CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY, IN VIRGINIA, BY THE CORPORATION OF LONDON ADVENTURERS, AND THEIR PROCEEDINGS DURING THEIR GOVERNMENT BY A PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL ELECTIVE.

§ 13. The merchants of London, Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth soon perceived what great gains might be made of a trade this way, if it were well managed and colonies could be rightly settled, which was sufficiently evinced by the great profits some ships had made, which had not met with ill accidents. Encouraged by this prospect, they joined together in a petition to King James the First, shewing forth that it would be too much for any single person to attempt the settling of colonies, and to carry on so considerable a trade; they therefore prayed his majesty to incorporate them, and enable them to raise a joint stock for that purpose, and to countenance their undertaking.

His majesty did accordingly grant their petition, and by letters patents, bearing date the 10th of April, 1606, did in one patent incorporate them into two distinct colonies, to make two separate companies, viz: "Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, knights; Mr. Richard Hackluit, clerk, prebend of Westminster, and Edward Maria Wingfield, esq., adventurers of the city of London, and such others as should be joined unto them of that colony, which should be called the first colony, with liberty to begin their first plantation and seat, at any place upon the coast of Virginia where they should think fit and convenient, between the degrees of thirty-four and forty-one of northern latitude. And that they should extend their bounds from the said first seat of their plantation and habitation fifty English miles along the seacoast each way, and include all the lands within an hundred miles directly over against the same seacoast, and also back into the main land one hundred miles from the seacoast; and that no other should be permitted or suffered to plant or inhabit behind or on the back of them towards the main land, without the express license of the council of that colony, thereunto in writing first had and obtained. And for the second colony, Thomas Hanham, Rawleigh Gilbert, William Parker, and George Popham, esquires, of the town of Plymouth, and all others who should be joined to them of that colony, with liberty to begin their first plantation and seat at any place upon the coast of Virginia where they should think fit, between the degrees of thirty-eight and forty five of northern latitude, with the like liberties and bounds as the first colony; provided they did not seat within an hundred miles of them."

§ 14. By virtue of this patent, Capt. John Smith was sent by the London company, in December, 1606, on his voyage with three small ships, and a commission was given to him, and to several other gentlemen, to establish a colony, and to govern by a president, to be chosen annually, and council, who should be invested with sufficient authorities and powers. And now all things seemed to promise a plantation in good earnest. Providence seemed likewise very favorable to them, for though they designed only for that part of Virginia where the hundred and fifteen were left, and where there is no security of harbor, yet, after a tedious voyage of passing the old way again, between the Caribbee islands and the main, he, with two of his vessels, luckily fell in with Virginia itself, that part of the continent now so called, anchoring in the mouth of the bay of Chesapeake; and the first place they landed upon was the southern cape of that bay; this they named Cape Henry, and the northern Cape Charles, in honor of the king's two eldest sons; and the first great river they searched, whose Indian name was Powhatan, they called James river, after the king's own name.

§ 15. Before they would make any settlement here, they made a full search of James river, and then by an unanimous consent pitched upon a peninsula about fifty miles up the river, which, besides the goodness of the soil, was esteemed as most fit, and capable to be made a place both of trade and security, two-thirds thereof being environed by the main river, which affords good anchorage all along, and the other third by a small narrow river, capable of receiving many vessels of an hundred ton, quite up as high as till it meets within thirty yards of the main river again, and where generally in spring tides it overflows into the main river, by which means the land they chose to pitch their town upon has obtained the name of an island. In this back river ships and small vessels may ride lashed to one another, and moored ashore secure from all wind and weather whatsoever.

The town, as well as the river, had the honor to be called by King James' name. The whole island thus enclosed contains about two thousand acres of high land, and several thousands of very good and firm marsh, and is an extraordinary good pasture as any in that country.

By means of the narrow passage, this place was of great security to them from the Indian enemy; and if they had then known of the biting of the worm in the salts, they would have valued this place upon that account also, as being free from that mischief.

§ 16. They were no sooner settled in all this happiness and security, but they fell into jars and dissensions among themselves, by a greedy grasping at the Indian treasure, envying and overreaching one another in that trade.

After five weeks stay before this town, the ships returned home again, leaving one hundred and eight men settled in the form of government before spoken of.

