized that they fought on the French side. 
 
 Biencourt died in 1623, his possessions being in- 
 herited by his comrade, Charles de la Tour. As 
 
178 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 the title was open to question, Claude de la Tour, 
 father of Charles, petitioned Louis XIII that his 
 son might be appointed Commandant of Acadia. 
 The petition was granted. 
 
 Claude de la Tour set sail for New France in 
 April, 1628, on one of the four large ships sent 
 by Cardinal Eichelieu to support Champlain at 
 Quebec. The fleet was commanded by Admiral 
 Eoquemont, one of the Hundred Associates, a 
 powerful trading company which had become the 
 governing force in the St. Lawrence. But, un- 
 happily for Champlain, Roquemont was defeated 
 by an English 'fleet under Admiral Kirk, and 
 Claude de la Tour was among the prisoners 
 brought to England. 
 
 De la Tour was a Protestant. As civil war had 
 broken out again between the Catholics and Prot- 
 estants and as the Protestant city of Rochelle was 
 in arms against Richelieu, de la Tour knew that 
 he would be out of favor at the French court. It 
 was almost certain that, if he returned, his son^s 
 appointment would be canceled. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, at the invitation of Sir William Alex- 
 ander, Claude de la Tour renounced his allegiance 
 to the French Crown, agreed to accept the Scotch- 
 man's overlordship and was made a baronet of 
 Nova Scotia, in 1629, sailing thither shortly after. 
 
 Charles de la Tour, though indignant at his 
 father's treason, accepted the inevitable, the more 
 readily as he had maintained the friendship with 
 the Scotch colony at Port RoyaL The French- 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 179 
 
 English hostility lasted until 1632, when, by the 
 Treaty of St. Germain, Charles I of England con- 
 sented to restore to France **all the places occu- 
 pied in New France, Acadia and Canada. ' ' 
 
 The development of French power on the St. 
 Lawrence under Champlain, the battles of Tadous- 
 sac and Quebec, the strife with England, the story 
 of Hebert and all the various aspects of the Treaty 
 of St. Germain are matters properly belonging to 
 the history of Canada. They will be treated else- 
 where. 
 
 In Acadia, the treaty of 1632 produced some 
 curious results. "When the territory returned to 
 the hands of France, Louis XIII appointed the 
 Chevalier Razilly as Governor of Acadia. The 
 lieutenant-governorship of the eastern half (com- 
 prising Nova Scotia and Cape Breton) was given 
 to D^Aulnay Charnisay, who made his headquar- 
 ters at Port Royal; that of the western half (from 
 St. Croix southwesterly to Cape Cod) was put 
 in the hands of de la Tour, who made his head- 
 quarters at Fort. St. Jean, on St. Croix Bay. De 
 la Tour also established a permanent post as far 
 south as the present site of Portland, Maine, 
 which was known as Fort Loyal. 
 
 Razilly withdrew from the Governorship and 
 D'Aulnay claimed the supreme power, on the 
 ground that Port Royal was the capital of the 
 colony. The de la Tours, father and son, resisted 
 him stoutly. Nine years of bitter feud ensued, 
 the fur-hunters of both parties maintaining a 
 
180 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 savage warfare on each other. To strengthen his 
 position, de la Tour pushed his outposts further 
 and further south. 
 
 D'Aulnay adopted other tactics. He strength- 
 ened his position at the French court. There was 
 little difficulty, for the de la Tours were in bad 
 odor because of their treachery to France in the 
 acceptance of English titles and submission to 
 English authority. De la Tour's commission was 
 annulled and he was bidden report himself in 
 France to answer for his treachery and for his 
 warfare on French subjects under D'Aulnay. 
 
 The sturdy Protestant fur-trader defied Louis 
 XIII and France. He refused to obey the order 
 of the Catholic king, but was shrewd enough to 
 base his refusal on the grounds that he did not 
 dare to leave territory which had so recently been 
 returned to France and which was coveted by 
 England. 
 
 Since de la Tour's commission had been can- 
 celed, he had no further legal rights in Acadia. In 
 1645, D'Aulnay made a concerted attack on Fort 
 St. Jean, killed several of the settlers and hanged 
 most of the men whom he took prisoners, as 
 ** rebels against His Most Christian Majesty of 
 France,'' which they were. 
 
 De la Tour escaped the massacre and took to a 
 wild and buccaneer life. In two swift ships, which 
 remained to him, he raided the coasts of D'Aul- 
 nay's territory, swooped as a pirate on all trading 
 
THE COMING OF THE JESUITS 181 
 
 vessels bound for Port Royal and rendered the 
 position of his rival intolerable. 
 
 After five years of sullen defense against this 
 vigorous freebooter, D 'Aulnay was drowTied, leav- 
 ing a widaw and eight children. De la Tour 
 hastened to France, proved that he had both the 
 experience and the men to take control of his 
 own half of Acadia, and declared that the troubles 
 in the colony had been due to personal matters 
 and not to his disloyalty to France. He secured 
 the renewal of his commission. 
 
 Thus strengthened by royal favor, de la Tour 
 hurried back to Port Royal. Thoroughly under-- 
 standing the chivalrous character of French fron- 
 tiersmen, he was clever enough to bring from 
 Paris a number of articles — clothing and the like 
 — as gifts to Mme. D 'Aulnay, for he realized that 
 the followers of his former enemy would be even 
 more loyal to the helpless widow than they had 
 been to her husband. He managed his case so 
 adroitly that he wooed and won Mme. D 'Aulnay, 
 who had suffered great privations since her hus- 
 band's death, and, on the occasion of the mar- 
 riage, distributed gifts lavishly to all the men. 
 Thus, once again, de la Tour was sole lord of 
 Acadia and of the mainland coast as far south as 
 Cape Cod. 
 
 Such was the situation in this part of America, 
 when the Great Rebellion took place in England, 
 which resulted in the beheading of Charles I and 
 the establishment of the Commonwealth under 
 
182 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Cromwell. The Puritan movement, of which this 
 was the culmination, had an enormous effect upon 
 the New World and opened a new phase of 
 American history. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HUDSOIT AND THE DUTCH 
 
 The witty pen of Washington Irving wronght 
 great injustice to a gallant race. His derisive 
 humor has caused ^* Father Knickerbocker" and 
 the Dutch founders of New Amsterdam to appear 
 as comic personages on the pages of American 
 history. Such a notion is not only false, but also 
 grievously ungrateful. 
 
 The Dutch were a heroic breed. They were the 
 first people in Europe to understand religious 
 liberty, the first to carve with their swords a free 
 Republic, daring adventurers who won an empire 
 in the East Indies, and incomparable sailors who 
 even disputed with England the mastery of the 
 sea. 
 
 Such men handed down a noble heritage to their 
 descendants, all the nobler in that Dutch honesty 
 was proverbial. The United States is fortunate in 
 that its great commercial metropolis of New York 
 was founded by such a sturdy stock, and her his- 
 tory would be the poorer if the deeds of the Dutch 
 descendants were stricken out. 
 
 The early history of the Dutch in America deals 
 
 183 
 
184 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 mainly with the Hudson River, and, less urgently, 
 with the Delaware. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the Dutch had no claim to 
 America on the grounds of discovery. Cabot 
 probably, and Verrazano certainly, had visited the 
 Hudson Eiver a century before the first Dutch 
 vessel touched the shores of America. 
 
 Verrazano passed through the Narrows and cast 
 anchor in New York Bay. He rightly estimated 
 the Hudson to be a river, not a strait, and hence 
 did not sail up it, looking for the route to China, 
 which was the object of his voyage. 
 
 Aside from a coasting voyage made by Estevan 
 Gomez, a Spaniard, in 1525, the French alone took 
 advantage of Verrazano 's discovery, which had 
 been made under the French flag. * * The River of 
 Steep Hills, ' ' as Verrazano justly named the Hud- 
 son, was a good entrance for fur-traders and a 
 good harbor for ships. As early as 1540, French 
 traders built a fort near the present site of Albany, 
 at the head of navigation. In 1542, one of Rober- 
 val's captains passed through Long Island Sound 
 and Hell Gate and reported having met traders 
 from St. Malo in the *' Great River, '^ which his 
 description shows to have been the Hudson. By 
 1570 there were three semi-permanent French 
 trading posts on the river, one of these being sit- 
 uated on Manhattan. 
 
 Possibly Manhattan was not an island at this 
 time, but a peninsula, partly traversed by the 
 two streams now known as the Spuyten Duyvil 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 185 
 
 Creek and the Harlem River, both easily f ordable. 
 In recent years the water of the former has been 
 turned into the latter, which has been artificially 
 deepened and is not a river at all, but a tide-water 
 canal. 
 
 During this period, when France was ravaged 
 by religious strife, England advanced in maritime 
 adventuring. This was not confined to the semi- 
 piratic seizure of Spanish treasure-ships, it also 
 followed the more legitimate channels of trade. 
 
 The most important venture in this direction 
 was the Muscovy Company, incorporated for the 
 purpose of trading with Russia and finding a route 
 to China and the Indies by the Northeast pas- 
 sage. At this time, all the region now known as 
 Siberia was supposed to be sea — the Sea of Ver- 
 razano, thought to have been visible from the Ches- 
 apeake Peninsula. 
 
 Among the most active officials of the Muscovy 
 Company were several members of the Hudson 
 family, from which Henry Hudson, the Navigator, 
 sprang. In 1607 he was in command of an expedi- 
 tion sent by the Muscovy Company to sail north- 
 wards from Greenland, passing west of Spitz- 
 bergen, in an effort to reach China by crossing the 
 Polar Sea. He was stopped by the ice. The year 
 following, Hudson tried for the same goal, passing 
 through Barent's Sea, between Spitzbergen and 
 Nova Zembla. Here, again, he found his way 
 blocked by the Polar ice. 
 
 While both these voyages failed in their object, 
 
186 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Hudson had reached the ^^furthest north" of his 
 time, and his explorations had brought him fame. 
 The Dutch East India Company succeeded in de- 
 taching the great navigator from the service of 
 the (EngUsh) Muscovy Company, and he sailed 
 north under the flag of the Netherlands, on April 
 4, 1609, to renew his effort to find the Northeast 
 Passage. 
 
 A few weeks before sailing, some news from 
 America had turned Hudson's thoughts in that 
 direction. Captain John Smith of Virginia had 
 thoroughly explored Chesapeake Bay, which 
 Verrazano had seen from the Chesapeake 
 Peninsula and had believed to be the ocean 
 that washed the shores of China. Smith had 
 found no strait into the supposed Sea of Verra- 
 zano, but he thought it probable that there might 
 be such a strait, further to the north, and he had 
 written to Hudson to this effect.; This letter 
 from John Smitn to Hudson was to have a con- 
 siderable effect upon the later history of America. 
 
 On reaching Nova Zembla, Hudson found the 
 seas as ice-bound and impassable as they had been 
 the two seasons before. He took counsel with his 
 officers and crew, read Smith 's letter to them, and 
 with their agreement, decided to cross the Atlantic 
 and seek the Northwest Passage instead of the 
 Northeast Passage. He hoped to find an opening 
 into the Sea of Verrazano somewhere north of 
 the northernmost latitude explored by Smith. 
 
 Hudson's craft, the EaUf-Moon, was all too 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 187 
 
 small for such long voyages, being of but 80 tons 
 and carrying a crew of 18 men, all told. Although 
 buffeted by severe weather, during which the Half- 
 Moon lost her foremast, the explorer reached 
 Penobscot Bay, Maine, on July 18, 1609. He 
 stayed there some little time, making a new fore- 
 mast from a huge pine tree his men cut in the 
 woods, and repairing the damaged sails. 
 
 Thence he sailed southward by easy stages, 
 arriving, at last, at Machipongo Inlet on the Ches- 
 apeake Peninsula. Hudson mistook this inlet for 
 the entrance which led to the James River, and, 
 feeling that the English colonists would resent the 
 presence of the Dutch expedition, he turned again 
 to the northward. 
 
 On August 28, the Half -Mo on entered Delaware 
 Bay. The wide entrance gave him hopes that this 
 might be the long-desired strait, but the vessel 
 soon encountered numerous shoals and a strong 
 outward current. Hudson realized that a river 
 bringing down so much silt could not arise on 
 such a narrow neck of land as was shown on Ver- 
 razano 's map. The strait could not be here. 
 
 Sailing out of Delaware Bay, ^Hudson struck 
 northwards, along the coast of what is now New 
 Jersey. At Sandy Hook another great opening 
 lay before him. He entered it and, on September 
 3, 1609, dropped anchor in Lower New York Bay, 
 between Sandy Hook and Staten Island. 
 
 Here, again, his hopes ran high. In entering 
 the Narrows, between Long Island and Staten 
 
188 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Island, lie found himself in New York harbor, 
 another wide stretch of water. Following the 
 southern coast of this, he came to an estuary, a 
 mile wide, subject to the fluctuations of the tide. 
 This seemed the long-sought strait. He sailed up 
 past Manna-hatta Peninsula (or Island) hoping, 
 with every turn of the shore, to see the great sea 
 opening before him. Haverstraw Bay increased 
 his confidence. 
 
 But, alas for his hopes, just above the present 
 site of Peekskill, he reached the point where the 
 river narrows almost to a gorge. The influence of 
 the tide had weakened, and Hudson realized that 
 he was in a river. He sailed as far as the head 
 of navigation and turned back. He found the 
 Indians friendly and the soil fertile. Having 
 thoroughly mapped the Hudson Eiver, he set sail 
 for Europe. 
 
 Arriving near England, the Englishmen aboard 
 insisted on being set ashore. They had been 
 engaged for the summer only, and winter was 
 approaching. On November 7, the Half -Mo on 
 put in at Dartmouth. Hudson sent to Amsterdam 
 a report of his voyage, and asked for more sup- 
 plies and men. 
 
 The Dutch merchants ordered Hudson to report 
 himself in Holland. They were plainly dissatis- 
 fied, since the navigator's western voyage had 
 been made in contradiction of the orders he had 
 received to seek the Indies by the Northeast Pas- 
 sage. 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 189 
 
 The news of Hudson's discovery of the fertile 
 Hudson Valley, with a wide and navigable estuary, 
 had greatly excited the English merchants. They 
 were annoyed that the expedition had been under 
 the Dutch flag, and appealed to James I to compel 
 the English navigator to remain in the service 
 of England. Hudson was ready enough to do so, 
 especially as the Dutch merchants were unwilling 
 to grant him complete liberty of action. 
 
 Under the Muscovy Company, the Discoverie 
 was fitted up, and Hudson set sail again on April 
 10, 1610, to continue his search for the strait sug- 
 gested by Captain John Smith. He kept well to 
 the north. From Florida to Chesapeake the Span- 
 iards had found no strait. In Chesapeake Bay, 
 Smith had exhausted the possibilities. From 
 Chesapeake to Maine, Hudson had explored the 
 coast himself. The French had failed to find any 
 opening in Acadia or St. Lawrence Gulf and River. 
 If a strait there should prove to be, it must lie 
 further to the north. Hudson spent the summer 
 of 1610 along the Labrador coast. 
 
 Then came apparent triumph. The continent 
 of North America came to an end. A great land 
 (Baffin Land) stretched to the north. Between 
 them lay a narrow opening. The strait was found 
 at last ! 
 
 Hudson sailed in, to find before him a great arm 
 of the sea, a hundred miles wide and five hundred 
 miles long, that stretch of water now known as 
 Hudson Strait. For many days he sailed to the 
 
190 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 westward, his heart beating ever higher and higher 
 in hope. Daily, even hourly, he searched for a 
 great sea — the Sea of Verrazano — to open to the 
 southward. He slept on the deck, his ears half- 
 open for the watchman's hail. 
 
