 Repeated disaters at length discouraged Raleigh, who had expended nearly his whole fortune without any prospect of a return. Grenville, meantime, had died. Raleigh made no farther attempts to colonize Virginia. The design was therefore suspended for some years; but, in 1602, it recieved a new impulse from a voyage made by Bartholomew Gosnold, to the coast of New England, or North Virginia, as it was then called. Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, Richard Hakluyt and others, obtained a patent for South Virginia, as a company of merchants and adventurers ; and on 19th of December, 1606. three vessels sailed from London, under the command of Captain Newport. Many persons of distinction were in this expedition ; among others Captain John Smith, who was destined to become celebrated in the history of Virginia.He possessed all those qualities of firmness, courage and perseverance, which could fit him for the arduous task of founding a colonial establishment. He had been appointed one of the council for the government of the colony. The president of the council was Edward Maria Wingfield ; but Smith, from the force of his character, was allowed to take a leading part in the very outset of the undertaking. He soon excited the jealously of his colleagues, who charged him with a design of making himself king of Virginia. Upon this vague accusation, he was arrested and kept in close confinement above a year. Towards the end of April, 1607, they came nearly in sight of the coast of Virginia, when they met a violent storm, which drove them out of their reckoning, and they sailed three days without any view of the expected land. So disheartened were they by their long passage, that they were on the point of steering back to England, when they came in sight of an unknown cape at the entrance of a spacious gulf. This was Cape Henry, at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, where the beauty and fertility of the shores surpassed all had yet seen of the American continent. Their first intercourse with the natives, however, showed that a deep feeling of hostility against the English had become rooted in their minds. A party from the ship having gone on shore for recreation, the savages came creeping down the hills on all fours, with their bows in their mouths, and when sufficiently near, discharged a cloud arrows, wounding two of the English. A volley of musketry sent them back to the woods with loud cries. When the ships reached Cape Comfort, they saw five more natives, who at first were shy, but at length invited the English by signs to come ashore to their town. They proceeded to it by rowing across a river, while the savages swam, holding their bows and arrows in Indians made a doleful noise, laying their faces to the ground and scratching the earth with their nails. "We did think they had been at the idolatry," says the narrator. After this greeting, they spread mats on the ground and covered them with such dainties as the country afforded, including tobacco, which they smoked out of long, ornamented pipes. They then entertained their visitors with a dance, "beating their hands, shouting, howling, and stamping like so many wolves or devils." After this entertainment, the English departed in peace. Proceeding higher up the bay, they came among people who had probably never before seen Europeans. Here they were receive still more cordially. The king, or Werrowannee, of Rappahannoc, met them with all his train,---"as goodly men," says one of the adventures, "as I have seen of savages or Christians.His body was painted all of crimson, with a chain of beads about his neck ; his face painted blue, besprinkled with silver ore, as we thought ; his ears all hung with bracelets of pearl, and in either ear a bird's claw beset with fine cooper or gold. He entertained us in so modest a proud fashion as though he had been a prince of civil government." He invited the English to his house on a hill covered with the finest cornfields ; the vales were watered by beautiful rivulets. One of the English having a very strong target, which could resist shot, set it up for an Indian to shoot at. The Indian took his arrow of cane, an ell in length, headed with a sharp stone, and shot the target through. A steel target was then set up, against which the arrow was broken into pieces ; on which the Indian took out another, bit it in a rage, and went away. A fine river was next discovered, to which they gave the name of James's river, in honor of king James I., from whom they held their patent. Ascending this river forty miles, they selected a spot on its banks for a settlement. "Virginians in a New Country" by Joseph G. Baldwin Quotes on Virginia and the New World Also Available . . . William T. Cox's Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods Also From Apalon Co., Ltd. |
The Previous Quoted From Pictorial History of North America (1843), Chapter XXXVI |
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