authority, attempt to settle, or trade, within their jurisdiction, and to seize, and detain the persons, and effects, of such intruders, until they should pay a duty of two and one-half per centum ad valorem, if subjects, but of five per centum if aliens. These taxes were to be applied, for twenty-one years, to the use of the adventurers, and were afterwards to be paid into the royal exchequer.
Code of laws for the colony drawn up by the King.
While the council for the patentees were employed in making preparations to secure the benefits of their grant, James was assiduously engaged in the new, and, to his vanity, the flattering task of framing a code of laws for the government of the colonies about to be planted. Having at length prepared this code, he issued it under the sign manual, and privy seal of England. By these regulations, he vested the general superintendence of the colonies, in a council in England, "composed of a few persons of consideration and talents." The church of England was established. The legislative and executive powers within the colonies, were vested in the president and councils; but their ordinances were not to touch life or member, were to continue in force only until made void by the King, or his council in England for Virginia, and were to be in substance, consonant to the laws of England. They were enjoined to permit none to withdraw the people from their allegiance to himself, and his successors; and to cause all persons so offending to be apprehended, and imprisoned until reformation; or, in cases highly offensive, to be sent to England to receive punishment. No person was to be permitted to remain in the colony without taking the oath of obedience. Tumults, mutiny, and rebellion, murder, and incest, were to be punished with death; and for these offences, the criminal was to be tried by a jury. Inferior crimes were to be punished in a summary way, at the discretion of the president and council.
Lands were to be holden within the colony as the same estates were enjoyed in England. Kindness towards the heathen was enjoined; and a power reserved to the King, and his successors to ordain farther laws, so that they were consonant to the jurisprudence of England.[11]
Under this charter, and these laws, which manifest, at the same time, a total disregard of all political liberty, and a total ignorance of the real advantages which a parent state may derive from its colonies; which vest the higher powers of legislation in persons residing out of the country, not chosen by the people, nor affected by the laws they make, and yet leave commerce unrestrained; the patentees proceeded to execute the arduous and almost untried task of peopling a strange, distant, and uncultivated land, covered with woods and marshes, and inhabited only by savages easily irritated, and when irritated, more fierce than the beasts they hunted.
CHAPTER II.
Voyage of Newport. … Settlement at Jamestown. … Distress of colonists. … Smith. … He is captured by the Indians. … Condemned to death, saved by Pocahontas. … Returns to Jamestown. … Newport arrives with fresh settlers. … Smith explores the Chesapeake. … Is chosen president. … New charter. … Third voyage of Newport. … Smith sails for Europe. … Condition of the colony. … Colonists determine to abandon the country. … Are stopped by Lord Delaware. … Sir Thomas Dale. … New charter. … Capt. Argal seizes Pocahontas. … She marries Mr. Rolf. … Separate property in lands and labour. … Expedition against Port Royal. … Against Manhadoes. … Fifty acres of land for each settler. … Tobacco. … Sir Thomas Dale. … Mr. Yeardley. … First assembly. … First arrival of females. … Of convicts. … Of African slaves. … Two councils established. … Prosperity of the colony. … Indians attempt to massacre the whites. … General war. … Dissolution of the company. … Arbitrary measures of the crown. … Sir John Harvey. … Sir William Berkeley. … Provincial assembly restored. … Virginia declares in favour of Charles II. … Grant to Lord Baltimore. … Arrival of a colony in Maryland. … Assembly composed of freemen. … William Clayborne. … Assembly composed of representatives. … Divided into two branches. … Tyrannical proceedings.
The funds immediately appropriated to the planting of colonies in America, were inconsiderable, and the early efforts to accomplish the object, were feeble.
The first expedition for the southern colony consisted of one vessel of a hundred tons, and two barks, carrying one hundred and five men, destined to remain in the country.
1606
Voyage of Newport.
The command of this small squadron was given to captain Newport, who, on the 19th of December, sailed from the Thames. Three sealed packets were delivered to him, one addressed to himself, a second to captain Bartholomew Gosnald, and the third to captain John Radcliffe, containing the names of the council for this colony. These packets were accompanied with instructions directing that they should be opened, and the names of his Majesty's council proclaimed, within twenty-four hours after their arrival on the coast of Virginia, and not before. The council were then to proceed to the choice of a president, who was to have two votes. To this unaccountable concealment have those dissensions been attributed, which distracted the colonists on their passage, and which afterwards impeded the progress of their settlement.[12]
1607
Is driven into the Chesapeake.
Newport, whose place of destination was Roanoke, took the circuitous route by the West India islands, and had a long passage of four months. The reckoning had been out for three days, and serious propositions had been made for returning to England, when a fortunate storm drove him to the mouth of the Chesapeake. On the 26th of April, he descried cape Henry, and soon afterward cape Charles. A party of about thirty men, which went on shore at cape Henry, was immediately attacked by the natives, and, in the skirmish which ensued, several were wounded on both sides.
The first act of the colonists was the selection of a spot for their settlement. They proceeded up a large river, called by the natives Powhatan, and agreed to make their first establishment upon a peninsula, on its northern side. In compliment to their sovereign, this place was named Jamestown, and the river was called James. May 13th.Having disembarked, and opened the sealed packets brought from England, the members of the council proceeded to the election of a president, and Mr. Wingfield was chosen. But, under frivolous pretexts, they excluded from his seat among them, John Smith, one of the most extraordinary men of his age, whose courage and talents had excited their envy. During the passage, he had been imprisoned on the extravagant charge of intending to murder the council, usurp the government, and make himself king of Virginia.[13]
The first indications of a permanent settlement in their country, seem to have excited the jealousy of the natives. Displeased with the intrusion, or dissatisfied with the conduct of the intruders, they soon formed the design of expelling, or destroying, these unwelcome and formidable visitors. In execution of this intention, they attacked the colonists suddenly, while at work, and unsuspicious of their hostility; but were driven, terrified, into the woods by the fire from the ship. On the failure of this attempt, a temporary accommodation was effected.
Newport, though named of the council, had been ordered to return to England. As the time of his departure approached, the accusers of Smith, attempting to conceal their jealousy by the affectation of humanity, proposed that he also should return, instead of being prosecuted in Virginia; but, with the pride of conscious innocence, he demanded a trial; and, being honourably acquitted, took his seat in the council.
About the 15th of June, Newport sailed for England, leaving behind him one of the barks, and about one hundred colonists. While he remained, they had partaken of the food allowed