 Came joy unbounded! He found the sea he 
 sought I Eound the point now called Cape Wos- 
 tenholme, he saw what seemed to be a boundless 
 ocean before him. Triumphantly, he sailed south- 
 ward down this great sea (Hudson Bay) for over 
 seven hundred miles until he came to its southern 
 shore at 52°, almost the same latitude as Amster- 
 dam. 
 
 It is not surprising that the navigator should 
 have taken Hudson Bay to be a sea, for, with 
 Fox Channel, it is nearly as large as the Medi- 
 terranean ; nor is it surprising that he should have 
 believed it to open westward into the Pacific 
 Ocean, for Hudson Bay is over five hundred miles 
 wide, and lies west of the longitude of Peru. 
 
 Hudson had hoped, by sailing southward, to 
 escape the clutch of an Arctic winter. When he 
 reached James Bay, at the same latitude as Am- 
 sterdam, he had reason to expect free water and 
 a season not too rigorous. The climatic terrors 
 of a northern land-locked bay were unknown. He 
 was soon to learn them. 
 
 Floe ice and pack ice surrounded the hapless 
 Discoverie. There was no escape to the north, 
 the frozen land lay to the south. From November 
 3, 1610, to June 18, 1611, the ship was held fast. 
 
THE HALF MOON 
 
 A model of Henry Hudson's ship. The Half Moon. In this little ship scarcely larger 
 than a small yacht and with a crew of but 18 men, Hudson explored the coast from 
 Maine to Delaware. 
 
 HUDSON INTERVIEWS THE INDIANS OF MANHATTAN 
 
 Hudson later entered the employ of the Dutch East India Company and on his first 
 voyage sailed up the Hudson, to the site of Albany. His good reports of the country 
 aroused the Dutch to further trading and colonizing efforts. 
 
VAN DER DONCK's MAP OF NEW NETHERLANDS 1656 
 
 This map shows the ultimate results of the Dutch "patronships" established under 
 the direction of the Dutch West India Company and the later Dutch Governors, 
 ending with the rule ot Peter Stuyvesant. 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 191 
 
 No one could have imagined sucli thickness of ice 
 in the middle of summer. The crew had not 
 counted on any such frigid imprisonment as this, 
 and mutinied secretly. The sailors determined 
 that, as soon as the ice should break, they would 
 sail for England whether their commander were 
 willing or no. 
 
 When the ship was released, Hudson insisted 
 on following the shore to the westward, expecting 
 at any moment to see the land turn sharply south- 
 ward and thus form the western shore of North 
 America. There was, as yet, no knowledge of the 
 Eocky Mountains barrier. There was reason to 
 expect that the shore by which he was sailing 
 would presently join the shore near the mouth 
 of the Columbia River, where Drake had landed. 
 
 The men mutinied openly. Under the lead of 
 Henry Green, Hudson 's secretary, they seized the 
 navigator and his young son, and cruelly set them 
 adrift upon that waste of unknown waters, mth 
 seven sick men and scarcely any food. They were 
 never heard of more. 
 
 Green and some other of the ringleaders were 
 slain by Indians on the way home, but the Dis- 
 coverie reached England at last. They told their 
 story to the officers of the Muscovy Company and 
 the survivors were thrown into jail as mutineers. 
 Eescue expeditions were dispatched under Butler, 
 in 1612 ; under Gibbons, in 1613 ; and under Baffin, 
 in 1614. These daring navigators explored Hud- 
 son Bay thoroughly and proved that there was no 
 
192 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 westward strait, but found no sign of Hudson or 
 Ms men. 
 
 The Dutch East India Company had objected 
 to Hudson's voyage to the west and therefore had 
 taken no advantage of his discoveries. Other 
 Dutch traders were not so scrupulous. As early 
 as 1610, some bluff -bowed vessels from the Neth- 
 erlands made their way to Hudson River, which 
 they called the Prince Maurice or Mauritius River. 
 More followed in 1611. By 1612 the Dutch had 
 established permanent posts on the sites of the 
 old French forts at Manhattan and Albany. 
 Among the principal traders were Hendrick 
 Christiansen and Adriaen Block. 
 
 In 1613, Captain Samuel Argall, on his way 
 back from destroying the French settlements in 
 Acadia, sailed through the Narrows to investigate 
 a report of Dutch intrusion on the Hudson River. 
 England and Holland were at peace, but Argall 
 ordered Christiansen to haul down the Dutch flag 
 and to run up an English one instead. Christian- 
 sen obeyed mthout protest. No sooner was Ar- 
 galPs ship out of sight, however, than the Dutch 
 flag was run up again, and there remained. This 
 incident of the flags had an important effect on 
 New England history, later. 
 
 In the autumn of 1613, Block's ship, the Tiger, 
 but recently arrived from Holland, took fire and 
 was burned to the water's edge. Undaunted, 
 Block built himself a small sloop, which he named 
 the Onrust (Restless). Next spring he sailed in 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 193 
 
 this tiny craft through Hell Gate, along Long 
 Island Sound, explored the Connecticut River as 
 far as the present site of Hartford, called at Block 
 Island — which still bears his name — and explored 
 Narragansett Bay. Thence he passed by Texel 
 (Martha's Vineyard) and Vlieland (Nantucket), 
 round Cape Cod and across Massachusetts Bay 
 to Pye Bay (Nahant). This voyage of the little 
 Onrust was destined to have important results. 
 
 Two parties struggled for supremacy in the 
 Netherlands, the Flemish and the Dutch. The 
 Flemish, refugees from Belgium, were warlike and 
 aggressive, eager to drive out the last vestige of 
 Spanish power; they were headed by William 
 Usselincx. The Dutch, having the political con- 
 trol, wanted to be sure of keeping it by maintain- 
 ing peace ; their leader was John of Olden Barne- 
 veld. 
 
 The Flemish were ardent colonists. Through 
 the exertions of Usselincx an Ordinance was 
 passed in 1614, giving trade monopolies to dis- 
 coverers of unoccupied lands. By Block's voyage 
 in the OnrK^t, a group of merchants associated 
 with him secured exclusive trading and coloniza- 
 tion rights from the Upper Delaware as far north 
 as the present Canadian border. 
 
 There were thus three different countries which 
 claimed this same territory. Elizabeth of Eng- 
 land had given it to Raleigh, and James I later 
 had turned it over to the Plymouth Company. 
 Louis XIII had included it in the grant to the 
 
194. THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Marquise de Guerclieville. The provinces of Hol- 
 land and Friesland assigned rights of occupancy 
 to Dutch traders. Such a rivalry was bound to 
 bring on war. 
 
 Chief of the early settlements established by 
 the Dutch on the Hudson was Fort Nassau. 
 Jacob Elkens was placed in command and he made 
 an alliance with the Mohawks in 1618 by promis- 
 ing to sell fhem firearms to use against the French. 
 The shots from Champlain's arquebuss were be- 
 ginning to bear their fatal fruit. 
 
 The year following, John of Olden Bameveld, 
 head of the Dutch peace party, was beheaded for 
 treason. Usselincx urged on Flemish coloniza- 
 tion. The trading posts developed into colonies. 
 
 This was not at all to England 's liking. In the 
 spring of 1620, Sir Fernando Gorges of the Ply- 
 mouth Company sent Captain Dermer to the Hud- 
 son Eiver. Dermer, politely but firmly, informed 
 the Dutch traders that they were on land which 
 belonged to the Plymouth Company. The Dutch 
 reply was that, while they did not wish to give 
 offense, they held that occupation gave the right 
 of possession. 
 
 As soon as Dermer 's report was received in 
 England, the Council for New England was 
 formed, which secured a royal grant for all the 
 territory between 40° and 48°, including both New 
 Netherland and New France. This done, England 
 officially advised Holland that the Dutch were 
 trespassing on EngHsh territory. Holland replied 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 195 
 
 in a manner that might have brought on war, had 
 it not been that neither government was suffi- 
 ciently stable at the time to risk combat with a 
 powerful rival. 
 
 In 1623, the actual Dutch colonization of Amer- 
 ica was begun, under the direction of the Dutch 
 West India Company. The New Netherlmid 
 brought 100 colonists in the spring of that year. 
 These divided into six groups, at New Amster- 
 dam, at Fort Orange (near Albany), at Fort Nas- 
 sau II (near Philadelphia), at Fort Good Hope 
 (near Hartford, Connecticut), on Staten Island, 
 and on Wallabout Bay (the Brooklyn Navy Yard). 
 The first Governor was Cornelius Jacobsen May. 
 
 This scattering had been done in the expecta- 
 tion of the arrival of ship-loads of colonists. Few 
 came. The settlers were recalled to New Amster- 
 dam. In 1624 May was superseded by William 
 Verhulst, and in 1625 he gave place to Peter 
 Minuit, the strongest figure of early Dutch colo- 
 nial history in America. 
 
 Minuit ^s arrival coincided with two important 
 changes in Europe. The first was the death of 
 James I of England, the second was the death 
 of Prince Maurice of Orange, ruler of the Nether- 
 lands, a few weeks later. Charles I signed the 
 Treaty of Southampton with Prince Frederick of 
 Orange, providing that both countries should 
 maintain fleets to prey upon Spain, and that the 
 ports of each nation should be open to the ships 
 of the other. This was followed in 1627 by a 
 
196 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 proclamation giving the Dutch full right to trade 
 anywhere with England and her dependencies. 
 While New Netherland was not thus recognized, 
 the trading rights of the Dutch in America were 
 permitted. 
 
 Minuit's first action was judicious. He bought 
 from the Manhattan Indians (of the Lenape Con- 
 federacy) all title to Manhattan Island for a sup- 
 ply of beads and ribbons to the value of sixty 
 guilders (equivalent to $120 in modern money). 
 A fort was built (near Bowling Green). East of 
 it ran a straggling row of log-houses, accommo- 
 dating about 200 people. A couple of farms or 
 bouweries lay north of this and the primeval 
 forest was entered where the heart of New York 
 is now. 
 
 During the ten years 1620-1630, while the Dutch 
 colony of New Netherland advanced so slowly, 
 the English colony of New England had gone by 
 leaps and bounds. The English pressed closer 
 and closer to the Dutch settlements and did not 
 fail to remind Minuit that he was an intruder. 
 The Dutch governor retained courteous relations 
 with the governor of New England and continued 
 to build up his colony. The remarkable success 
 of the Dutch on the high seas, when they smashed 
 one Spanish fleet after another, also maintained 
 the prestige of Holland in the eyes of the Puritans 
 of New England. 
 
 Emigration to New Netherland was slow. As 
 soon as the gripe of Spain was withdrawn from 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 197 
 
 Holland and Belgium, those countries became 
 prosperous. The farmers were content to stay 
 where they were. Since the Netherlands permitted 
 complete religious toleration, there were no perse- 
 cuted refugees eager to escape to another land. 
 
 In order to stimulate colonization, the Dutch 
 West India Company established ^'patroonships.'' 
 This type of government was a form of feudal 
 system, somewhat after the Maryland pattern. 
 A patroonship was granted to any person who, 
 within four years after the year 1629, should bring 
 fifty adults to New Netherland at his own expense, 
 clear the farm-land for his tenants, build houses 
 and barns, and provide cattle, seed-graini and 
 farm utensils out of his own pocket. In return 
 for this expenditure of capital, the patroon was 
 granted sixteen miles of river frontage, either on 
 the Hudson, Delaware or other navigable stream, 
 the property running back into the country indefi- 
 nitely. The holdings of the tenants were supposed 
 to be large and the Company undertook to provide 
 the patroons with negro slaves as rapidly as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 The fates of the three principal patroonships 
 may be told briefly : 
 
 Godyn and Blommaert, two of the directors, 
 and Captain De Vries, took up what is now the 
 State of Delaware. Their purpose was the whale 
 fishery. Famine and Indian massacre destroyed 
 the colony and when De Vries came out in 1632 
 with supplies and more men, he found nothing 
 
198 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 but the bones of the former colonists remaining. 
 The project was abandoned. 
 
 Michael Pauw, also a director, secured for him- 
 seK all Staten Island and the south shore of the 
 Hudson, inclusive of the present sites of Hoboken 
 and Jersey City. This patroonship lasted for seven 
 years, always under threats of Indian raids. It 
 was difficult to get tenants. The estate did not 
 pay expenses and Pauw resold it to the Company 
 for a price lower than the money he had spent on 
 it during those seven years. 
 
 Very different was the success of Kilian van 
 Rensselaer, an Amsterdam lapidary of much 
 wealth, who secured for his patroonship the land 
 now contained in Albany and Eensselaer Coun- 
 ties. He took the precaution of making friends 
 with the Mohawks, and paying them for the land. 
 He secured for his colonists an excellent body of 
 farmers, and the estate throve. His descendants 
 were for many years among the most important 
 and wealthy settlers of the Hudson VaUey. 
 
 The patroon system had one serious weakness. 
 It was designed as an agricultural plan only, and 
 the patroons were forbidden from engaging in the 
 fur trade, which was expressly reserved as the 
 monopoly of the Company. The patroons saw 
 that there was more money in fur-trading than in 
 crops, and could not be stopped from dealing with 
 the Indians. Minuit was accused of favoring the 
 patroons rather than the Company. He denied 
 the charge, but the dwindling of the Company's 
 
HUDSON AND THE DUTCH 199 
 
 fur receipts was an unanswerable argument, and, 
 in 1632, Governor Minuit was recalled. 
 
 He sailed in March of that year in the Eendragt 
 (Union) . A storm drove the vessel into Plymouth 
 Harbor, where her captain was at once arrested 
 for illegal trading with English dominions in 
 America. Minuit was detained on the charge that 
 his colony, with its agricultural patroonships, 
 could not be construed as a trading post. 
 
 A vigorous diplomatic controversy ensued, in 
 which, for the first time, the Dutch claim to New 
 Netherland was squarely made. England finally 
 refused to admit Holland's jurisdiction, but 
 allowed the Dutch to remain if they would agree 
 to become English subjects. Minuit was released. 
 The Eendragt was permitted to proceed to New 
 Amsterdam, her valuable cargo of beaver skins 
 untouched. 
 
 With the close of Minuit 's governorship, the 
 colony of New Netherland entered upon a new 
 phase, belonging to colonial expansion rather than 
 colonial planting. Of the governorships of 
 Wouter van Twiller, sometimes called *Hhe 
 Doubter," of William Kieft 'Hhe Wasp'' and of 
 the choleric one-legged Peter Stuyvesant, who held 
 the difficult post for seventeen hard years, there 
 is much to be told. The Dutch controlled the Hud- 
 son Eiver Valley for over fifty years and laid the 
 foundation of a sturdy stock of whose achieve- 
 ments in the centuries to come, America would be 
 justly proud. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 WANDEBINGS OF THE PILGEIMS 
 
 New England! How much the words mean in 
 American history I Yet how different is America 
 from that New England which the Pilgrims and 
 the Puritans established! The somber figure of 
 the Puritan has largely overshadowed the kind- 
 lier figure of the Pilgrim, but it was the Pilgrim 
 who showed the way hither. 
 
 The United States was mainly formed of a 
 mingling of ^^ Virginia'' and New England. The 
 earliest home of Englishmen in the New World 
 was in Virginia. During the colonial period, Vir- 
 ginia led. In the struggle for independence Vir- 
 ginia took a principal part. The first president 
 of the United States was a Virginian. 
 