After the ships were gone, the same sort of feuds and disorders happened continually among them, to the unspeakable damage of the plantation.

The Indians were the same there as in all other places, at first very fair and friendly, though afterwards they gave great proofs of their deceitfulness. However, by the help of the Indian provisions, the English chiefly subsisted till the return of the ships the next year, when two vessels were sent thither full freighted with men and provisions for supply of the plantation, one of which only arrived directly, and the other being beat off to the Caribbee islands, did not arrive till the former was sailed again for England.

§ 17. In the interval of these ships returning from England, the English had a very advantageous trade with the Indians, and might have made much greater gains of it, and managed it both to the greater satisfaction of the Indians, and the greater ease and security of themselves, if they had been under any rule, or subject to any method in trade, and not left at liberty to outvie or outbid one another, by which they not only cut short their own profit, but created jealousies and disturbances among the Indians, by letting one have a better bargain than another; for they being unaccustomed to barter, such of them as had been hardest dealt by in their commodities, thought themselves cheated and abused; and so conceived a grudge against the English in general, making it a national quarrel; and this seems to be the original cause of most of their subsequent misfortunes by the Indians.

What also gave a greater interruption to this trade, was an object that drew all their eyes and thoughts aside, even from taking the necessary care for their preservation, and for the support of their lives, which was this: They found in a neck of land, on the back of Jamestown island, a fresh stream of water springing out of a small bank, which washed down with it a yellow sort of dust isinglass, which being cleansed by the fresh streaming of the water, lay shining in the bottom of that limpid element, and stirred up in them an unseasonable and inordinate desire after riches; for they taking all to be gold that glittered, run into the utmost distraction, neglecting both the necessary defence of their lives from the Indians, and the support of their bodies by securing of provisions; absolutely relying, like Midas, upon the almighty power of gold, thinking that where this was in plenty, nothing could be wanting; but they soon grew sensible of their error, and found that if this gilded dirt had been real gold, it could have been of no advantage to them. For, by their negligence, they were reduced to an exceeding scarcity of provisions, and that little they had was lost by the burning of their town, while all hands were employed upon this imaginary golden treasure; so that they were forced to live for some time upon the wild fruits of the earth, and upon crabs, muscles, and such like, not having a day's provision before-hand; as some of the laziest Indians, who have no pleasure in exercise, and wont be at the pains to fish and hunt: And, indeed, not so well as they neither; for by this careless neglecting of their defence against the Indians, many of them were destroyed by that cruel people, and the rest durst not venture abroad, but were forced to be content with what fell just into their mouths.

§ 18. In this condition they were, when the first ship of the two before mentioned came to their assistance, but their golden dreams overcame all difficulties; they spoke not, nor thought of anything but gold, and that was all the lading that most of them were willing to take care for; accordingly they put into this ship all the yellow dirt they had gathered, and what skins and furs they had trucked for, and filling her up with cedar, sent her away.

After she was gone, the other ship arrived, which they stowed likewise with this supposed gold dust, designing never to be poor again; filling her up with cedar and clap-board.

Those two ships being thus dispatched, they made several discoveries in James river and up Chesapeake bay, by the undertaking and management of Captain John Smith; and the year 1608 was the first year in which they gathered Indian corn of their own planting.

While these discoveries were making by Captain Smith, matters run again into confusion in Jamestown, and several uneasy people, taking advantage of his absence, attempted to desert the settlement, and run away with the small vessel that was left to attend upon it; for Captain Smith was the only man among them that could manage the discoveries with success, and he was the only man, too, that could keep the settlement in order. Thus the English continued to give themselves as much perplexity by their own distraction as the Indians did by their watchfulness and resentments.

§ 19. Anno 1609, John Laydon and Anna Burrows were married together, the first Christian marriage in that part of the world; and the year following the plantation was increased to near five hundred men.

This year Jamestown sent out people, and made two other settlements; one at Nansemond in James river, above thirty miles below Jamestown, and the other at Powhatan, six miles below the falls of James river, (which last was bought of Powhatan for a certain quantity of copper,) each settlement consisting of about a hundred and twenty men. Some small time after another was made at Kiquotan by the mouth of James river.