 Yet the government, the laws and the customs 
 of the United States are more reminiscent of New 
 England than of Virginia. The abolition of caste 
 is a northern feature rather than a southern. Re- 
 ligiously regarded, the position of the United 
 States, with its hundreds of conflicting sects, re- 
 sembles neither the intolerance of New England 
 nor the state church position of Virginia; its toler- 
 
 200 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 201 
 
 ance springs rather from individnalism than from 
 autocracy and has taken character from both. 
 
 As briefly as may be, it must be told how the 
 Pilgrims and Puritans came to be. It has already 
 been shown how the English Church severed itself 
 from the Roman Catholic Church, and became 
 simultaneously both a Catholic and a Protestant 
 Church, retaining Catholic rites with Protestant 
 ways of thinking. 
 
 This appeared to be an unhappy compromise to 
 the extremists of both parties. Neither was sat- 
 isfied. Of the two groups, the ultra-Protestants 
 were the more discontent. They objected to out- 
 ward signs of church worship, they attacked the 
 authority of bishops, and they held that all people 
 who did not lead godly lives should be expelled 
 from the Church. They took, also, the still more 
 sweeping ground that neither the Crown, the mag- 
 istrates nor the. Church had any right to dictate 
 to any man in religious matters. 
 
 In those days, such a position was regarded as 
 treason. Even Parliament — which was strongly 
 Protestant in character — was compelled to repel 
 so revolutionary a movement. It enacted that 
 anyone who denied the authority of the Queen in 
 ecclesiastical cases or who should frequent non- 
 authorized churches, should be imprisoned, and, if 
 stubborn, should lose his house and lands and be 
 banished. 
 
 At first, the ultra-Protestants — who came to be 
 known as Puritans — did not wish to break away 
 
202 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 from the Church, but rather to reform it. There 
 was an extreme group in this party, however, 
 which went much further. They opposed any and 
 every form of church government. They held 
 that each congregation should be a separate unit 
 and should think and do as it pleased. These men 
 were known as Separatists and from their ranks 
 the Pilgrim Fathers came. 
 
 It was around the head of a most extraordinary 
 man that the storm first broke. This was 
 ^^Trouble-Church" Browne, a man of good family 
 and learning, possessed of considerable wealth 
 and only happy when he was being talked about. 
 He was educated at Cambridge University, but 
 refused to be ordained by a bishop or to take the 
 money of the state for preaching. He went to 
 the town of Norwich and preached to a congrega- 
 tion there, living on his own means. 
 
 In 1583 '^^The Church of the Very Forward" 
 was organized in Norwich, a town filled with Dutch 
 refugees who had fled from the Spanish Inquisi- 
 tion. Many of these refugees were Anabaptists, 
 a sect of violent Separatists from Europe, bitterly 
 hated by all other Protestants. Several of the 
 Anabaptists joined **The Church of the Very For- 
 ward. * ' 
 
 Browne traveled all over Norfolk, becoming 
 more and more violent as he went. He possessed 
 a logical mind but an appalling fluency in vitu- 
 peration. He had a viper's tongue. *^His curses 
 on Queen and Church," wrote a contemporary, 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 203 
 
 **make the very street-rufi&ans shudder.'' He was 
 twice imprisoned, but was released at the request 
 of Lord Burghley, who was his kinsman. 
 
 From England he went to Holland, where a 
 small group of the most extreme English Sepa- 
 ratists had gathered, under Cartwright. There 
 Browne 's extravagant violence passed beyond all 
 bounds. He announced that every member of a 
 church had the right to examine and criticize the 
 private life of every other member, to decide 
 whether he or she were a saint or no. Some 
 fanatics tried to follow his advice. A cyclone of 
 scandal, spite and abuse broke loose. The congre- 
 gation went to pieces immediately. 
 
 Then Browne took to writing Separatist books 
 of a most inflammatory and treasonable character. 
 These were printed in Holland and shipped to 
 England. Two of his friends were hanged for 
 circulating them. 
 
 After a while Browne got tired of Holland. 
 Wishing to return to England he changed his 
 opinions, recanted, agreed to obey the Church of 
 England, and was allowed to come home. He 
 broke out again, however, and was arrested. 
 When warned that he might be hanged if he con- 
 tinued this violence, Browne agreed to become 
 ordained and lived for thirty years afterwards 
 as a parish clergyman of the Church of England. 
 This abandonment by their leader was a terrible 
 blow to the Separatists of England, who had 
 prided themselves on being called **Brownists.'' 
 
204 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Very different in character were the next lead- 
 ers of the movement, Henry Barrow and John 
 Greenwood. Of their sincerity there was never 
 any question. Barrow spent most of his life in 
 prison, but wrote continuously. Greenwood di- 
 rected a congregation in Southwark, London, un- 
 til he also was thrown into jail for attacking the 
 Queen. 
 
 Both men were tried and sentenced to death. 
 Elizabeth refused to allow them to be hanged. 
 Barrow and Greenwood mistook the royal clem- 
 ency for weakness. They issued some more 
 pamphlets, so revolutionary, so seditious and so 
 gross in their accusations that they could not be 
 overlooked. Elizabeth gave her consent, and both 
 men were hanged. The Queen regretted her de- 
 cision, however, and said to the bishops who had 
 urged the sentence, 
 
 *^My Lords, it is a sad matter when good men 
 are put to death in my realm ! ' ' 
 
 She never permitted any execution of Separa- 
 tists thereafter. 
 
 The Queen ^s combined pity and sternness had 
 their effect. Browne had conformed. Barrow 
 and Greenwood were dead. Two of the colpor- 
 teurs of seditious literature had been hanged. A 
 third confessed and received the royal pardon. 
 The most unyielding members had emigrated to 
 Holland. 
 
 When Elizabeth died, in 1603, the Separatists 
 hoped to find a milder monarch in James I. They 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 205 
 
 were mistaken. The Stuart king feared the new 
 sect, and, like most weak men, he loved to bully 
 the weaker. At the Hampton Court Conference, 
 he announced, 
 
 *'I will make them conform, or I will harry 
 them out of this land, or else worse.'' 
 
 The exodus of the Pilgrim Fathers was the di- 
 rect result of this policy of James I. 
 
 Several small communities of Separatists had 
 developed in a small triangle of country where 
 the counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and 
 Lincolnshire join. The most important was at 
 Scrooby. Richard Clyfton was its pastor, John 
 Robinson its teacher, "William Brewster its elder 
 and William Bradford its strongest layman. 
 From this congregation the Pilgrim Fathers came. 
 A second group, which also played a part in the 
 history of America, was at Gainsborough, and 
 John Smyth was its pastor. 
 
 The troubles of the Separatists grew heavier 
 and heavier. The Puritans did not love them. 
 The Presbyterians regarded them as a thorn in 
 the flesh. The Church persecuted them. The 
 magistrates suspected them as traitors. They sent 
 a petition to James I, but the King curtly an- 
 swered that if they would not conform *^they 
 must dispose of themselves and their families 
 some other ways." 
 
 Exile became compulsory. Holland was beck- 
 oning them. There were two Separatist congre- 
 gations in Amsterdam. One was the ** Ancient 
 
206 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Church of English Exiles,'* founded in 1594 from 
 Greenwood's congregation and Barrow's friends. 
 The other was a group, under Francis Johnson, 
 which had sailed from England in 1597, with the 
 intention of colonizing Newfoundland, but which 
 had been attacked by pirates and had turned to- 
 wards home ; knowing that they would not be per- 
 mitted to land in England, these Separatists had 
 sailed for Holland. 
 
 Flight from Scrooby and from Gainsborough 
 was more easy to decide upon than to accomplish. 
 It was a life and death matter. In order to leave 
 England, a royal license was necessary. James I 
 was not anxious to be gracious to a sect he hated. 
 The Pilgrims of Scrooby did not dare to ask for a 
 license, but, in 1607, determined to flee secretly. 
 
 They arranged with an English captain to meet 
 them at a small fishing village not far from Bos- 
 ton, in Lincolnshire. Selling all that they could 
 not carry, and becoming *^ pilgrims and wanderers 
 upon the earth," they set forth. They were so 
 afraid of being late that they arrived at Boston 
 several days too early. The captain did not ap- 
 pear until a week after the date appointed. 
 
 This fortnight's delay was expensive, and, what 
 was worse, dangerous. It excited suspicion. The 
 people of Boston asked who these people could 
 be, who could give no account of themselves and 
 seemed to be waiting for something, what, they 
 w^ould not say. 
 
 When the captain finally arrived, he learned of 
 
THE PILGRIMS ON THE MAYFLOWER 
 
 From the decoration in the Boston State House by Henry OHver Walber. 
 
THE PlI (.RIMS VTTEMPT TO ESCAPE TO HOLLAND 
 
 Fortunately for the Pilgrims, Bradford was one of those who escaped from the officers 
 ot the crown and reached the Dutch ship and from Holland was able to make better 
 arrangements for assisting those who remained behind to follow him. 
 
 From a painting by George H. Broiighion R.A. 
 
 THE FIRST THANKSGIVING IN AMERICA 
 
 Scarcely had the Pilgrims landed when a few gathered together, gave earnest thanks 
 for safe deliverance from the perils of the sea, and asked a blessing upon their new 
 colony. 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 207 
 
 this talk. He realized the risk he was running 
 in carrying suspected persons who had no license 
 to leave. As soon as the Pilgrims were all on 
 board, he turned back into the harbor, betrayed 
 the would-be exiles to the authorities, and the Pil- 
 grims were led through the streets of Boston in 
 derision. 
 
 The Boston magistrates, however, were inclined 
 towards Puritanism rather than towards the 
 Church. They treated the Pilgrims with as little 
 harshness as the laws would allow. They could 
 not allow them to sail without a royal license, of 
 course, and they had no right to give such. So, 
 putting Bradford, Brewster and five other of the 
 leaders in prison, the magistrates released the 
 rest. 
 
 This might be merciful, but it was but a mod- 
 erate sort of mercy. It left the Scrooby men and 
 women to wander homeless on the Lincolnshire 
 fens during a severe winter. Some of the towns- 
 folk of Boston and some of the country-folk of the 
 fens took pity on these hapless refugees and gave 
 them shelter and food, in charity. Nevertheless, 
 many died. 
 
 In the spring of 1608, another attempt was 
 made. This time, the contract was made with a 
 Dutch captain, who would not be tempted to be- 
 tray them to the English authorities. In order to 
 avoid reawakening suspicion in Boston, the place 
 chosen for the embarkation was a lonely moor- 
 
208 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 land shore on the Humber, between Grimsby and 
 Hull. 
 
 The men marched the weary miles on foot, sleep- 
 ing in the open, for they dared not ask for shelter, 
 lest the alarm should be raised. Their only aim 
 was a desire to worship in their own way, their 
 only crime was an attack upon the way that others 
 worshiped. Yet, for this, they were stealing 
 across the fens like hunted criminals, fearing that 
 every cottage light might be a signal to their foes, 
 that every hoof -beat on the road might be bring- 
 ing news of the betrayal of their plans. 
 
 The women and children were sent off in a small 
 sailing boat, that they might reach the embarking 
 point with less fatigue. But the day was stormy, 
 the sea was rough and most of the women were 
 seasick. They begged for a quiet night's sleep. 
 
 The boatmen were unwilling, for they were re- 
 sponsible for the safe arrival of their charges, 
 but the women were in such distress that they 
 agreed. In order to be well hidden, they ran the 
 boat up a narrow creek in the muddy fen coim- 
 try, a creek up which none of the boatmen had 
 ever been. 
 
 "When the tide went down, the boat rested on 
 the mud. Heavily laden, she sank into the suck- 
 ing ooze so deeply that, at the next high tide, 
 she did not rise. The mud gripped her fast. The 
 water rose over the gunwales, ruining most of the 
 provisions which had been prepared for the voy- 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 209 
 
 age and soaking many of the bundles which con- 
 tained the Pilgrims' all. 
 
 This caused a fatal delay. The Dutch skip- 
 per arrived at the appointed spot, just at dawn, 
 for he knew that he was carrying a dangerous 
 cargo, and did not want to wait off shore a sec- 
 ond longer than was necessary to board his pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 But the women and the children were not there ! 
 
 In all haste, he sent one of his boats away to 
 fetch the laggards, which left him with but one 
 boat to transfer the other passengers to his ship 
 from the shore. 
 
 He had just taken the first boat-load aboard 
 when he saw a strong body of horsemen come gal- 
 loping over the hill. 
 
 Not wanting to be clapped into prison, the 
 Dutch skipper recalled his boats, hoisted anchor, 
 made sail and stood away, just as the King's of- 
 ficers reached the beach. They waved a paper and 
 beckoned him to return, but the Dutch skipper 
 threw a piece of canvas over his stern, so that 
 the name of his vessel could not be read, and 
 headed for the choppy waters of the North Sea. 
 The weather was ugly and speedily developed into 
 a storm, which drove the little craft to the coast 
 of Norway, where she was all but wrecked, but, 
 after much delay, she reached Amsterdam in 
 safety. 
 
 The ofiicers were unable to do anything. They 
 could not arrest the Pilgrims who had not em- 
 
210 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 barked, for as yet they had done nothing illegal. 
 They were compelled to return to Boston, while 
 those of the men who had been left behind went 
 to the rescue of the women and children, still wait- 
 ing by their water-logged boat stuck in a muddy 
 creek. 
 
 Fortunately for the Pilgrims, Bradford was 
 one of those who had reached the Dutch ship, and, 
 from Holland, he was able to make better arrange- 
 ments for the journey. Most of the Pilgrims 
 who remained were plundered of all they had, or 
 were compelled to sell even their spare clothing 
 to buy food. Finally, by the kindly blindness of 
 the Boston magistrates, all the surviving members 
 of the Scrooby congregation made their way to 
 Holland, although penniless. 
 
 The Gainsborough congregation emigrated 
 without any such disasters. Its pastor, John 
 Smyth, had been a clergyman of the Church un- 
 til a couple of years before, and was not as well 
 known as a Separatist. The emigrants were 
 fewer in number and less conspicuous. They 
 reached Amsterdam in the summer of 1608, while 
 Bradford was trying to collect the scattered mem- 
 bers of the Scrooby flock. 
 
 The Pilgrims decided not to join the *^ Ancient 
 Church of English Exiles,'^ but continued their 
 own congregation under the pastorate of John 
 Eobinson. For this independence they were soon 
 devoutly thankful. 
 
 Soon after their arrival the controversy over 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 211 
 
 the minister 's wife *s hat arose. This proved more 
 important than so trifling a matter would suggest. 
 It led to the coming of Pilgrims to America. 
 
 Francis Johnson was pastor of the Ancient 
 Church when the Pilgrims arrived. A short time 
 before their coming, he had married a widow. 
 The lady preferred gayer colors in her dresses 
 than most of the godly Separatists approved. 
 
 One Sunday, Mistress Johnson appeared in the 
 meeting house with a velvet hat. The council of 
 the church discussed the matter gravely and sol- 
 emnly, and finally gave a decision that the hat 
 was too **topish" or showy. Johnson defended 
 his wife. The quarrel raged for three years, and 
 finally the church split over the hat, the stricter 
 party, under Ainsworth, forming a congregation 
 of its own. 
 
 The Johnson congregation played a minor part 
 in American colonization. Blackwall became pas- 
 tor on the death of Johnson in 1618, and under- 
 took to lead his flock to Virginia. He took ship 
 with his fellow-members to London, but the 
 Separatists were promptly arrested, not having 
 a license to sail. The Virginia Company did not 
 want any religious quarreling in Jamestown, and 
 told those who wished to go that they must submit 
 to the bishops. 
 
 A few did so, since they had abandoned their 
 homes in Holland, and England would neither 
 allow them to land nor permit them to sail. 
 '* Having secured the blessing of the Archbishop 
 
212 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 by ill means,'' as one of their leaders said, 
 they grew ashamed of themselves and began to 
 quarrel violently with each other. The Company 
 had little interest in them, the bishops sneered at 
 them, their fellow-passengers despised them. 
 They left London ill-led and worse equipped. 
 Many died of disease or hunger before reaching 
 Virginia. The few that survived found themselves 
 regarded with suspicion and aversion, and were 
 eventually absorbed. 
 
 The Gainsborough congregation fared little bet- 
 ter under the leadership of its eccentric pastor 
 John Smyth. He reached the point, at last, of 
 declaring the English translation of the Bible to 
 be useless, and openly asserted that no one who 
 had not read it in the original Hebrew and Greek 
 could be sure of salvation. He became a violent 
 opponent of Calvinism, which cost him most of his 
 members and his church fell to pieces. 
 
 Pastor Johnson's wife's hat and Smyth's at- 
 tack on the English version of the Bible caused 
 an entire change of plan on the part of the Pil- 
 grim Fathers. Their pastor, John Robinson, was 
 the ablest and most sincerely spiritual man of all 
 the leaders of the English Separatists in Amster- 
 dam. That godly men should worry more over a 
 woman's hat than about their faith was more than 
 he could stand. He decided to shake the dust of 
 Amsterdam off his feet. 
 
 In February, 1609, Robinson sent a petition 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 213 
 
 signed by one hundred of Ms followers to the 
 burgomaster of the city of Leyden, asking permis- 
 sion to settle there. As the Pilgrims were known 
 to be good men and honest workers, the petition 
 was granted and the Scrooby congregation left 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 Between Amsterdam and Leyden there was an 
 enormous difference. Leyden was famous for its 
 learning and its progressiveness. In the year that 
 the Pilgrims went there, public free schools were 
 organized (free schools were not organized in 
 England for more than a century later). There 
 was a wide equality in franchise. Toleration 
 prevailed both in political and rehgious matters. 
 There was freedom of speech and freedom of let- 
 ters. Idleness was regarded as shameful, the rich- 
 est burgher worked as hard as the poorest laborer. 
 
 Leyden thus presented to the eyes of the Pil- 
 grims a condition more advanced than any Eng- 
 lish city of that time. In England, all education 
 was still in the hands of the Church. Neither 
 political or religious toleration prevailed under 
 James I. The censorship of all printed matter 
 was a prerogative of the Crown. Local appoint- 
 ments were by royal favor. The aristocracy of 
 England was a landed aristocracy, and lived upon 
 its rents and holdings. 
 
 When, later, the Pilgrim Fathers came to settle 
 in a new land, they brought with them rather the 
 customs of the land in which they had dwelt peace- 
 fully for ten years than those of the land from 
 
214* THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 which they had been exiled. Plymouth was not 
 all Dutch, nor yet all English, but a blend of the 
 two. 
 
 Yet Leyden was not a perfect abiding place. 
 The climate did not suit the English immigrants. 
 There was no land to spare for the Scrooby farm- 
 ers, who had been compelled to become artisans, 
 or even laborers. The guilds of the Dutch mer- 
 chants were close corporations, which did not ad- 
 mit foreigners on an equal basis. 
 
 The Pilgrims had a greater fault to find with 
 Leyden than all these. Their children were be- 
 coming Dutch. In their own phrase : * * The chil- 
 dren were getting the reins off their necks and 
 departing from their parents.'' 
 
 The Dutch Sunday, too, was a trial to them. 
 In Holland, the standard of morality was high 
 and the people were industrious ; hence they saw 
 no harm in innocent amusement. In England un- 
 der the Stuarts, the standard of morality was low 
 and laziness was widespread; hence the Pilgrim 
 Fathers had been brought up to regard any amuse- 
 ment as sinful. To use their own words again: 
 *Hhe children preferred to play than to behave 
 in godly wise." 
 
 Again Eobinson urged a move. The Twelve 
 Years' Truce with Spain was coming to an end. 
 Leyden, near the sea, might catch the worst of the 
 storm. A Catholic reaction in Germany had al- 
 ready set aflame that religious hatred which soon 
 was to blaze into the dreadful Thirty Years ' War. 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 216 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers decided to depart from Hol- 
 land. 
 
 Robinson opened correspondence with both the 
 London and the Plymouth Companies, control- 
 ling ''Virginia-^ and ** Northern Virginia'' re- 
 spectively. In 1617 the London Company offered 
 them a grant on condition that they should take 
 the Oath of Allegiance, which included acceptance 
 of the Crown as authority in religious matters. 
 It was to avoid this very oath that the Pilgrims 
 had exiled themselves from their own land. 
 
 Robinson drew up a Declaration of Faith which 
 was so cleverly worded as to seem an agreement, 
 though it was not. James I, known as *Hhe wis- 
 est fool in Christendom,'' saw the weak point at 
 once. Through the Privy Council he put this 
 pointed question: 
 
 **Who shall make your ministers?" 
 
 To this, even Robinson could not make a suit- 
 able answer, for the Pilgrims were Congrega- 
 tionalists and denied the authority of bishops. 
 
 Finally, by a very roundabout method, a patent 
 was granted to them through John Whincop. The 
 royal consent was not given, but James I declared 
 that he would not molest the emigrants, if they 
 lived at peace with their neighbors. While this 
 plan was under discussion, a certain Thomas Wes- 
 ton came to Leyden, bringing a grant from the 
 London Company to the Merchant Adventurers, 
 under the name of John Pierce. The WTiincop 
 offer lapsed. 
 
216 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Weston's part in the affair is hard to untangle. 
 Tradition states that he was secretly acting for 
 the Plymouth Company (Council of New Eng- 
 land) while outwardly working for the London 
 Company. The Pilgrims concluded an arrange- 
 ment with the Merchant Adventurers, with Weston 
 as go-between. 
 
 Briefly, the plan was based on the cost of trans- 
 portation to America. It cost ten pounds to send 
 each emigrant, and each man who went was rated 
 at one share. Each ten pounds subscribed also 
 counted as one share. For seven years the colo- 
 nists were to be fed and clothed out of the common 
 stock and, during that time, the product of all their 
 labors should be paid in to that stock. At the end 
 of the seven years, the property was to be divided, 
 each member, whether colonist or capitalist, re- 
 ceiving according to the number of his shares. 
 
 To modem ideas it seems strange to value seven 
 years of the life of such a man as William Brad- 
 ford as worth ten pounds, and still more unfair 
 to make no difference between Governor and un- 
 skilled laborer. Yet, in the light of those times, 
 it seemed fair enough. The history of Virginia 
 was a long record of investments which brought 
 nothing in return. As for the Pilgrims, any sys- 
 tem which guaranteed transportation and seven 
 year's food seemed satisfactory, at first. 
 
 When all was ready, when many of the exiles 
 had sold their houses and abandoned their busi- 
 nesses, the leaders of the Pilgrims learned that 
 
WANDERINGS OF THE PILGRIMS 217 
 
 Weston was tricking them, and that the Merchant 
 Adventurers had changed the conditions. It was 
 too late to retreat. 
 
 In July, 1620, in an unseaworthy ship, the 
 Speedwell, the first detachment of the Pilgrims 
 sailed from Delft Haven. They went direct to 
 London, where some English Separatists were 
 awaiting them in the Mayflower ^ a ship which had 
 been chartered by the Merchant Adventurers. 
 
 On their arrival in London the Pilgrim colo- 
 nists learned of the changes which had been made 
 at the last moment. Many refused to go. Wes- 
 ton grew angry at this interference in his secret 
 plots and refused to have anything further to do 
 with the Pilgrims, bidding them ** stand on their 
 own legs." 
 
 After they had collected every penny possible, 
 the Pilgrims were still lacking a hundred pounds 
 of the funds needed to allow the ships to get away. 
 They were compelled to sell most of the cargo of 
 butter and cheese they had brought from Holland, 
 part of which they had intended to use for food, 
 and part of which was set aside for the purchase 
 of arms and ammunition. Thus meagerly sup- 
 plied, they set out from London. 
 
 The Speedwell was unfit for a long voyage. The 
 ^two ships were compelled to put in at Dartmouth. 
 After some repairs were made, they set out again. 
 But the Speedwell soon sprang another leak, and, 
 after having reached 300 miles out to sea, the 
 Pilgrims were forced to put back to Plymouth. 
 
218 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Accusations were not lacking that the Speedwell's 
 accidents were deliberate, but these were never 
 proved. It was decided to leave the unseaworthy 
 craft behind. 
 
 Exactly 102 persons crowded into the May- 
 flower, a craft of some 180 tons. The vessel had 
 been bought cheaply and was none too seaworthy. 
 Less than a dozen of her passengers belonged to 
 the old Scrooby Congregation. Only thirty-five 
 have been identified as belonging to the Leyden 
 Group. Most of the colonists joined in England, 
 among which settlers were Priscilla MuUins and 
 John Alden, romantic figures of early New Eng- 
 land life. John Carver was in charge. Captain 
 Miles Standish, a professional soldier of fortune, 
 was military commander. 
 
 It was on September 6, 1620, that the Mayflower 
 set out on her historic voyage, much too late in 
 the year for such a desperate venture as awaited 
 them. Yet that little vessel, with her 102 colo- 
 nists, was destined to become the most famous 
 ship in American history. Many other vessels 
 crossed the Atlantic, both before and after, with 
 men as resolute aboard, yet the names of the ships 
 are forgotten. The glory of the Mayflower re- 
 mains. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ON" BUGGED PLYMOUTH SHOEE 
 
 Althougli the sailing of the Mayflower was a de- 
 cisive date in the founding of New England, it is 
 not to be thought that the Pilgrims were the first 
 colonists in those parts, still less the discoverers 
 of the region. 
 
 As early as 1602, Gilbert and Gosnold reached 
 Maine with 60 colonists, with the intention of mak- 
 ing a permanent colony and persuading Elizabetli 
 to give them a grant from the land given to Ea- 
 leigh, that courtier being out of favor. But the 
 Concord found so rich a cargo of sassafras wood 
 and furs that the colonists returned with the ship 
 to get their share of the gains. 
 
 In 1603, Martin Pring went with two ships to 
 **WhitsonBay'' (probably Plymouth Harbor) and 
 returned in the autumn with a cargo of sassafras 
 wood. In 1605 a most important voyage of ex- 
 ploration was made by Captain George Waymouth 
 in the Archangel, the St. George River being dis- 
 covered and mapped. These voyages were the 
 basis on which the Plymouth Company was or- 
 ganized, and determined the character of the dou- 
 ble Charter of 1606. 
 
 219 
 
220 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 In the autumn of that year Pring discovered 
 the Sagadahoc (Kennebec) River, his reports of 
 which were so glowing that the Popham colony 
 was sent there the following year. This group 
 of settlers formed the first colonization of North 
 Virginia. 
 
 Two vessels, the Gift of God and the Mary and 
 John were sent on this expedition. The former 
 was commanded by Captain George Popham, a 
 nephew of Sir John Popham, the leader of the 
 Plymouth Company; the latter was commanded 
 by Captain Ealeigh Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert. They sailed from Plymouth on June 1, 
 1607, with over a hundred settlers on board. 
 
 A short distance beyond the Azores, the ships 
 were separated in a violent storm. The Mary 
 and John was driven north of Nova Scotia, but 
 on August 7 she reached a small island of the St. 
 George group, which had been agreed upon as a 
 rendezvous. The Gift of God arrived at the point 
 twelve hours later. This ability of English navi- 
 gators to hold a course with such exactitude is of 
 great importance in relation to the Mayflower^ s 
 voyage, thirteen years later. 
 
 On August 16, 1607, after visiting a tribe of In- 
 dians which Waymouth had encountered, and af- 
 ter exploring the Pemaquid Eiver, the two ships 
 arrived at the Sagadahoc Eiver and a site for the 
 colony was chosen. One ship 's crew and half the 
 colonists were set at building a fort, the others 
 were engaged in trading furs, in gathering mus- 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 221 
 
 sel-pearls and in cutting the much-desired sassa- 
 fras wood. 
 
 The Ma7y and John returned in October, with 
 urgent letters asking for more supplies as soon as 
 possible, the Gift of God sailed two months later. 
 She bore a letter from George Popham, giving 
 some extraordinary misinformation about the 
 country. Among other errors he wrote : 
 
 *'So far as relates to commerce, all the natives 
 constantly affirm that in these parts there are nut- 
 megs, mace and cinnamon, besides pitch, Brazil 
 wood, cochineal and ambergris. . . . Besides, they 
 positively assure me that there is a certain sea in 
 the western or opposite part of this province, 
 distant not more than seven days' journey from 
 our fort of St. George in Sagadahoc, a sea large 
 and wide and deep, of the boundaries of which they 
 are wholly ignorant, which cannot be any other 
 than the Southern Sea, reaching to the regions of 
 China, which unquestionably cannot be far from 
 these parts.'' 
 
 It is evident that the route to the Spice Is- 
 lands and China was as eager a quest in the days 
 of the Plymouth Company as in the days of Co- 
 lumbus more than a century before. The refer- 
 ence to ** nutmegs, mace and cinnamon" was in the 
 highest degree absurd, for these are tropical prod- 
 ucts ; Popham had not yet found out what a New 
 England winter was like. The Indian reference 
 to the sea was undoubtedly *^Big Water," as Lake 
 Superior was called. 
 
222 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 The summer had been warm and the autumn 
 bahny, justifying all the praises showered on the 
 climate by earlier explorers. None of these had 
 stayed through a Maine winter. It never oc- 
 curred to the English to imagine that a climate 
 which was so much hotter than their own in sum- 
 mer could be so much colder in the winter. Their 
 houses were poorly constructed and the huge 
 open fireplaces consumed an enormous amount of 
 fuel while giving out but little heat. 
 
 The winter of 1607 was one of the coldest on 
 record. In North Virginia it was appalling. The 
 boats were ice-bound, the settlers dare scarcely 
 go out-of-doors. Scurvy added its terrors to ex- 
 posure. Soon after Christmas, in the vain en- 
 deavor to warm the houses, a serious fire oc- 
 curred, burning several huts and the store-house. 
 Less than half the supply of food was saved. 
 Even on short rations, famine was not far away. 
 
 George Popham, president of the Colony, al- 
 ready an old man, died soon after the fire. Cap- 
 tain Gilbert kept the men at work, got a little com 
 in trade with near-by villages of Indians, man- 
 aged to maintain contentment in spite of the 
 scanty food, and got a cargo of furs and woods 
 ready. 
 
 The relief ship was late. It had been twice de- 
 layed when on the point of sailing, once by the 
 death of Sir John Popham, the leader of the 
 Plymouth Colony, a second time by the death of 
 Sir John Gilbert, another of the leading partners. 
 
^ 
 
 .•A. T 
 
 .f 
 
 ^^ 
 
 y 
 
 A model of tlic AJayiluu'er which shows clearly the small size of this craft and suggests how 
 crowded she must have been with her one hundred and two passengers. 
 
 te 
 
 
 The Mayflower on a bleak Xovcmh.T d;i\- in 1620 entered Provincetow n IlaitiMi The 
 
 exploration amid snow and ice for a proper site for the settlement then began. 
 
 THE MAYFLOWER 
 
THE DUNES OF PROVINCETOWN 
 
 When Standish landed from the Mayflower the bleakness of this barren andlow lyinti 
 land appalled him and two expeditions into the surrounding country convinced hini 
 that no good ground for settlement could there be found. 
 
 \1 MKKRSTEADS ALONG TOWN BROOK 
 Tlie first homes of the Pilgrims were built along the south side of Leyden Street and 
 the gardens ran down to Town Brook. This view shows the sloping lay of the land. 
 In this more pleasant land the Pilgrims found their homestead. 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 223 
 
 This was sorry news. Captain Gilbert — now Sir 
 Raleigh Gilbert — was compelled to go to England, 
 and this left the colonists without any leader. One 
 third of their number had died. None of the rest 
 wished to stay. They embarked upon the supply 
 ships, waiting only long enough to put the furs 
 and wood on board, and sailed for England. 
 
 Thus ended the northern colony upon the Saga- 
 dahoc. 
 
 Between 1608 and 1614 no effort was made 
 toward recolonizing this section. The almost 
 simultaneous deaths of the two Pophams and Gil- 
 bert robbed the Plymouth Company of its most 
 ardent leaders. The returning Popham colonists 
 had given out the impression that the coasts of 
 North Virginia were so cold in winter as to be 
 uninhabitable. 
 
 Yet, during these six years, the Dutch were 
 pushing up the Hudson E-iver Valley, and the 
 French had proved in Acadia and Canada that 
 settlements even further to the north could be 
 maintained in winter. It was clear to the Ply- 
 mouth Company that unless it took some action, 
 all its land would be seized by foreigners. 
 
 In 1614, Captain John Smith and Captain 
 Thomas Hunt were sent to fish, trade for furs and 
 explore in northern Virginia. Smith, as was his 
 nature, gave most of his time to exploration. He 
 mapped the coasts thoroughly, and on his map 
 the words **New England'' first appear, in place 
 
224 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 of ^* North Virginia,'* *^Nonimbega** or ** Can- 
 ada." 
 
 While his superior was away exploring, Cap- 
 tain Hunt took his smaller vessel, and kidnaped 
 twenty-four Indians on Cape Cod. Setting sail at 
 once, before Smith's return, he carried the Indians 
 to Spain, where he sold all but one of them as 
 slaves at a handsome profit. The remaining In- 
 dian, Tisquantum or Squanto, was to play an im- 
 portant part in the life of the Pilgrim Fathers. 
 
 On Smith's return, he was asked to enter the 
 service of the Plymouth Company as *^ Admiral of 
 New England," his pioneer experience being 
 deemed invaluable for the selection of a healthful 
 and sheltered site for a new colony. Two ships 
 were equipped and he set sail in 1615 with a num- 
 ber of laborers and artisans aboard. A site was 
 to be chosen, a fort built, and it was left to Smith 's 
 judgment whether a garrison should be left or not. 
 
 Adventure, however, had marked Captain John 
 Smith for her own. His vessel was attacked and 
 captured by the French. For many months 
 Smith remained on board the enemy's vessel an 
 honored prisoner, but still a prisoner. He was 
 finally set free at Eochelle, and, though penniless, 
 made his way back to England. 
 
 The other vessel of the expedition, under Cap- 
 tain Dormer, made her way successfully to New 
 England. But Dormer was a sailor, not a pioneer. 
 Considering himself unfitted for the important 
 task of deciding on a proper site for a colony, he 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 225 
 
 waited until the autumn in the hope of Smith's 
 reappearance, and then sailed for England with 
 a cargo of furs. 
 
 The following year was marked by the sale of 
 Rolfe's Virginia tobacco crop at a high price. 
 The Plymouth Company remembered that Way- 
 mouth and other explorers of Northern Virginia 
 had reported Indian tobacco fields in Maine. Sir 
 Fernando Gorges, the new head of the Plymouth 
 Company, sought a new charter, but he was at- 
 tacked tooth and nail by the Virginia Company, 
 which wanted to keep tobacco as a monopoly. 
 Gorges sent out trading vessels which were little 
 better than pirates and raided the ships and posts 
 of Virginia. 
 
 In 1617 the ships secretly sent out by Gorges 
 brought back strange news. A terrible pestilence 
 had raged up and down the coasts of New Eng- 
 land, slaying the Indians by hundreds. In the 
 words of one captain ^^the coasts were void of in- 
 habitants. ' ' Traders confirmed this news the year 
 following. The time seemed ripe for New Eng- 
 land colonization. In the spring of 1620 a char- 
 ter was secured for the Council of New England, 
 the name being taken from John Smith 's map. 
 
 This charter was even more disregardful of the 
 rights of others than even the famous charter of 
 1606. It bestowed on the Council of New Eng- 
 land all the territory from 40° to 48°, or from 
 Philadelphia to Newfoundland, and extended from 
 sea to sea. It included the Dutch settlements on 
 
226 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 the Delaware and the Hudson, French Acadia, 
 and even that definitely settled French territory 
 on the St. Lawrence of which Quebec was the 
 key. 
 
 By no conceivable argument could James I have 
 justified his grant under **the divine right of 
 kings. '^ He did not try to do so. Speaking for 
 the King, Sir George Calvert, Secretary of State, 
 claimed that all this territory belonged to England 
 by right of conquest, the conqueror in the case 
 being Sir Samuel Argall, who had demolished the 
 French settlements on Mt. Desert and in Acadia 
 and who had compelled the Dutch on the Hudson 
 to run up an English flag. 
 
 Years of argument followed, years which gave 
 to New England the time to develop in a man- 
 ner wholly different from that which had been in- 
 tended by the royal grant. The Council for New 
 England was limited to forty members. It would 
 have thriven from the start but for the fact that 
 the Virginia Company was its open foe. Capital 
 was held back from the investment, since, by a 
 change in politics, the grant might be forfeited. 
 
 This handicap led the Council of New Eng- 
 land to reimburse itself for the steady drain on 
 its resources by selling patents of land. It was 
 none too scrupulous in taking money for lands 
 which had already been given to some one else, a 
 matter all the easier in view of the confusion of 
 •New England geography. Its main desire was to 
 get settlers on the land, and the Pilgrim Fathers 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 227 
 
 bid fair to be good colonists. All this lends color 
 to the story that Weston, acting secretly for the 
 Council of New England, was behind the follow- 
 ing extraordinary series of events which attended 
 the sailing of the Mayfloiver. 
 
 By a curious succession of accidents, in which 
 the actions of the captain of the Speedtvell play 
 a part, the Pilgrim Fathers were delayed in start- 
 ing. The year was far advanced when they left 
 England and the little Mayflower ran into the se- 
 vere autunmal gales. There was much sickness 
 on the ship. One of the colonists died, but his 
 place on the list of 102 was taken by a baby boy, 
 bom on the voyage, and christened ^^Oceanus" 
 Hopkins. 
 
 The patent which the Pilgrim Fathers held 
 through the Merchant Adventurers gave them land 
 in the domain of the London Company, which con- 
 trolled Virginia. Yet the Mayflower was navi- 
 gated steadily to the north. On November 9, 1620, 
 the Pilgrims caught sight of land, and, whether by 
 accident or design, found themselves two days 
 later amid the dangerous shoals and tide-rips 
 between Cape Cod and Nantucket Island. 
 
 How did it happen that they were there ! Why 
 did they strike the coast of Massachusetts when 
 supposed to be heading for Chesapeake Bay? It 
 is difficult to believe that Captain Jones of the 
 Mayflower could be so incredibly poor a navigator 
 and so execrably bad a sailor as to be 500 miles 
 out of his reckoning. Such an excuse is all the 
 
228 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 more unlikely when it is remembered that, time 
 after time, English vessels separated by storm 
 had met at some exact rendezvous, only a few 
 hours' difference between them. 
 
 There is strong suspicion that Captain Jones 
 had made a secret arrangement with Weston, who, 
 in turn, was acting privately for the Council of 
 New England. The suspicion becomes all the 
 stronger when it is noted that the Mayflower, try- 
 ing to escape the shoals, sailed north instead of 
 south, turned that great hook of land which is 
 now known as Cape Cod, and ran into the shel- 
 tered stretch of water now known as Province- 
 town Hai'bor. There, on November 12, 1620 (No- 
 vember 22, New Style) the Pilgrim Fathers 
 landed, and there their American history was 
 begun. 
 
 One sight of that naked and wind-whipped shore 
 of Cape Cod, seen at its worst in a bleak Novem- 
 ber wind, convinced the colonists that this was 
 no haven of refuge, no mild tobacco-growing re- 
 gion such as they had planned to inhabit. They 
 turned upon Captain Jones and bade him bring 
 them to the port whither they were bound, to the 
 land for which they had a grant. 
 
 The captain refused bluntly. He declared that 
 the provisions were not sufficient, that his ship 
 had been too much battered by the bad weather, 
 and refused to take the responsibility of setting 
 out to sea with a shipload of passengers, many 
 of them women and more of them sick, in the 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 229 
 
 dead of winter. Such a reply suggests inevitably 
 that Jones knew very well what he was doing, and 
 never intended to take the Mayflower to Virginia 
 at all. 
 
 It was a desperate situation for the Pilgrims. 
 There they were, on a solitary and barren coast, 
 hundreds of miles from any other white men, with 
 no charter from the King, no patent for the re- 
 gion in which they found themselves, burdened 
 with debt, pledged in advance to seven years ' labor 
 for others, short of food, harassed by a ship-cap- 
 tain who refused to take them to their proper 
 port, and with a cold sleet falling — direful proph- 
 ecy of the coming winter. None of the men had 
 pioneer experience, 29 of the 102 colonists were 
 women or girls. 
 
 As soon as it became evident that they must 
 stay in the region whither they had come, the 
 colonists drew up a solemn Compact which formed 
 them into a civil body politic. Forty-one settlers 
 signed. It was not precisely a constitution, but 
 it had the force of one. John Carver was con- 
 firmed as Governor. The obligation to the Mer- 
 chant Adventurers was repeated. Nowhere did the 
 Compact suggest the intention of founding a sepa- 
 rate state. Allegiance to the Crown of England 
 was asserted and the law of the colony was to be 
 English law. It was provided that the Compact 
 should be binding only until the King's pleasure 
 be known. 
 
 The Mayflower had sighted land November 9, 
 
230 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 1620 ( Old Style ) . The first landing had been made 
 on the shores of Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, 
 on November 12. Since Captain Jones would not 
 take them to Virginia, there was no time to lose 
 in finding winter quarters. 
 
 Captain Miles Standish at once brought to- 
 gether the little band of soldiers he had drilled 
 on board ship and set out to explore Cape Cod 
 peninsula. Its bleakness appalled him. On that 
 barren and low-lying land there was no shelter 
 from the icy blast. He found no river of conse- 
 quence, nor any fertile fields. Two expeditions 
 brought nothing but discouragement. 
 
 The weeks of this search passed miserably on 
 board the Mayflower, The Leyden colonists — the 
 original Pilgrim Fathers — held together, the Lon- 
 don and Plymouth colonists complained bitterly 
 because they had been brought to this northern 
 shore instead of to Virginia. Carver, Brewster 
 and Standish, however, formed a trio of strong 
 men, well able to keep order, and disaffection 
 never proceeded any further than grumbling. 
 
 On December 6, Captain Standish set out by 
 boat on a third expedition. He had a brush with 
 the Nauset Indians the next day, and, on De- 
 cember 8, found himself off the high land of Mano- 
 met Point. This gave hope of shelter under the 
 lee of the headland, for the weather was terribly 
 cold, the spray freezing on oars and sails. The 
 wind was rising and the sea growing rough. 
 
 Standish pressed on, despite the warnings of 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 231 
 
 tlie sailors, for he was steering for Plymouth Har- 
 bor, as marked on Captain John Smith's map, and 
 was sure that the haven could not be far away. 
 Off Rocky Point, a heavy squall struck the boat, 
 dismasting her. The men took to their oars, and, 
 a strong tide aiding them, they were swept into 
 Plymouth Harbor and anchored in the lee of 
 Clark's Island. Next day they repaired the dam- 
 ages to their boat, and the day following, being 
 Sunday, they rested. 
 
 Early on Monday (December 11, 1620, Old 
 Style ; December 21, New Style) they made for the 
 shore. Sounding as they went, they found good 
 harborage for the small vessels of that time. Run- 
 ning down a little distance into the harbor, they 
 prepared to land. 
 
 This date (usually misplaced at December 22) 
 was the first landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth 
 Harbor. The place was not at Plymouth Rock, 
 but more to the north. The Mayflower was not in 
 the ofifing, but, at that time, anchored in Province- 
 town Bay. The landing was confined to Captain 
 Miles Standish and the few members of his search 
 party. 
 
 As might have been expected, the judgment of 
 Captain John Smith, the great Virginia pioneer, 
 proved sound. Plymouth Harbor was, as Stand- 
 ish affirmed, ^*an excellent situation" for a colony. 
 The Pilgrims found cornfields which had been 
 abandoned by the Indians since the great epidemic, 
 and a good stream of fresh water ran near by. 
 
232 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Standish returned to the sMp with the good 
 news. On December 16 (Old Style), the May- 
 flower sailed across the bay and dropped her an- 
 chor in Plymouth Harbor. On December 19 the 
 site for the fort was chosen (where the town of 
 Plymouth now stands) and on December 25, the 
 first building was begun. The settlement was 
 christened New Plymouth, after the last town the 
 Pilgrims had touched in England and also from 
 the name on Smith's map. 
 
 January was wet and stormy. Building prog- 
 ress was slow. Indians were seen lurking in the 
 woods. A high platform was built on which some 
 cannon were mounted, for Standish had found the 
 Nauset natives unfriendly. There was cause for 
 this, since the Indians kidnaped by Captain Hunt, 
 six years before, belonged to this tribe. 
 
 Sickness soon set in. Scurvy — that invariable 
 plague of communities living on dried or preserved 
 foods — ^broke out at once. Exposure claimed so 
 many victims that, at one time, Brewster, Standish 
 and four other of the sturdiest men alone were 
 able to keep on their feet and to bury the dead. 
 The Mayflower was turned into a hospital. By 
 spring, 53 of the 102 colonists had died. The 
 women suffered severely. Of the 18 wives who had 
 landed near Plymouth Eock at Christmas, only 
 4 were aUve in March. 
 
 Then came a glint of hope ! 
 
 An Indian came boldly into the camp, and to 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 233 
 
 the amazement of the Pilgrims, uttered the Eng- 
 lish word — 
 
 ^^Welcome!'' 
 
 He gave his name as Samoset, and stated that 
 he came from the island of Monhegan off the 
 coast of Maine. He had picked up a few Eng- 
 lish words from the traders and fishermen. More- 
 over, he had learned from the secret agents of Sir 
 Fernando Gorges that wherever white men were, 
 there was an opportunity to trade furs. More 
 striking still, he declared that he could bring to 
 the camp another Indian, who spoke English 
 fluently. 
 
 A few days later, he reappeared with a com- 
 rade. This proved to be Squanto, who had been 
 kidnaped by Hunt, and who, alone, had not been 
 sold into slavery, but had been taken to Eng- 
 land. In 1620 he had been restored to his own 
 country in one of Gorges' ships. 
 
 Squanto proved friendly and undertook to ar- 
 range an alliance. He was as good as his word. 
 After an exchange of gifts. Chief Massasoit of 
 the Wampanoag tribe came to the camp with a 
 number of his braves. He agreed to trade exclu- 
 sively at Plymouth on condition that the Pilgrims 
 agree to help him against his tribal enemies. 
 Squanto also arranged an alliance with the Po- 
 kanoket Indians, to the south. These treaties, 
 which insured a fur trade monopoly, were one of 
 the principal causes of the prosperity of the Plym- 
 outh Colony. 
 
234 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 In spite of the aid of Squanto, who showed them 
 how to till roughly prepared land, who purchased 
 seed-corn for them, who tried to teach the white 
 men how to trap and fish, hunger dogged them 
 steadily. Yet the seas off their coasts were the 
 greatest fishing grounds in the world, the shores 
 were covered with shell-fish, the rivers alive with 
 eels. Owing to the Indian depopulation, the woods 
 were full of game. But the Pilgrims were farm- 
 ers or artisans. Not one of them had ever shot 
 an animal or caught a fish in the sea. They 
 starved in the midst of plenty. But for Squanto, 
 few would have lived to harvest the crop. 
 
 To make matters worse, the colony had started 
 on a communistic basis. This brought disaster 
 in New England as quickly is it had in Virginia. 
 The younger men saw the products of their labor 
 benefiting other men's families, the industrious 
 bore the burdens of the lazy, the able men ranked 
 no better than the mean and ignorant, and the 
 women resented being turned into slaves for the 
 community, washing and cooking not only for 
 their own husbands but for all the men of the 
 place. 
 
 As in all communistic states, where personal 
 incentive is low, the output of work was small. 
 The Pilgrims were picked men, they were used 
 to toil, they were united by their faith, they were 
 well led and governed, they had the supreme good 
 fortune of finding land already cleared for plant- 
 ing, they had Squanto to teach them frontier ways, 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 235 
 
 yet they could not grow food enough to feed them- 
 selves. When, two years later, communism was 
 abandoned, the food situation changed as if by 
 magic. On the very first summer after its aboli- 
 tion, the colony not only had grain enough to eat, 
 but plenty to store and to sell. 
 
 Governor Carver died during the summer, be- 
 ing succeeded by William Bradford. In the au- 
 tumn a ship arrived bringing 35 new settlers, but 
 little food. The ship was loaded with beaver- 
 skins and hurried away, with an urgent request 
 to the Merchant Adventurers for supplies. The 
 vessel, however, was captured by a French cruiser, 
 its cargo confiscated and its return delayed. 
 
 An incident occurred in the winter which well 
 illustrates the Pilgrim spirit. On Christmas 
 morning, 1621, Governor Bradford summoned the 
 workers as usual, and prepared to begin the day's 
 labor. Some of the new arrivals refused on the 
 ground that Christmas was a holy day. This was 
 in flat opposition to the religious principles of the 
 colony, which regarded all church festivals — ex- 
 cept Sunday — as * ^popish.'' 
 
 Bradford, as a stickler for the rights of con- 
 science, did not force the men to work. On his 
 return at noon, however, he found them playing 
 at bowls. The Governor promptly took the balls 
 away, saying sternly that his conscience would 
 not permit him to allow those who deemed Christ- 
 mas a holy day to desecrate it by games. Most 
 of the men went to work that afternoon. 
 
236 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 The incident is of importance as illustrating 
 the difference between the Pilgrim spirit and the 
 Puritan spirit, as the latter developed a few years 
 later. Bradford censured the bowl-players be- 
 cause they were not true to their own principles, 
 the Puritans dealt harshly with people who dis- 
 agreed with the principles of Puritanism. The 
 Pilgrims admitted the right of religious liberty, 
 the Puritans denied it. 
 
 A second incident shows the Pilgrim manner 
 of dealing with Indians. They paid the lowest 
 possible prices for furs, but they always paid and 
 they dealt fairly. "When Massasoit fell ill, one 
 of the Pilgrims went to his hut and nursed him 
 back to health. The treaties of alliance were 
 honestly kept. Yet, when the chief of the Nar- 
 ragansett Indians sent to Plymouth a bundle of 
 arrows tied together with a snake-skin as a declar- 
 ation of war, Bradford showed no fear. He filled 
 the skin with powder and bullets and sent it back 
 with a sharp message of defiance. The Narra- 
 gansetts regarded the returned skin with super- 
 stitious fear, and, deeming it **bad medicine," 
 let the white men alone. 
 
 Though the Pilgrims were on half rations all 
 that winter, they were beginning to learn how 
 take care of themselves. Substantial houses had 
 been built. Piles of firewood had been cut for 
 fuel. The crisp weather of New England stimu- 
 lated energy, and the Indians had taught them 
 how to cure scurvy. When the spring of 1622 ar- 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 237 
 
 rived, a sturdy lot of New Englanders were ready 
 to push onward vigorously. 
 
 In May, 1622, Thomas Weston, the double- 
 dealer, came again on the scene. Presumably as a 
 reward for his trickery in regard to the Pilgrims, 
 the Council of New England had granted him a 
 patent for some land north of the Plymouth Colony 
 and including the southern portion of what now is 
 Boston Harbor. He brought 67 colonists *^and 
 not a bite of bread.'' 
 
 Weston's colonists were not Pilgrims. Far 
 from it. Bradford called them *^ loose and godless 
 fellows." The description was not far wrong. 
 They lived on the charity of the Pilgrims all sum- 
 mer, stole a large part of the green com in the 
 early autumn and then moved north to their own 
 holding, settling at Wessagusset (Weymouth), on 
 Boston Harbor. 
 
 Their conduct in their new home was not edify- 
 ing. They begged from the Indians, they stole 
 from the Indians, they maltreated the Indians, 
 and, since there was not a woman among them, 
 *Hhey took unto themselves wives of the heathen." 
 The neighboring tribes decided to massacre all 
 the whites at Wessagusset. They would have 
 done so, without question, had they not also con- 
 ceived the idea of arousing the Pokanokets and 
 the Wampanoags to massacre the Pilgrims simul- 
 taneously, and thus sweep every white man from 
 the shore. 
 
 The honesty of the Pilgrims now reaped its re- 
 
238 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ward. The friendly tribes refused, and warned 
 their allies at Plymouth. Although the Weston 
 colonists had robbed the Pilgrims and misbe- 
 haved atrociously, still they were Englishmen. In 
 March, 1623, Standish and a party of soldiers were 
 sent to Wessagusset. He found the settlement in 
 a deplorable state. The so-called *^forf was a 
 mere huddle of timbers. The colonists were scat- 
 tered in every direction, half of them living with 
 the Indians. 
 
 Standish wasted little time. The men were 
 brought back to "Wessagusset — ^by the scruffs of 
 their necks, if they would come no other way — 
 and the settlement was organized for defense. 
 Then he whirled upon the Indians with such speed 
 and power that the tribes were terrorized. He 
 avoided bloodshed as much as possible, prefer- 
 ring to frighten than to kiU. At the cost of not 
 more than a score of Indians slain, he convinced 
 the tribes that it was perilous to meddle with the 
 War Chief of the Whites. 
 
 Weston's men were brought back to Plymouth 
 and thence sent home. Weston arrived a few 
 weeks later and fell into the hands of the In- 
 dians. The tribes were too much afraid of Stand- 
 ish to dare to keep their prisoner. He was re- 
 leased and taken to Plymouth, whence the Pil- 
 grims shipped him to England by the first boat. 
 
 That spring of 1623, fearing the results of an- 
 other summer of communism, Bradford threw 
 the Merchant Adventurers' agreement to the 
 
THE PILGRIM 
 
 endeavor .aid such a„ enr.r„l'l^';^dVeLr;ir;i?enr?KS'?l;;fl-;^^reK 
 
The „.^^kt of: Cearjcs foH CffclJ ^ 
 
 
 i Fort, on the Kennebec Rl 
 
 ST. GEORGE S FORT ON THE KENNEBEC RIVER 
 
 This map was sent to King Philip III of Spain by his Ambassador in London in 1609 
 to further the military purpose of the Spaniards to drive the English from the American 
 continent. 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 239 
 
 winds. He assigned to every family a grant of 
 land. This changed everything. Each man knew 
 that if he hungered during the following winter, 
 it would be his own fault. The settlers worked 
 willingly, even the women and children helping. 
 Some of the more industrious worked for pay on 
 the land of others, after their own work was done. 
 Property rights had been established. The har- 
 vest was so good that, as Bradford was able to 
 write many years after: **Any general want or 
 famine hath not been known amongst them since, 
 to this very day.'* 
 
 In July, 1623, before this harvest was ripe, two 
 vessels came, bringing sixty more settlers to the 
 colony and but little food. Many of these were 
 the wives and children of the settlers, twenty of 
 them had come from Leyden. 
 
 For the newcomers it was but a sorry meeting. 
 Most of the Plymouth settlers were half naked. 
 The storehouses were empty, so that ^' there was 
 nought to offer these faithful ones but a lobster 
 or a piece of fish without bread, and a cup of fair 
 spring water to wash it down.'' This poverty 
 ceased when the new crop was harvested, six weeks 
 later. 
 
 The Council for New England was still hand- 
 ing out patents recklessly. In June, 1623, a new 
 division was made under Twenty Patentees, the 
 territory bestowed running from the Bay of Fundy 
 to Narragansett Bay. 
 
 Eobert Gorges and Eev. Thomas Morell — an 
 
240 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Anglican clergyman who had been appointed ** Re- 
 ligious Superintendent of New England'' — ar- 
 rived with a party of settlers and occupied 
 Weston's abandoned huts at Wessagusset. Wes- 
 ton arrived on the scene a month later and the 
 two leaders quarreled all winter. MorelPs pres- 
 sure forebode trouble. 
 
 The Council was entirely within its power in 
 putting the Pilgrim Fathers under the jurisdiction 
 of the Church of England, the very thing for 
 which they had fled from Scrooby, sixteen years 
 before. 
 
 Moreover, a great deal of trouble had been made 
 in England over the *^ heretical conditions" at 
 Plymouth. The Virginia Company, always hos- 
 tile to New England, had done much to fan this 
 flame of criticism. In answer to this, the men sent 
 out by the Council of New England were as far re- 
 moved from Separatism as possible, and Thomas 
 Morton — ^whose amazing story is to be told later 
 — was sent in 1622 to establish a thoroughly royal- 
 ist and Church settlement on Boston Harbor. 
 There were thus three Church settlements in 1623, 
 those of Weston, Morton and Gorges. There was 
 also a group of Church of England men in Plym- 
 outh. Eeligious strife might easily have been be- 
 gun but that Morell never had the time to exer- 
 cise his authority. 
 
 In March, 1624, a Parliamentary committee, un- 
 der the urging of the Virginia Company, declared 
 the charter of the Council of New England to be 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 241 
 
 **a national grievance.'' No further action was 
 taken, but the decision frightened many of the 
 Thirty Patentees, who withdrew. Gorges re- 
 turned to England. Morell went to Virginia. 
 Only a handful of men were left at Wessagus- 
 set, some belonging to Weston's colony, others to 
 that of Gorges. Morton and his few followers re- 
 mained. 
 
 In January of that same year, Edward Win- 
 slow, one of the Pilgrim leaders, who had been 
 buying cattle for the colony in England, returned 
 to Plymouth. He brought good news. He had 
 persuaded Lord Sheffield, one of the Thirty Pat- 
 entees, to convey the region around Cape Ann to 
 him, on behalf of the Plymouth colonists. 
 
 The same vessel brought a malcontent into the 
 colony, who was destined to bring trouble. This 
 was Rev. John Lyford, a clergyman of dubious 
 reputation. On arriving at Plymouth he denied 
 his Church, embraced Separatism, and, for a 
 while, was minister of the Plymouth Church. 
 This did not last long. He was found to be 
 secretly holding Church of England services, and 
 also sending reports of *^ heresy" to the Council 
 in England. Later, Bradford banished him from 
 Plymouth. 
 
 When spring came, the Pilgrims proceeded to 
 make use of their new grant at Cape Ann, which 
 was primarily a fishing base. But, when a party 
 from Plymouth arrived there, they found 34 set- 
 tlers established already. These belonged to an 
 
242 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 entirely independent venture, having been sent 
 thither in 1623 by some Dorchester merchants 
 who had maintained a fishing fleet in American 
 waters for several years. 
 
 During the summer of 1624, the Plymouth men 
 and the Dorchester men agreed well enough to- 
 gether. Each party built a fishing stage, and 
 there was fish enough for all. Trouble began in 
 1625 when the Dorchester men, learning of Ly- 
 ford's banishment, invited him to become their 
 minister. They did more. They appointed one 
 of his associates, Roger Conant, to become man- 
 ager of the settlement, and another, John Oldham, 
 to be their Indian agent. 
 
 The Plymouth men deemed this an unfriendly 
 act and the quarrel rose to the point of blows. 
 The Dorchester men seized the Pilgrims' landing 
 stage. Standish was sent to punish the offenders, 
 who, though they were the prior occupants, had 
 no patent. Conant intervened, reminded the men 
 of Plymouth that they had no grant for their 
 territory, and arbitrated the matter. 
 
 The year following, a renewal of the war with 
 Spain stopped the overseas fishing industry. The 
 Dorchester men returned to England, and the 
 Plymouth colony sent no more fishing parties; 
 Lyford went to Virginia. Only Conant and three 
 companions remained at Cape Ann. 
 
 The next settlement in New England was also 
 of royalist and Church character. In 1625, Cap- 
 tain WoUaston arrived with a ship-load of set- 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 243 
 
 tiers to take up that part of Boston Harbor lying 
 between Weston's grant and Gorges' grant. Wol- 
 laston's ideas differed from those of his predeces- 
 sors. He brought a number of indentured ^^ serv- 
 ants,'' intending to establish a tobacco plantation 
 along the lines of those in Virginia. He soon saw 
 that the climate was unfavorable for such a 
 plan, and sailed to Virginia with his * ^ servants, ' ' 
 intending either to settle or to sell them there. 
 He left a few men behind to hold Mt. Wollaston. 
 
 The Plymouth Colony was now becoming strong 
 enough to stand on its own feet. The fur trade 
 had prospered. The small farms were well 
 stocked. The town of Plymouth had taken on 
 the character of permanence. 
 
 There was but one source of trouble; this was 
 the relation between the Pilgrims and the Mer- 
 chant Adventurers. The seven years of the origi- 
 nal contract had come to an end and the Mer- 
 chant Adventurers truly asserted that the Pljon- 
 outh Colony had not lived up to its agreement. 
 It was thousands of pounds in debt. 
 
 Accordingly, eight of the leaders of the Pil- 
 grims — Bradford, Brewster, Standish, AUerton, 
 Winslow, Howland, Alden and Prince — undertook 
 to pay the Merchant Adventurers the sum of 
 £1800, which figure was reached by a compromise. 
 The money was to be paid in nine annual install- 
 ments of £200 apiece. On this condition they were 
 freed from all obligations arising from the old 
 contract. Thus, in 1627, the Pilgrims became their 
 
244 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 own masters, save that they possessd neither pat- 
 ent nor charter. 
 
 The years 1629 and 1630 were marked by the 
 arrival of a number of Pilgrims from Leyden. 
 They were greeted with great rejoicing, for, in 
 spite of every effort, Plymouth was becoming 
 populated with settlers who were not Separatists. 
 It is greatly to the credit of Bradford and his asso- 
 ciates that there was no active persecution of 
 these. Eobinson, the great Pilgrim leader, who 
 had been their head in Holland, never saw 
 America. He died in 1626, content to know that 
 his followers were solidly established in the New 
 World. 
 
 On January 13, 1630, the dearest dream of the 
 Pilgrim Fathers was realized. On that date, the 
 Council for New England granted a patent to 
 Bradford and his associates, the territory extend- 
 ing from the Cohasset to the Narragansett Rivers 
 and westwards **to the utmost bounds of a coun- 
 try or place in New England, commonly called 
 Pokenacutt or Sowamsett.'' In 1641, William 
 Bradford deeded this grant to the Corporation 
 of New Plymouth. 
 
 It is not always realized how small was the 
 Plymouth Colony prior to the Puritan migration. 
 In 1620 there were 102 settlers ; in 1625, 180 set- 
 tlers; in 1630, only 300. Owing to the smallness 
 of the numbers and to the wisdom of constantly 
 reelecting Bradford as governor, Plymouth be- 
 came wealthy. 
 
ON PLYMOUTH SHORE 245 
 
 The system of government was partly Dutch 
 and partly English. There was a primary 
 assembly of ^'freemen^' which passed all the laws 
 and elected the officers of the colony. A **free- 
 man'' had to be named by the assembly, as such, 
 and was always a member of the Separatist con- 
 gregation. The suffrage was highly restricted. 
 A * ^freeman'' was always a man of wealth, in 
 other words, a burgher. The burgher class ruled 
 and.chose its own governor. The other people had 
 no voice in the affairs of the colony. Plymouth 
 was not a democracy and was not designed to be. 
 
 At no point does the Pilgrim town stand out 
 so differently from the Puritan town as in its re- 
 lation of Church and State. The Pilgrims were 
 notably weak in religious leaders, though all their 
 leaders were religious. The place of pastor was 
 kept open for Robinson for seven years. After 
 his death, a half-witted minister named Rogers 
 came, but he was sent back the year following. 
 He was succeeded by Ralph Smith, a man of small 
 importance, whom the Pilgrims endured for eight 
 years. 
 
 Nor did the Pilgrims shine in education. Ply- 
 mouth had no schools. Had Robinson come, he 
 would have established them, but Bradford was 
 mainly interested in keeping the colony alive, and 
 Brewster feared that secular teaching savored 
 too much of worldliness. There was, however, a 
 wholesome and sound home teaching. 
 
 When everything is considered, little but praise 
 
246 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers can be said. The light 
 of their righteous living, of their fairness, of 
 their industry, of their honesty, of their rugged 
 strength, and of their successful endeavor to es- 
 tablish a self-governing religious community in a 
 savage country, shines as a beacon at the opening 
 of New England history. 
 
 No American with a feeling for his country can 
 fail to remember with pride and tenderness the 
 worthy deeds and noble lives of Pilgrim men and 
 Pilgrim women during those hard years upon the 
 Plymouth shore. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE PURITAN FLOOD 
 
 While Pilgrims and Puritans alike fled from 
 England because of their dislike of royalism and 
 their hate for the Church of England, the two 
 great groups of ultra-Protestants had nothing 
 else in common. As the Puritan exodus was from 
 England, was composed of Englishmen, and had 
 for its aim the establishment of English liberties 
 in the New World, it is all-important to know 
 what had happened in England to force this Puri- 
 tan migration. 
 
 James I had died in 1625, and Charles I had 
 come to the throne. Even as Prince of Wales, he 
 had begun badly. His attempted marriage to a 
 Spanish princess had alienated the patriots and 
 angered the ultra-Protestants. His behavior in 
 Madrid — such as scahng the wall of the Prin- 
 cess' garden — had made him look ridiculous. That 
 he was jilted at the last only exposed him to 
 greater scorn. 
 
 England was in financial difficulties. James I 
 had left £700,000 of debts. Parliament was com- 
 pelled to reduce the royal revenues, which be- 
 came a cause of strife between king and people. 
 
 247 
 
248 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 England, also, was divided into two great re- 
 ligious parties, Church of England on the one 
 hand, Nonconformity or Puritanism on the other. 
 Church and King stood together, Parliament and 
 Puritanism were linked. The royalists regarded 
 the Puritans as traitors to the English Crown; 
 the Puritans accused the royalists as traitors to 
 the English people. 
 
 The King adopted methods of raising money 
 which Parliament denounced as unconstitutional, 
 and many obdurate members of Parliament were 
 thrown into prison. The Puritans adopted meth- 
 ods of undermining the Church of England, which 
 the Crown denounced as treasonable, and threw 
 the leaders into prison. 
 
 The Puritans attacked the Church on the 
 grounds of intolerance; the Church replied with 
 the same accusation. In point of fact, neither was 
 tolerant. Both believed in a compulsory state re- 
 ligion, a point of vital importance in the history 
 of American Puritanism. Both believed that 
 whipping, mutilation, imprisonment and even 
 death should be the punishment of those who 
 dared to disagree with their opinions. 
 
 King and Commons faced each other with mu- 
 tual distrust and dislike. The terrible scenes that 
 were enacted in the Parliaments of 1628 and 1629 
 blasted all hopes of civil peace and caused the 
 Puritan migration to America. Charles I finally 
 sent the leading Puritans to the Tower of London, 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 249 
 
 and, for eleven years thereafter, no Parliament 
 sat again in England. 
 
 The Puritans turned their eyes to America. 
 They had, indeed, a small colony there — a very 
 small colony, for it consisted of only four men. 
 
 When the Pilgrim Fathers received a grant for 
 Cape Ann and sent a fishing party there, they 
 had found some settlers from Dorchester in pos- 
 session. These were Puritans. When, after 
 trouble with the Pljnnouth Colony and after the 
 reopening of the War with Spain, the Dorches- 
 ter men returned, they left Roger Conant and 
 three men behind. As the exposed situation of 
 Cape Ann was ill-suited for a permanent settle- 
 ment, Conant had moved to Naumkeag (Salem) 
 and made a tiny colony there. In this Salem 
 colony of four men begins the Puritan history of 
 New England. 
 
 Rev. John White of Dorchester, a merchant of 
 means, a clergyman of the Church and a moderate 
 Puritan, (such mixtures were not uncommon at 
 the time), was one of the backers of the Dorches- 
 ter fishermen. It was by his advice that the Cape 
 Ann settlement had been begun. When it was 
 abandoned in 1627, he sent word through Plym- 
 outh to Conant and his followers, urging them 
 to hold the land they had settled, promising them 
 supplies and assuring them that he would se- 
 cure a grant in their names. 
 
 With Puritan straightforwardness. White un- 
 dertook to arouse Puritan interest in the venture. 
 
250 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 * 
 He went to the root of colonization. He declared 
 
 that it was the character of the settlers which de- 
 termined success, not the amount of money spent 
 nor the richness of the site. So stirring were his 
 words and pamphlets that the Puritans mustered 
 to his cause. 
 
 Although there was no actual mention of Puri- 
 tanism in the appeal for a charter made to the 
 Council for New England, it must have been un- 
 derstood. Perhaps the most significant fact is 
 that among the six grantees named in the charter 
 of March 19, 1628, was the name of '' Master En- 
 dicott, a man well known to divers persons of good 
 note^' and who was a Puritan of the most extreme 
 type. 
 
 The Council had not foregone its old habit of 
 granting lands which it had previously bestowed 
 on others. The patent of 1628 conveyed to Endi- 
 cott and his associates all the territoiy from three 
 miles north of the Merrimac Eiver to three miles 
 south of the Charles River, thus comprising the 
 northern half of the coastline of Massachusetts 
 and expending to the Pacific Ocean, believed to be 
 but seven days' march away. This infringed on 
 the prior grants given to Mason, to Morton, to 
 Gorges, to the Thirty Patentees, to the Pilgrims at 
 Cape Ann, to Wollaston and to Conant. Here was 
 a heritage of quarrels for Endicott and his 
 friends ! 
 
 John White supplied and equipped a ship, 
 which sailed on June 20, 1628, with a score or 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 251 
 
 more settlers, under Endicott, as an advance 
 party. Endicott arrived at Naumkeag, on Sep- 
 tember 6, 1628, and fomid Conant in possession. 
 
 As Conant had the rights of prior occupancy, 
 and as he held letters from White stating that 
 an effort was being made to secure a patent in his 
 name, he prepared to dispute Endicott 's author- 
 ity. It was in vain. Endicott had the charter 
 and had been sent to take command. Conant 
 yielded gracefully. Naumkeag was rechristened 
 ** Salem,'' the Hebrew word for ** peaceful." 
 
 The new governor soon gave a taste of his 
 opinions and his methods. Ajnong the earlier 
 grants had been one to Morton, a strong upholder 
 of Church and State, who had come into conflict 
 with the Pilgrims several times. His presence 
 was an annoyance to the stern Puritan. Endicott 
 undertook to bring him into subjection. 
 
 Thomas Morton's story is one of the strangest 
 in the early history of New England. He was 
 a lawyer of London, and was sent out by Gorges, 
 in 1622, with 30 settlers and a personal grant to a 
 small piece of land on Boston Harbor. 
 
 Morton was a strong Church of England man, 
 who had written pamphlets of the most fiery loy- 
 alty, and there is no doubt that the Council had 
 given him a patent in order to silence the criti- 
 cism that they favored the heretical Separatists. 
 He returned to England for the winter and came 
 out again in 1623, with more settlers, all of the 
 ^* roaring Tory" type. They were regarded as 
 
252 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 *^ henchmen of Satan" by their Pilgrim neighbors. 
 Morton soon got himself the nick-name of 
 *' Merry '^ Morton. 
 
 The Wessagusset Colony, first established by 
 Weston and later occupied by Gorges, was not 
 far from Morton 's trading post. Indeed, there is 
 question whether the Wessagusset grant was not 
 an infringement on Morton's patent, for, in those 
 days of uncertain land titles, it was hard to say 
 where one territory ended and another began. 
 
 In any case, when Gorges abandoned his set- 
 tlement, in 1625, Morton took charge of it. It is 
 scarcely fair to say, as Bradford did, that Morton 
 ^^ stole" the land. On the contrary, with both 
 Weston and Gorges gone, Morton was the only 
 man on Boston Harbor who held a patent direct 
 from the Council of New England. 
 
 Morton was a jovial Englishman, as fond of 
 his pipe and his grog as he was loyal to King and 
 Church. No sour-visaged religionist was he, but, 
 rather, a rollicking fellow, a genial host and a 
 lover of fun. There was a good deal of the Eliza- 
 bethan country squire about him. He was a much 
 more characteristic Englishman than the sober 
 and decorous Pilgrims, for whom Morton had ever 
 a mocking word. 
 
 When Wollaston came and established a tobacco 
 plantation on Mt. Wollaston, he made friends with 
 Morton. But WoUaston wanted an easy life in 
 a genial climate, and New England prospects did 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 253 
 
 not please him. He left for Virginia, leaving some 
 indentured ^^ servants'^ in charge. 
 
 Wollaston was wealthy and had built himself 
 a good house. Finding that he was not coming 
 back, Morton took over the little colony, also. Hav- 
 ing a keen perception of the needs of pioneer Hfe, 
 he called the servants before him, tore up their 
 indentures and gave them their freedom, opening 
 a cask of rum to celebrate the happy day. Having 
 thus made them his loyal and devoted tenants, he 
 rechristened Mt. Wollaston (now Quincy) with the 
 name of ^* Merry Mount.'' He promptly estab- 
 lished the Church of England service, which 
 plagued the Pilgrims sorely. 
 
 Came May-Day, 1626. Morton, the jovial, un- 
 dertook to celebrate it fittingly, according to his 
 own ideas. He planted a Maypole, eighty feet 
 high, opened several casks of beer and brandy, 
 and sent invitations broadcast to Indians and 
 whites to taste freely of his hospitality. 
 
 According to the Pilgrim account, the settlers 
 * ^frisked and frolicked'' with the Indian girls 
 around the Maypole. Such a statement was prob- 
 ably false, as any student of Indian customs knows. 
 The braves may have come, the Indian girls 
 would not. That there was merry-making and 
 carousing was not to be denied, that there was 
 ** ungodly dancing upon the Mount of Dagon" is 
 sure, and the Pilgrims regarded the doings at 
 ** Merry Mount" as an open scandal. 
 
 By the end of the summer, Morton vAs receiv- 
 
254 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ing the good results of his hospitality. The In- 
 dians came to him freely, sure of a glass of ^' fire- 
 water '^ with every trade. What was more, he 
 was willing to pay more for furs than the Pil- 
 grims were ready to do, for those shrewd bar- 
 gainers had beaten down the price to the lowest 
 notch. In consequence, Morton was able to get 
 the pick of the furs and still to make an enormous 
 profit. This competition not only turned the Pil- 
 grims more bitterly against him, but also brought 
 him enmity from the straggling settlements which 
 were springing up on all sides. 
 
 A new accusation was brought against Morton 
 in the summer of 1627. He was accused of re- 
 ceiving runaway servants and '^blasphemers'^ 
 who had been banished from Plymouth. 
 
 This was perfectly true. Morton, however, was 
 within his rights. More than that, he was the 
 only person who had rights, for the Pilgrims pos- 
 sessed no charter and were living at Plymouth on 
 sufferance, while Morton had a charter and was a 
 loyal member of the Church of England. Brad- 
 ford warned him that, unless he walked more care- 
 fully, he would be dealt with harshly; Mine Host 
 of Merry Mount retorted that two could play at 
 that game and threatened to *'pull their canting 
 meeting-house about their ears." 
 
 Morton saw clearly that a strong alliance was 
 forming against him. The retirement of the 
 Thirty Patentees warned him that the Council 
 of New England could give him little help. He 
 

 j-E = ^a.»is_^ '^ 
 
 
 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH'S MAP OF NEW ENGLAND, 1614 
 
 Captain John Smith made two voyages of discovery along the New England coast . 
 Though not its first discoverer he explored it fully and wrote a book called "Descrip- 
 tion of New England." Up to this time New England was known as "North Virginia" 
 and this map published in his book is the first printed record of the name of "New 
 England" and of many of the names of capes and rivers as we now know them. 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 255 
 
 would fight his own battles ! He imported a large 
 cargo of guns and ammunition from England and 
 began to trade them for furs, probably with the 
 intention of having a force of well-armed allies 
 at his back, if the Pilgrims should proceed to 
 extremities. 
 
 In this action, Morton was clearly in the wrong, 
 and Bradford was not the man to overlook an 
 opportunity. Although Merry Mount was far 
 outside of any jurisdiction that the Pilgrims might 
 claim, they regarded the arming of the Indians 
 as a serious menace to all the white settlers, no 
 matter where their grants might lie. They sent 
 a sharp message to Morton, reminding him of 
 the King's proclamation against selling arms to 
 Indians. The jovial and belligerent lawyer 
 answered that a Proclamation was not a law, and 
 warned the Pilgrims to take good heed to them- 
 selves if they came to molest him. 
 
 The Pilgrims were perfectly ready to take care 
 of themselves. In June, 1628, they gathered their 
 forces together, and, summoning aid from the 
 other settlements, so that the action should not 
 appear a personal matter, they placed the force 
 under the command of Captain Miles Standish. 
 The settlements joining in this act of hostility 
 were Piscataqua (Portsmouth), Nantasket (Hull), 
 Naumkeag (Salem), Winnimisset (Chelsea), 
 Cocheco on the Piscataqua River, Thompson's 
 Island and Shawmut (Boston). This list seems 
 
256 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 formidable, but many of these places had only two 
 or three settlers. 
 
 Before actual hostilities commenced, there was 
 a parley, in which the witty lawyer got much the 
 better of the doughty captain. Always readier 
 with acts than with words, Captain Miles Stan- 
 dish suddenly grabbed the ^^Lord of Misrule^* by 
 the coat-collar, and, despite his struggles, dragged 
 him to the water side, grimly warning Morton's 
 followers that any attempt at rescue would be met 
 with a volley. 
 
 ** Merry'' Morton, somewhat ruffled by the cap- 
 tain's rough handling, but not a bit crestfallen, 
 was taken to Plymouth. There he was lectured by 
 Bradford and Brewster with long speeches and 
 much gravity of demeanor, to which he replied 
 with bitter humor and contemptuous ridicule. He 
 was banished and sent to England under the 
 charge of John Oldham, who had made his peace 
 with the Pilgrims, and who bore letters from 
 Bradford to the Council of New England recount- 
 ing Morton's misdemeanors in great detail. 
 
 On his arrival, Morton posed as a victim of 
 religious persecution for his loyalty to the Church 
 of England, which was only partly true. Oldham, 
 who was still smarting from his early disagree- 
 ments with the Pilgrims, supported Morton's 
 story. 
 
 The Council pardoned the jolly lawyer, possibly 
 because of his success in the fur trade, and, the 
 year following, Morton was back at ** Merry 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 257 
 
 Mount/' with another cargo of beer and brandy, 
 the same desire to play the part of a jovial host, 
 and a deepened disregard for the feelings of a 
 religious community. 
 
 On his return, he found that a much more intol- 
 erant group of religionists had visited his place. 
 The Puritans had been there, in his absence. En- 
 dicott had taken upon himself to interfere. He 
 had marched to ** Merry Mount,'' hewed down 
 the Maypole, and ^* admonished Morton's men to 
 look there should be better walking." 
 
 This incident was significant. The Pilgrims, 
 however annoyed with Morton's worldly ways, had 
 not actually interfered with him, until he com- 
 menced selling fire-arms to the Indians ; Endicott, 
 without any provocation, destroyed an absent 
 man's property because the mere presence of a 
 May-pole on an estate with which he had no con- 
 cern offended his religious sensibilities. 
 
 Not long after Morton's return, Endicott paid 
 another visit to ** Merry Mount." He came to 
 repeat his warning, but the jovial lawyer, thor- 
 oughly enraged at the Puritan intrusion during 
 his absence, swore vengeance on the Puritans and 
 vowed that the laws of England would protect 
 him. 
 
 Endicott coldly retaliated by producing a paper 
 which he demanded that Morton should sign. It 
 was an oath of allegiance to the Puritan colony, 
 but in it Endicott had omitted the words of the 
 charter **so that nothing be done contrary or 
 
258 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 repugnant to tlie laws of the Kingdom of Eng- 
 land.'' This came near to treason and Morton 
 said so. 
 
 The Puritan leader did not argue the point. 
 He arrested Morton, broke open the house, appro- 
 priated all his com and other provisions, seized 
 the furs and articles of trade, and sent Morton 
 back to England. 
 
 His fanaticism cost him his place. The Council 
 realized that a continuance of such policy might 
 result in the cancellation of its charter. Morton 
 was released and allowed to return, the same ship 
 carrying Endicott's deposition and disgrace. 
 
 But ** Merry'' Morton was merry no longer. 
 The Puritan flood had commenced. The Boston 
 colony was too strong to be defied. His men had 
 all been scattered. His money was spent. He 
 fought a losing fight for many years and died in 
 poverty at the last. 
 
 Endicott had other troubles on his hands besides 
 the question of * * Merry Mount. ' ' One of these was 
 a grant given by John Gorges to John Oldham, 
 and to Sir William Brereton, dividing his original 
 patent between them. The fates of these two 
 colonies may be dismissed in a few words. Pres- 
 sure was brought upon Brereton, and he joined 
 his interests with those of the Puritans. Oldham 
 was ejected from his rights, without recompense, 
 and, later, he played a part in the founding of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Puritan desires for emigration were growing 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 259 
 
 stronger. The years 1628-1629 were dark ones 
 for Protestantism. The surrender of Rochelle to 
 Cardinal EicheHeu had ended the career of the 
 French Huguenots as a political party. The Ger- 
 man Protestants, engaged in the Thirty Years' 
 War, were at the lowest ebb of their fortunes. 
 Charles I was putting down Nonconformists with 
 a merciless hand. 
 
 The English Puritans leaned more and more to 
 the plan of establishing a Commonwealth in a 
 new country, a commonwealth which should be 
 strictly English and strictly Puritan, and which, 
 from the very beginning, should be organized on 
 such lines that royalism would never be able to 
 creep in. 
 
 It is essential to an understanding of American 
 History to realize what the Puritans planned. 
 They did not seek to exploit the natives, as the 
 Spanish ; nor to confine themselves to fur-trading, 
 as the French and Dutch ; nor to establish a feudal 
 estate, as did Ealeigh ; nor to slave on commercial 
 lines for Enghsh merchants, as the Virginia Com- 
 pany; nor to build up a landed aristocracy, as in 
 Maryland; nor yet to found isolated religious 
 communities, such as Plymouth. Nor even — as 
 has been often mis-stated — did they purpose a 
 refuge for the reHgiously persecuted ones of the 
 earth. 
 
 Far from it ! As seventeenth-century English- 
 men, they had little love for foreigners. As Puri- 
 tans, they had no love at all for any who differed 
 
260 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 from them in religious opinions, even in the 
 smallest degree. 
 
 By no stretch of the imagination can it be 
 thought that Endicott, Winthrop or any of the 
 Puritans had the faintest intention of establish- 
 ing either political or religious liberty. They 
 came to found a Bible Commonwealth after their 
 own pattern, in which they should play the prin- 
 cipal parts and could force every one else to obey 
 their will. 
 
 The extreme Puritans bent all their energies 
 to extending the powers of the Charter of 1628. 
 On March 4, 1629, Charles I confirmed to a cor- 
 poration entitled **The Governor and Company 
 of Massachusetts Bay in New England'' all the 
 territory mentioned in the patent of the year 
 before, but with powers so full and free that it 
 is amazing that the King should have granted 
 them. Undoubtedly, his hand was forced. 
 Matthew Cradock was named as the first Gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 First a single ship and then a fleet of five ships 
 were hurried to New England, arriving in June, 
 1629. These six vessels brought over 400 colonists 
 and a goodly supply of cattle and goats. The 
 colony was firmly established. A Puritan Church 
 organization was formed by Endicott, obedience 
 to which was rigidly enforced. 
 
 Endicott 's opinions are clearly set forth in his 
 description of the religion of Plymouth Colony, 
 as **no other than is warranted by the evidence 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 261 
 
 of the truth. ' ^ He was, therefore, not only a Puri- 
 tan but a Separatist, or, as the word was then 
 beginning to be used, an Independent. Two min- 
 isters who had come with the colonists, Samuel 
 Skelton and Francis Higginson, declared them- 
 selves Independents and were elected respectively 
 pastor and teacher of the church. 
 
 John Browne and Samuel Browne, two of the 
 councillors who had been sent out by the new 
 Massachusetts Bay Company to assist Endicott, 
 refused to have anything to do with this Inde- 
 pendent Church. They were moderate Puritans, 
 hostile to Charles I and to Archbishop Laud, but 
 conforming to the Church of England. Resting 
 on the rights set forth in the charter, they held 
 separate religious services, under the rites of 
 the Church of England. The moderate Puritans 
 among the settlers attended these services. 
 
 Endicott, in a most high-handed and peremp- 
 tory fashion, arrested the Brownes and sent them 
 back to England. This action was inexcusable, 
 for it was flatly contrary to the conditions of the 
 charter and in defiance of the leaders in England 
 who had sent these men as councillors. 
 
 The Brownes complained to the Massachusetts 
 Bay Company, which promptly censured Endicott 
 for ** undigested counsels which may have an ill 
 construction with the state here, and make us 
 obnoxious to an adversary.^' When this act of 
 fanaticism was capped by Endicott ^s illegal seizure 
 of ** Merry'' Morton's property, the Company 
 
262 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 got rid of him. It was time! Endicott^s 'trea- 
 sonable and heretical doings'' had reached the 
 ears of the King. The new charter was in danger. 
 
 Governor Cradock laid before the Corporation 
 a startling series of suggestions that the govern- 
 ment of Massachusetts Bay should be transferred 
 to the colony itself. On August 26, 1629, twelve 
 of the most influential members (among them John 
 Winthrop and Thomas Dudley) met at Cambridge 
 and bound themselves by a solemn promise to 
 emigrate to New England with their families if 
 the transfer of government could be effected. 
 
 Three days later, the Corporation formally 
 agreed. There was some discussion as to whether 
 a royal grant was legally transferable but the 
 courts approved and the transfer was made. 
 Cradock, who did not wish to leave England, re- 
 signed, and John Winthrop was chosen as Gov- 
 ernor. Thomas Dudley was named as Assistant 
 Governor. Both belonged to the extreme party 
 in Puritanism. 
 
 On March 29, 1630, Governor Winthrop boarded 
 the Arabella, the flagship of a fleet of eleven ves- 
 sels, carrying, in all, some 700 colonists. After 
 a long and stormy voyage of nine weeks, the ships 
 arrived at Salem on June 12, 1630. 
 
 Winthrop found Endicott's colony *4n a sad 
 and unexpected condition.'' Nearly a third of 
 the colonists were dead, most of the remainder 
 were weak from famine and sickness, there was 
 scant food and less contentment. All would have 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 263 
 
 died during the winter had not the Pilgrims sent 
 them a doctor, medical supplies and all the pro- 
 visions they could spare. 
 
 The arrival of 700 colonists did little to help 
 these conditions, for, as always, the space assigned 
 for food in the ships was too small and the long 
 voyage had exhausted most of the provisions. By 
 some extraordinary piece of negligence, more- 
 over, a large part of the supplies which had been 
 intended for use that summer had been left behind. 
 
 Endicott resented the arrival of Winthrop to 
 supplant him, and many of the original settlers 
 followed his lead. But Governor Winthrop was a 
 severe man, and Dudley was severer still. Woe 
 betide any who murmured I Endicott was quickly 
 silenced. 
 
 Winthrop, within a few days of his arrival, de- 
 cided that Salem was an undesirable site for so 
 great a colony as now was intended. He set up 
 his capital at Charlestown, which had been laid 
 out on Gorges' property, the year before. 
 
 Early days here were gloomy. More than 100 
 of the new settlers refused to stay and went back 
 to England on the returning vessels of the fleet 
 which had brought them. Some 60 more returned 
 on another ship, declaring roundly that the ty- 
 ranny of Winthrop was no better than the tyranny 
 of Charles I. Others declared their intention of 
 going back in the spring, since the ministers of 
 the Independent or Congregational churches were 
 **as heady and hierarchical as the popish prel- 
 
264 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 ates" of England. This opinion of American 
 Puritanism by English Puritans is worth noting. 
 
 Stem measures kept this mutinous spirit in 
 hand, but thunderings from a pulpit could not pre- 
 vent hunger. Before Christmas, over 200 of the 
 new arrivals had died. Only clams, mussels and 
 fish caught in the bay, prevented another ' ' Starv- 
 ing Time^' like to that of Jamestown in 1609. 
 
 Although the Pilgrims again came to their aid, 
 men and women were dying on every hand. The 
 outlook was desperate, when, on February 5, 1631, 
 a ship arrived in the bay, bringing few settlers, 
 but loaded to the last inch of space with the sup- 
 plies and stores that the great fleet had left behind. 
 This saved the day. Many more ships came in the 
 spring. The Puritan flood had begun. 
 
 During the next two or three years, the Puri- 
 tans emigrated in such numbers as to cause alarm 
 in England. The mother country saw that many 
 of her best citizens were leaving. Several sub- 
 stantial toAvns were organized on Massachusetts 
 Bay, and, by 1634, there were 4000 persons in the 
 colony. Nearly all were Puritans, but there were 
 Puritans of every shade of opinion among them, 
 from conforming Churchmen who opposed only 
 the abuses of royalism and prelacy, to the wildest 
 hot-heads of the most fanatic breed. 
 
 Winthrop held them all in hand with amazing 
 strength and wisdom. He created an ecclesias- 
 tical state, a Bible Commonwealth, a theocracy in 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 265 
 
 which the Corporation of Massachusetts Bay was 
 the earthly voice of God. 
 
 Such a condition would have been intolerable 
 to Englishmen were it not that Winthrop was as 
 just as he was stern, as honest as he was unyield- 
 ing, and as sincere as he was bigoted. Godliness 
 in Massachusetts Bay was real, not sham. The 
 very difficulties and sufferings of the time brought 
 about a lofty spirit and a high devotion which 
 made the early Puritans of New England the finest 
 body of men and women that ever founded a state. 
 
 Even so, a Commonwealth based on narro^vness 
 of doctrine could not enslave Englishmen. Men 
 no less able and no less sincere than Winthrop, 
 no less eager to uphold what they held to be the 
 right, were equally ready to face the wilderness. 
 
 Such men voluntarily exiled themselves from 
 the intolerant tyranny of Salem and Charlestown, 
 with the same desire for religious liberty as had 
 impelled the Puritans to exile themselves from 
 England. Thus Connecticut, Ehode Island, New 
 Hampshire and Maine were bom. Their history 
 and that of Massachusetts Bay up to and after 
 the New England Confederation of 1643, belong 
 rather to the story of the development of the 
 colonies than to the planting of them. 
 
 Thus were planted on the North American con- 
 tinent the four great stocks of the white race 
 whose influence was most potent in the develop- 
 ment of America. 
 
 In Florida, along the shore of the Gulf of 
 
266 THE COMING OF THE PEOPLES 
 
 Mexico and in southern California, the Catholic 
 Spaniards held sway. 
 
 An English Church and royalist group, partly 
 feudal with large plantations and a system of 
 semi-slavery, and partly commercial with London 
 merchants for directors, controlled Virginia. 
 
 A feudal proprietorship or palatinate, Eoman 
 Catholic in character, but tolerant in administra- 
 tion, had been established in Maryland. 
 
 On the Upper Delaware and Hudson Rivers, 
 the Dutch traders of the Reformed Church main- 
 tained a precarious hold. 
 
 The Plymouth Colony of Separatists had won 
 for itself a place of respect. 
 
 The Massachusetts Bay Colony was evolving 
 into a Puritan Commonwealth, intolerant of dis- 
 sent, and sending out branches of a more mod- 
 erate Puritanism to found other states. 
 
 In Acadia and on the St. Lawrence River, the 
 French maintained a gallant hold, despite their 
 recent defeat at the hands of England. 
 
 Settlements in Newfoundland were little more 
 than fishing posts and the fishing rights were 
 internationally divided. 
 
 Of the interior, nothing was known. A few 
 expeditions by the Spanish conquistadores in the 
 far south had failed to reveal any civilization that 
 might be exploited, and no settlement had been 
 made. A few inland journeys had been made by 
 French Jesuit Fathers in the north, but these 
 
THE PURITAN FLOOD 267 
 
 were only the precursors of the great explorations 
 to come. 
 
 Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes were believed 
 to be united, and despite the failure to find a 
 strait, were believed to be a part of that South 
 Sea that washed the shores of China, 
 
 Only one hundred and thirty-four years elapsed 
 between Columbus and Winthrop. The actors in 
 that great struggle which should rock America to 
 its foundations were already on the scene. Little 
 did they imagine that a time would come when 
 their descendants should dare to strike off the 
 shackles of European dependence. 
 
 Still less could any of these colonists have fore- 
 seen a Republic of United States, wherein there 
 could exist such high and holy things as political 
 equality, personal liberty and religious toleration. 
 Not one of these colonies could have brought about 
 such a result, alone. Not to one, more than an- 
 other, is the credit due. The glory belongs to all. 
 
 THE END 
 
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